PASIC etc...

I saw and heard some great things at PASIC. I really enjoyed Keiko Abe's Saturday concert (in addition to her Thursday performances). John Riley's clinic was great. Tom Burritt played an awesome new piece by Thom Hasenpflug and I finally got to see Kai Stensgaard play.

Percussion Construction launched my new signature line of mallets. I'm really happy with how they turned out. They sold well and the people that tried them out at the booth seemed to like them. A new Percussion Construction website should be up in a couple of weeks so you can have a look at them.

I also found out that my good friend John Parks will be giving a solo recital at Carnegie Hall on May 4th of next year. He'll be playing my piece Vertical River on that recital and I'll be there to stand up and wave to the audience after the last note.

I also managed to get sick at PASIC, but I 'm back up and running now. Just a couple of days of teaching, a few rehearsals for Hansel und Gretel, and Thanksgiving will be here. We have some friends coming into town for a vegetarian thanksgiving and some early shopping on Friday morning. Probably won't buy much. It's just fun to go to the Waffle House at 4:00 am and then get in line with the people that really are buying lots of stuff. You can meet some very excited (and very crazy) people that way. I can't wait!

and I'm back

Things have been busy at UCA and I've been playing a lot of orchestral gigs lately. HMS Pinafore, then a few tunes with the Arkansas Symphony, today some Firebird with the Pine Bluff Symphony and Tuesday night a little Beethoven 4 with the Conway Symphony Orchestra. Then only a week until PASIC. My new marimba solo should be available at the Percussion Construction booth (don't forget to stop by the Malletech booth to pick up your very own copies of Vertical River and Anubis). Also, another special surprise will be waiting for you at Percussion Construction. More on that soon.

Ok. Off to the show.

Soho the Dog: Eight sentences about classical music I'd be happy never to read again

Well, at least someone has been posting to his blog. Me? I'll squeeze in a real post soon. In the meantime, this guy has some things for you to think about.


Soho the Dog: Eight sentences about classical music I'd be happy never to read again

Pinafore

I had 5 hours of rehearsal yesterday and another 3 today. More rehearsals to come during the week and then 6 performances of HMS Pinafore. It is part of the new season at Wildwood Park. Last years schedule is still on the site-new schedule soon, I would think.

When I was asked to play the show I intially thought I didn't have time. Then I thought, when will I ever have the chance to play Pinafore again. Never?.....Hardly ever! So, I took it.

The only problem is, I can't stop thinking of Sideshow Bob. For those of you that don't know what I mean, just watch this clip...

Arrested Development - Season 3

In the past 24 hours I've watched the first 7 episodes of Arrested Development's final season. The DVDs came out on Tuesday, but I didn't get them until yesterday. I didn't see any of season 3 on TV becuase FOX bounced the show around the schedule so much it was nearly impossible to catch it.

So far...GENIUS!!!

I can't believe how good it is. It is so funny, so brilliant, so quick, and the script so tight that you can't look away for even a second. The cast is incredible and so is Ron Howard's narration. Plus, the smaller roles are cast perfectly. Everyone from Henry Winkler to Charlize Theron, Scott Baio to James Lipton.....and let's hope Liza Minnelli makes it back in the last six episodes.

If you don't already have them, you really owe it to yourself to get all three seasons on DVD. Don't rent them or "NetFlix" them. You'll want to own them.

Seriously.....it's spectacularly good!

Precipice - Modern Marimba

My good friend Nate Bartlett has a new CD of works for solo marimba. It just came out and I haven't had a chance to hear it yet, but I've heard him play most of the pieces live and I'm 100% sure that it's incredible.

Check it out!

I can't get the link to the Albany Records site to work from here, so use the link below to go to Nate's news page and click the link there.

nathaniel bartlett: news

School is here

Have you ever wondered what it might sound like if you put Dave Matthews, Lisa Loeb and Outkast in a blender? Wonder no more. This guy has the answer for you in his great cover of Hey Ya!

Oh, and if you said to yourself "Putting those folks in a blender sounds like a great idea", shame on you.




Classes start today at UCA and I'm ready to go. We are settled in the new house, I've practically finished the new piece I've been working on, I have all of the percussion ensemble music programmed, all four percussion ensemble concerts already scheduled, a newly remodeled office, and a great percussion studio. I even bought some new clothes! Looks to be a great year. And...don't worry Parksie, the posts will flow more regularly now. I've even got a few "make-up" posts coming with exciting pics of my summer activities. Stay tuned.

Imagining The Tenth Dimension

OK, so you've watched that video about the size of things I posted a few days ago? Good. Now, watch this. If you miss something...rewind. When you're done your brain may feel a little sore, but Star Trek will make a lot more sense.

Imagining The Tenth Dimension

Thanks to Ektopia.com and CollisionDetection.net

Powers of 10

Want to feel small? Watch this. Don't worry. You'll feel big again when it's over.

Why do you stay up so late?

