A Voice Louder than Rock & Roll tells the story of Caleb Quaye, one of the finest, but also least-known guitarists of the British Invasion. In London he met and played with keyboard player Reg Dwight, who would later become known as Elton John. He recorded and toured with Elton John …
Renaissance Weekend speech texts
As we have in the past, our family participated in Renaissance Weekend in Charleston, South Carolina. It is a wonderful opportunity to share ideas we’ve been developing and to learn from many, many people whose perspectives are truly global. This year I was invited to share some remarks as part …
The importance of art education
Last week the church I attend highlighted The Arena Culture, an editorial by David Brooks which considers a new book All Things Shining. David Brooks writes: For the past hundred years or so, we have lived in a secular age. That does not mean that people aren’t religious. It means …
Jazz Music and Open Source Software
Who knew that Open Standards maven Andrew Updegrove was a jazz fan? He riffs: Jazz, of course, is open source all the way — it’s the ultimate freedom machine. Once you’ve grasped the melody line and basic chord structure of any song, you’re on your own, encouraged to take the …
The Jazz Loft Project
On December 3rd I attended the Jazz Loft Project book and website launch event at the West End Wine Bar in Durham, NC. WUNC’s Frank Stasio, always on top of local goings on, clued me in. It was packed, despite the venue being situated by LOCAL TRAFFIC ONLY signs from …
Some book suggestions
I’ve read a number of good books lately, and figure I should recommend some of them to the readers of this blog. If you like these suggestions, feel free to give me “helpful” votes on Amazon.com…
Copyright v. Culture: Music Think Tank Followup
After posting Copyright v. Culture last month, Bruce Warila contacted me about re-publishing the article on his site, Music Think Tank. I agreed to do so, and was pleasantly surprised to see 10 comments within a week. That, and having made some more progress on The Glenn Gould Reader (edited …
The Participant Listener
In the seminal essay The Prospects of Recording, Glenn Gould “explores the vast changes in musical ontology, phenomenology, production, and listening brought about by audio recording” (see Audio Culture, edited by Christoph Cox and Daniel Warner, pp 115-126). The Glenn Gould archives have Part A of that essay online, but …
Construction and Deconstruction
While I have been fairly diligent about maintaining my construction blog, I have neglected to blog about much else since January, which could mislead the reader into believing either that nothing else of interest is happening, or, worse, that nothing else has been interesting me, both of which are false. …
The Art of Possibility
A few years ago my wife Amy was encouraged on short notice to attend a lecture by Benjamin Zander; due to non-existent publicity for the event they needed seat fillers at UNC’s Memorial Hall. Despite the limited audience (Zander writes that he is equally enthusiastic when speaking to five people …
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