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good cook for your last meal? July 31, 2007

Posted by Charles Noble in : the orchestra world, add a comment

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 hauled off the line in the middle of dinner for kiddie porn, and a Chef de Cuisine from another restaurant was hauled off to jail mid-shift, “for something between 4 and 14 months”.

mosier ride July 30, 2007

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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. I wish we’d brought a camera along, as it was an absolutely perfect day! I highly recommend this for people who want some stunning views and a few long, gradual hills on a rolling trail.

this is your brain on not practicing July 28, 2007

Posted by Charles Noble in : the orchestra world, 2comments

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 etude (Rodé Caprice No. 2).  I know it will get better, but it serves me right for not keeping the fingers limber.

On another note - Heather did her half marathon today!  In celebration I rode my bike downtown to meet her at the finish.  I told her that when she does the full marathon (Oct 7) I will ride downtown and back (it’s 9 miles each way, with the trip downtown almost all downhill, and the converse on the way back).  It’s the least I could do.  Next summer, I’ll do a century and she can carry my carcass home in the car afterwards.

leadership transitions in seattle July 27, 2007

Posted by Charles Noble in : the orchestra world, add a comment

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 tricky and crucial.

new hires at juilliard school July 26, 2007

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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: (more…)

something to cheer about July 25, 2007

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IKEA opened in Portland today!

tour de doping July 25, 2007

Posted by Charles Noble in : Uncategorized, 2comments

affiche_2007.jpg

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 accomplish this amazing feat (I guess the “if it’s too good to be true” adage holds for cycling as well).

This year, we watched Alexandre Vinokourov (Team Astana) take a horrible fall and battle back into relevance with a fantastic time trial stage victory and a mountain stage victory before testing positive for blood doping and having he and his entire team yanked from the race. The next day Italian Christian Moreni (Team Cofidis) tested positive and was arrested and hauled to jail by French authorities. Today, Tour leader (wearer of the yellow jersey) Michael Rasmussen (Team Rabobank) was taken out of contention by his team (along with the rest of the team) for lying about his whereabouts while missing three random drug tests during the lead-up to the Tour.

The Vinokourov affair was the most heartbreaking to me. The guy just seemed to have so much heart, and he rode his guts out despite his injuries (over sixty stitches to his knees and elbow) and had tremendous fan support along the way. Rasmussen had a dark cloud over him from the get go, and was even booed at the start line of today’s stage in Gourette.

The good news (so far) is that the remaining top three riders (Alberto Contador, Cadel Evans and Levi Leipheimer) seem to be squeaky clean and have raced very well up to this point, and two of them race for the USA’s Team Discovery Channel. We’ll see…

not much going on July 24, 2007

Posted by Charles Noble in : Uncategorized, add a comment

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:

under the radar July 19, 2007

Posted by Charles Noble in : Uncategorized, 7comments

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 in its 37th year and one of the finest in the country. My family has been going for the past 25 years, but I rarely encounter a music lover in Seattle who’s ever been. CMNW, doing just fine, thank you, shows no inclination or need to market to a Seattle audience.

reactions to alan gilbert appointment July 19, 2007

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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.