Music Carnival #18

After stumbling home from an evening of too much TexasBestGrok I found the Musique Carnival #18 had parked itself right here at HurdAudio...

The uTopianTurtleTop was off in the corner proclaiming anti-manifesto manifestos that "Cage is Dead! Long live Bob Dylan!" as Kyle Gann nodded in uncomfortable, too polite approval. Then the uTopian one turned and looked me in the eye and demanded to know my at-bat fanfare for the next big game. I contemplated a long walk from the dugout to the catchy tune of 4' 33" just as MultipleMentality pulled a lamp shade off his head to sing a few bars of "I'm gonna see Serenity!"

Something yelled out, "You know that age changes the musical mind!" and I searched frantically to find the source of such wise observations. But all I could find was a glass case on the wall containing a lone, noble viola with a note that read: "In case of emergency, break glass."

At the thought of breaking glass Brian Sacawa came blasting through the window riding a bike and a saxophone. "Come to Tucson! And hear this!" he sang through his horn as the shards of glass settled into the cocktail set before me. I couldn't help but think that it sounds like now to me. Ah, Tucson... is it anything like Toronto? Then Sacawa's horn turned to me and in a steady stream of formant-altered multiphonics reminded me to be on the lookout for this new gem from Marty Ehrlich.

The Fredosphere looked up from his absinthe stupor and begged to hear a great melody with only the slightest of accompaniment. This set Daniel Wolf into a frenzy as he applied crayon to manuscript paper. The self-portrait of Arnold Schoenberg on the wall began talking to me: "While Ewartung might make a lovely at-bat fanfare, I'd have to invite Blair McMillen and Stephen Gosling to do the honors. They're such lovely pianists who require no accompaniment at all."

All the blogosphere was still glowing from the Dr. Atomic premier. Even Sounds & Fury weighed in with anxieties of the half-life of the Pop-cultural Mindset. I don't recall so much buzz surrounding a single opera production before... let alone a modern work.

Suldog turned to me and said, "It's time to take cover down in the subway, brother." And scampered off with a big grin tattooed to his face.

Off in the other corner I could see Bart having a well tempered debate with no one in particular over the differences between puppets that play piano versus marionettes that play the pianoforte. Under the table one could catch a wiff of Morton Feldman fueled madness (lovely sound, that). For further madness I'd recommend a season pass to NonoWorld.

I opened the fridge and peered into last week's take-out leftovers only to find An Overgrown Path forming mold spore images of instruments of extreme beauty. The sheer detail brought tears to my eyes and an ache to my ears.

Scott Spiegelberg then jumped up on the table and demanded to discourse on art. Then broke down into tears to find himself referenced at the Rapture Watch discussion boards. I was amused to learn from those same boards that the end can't be more than 3 years away, tops! Fools! Everyone knows that the Earth will end on June 1, 2014. Let's have an opera on that!

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Many thanks to TexasBestGrok for allowing the weekly Musical Carnival to crash at HurdAudio this week and passing along link suggestions. Please volunteer to host. These things are a blast (occasionally atomic) to put together. And don't forget Thelonious Monk's birthday is today! Celebrate here.