“Business is Terrible” Posted by John Manchester on February 3, 2011 at 3:00pm View Blog FEBRUARY 3, 2011 10:40AM RATE: 14 Flag Via Nina H., Flikr A few years ago I decided to buy a bass. I’d never owned one, but I’d fiddled with a few. I figured bass couldn’t be too hard for a guitar player…
Three Fine Scores
As promised here I spent Christmas with Jewish Friends watching a movie and going out for Chinese. The movie, True Grit, was the first of three very good films I’ve seen in the last month. Each of them was enhanced by a fine score. True Grit I had my doubts about True Grit in the…
What Does a Music Publisher Do?
Tin Pan Alley (Photo By Ranveig) Your picture of a music publisher, if you have one at all, might be of some fat guy on tin pan alley sitting behind a desk, smoking a fat cigar, grinning a shark’s grin at the skinny songwriter sitting across with him. The kid is quaking in his boots,…
The Deal with Christmas Music
When it came to music my father and I had little in common. He couldn’t abide the rock music I played for a living. I had no use for the idol of his youth, Bix Biederbeck. Or any other jazz for that matter. We briefly agreed on liking folk music – with Peter, Paul and…
Three Christmas Readings
EDITOR’S PICK DECEMBER 17, 2010 7:51AM RATE: 37 Flag It’s coming on Christmas They’re cutting down trees They’re putting up reindeer And singing songs of joy and peace Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on -Joni Mitchell My father loved Christmas. From the time I was very small in the days after…
Nerina Pallot – Best New Artist of the 00s
You’d think that after the Beatles we Americans would pay attention when someone starts making wonderful sounds across the pond. Not so. Nerina Pallot (pronounced with a silent T) has been a star in the UK for the last ten years. She’s virtually unknown here. It took the British blogger Martin Warminger, the Music Obsessive,…
Mysteries of France- Part III
Mysteries of France – Part III Posted by John Manchester on December 9, 2010 at 3:00pm View Blog DECEMBER 9, 2010 8:20AM RATE: 6 Flag MONT ST. MICHEL Location, location, location. That’s the most awe-inspiring thing about this world-class tourist establishment. I get none of the spine-tingling vibes as at Chartres. But what a location. And what a place…
The Mysteries of France – Part II
CARNAC Speaking of alignments, here are some from the largest collection of standing stones in the world: 3,000 of them: Organic lawnmowers. Their origin is even more mysterious than that of Chartres. Nothing is known about who carved and raised them, how or why. Even when is in question. Excavations beneath them have revealed nothing to carbon date. They’re…
Mysteries of France – Part I
Mysteries of France – Part I Posted by John Manchester on December 7, 2010 at 3:00pm View Blog DECEMBER 7, 2010 9:39AM RATE: 11 Flag I’m glad I brought my camera on my 60th birthday trip to France. CHARTRES CATHEDRAL I first saw this cathedral in 1983. I keep returning. Why does it evoke such awe and reverence…
Unfashionable Music – Brahms
There was a time when people spoke of the truly great classical composers as the three B’s – Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. Recently Mozart has tended to take the place of Brahms on that short list. Perhaps that’s fair. For all of its merits Brahms’ music sometimes falls a little short of the lofty reaches…
Luminous Muse
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