Just read this tidbit from the excellent Exploration of Portland Food and Drink blog (posted by “food dude”) – whatever you read in Anthony Bourdain’s tomes of kitchen debauchery are likely more than accurate and even more likely understated: I’m not going to name where they worked, but in the past week a cook was
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Photo credit: lyzadanger Heather and I did a great ride today – we did the Mosier Twin Tunnels trail located a few miles east of downtown Hood River. It’s a 9.1 mile (round-trip) ride on a section of the old Columbia River highway which has been closed to traffic and turned into a pedestrian/bicycle path.
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In a word: it hurts. I pulled out the viola after a two-week hiatus and it really sucked! The calluses went soft, I couldn’t shift accurately, my sound was like cotton stuffed up a skeleton’s ass – it wasn’t pretty. I spent 45 painful minutes working through a couple major and minor scales and one
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David Brewster writes about the recent transitions of leadership at the Pacific Northwest Ballet, and wonders about the future for the Seattle Opera and the Seattle Symphony, who both have long-term leaders who have contracts that go until around 2011 or so. It’s an interesting situation, and especially for symphony orchestras, transitions of leadership are
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It looks like there may be a new arms race amongst conservatories – there are some quite high profile artists included in this latest round at the Juilliard School. Here are the bios of these new faculty members, from a Juilliard press release:
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IKEA opened in Portland today!
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It’s a hard time to be a fan of professional cycling – especially when Tour de France time comes around each July. Last year, we thrilled to Floyd Landis’ thrashing of the rest of the peleton after a disastrous day in the Alps, only to find out that he was blood doping in order to
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It’s been a pretty low-key couple of days. I’m anticipating a burst of posts on some Portland classical music scene issues shortly. For now, here’s what’s playing on my iPod today: Bartòk – Concerto for Orchestra: Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustvo Dudamel, cond. DG Concerts (iTunes store exclusive download) Barber – Knoxville, Summer of 1915: Dawn
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Here’s a great article by David Brewster about the much-respected and financially secure Chamber Music Northwest from the online journal Crosscut. Here’s the opening:  If Seattle is a bright beacon flashing out its grandness, Portland is a bushel basket, under which well-kept secrets gleam. My favorite example is Portland’s Chamber Music Northwest summer festival, now
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NYTimes critic Anthony Tommassini wets himself. The NYPhil musicians are pleased, too. A Philly critic is left wondering what Philly will get. Alex Ross shows how un-young Mr. Gilbert really is, in historical context.
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One of my favorite music bloggers, the pianist Jeremy Denk, made quite a splash at the Portland International Piano Festival this past weekend – click here for a complete review by Oregonian classical music critic David Stabler. Here’s the lead-in: Many piano concerts are like trips to the shopping mall: safe, predictable excursions with a
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In a pretty stunning announcement today, the New York Philharmonic has hired 40-year old conductor Alan Gilbert as its next music director. In a unique twist, he’s also the son of two members (one current, one former) of the august ensemble! In Mr. Gilbert the Philharmonic has a true son of the orchestra and of
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Orchestra meetings should most likely not be held outdoors, in the summer, and in Chicago all at the same time. This is the conclusion I came to after reading the CSO Bass Blog entry today.
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I know that there are many professional musicians who never take more than a day off at a time from practicing, but I find it very helpful to take a larger chunk of time when the schedule allows. Usually this takes place for me during the month of July, when I don’t have any gigs
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Fellow arts blogger and print journalist James Bash wrote a piece about the Oregon Bach Festival (and quite a good one, I might add) recently, and as I clicked on the link provided to the article I was astonished to discover Crosscut, an online source of news and information for Washington, Idaho, Oregon and British
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