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.

Scale of the Day: E Flat Octotonic-2 1% wide

The E Flat Octotonic-2 1% wide Scale.

Scale of the Day: E Flat Octotonic-2 mapped to the Triative

The E Flat Octotonic-2 mapped to the Triative Scale.

Scale of the Day: E Flat Octotonic-2 (1 + 1) mapped to the Square-root-of-2

The E Flat Octotonic-2 (1 + 1) mapped to the Square-root-of-2 Scale.

Scale of the Day: E Flat Pythagorean Octotonic-2 - Lydian Mode

The Pythagorean Octotonic-2 - Lydian Mode Scale.

Scale of the Day: D Chromatic mapped to the Square-root-of-2

The D Chromatic mapped to the Square-root-of-2 Scale.

HurdAudio at the Playoffs

Last night was HurdAudio's first live post season experience as I took in game 1 of the ALDS between the Yankees and Angels down at the big A. Round one is a tough go as it only takes 3 wins to advance or 3 losses to get eliminated. These are two competitive teams so I figured there were no guarantees that there would be more than two chances to catch one of these games locally. Last year these Angels were taken out in three straight losses.This was my first chance to see the Yankees play live. I've spent the last ten years rooting for the Mariners so rooting against the pin stripes has been easy and reinforced every time they've knocked out the home team or made yet another trip into the playoffs. They do have some amazing talent on that team. But rooting for them is a bit like cheering for Goliath. The "underdog" thing has always had more pull.

Just driving into an event with this New York team is different. I saw plenty of freshly pressed T-shirts hanging in car windows on the way into the parking lot featuring #55 Matsui or #13 Rodriguez.

The Yankees really are a different team though. I felt that the Angels were in trouble long before the first pitch as I watched the intense professionalism of these players warming up for the game. There was such a deadly seriousness as A-Rod put on a show at batting practice. Warm-up trainers seemed to be going through some intense routines on the field and some of these guys were warming up with monster tosses between the infield and outfield. When it came time for the player introductions the dingy road uniforms seemed to hold a stark work-ethic contrast to the blinding white uniforms of the home team. The atmosphere was up a notch from regular season games. The large crowd was actively engaged with each pitch and the free "thunder sticks" did make a big sound through sheer numbers of unison attacks. But much of the enthusiasm was cut down as Robinson Cano sent a 3 RBI double over the head of Garret Anderson in the top of the 1st inning on. In the end it was 4-2 in favor of the Bronx Bombers. Bartolo Colon's shakiness in the opening frames reminded me of his struggles against the Mariners earlier this year as he would give up a string of consecutive hits in the wake of getting two quick outs. But he did settle down and hold down some terrifying hitters. And the Angels did score on their closer, Mariano Rivera. Something you don't see often. It was good to hear some life come back into the fans in the 9th inning.Fortunately, the Angels tied this thing up with a win tonight. So there will be a game 4. The next two will be in the big apple... leaving some hope that more of these will come back to southern California. In the meantime, one can hope that the Padres defy the odds and make a good run when they bring their mismatched series home later this week.