So thrilled to be with John DeMain and the wonderful Madison Symphony for this weekend of performances, May 4-6, of my favorite Mozart Concerto. Years ago, when I was learning it, I confided to Claude Frank that I was filling in and writing a cadenza for the last movement. He feigned shock: “the piece already …
So thrilled to be part of this amazing production. I’m convinced that this iteration of Symphonie Fantastique, through the passion and vision of Basil Twist and Franz Liszt will be known as the best of all possible. I love our cast of puppeteers, our incredibly dedicated crew, and the ardent support of all the folks …
My program for this show will be as follows: Radiohead: Let Down Radiohead: How I Made My Millions Radiohead: Knives Out Red House Painters: Void Radiohead: Glass Eyes Robert Pollard: Sea of Dead Elliott Smith: True Love Radiohead: Paranoid Android intermission J.S. Bach: WTC Bk I, Prelude & Fugue in Bb minor J.S. Bach: WTC …
“The sky has gone underground.” I have Paul Tremblay to thank for his recommendation by way of speaking the names Michael Cisco and existential Horror Master, Thomas Ligotti in the same breath. I dove in to Cisco’s debut novel, The Divinity Student and felt amply rewarded for my efforts. And effortful it can be: Cisco …
I’ve come to know that it’s valuable to reconsider books you may have earlier dismissed: having heard Haruki Murakami’s name bandied about in the bouquet of my most admired writers: David Foster Wallace, Thomas Pynchon, William T. Vollmann, to name a few, I years ago picked up The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle only to put it …
I’m proud to have read the complete works of William T. Vollmann. Actually, that’s not quite true: his 7-volume treatise on oppression, the canvas of which is world-and-history wide, Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means (2003) I only read in its 700+ page distilled version, although I do …