A poem by Marvin Bell with animation by Ernesto Lavandera. Beautiful!


Why do you stay up so late?

Tikhon Khrennikov and Dimitri Shostakovich

A great piece in The Guardian about Soviet artists, and Shostakovich in particular, under Stalin's rule. Based on an interview with Tikhon Khrennikov, head of the union of soviet composers, it also includes a brief interview with Shostakovich's widow.

It includes this classic example of Shostakovich being "sorry".

"I thank you comrade chairman ... I thought I had succeeded in developing a personal idiom that adhered to the wise demands of the Soviet people ... I now see I was mistaken and have underestimated my need for artistic correction. I acknowledge the rightness of the party's judgment. I shall work on the musical depiction of the heroic Soviet peoples, from the correct ideological standpoint. Equipped with the guidance of the Central Committee, I shall renew my efforts to create really good songs for collective singing."

So, was Khrennikov an enemy or a friend? He says he helped the composers and implies that someone else in his position would have been much worse for them. Still, it's seems obvious that he enjoyed the power that came with his post. The world is a complicated place, I suppose.

Here's the link.
Guardian Unlimited Arts | Arts features | The secret rebel

New House

We're finally in the new place. For those of you that just can't wait any longer, here are some pics of our new backyard.

Giant Steps by Michal Levy

I've seen this somewhere before, but I can't remember where. Anyway, now it's available at the link below. Really cool stuff.


Giant Steps by Michal Levy

Clifford Brown

A nice remembrance of Clifford Brown in the Guardian.
Guardian Unlimited Arts | | Byron of the jazz trumpet

Rollins said of him: "Clifford was a profound influence on my personal life. He showed me that it was possible to live a good, clean life and still be a good jazz musician." Roach described him as "one of the rare complete individuals ever born ... a sweet, beautiful [person]".

Clifford Brown - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Wii Video Feature. Gameworld Network.

OK, if you're not excited about the Nintendo Wii, you need to get excited.If you don't know what I'm talking about, you should probably head over to Nintendo.com and do some research. You can also click on the link below to see a lot of video filmed at E3 that show both the games and how the controller works. Check out Metroid, Tennis and Mario, and don't forget to check out the music demos. The orchestra and drumming games don't look like a lot of fun over the long term, but they do demonstrate the sensitivity of the controller system.

Enjoy the videos and then get in line behind me for your very own Wii.

Wii Video Feature. Gameworld Network.

Net Neutrality

If you've seen those misleading commercials with the roadsigns on television, and you don't know why they are misleading, watch this ad. It's not as slick or dramatic, and the voice over isn't as frightening, but it does at least explain why "net neutrality" is important.

Extroverted like me. By Seth Stevenson

Slate.com has an interesting article on shyness/social anxiety and Paxil.

Extroverted like me. By Seth Stevenson

Bonnaroo (and Elvis Costello)

The Bonnaroo Music Festival is right next door in Tennessee, and here I sit in Arkansas. The good news is that you can see a lot of it online at bonnaroo.com. The quality of the stream is really quite good. I saw Ben Folds and Oysterhead (with Stewart Copeland) yesterday and I just finished watching Elvis Costello with Allen Toussaint. It was incredible. I really liked their version of "That's How You Got Killed Last Time".

There's still time to get in on the action. Go to the website and follow the links to the live broadcasts. Sadly, the performances by Radiohead and Sonic Youth will not be online. After it's over they will also have an archive of some of the performances.

By the way, mp3.com is currrently streaming the new Costello/Toussaint album. It's worth the time to check it out. If you miss the streams, just go pick it up.

Sorry to hear about your blindness

A drug company has the ability to keep people from going blind very inexpensively. To them, that's a problem.

Not my usual type of post, but it's good to be reminded that this sort of thing goes on all the time. That's the problem.


Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Drugs firm blocks cheap blindness cure:

"Prof Rosenfeld said the real issue was drug company profits. 'This truly is a wonder drug,' he said. 'This shows both how good they [the drug companies] are and on the flip side, how greedy they are.' He would like to see governments fund clinical trials of drugs such as Avastin in the public interest."



Drug companies. They say they are a business and they have to make a profit. Agreed. But, they are a different kind of business than most.

For example...

Let's change one letter and talk about a drum company.

When you buy a drumset, the difference between a mid-priced set and a high-end set can be thousands of dollars. It doesn't cost that much more to make the high priced set, and many of the parts are the same. Depending on the player, the lower priced set might even sound better. It is about "price point" and creating an image for the product. In the end, you are probably paying too much for that high-end set. That's fine if you want to do that. But, the drum company doesn't stop you from buying the cheap set, and if you can't afford the expensive set...you won't go blind!

Unethical conduct can't be excused because of a "need" for more profit.

Another record crash

A somewhat depressing piece of news. Thanks to more affordable recording equipment and software, as well as the internet, recording industry support isn't as necessary as it once was. Still, a little respect would be nice.
Another record crash