Happy second-to-longest day of the year, everyone. Life’s entirely downhill from tomorrow on out.

In the waxing crepuscular hours, you may as well peruse Orpheus Chamber Orchestra’s new website for Project 440. Come then, look beyond the clip-arty logo, listen to five-minute musical excerpts from each of 60 nominated composers, and leave friendly comments about your favorites (I think that was pretty subtle).

Fig. 1: Top 10 Hottest Cartoon Characters, no. 10.

Fans of The Books will no doubt recognize the lyric “I can’t find the books/ They must be in La Jolla”. I always assumed it was no more than a passing reference to the group’s name, perhaps from an old movie or TV show. In the car yesterday on the way from New Haven to New York, I caught part of a This American Life program, rebroadcast from 2002, that revealed the line to be so much more. Turns out it is excerpted from a “viral voicemail” (people had to amuse themselves somehow before YouTube) that was circulated around the Columbia campus during the early 1990’s (perhaps around the time Paul de Jong was working as an assistant to Otto Luening). All these little unexpected connections between things; the line now takes on a completely different meaning, which I think is just the kind of cultural archæology The Books love. I won’t spoil the episode by revealing the content of said voicemail, but you can listen to the entire episode, which is excellent, here.

Both of my Sunday concerts (at Yale and LPR) went swimmingly; Wendy’s concert was a heartwarming, family affair, which can happen when you come from a family of string players. I’ve already got a solid recording of Clamber Music up for you to hear (thanks, Fred Plaut Recording Studio!). LPR was also a pretty emotional scene, because it was the last Ensemble ACJW concert of the season, and lots of its members are “graduating”; scary, to be cast out into the open sea of New York Musicians with no nourishing mother to get you gigs and order you around.

Tangentially related: Why is Carnegie Hall‘s website so terrible? I feel like it’s 1998 and I’m loading it on my G3 Powerbook in Internet Explorer 4. Half the thing doesn’t even show up on my iPhone/iPad. You’d think mobile devices would be one of their primary targets (imagine you‘re out and about and wonder what’s on tonight. Just try pulling up the site on your iPhone; the calendar won’t load. You could always go to the very user-friendly text only version). The design is a weird mishmash of fonts and colors jammed together into one hideous mosaic. To round it all out, there’s a huge, empty black footer. Carnegie Hall, you’re so wonderful in so many ways; your web presence is not one of them, and it doesn’t do you justice.

Fig. 1: The grandiose diva.

So proud of this woman I could practically burst: my grandmother, Marian Seldes, is getting a “lifetime achievement” Tony award tomorrow (which is not for her work on the Lifetime Channel).

Here is an article in this week’s New York Times Magazine about her; I recommend you read all the way to the end for a vivid description of the smell of Le Poisson Rouge’s dressing room.

Off to New Haven right now to rehearse my new piece for Wendy Sharp and Tema Watstein, Clamber Music. The concert is this coming Sunday, the 13th, at 2 o’ clock in Sprague Hall; post-concert I will jump back on Metro-North to catch Ensemble ACJW at Le Poisson Rouge playing their new collaborative dance suite, including my own contribution, How to Pop and Lock in Thirteen Steps. It’s just a Metro-North kind of weekend.

What with the frenetic activities of last month beginning to wind down (last night I submitted a new piece with minutes to spare, but only because I’m currently on Central time), it looks as if I may have time to post actual blog entries from time to time.

I’ve been thinking about the past couple of shows I was involved in (the Shy and Mighty release and the two Metropolis Ensemble concerts), and I have to say, they were some of the most artistically and professionally satisfying experiences I’ve had in my life. I think this was partly because they were truly collaborative— composer, performers, and presenters all with fresh and ambitious ideas about what we do.

That said, the following video of Metropolis Ensemble performing at Trinity Wall St. is maybe not the most exciting thing to watch, but the performances themselves are top-notch. This was our “trial run” before that evening’s show at Angel Orensanz. The music doesn‘t start until about five minutes in; there‘s some pontificating (we’re talking about a giant cathedral, after all, pontification is the mandate). Thereafter, the program is my Paraphrase on Themes of Brian Eno; Andrew Norman’s Grand Turismo; Anna Clyne’s Within Her Arms; and finally Home Stretch.