I have a nerve inside of me to do this. And I have no idea where it comes from, except that it might come from God. No one knows. | | | | A section of "The Mile-Long Opera" on the High Line, New York, Oct. 3, 2018.
(Iwan Baan/The Mile-Long Opera) | | | | | | “I have a nerve inside of me to do this. And I have no idea where it comes from, except that it might come from God. No one knows.”
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| | rantnrave:// Normally when we talk about the longest this or the longest that in music, we're talking about time: hour-long songs, days-long performances, etc. THE MILE-LONG OPERA, which is being staged on New York's HIGH LINE through Monday, is a conventional 90 minutes or so in length (the exact time is up to each viewer), but it goes long in another way, taking place along the entire mile-and-a-half length of the elevated park. It's one of the most beautiful, sad and mesmerizing public art pieces I've ever seen, and without a doubt the longest. The piece, created by composer DAVID LANG and architect LIZ DILLER with a libretto by ANNE CARSON and CLAUDIA RANKINE, is subtitled "a biography of 7 o'clock," and it's literally a meditation on early evenings and dining tables. It's performed by 1,000 singers culled from community choirs throughout New York City (along with a scattered crew of window washers who I think, though I'm not entirely sure, are acting as a sort of silent, judgmental Greek chorus). The piece is also a meditation on a city's neverending growing pains. And an astounding feat of staging and logistics. Even more than processing lines like "funny how walking changes everything," which are repeated like mantras as you amble through the performance, I found myself, a day later, trying to figure out how two choirs, performing a cappella and stationed about a mile apart—only one of them with a visible leader—could sing that line perfectly in tune with each other. At a different point along the way, I saw a singer briefly pull a tuning fork out of his pocket, and if that's part of the secret, color me gobsmacked. An astonishing performance. If you're in New York, go. If you're not, you can experience it here... Taking a cue from the MOTION PICTURE ACADEMY, the RECORDING ACADEMY has invited 900 new members to its voting ranks, all of them "female and/or people of color and/or under 39," according to BILLBOARD. That's the most visible result so far from the still ongoing work of the Academy's Task Force on Diversity & Inclusion, established after this year's controversial GRAMMYS ceremony, and it's a much-needed and welcome one... The fourth version of A STAR IS BORN series opens in theaters today, and the advance press is high on the film and especially on LADY GAGA in a role previously played by JANET GAYNOR, JUDY GARLAND and BARBARA STREISAND. Is it too soon to wonder who'll star in #5?... FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS: LIVE IN LONDON premieres Saturday on HBO... Violinist VIJAY GUPTA and composer/conductor MATTHEW AUCOIN are among the recipients of this year's MACARTHUR FOUNDATION "genius grants"... Violinist LEILA JOSEFOWICZ wins the AVERY FISHER PRIZE... Musicians giving back: CHANCE THE RAPPER. And—go back three links—Matthew Aucoin... CONAN O'BRIEN's house band plays its final number... Bye bye SUGE KNIGHT... Dead clubs... It's FRIDAY and that means new music from ERIC CHURCH, SHECK WES, LIL BABY & GUNNA, CAT POWER, PETITE NOIR, TWENTY ONE PILOTS, TUNDE OLANIRAN, STEVE PERRY, MEWITHOUTYOU, MOLLY BURCH, F***ED UP, MOZZY, PHOSPHORESCENT, T.I., GHOSTFACE KILLAH, KIKAGAKU MOYO, ALUNAGEORGE, SIGALA, HIGH ON FIRE, EARTH SHIP, DAVE EAST & STYLES P, ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN, DOYLE BRAMHALL II, KT TUNSTALL, ADRIANNE LENKER, KRISTIN HERSH, MARCUS KING BAND, JIM JAMES, MARC E. BASSY, JERUSALEM IN MY HEART, HAERTS, CURSIVE, WINDHAND, COHEED & CAMBRIA, SWEARIN' and the A STAR IS BORN soundtrack... RIP BEN DAGLISH. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| To hear proprietor Bryan Ling recall it, the new high-fidelity vinyl bar In Sheep’s Clothing wasn’t part of the plan for his new Arts District venture. He knew he wanted a pizzeria, but the space he coveted was a little bigger than he needed. | | |
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| Sometimes a song sticks in your head for days or weeks or months, reverberating around your skull and senses. This phenomenon--which goes by many names including "sticky music," "Involuntary Musical Imagery," and "earworm," the most common usage--has been the subject of a number of rigorous scientific studies in recent years. | | |
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| Blazing a new path in ugly celebrity, West is a thought leader in that regard. | | |
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| | | | | | | From "Wanderer," out today on Domino. |
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| © Copyright 2018, The REDEF Group |
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