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Monday, September 25, 2006
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 Today is the 100th birthday of the late composer, Dmitri Shostakovich. Shostakovich is my favorite composer - yup - even higher than Beethoven or even Stravinsky. My classical tastes lean towards the Russian composers and Shostakovich is the pinnacle. Incredible, complex, emotional, immensely moving music. And yet, very accessible - which is not often the case for mid-twentieth century composers.
NPR did a great piece this morning on Shostakovich. They hit all my favorite compositions and the discussion of the 5th symphony in particular, was quite interesting. The business of tempo of the last movement and its political meaning was nifty stuff.
And I certainly agree with NPR's take that Emerson String Quartet's complete recordings of Shostakovich's 15 string quartets is a "must have". An absolutely monumental recording of some of the greatest string quartets ever written.
2:50:51 PM 
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Wednesday, February 22, 2006
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Today is Washington's Birthday. To celebrate, I'm going to listen to John Adams' absolutely stunning opera, Nixon in China.
The last scene, "The Banquet", in the first act contains the most amazing piece, "Washington's Birthday". Diabolically difficult music to sing but fabulous listening. Addictive and exciting.
1:33:13 PM
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Thursday, February 02, 2006
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As I type, it's 8 below - damn - it's been cold cold cold for two straight weeks. It warmed up a tad yesterday. The temperature soared up to 15 degrees for a few hours. And then it plumeted right back to its below zero home. Which makes walking the Tyge-a-boo fun - especially late at night.
Fortunately, tonight we walked Tyge after we got home from the most fabulous concert - Chick Corea and Touchstone. It's a darn good thing the band played all those hot latin rhythms. We needed something to warm us up!
10:23:50 PM
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Sunday, February 20, 2005
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Peter and I just got in from the David Krakauer performance. It was an absolutely kick ass concert. The program ran the gamut from Brahms to electrified klezmer. I adored Messian's Abyss of the Birds (composed while Messian was in a German concentration camp in WWII) - ethereal and arresting. Steve Reich's New York Counterpoint was so cool - and so great musically. Here's the program blurb:
Counterpoint, written in 1985, is a uniquely demanding work using only instrumental sounds for nine B-flat clarinets and 3 bass clarinets, usually performed with an existing tape of the tutti clarinets against which the solo part is played.
The last 30 minutes of the concert was devoted to klezmer. Suped up, incredible klezmer. As Peter said, "It's not your Aunt Sadie's klezmer". Krakauer's klezmer band is stunning - incredible musicianship.
I want to create a playlist of this concert. In exactly the order it was played.
Best concert of the year. Hands down.
6:04:16 PM
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Saturday, January 22, 2005
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As I type, the Marx Brothers caterers are downstairs setting up for the Ski Boy's law office Winter Party. The doings get underway at 7:00 PM.
However, I'll only be here for the first few minutes of the party. You see, as a result of a scheduling mixup on my part, I didn't realize that tonight was also the night that the Julliard String Quartet with Heinz Holliger (the world's greatest oboist) would be performing.
Augh!!! I thought the concert was tomorrow night. The Fuzz Ball Slat Rat strikes again.
Anyhoo, I'll scurry off a few minutes after 7:00 PM to the concert. I'll stay for the first half, come home for the tail end of our party.
And in yet another example of what a small town Anchorage is: After our party, Peter and I will, literally, walk next to door to Carol and Blake's for the after concert party for the String Quartet and Holliger. It will be a busy evening - and our cul de sac is going to be packed with cars.
And as the ultimate small town example - the head honcho Marx Brothers caterer downstairs in our kitchen, is Phil's girlfriend!!!!!
5:26:56 PM
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Sunday, October 24, 2004
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As I type, we're going into the top of the eighth inning of Game Two at Fenway. The Red Sox are up 6 to 1. However, as we all know, no lead is safe with our Bosmos. Especially since they've already committed four errors in this game. At this point, they're at eight errors for the Series and we're not even done with the second game!
Especially since our brilliant manager, Terry Francona, did not leave Embree in after he struck out the side in the 7th inning. Timlin started the 7th by throwing 4 straight balls to Edgar Renteria. Arghhhhhhhhhh....
And after Timlin got Jim Edmonds out, Pujols just hit a single and advanced the runner to third base. And goodie - Scott Rolen is up. Arghhhhhhhhh......
Rolen just hit a sacrifice fly and scored Renteria. Geeeeeez
Great - now Francona is bringing in poor Keith Folke - who is already on the ragged edge. Hopefully Folke can get Jim Edmonds - who would be the last out in the 8th ...
Whew!!!!!! Mr. Folke struck out Edmonds
Anyhoo, game time in Anchorage was at 4:00 PM - one of the joys of being in the Alaska time zone, is all these late night games are not late night games at all for us. And another big event had a start time of 4:00 PM this afternoon - the Concert Association's presentation of the Prague Philharmonia. And the concert was absolutely fantastic. The Prague Philharmonia is a superb orchestra. Incredibly tight, fabulous tone, and their interpretations were just exceptional. It was an all classics program; Mozart's overture to the Marriage of Figaro, Dvorak's violin concerto, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. A great program - the 7th symphony was just wonderful. The tone, the drive, the contrast in sound - all in all, I was reminded that 7th is truly a fabulous joyous piece of music.
After the concert, I scooted across the street (literally) to Humpy's for beer, dinner, and the game. As I arrived, the game was in the 6th inning. I had my beer and bbq'd game hen. I watched Schilling pitch his last inning and then watched in horror as Bosmos committed two errors and then redeemed themselves by scoring two runs - all by the 7th inning stretch. I finished up dinner and made it home in time for the 8th.
The above is an example of why Anchorage is such a great little city. We have a world class performing arts center and right across the street, we have a world class Alaska bar!!!!
7:24:59 PM
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Wednesday, September 29, 2004
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Via Fimoculous, I got clued into The Kleptones' masterpiece, A Night at the Hip-Hopera a fabulous "mashup remix" of Queen and various rappers ranging from Grandmaster Flash (a Steph fave thanks to Pooh) and Eminem.
Hip-Hopera is guaranteed to get hounded by the copyright Nazi's in the same manner as DJ Dangemouse's Grey Album.
To download Hip-Hopera, check out Waxy's download site. Hip-Hopera is what remix is all about!
6:18:06 PM
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© Copyright 2006 Stephanie A. Kesler.
Last update: 9/26/2006; 4:55:56 PM.
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The Slat Rat's Favorite Blogs
The Slat Rat's Favorite Techie Blogs
The Slat Rat's Bookpile
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