White Wilderness and Minitel
John Vanderslice’s seventh studio album, White Wilderness, marked by the enchanting, fluid maneuvers of the Magik*Magik Orchestra, was released last Tuesday. The entire album—nine twisting, coiling songs, spanning 31 minutes—was recorded in just three days, but sounds as purposeful and carefully conceived as a special gift.
Meanwhile, Vanderslice has another gift up his sleeve:
Wretches & Jabberers
In support of National Autism Awareness Month, McIntosh Laboratory and songwriter/producer J. Ralph have come together to create a spectacular new album, the original motion picture soundtrack to Academy Award winning director Gerardine Wurzburg’s Wretches & Jabberers. The feature-length documentary, in theaters now, follows the paths of two men with autism, Larry Bissonnette and Tracy Thresher, as they travel around the world determined to increase autism awareness and refine our ideas of intelligence.
From the film’s dedicated web site:
Growing up, Thresher and Bissonnette were presumed “retarded” and excluded from normal schooling. With limited speech, they both faced lives of social isolation in mental institutions or adult disability centers. When they learned as adults to communicate by typing, their lives changed dramatically. Their world tour message is that the same possibility exists for others like themselves.Yesterday evening, I met with composer J. Ralph and McIntosh’s Global VP of Sales and Marketing, Linda Passaro, for an intimate listening session.
Zappa! Zappa! Zappa!
Truth is: I know diddly-squat about Frank Zappa. I've heard this and that, of course, and all I've heard has always been intriguing, but, for no good reason, I've just never taken the time to dive into Zappa's world. Perhaps it's because his world seems so enormous and wild and foreign. His world is full of barking pumpkins and utility muffins and Sprechstimme and other things I can neither imagine nor pronounce. I mean, even his name is strange. Like an exclamation, like a shot of electricity. Zappa! Say it three times, and something bad might happen. Zappa! Zappa! (No, don't!)
10 Years
Today is my 10th anniversary with Stereophile. Hmm…on the way home today, maybe I’ll buy myself a nice beer. Or a record…
100 Waltzes for John Cage
Composer Kevin James looks a bit tired of making field recordings. Recordings for 100 Waltzes for John Cage were captured during 45+ nearly continuous hours of driving around New York City. Photo: The [kāg] ensemble.
Tuesday–Thursday, August 2123, 7:30pm: In celebration of John Cage’s 100th birthday, The [kāg] ensemble will perform Kevin James’s 100 Waltzes for John Cage at the DiMenna Center, Mary Flagler Cary Hall (450 West 37th Street, New York).
Inspired by Cage’s 49 Waltzes for the Five Boroughs, for which a score was created by randomly selecting 147 locations on a New York City map, James’s work is said to answer the question, “What would Cage have done with the advanced technologies that have shaped our ever-expanding information age?”
I'd like to think he'd have thrown them out the window and made a score from their shattered bits and pieces. Kevin James, it seems, feels similarly:101 Albums
Somebody asked me for 10 albums, so here are 101:
106 Days Remaining
Elementshttp://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/091605where/">Elements; (2005) and I (1977) share our birthday with (in order from oldest to youngest):
1xRUN and Glenn Barr’s Vinyl Girl
Glenn Barr displays his "Vinyl Girl." Photo: 1xRUN.
1xRUN hopes to create a more vibrant art market by offering select work from established and emerging artists in limited-edition, exclusive print runs, at affordable prices. Signed and authenticated, these print releases are open for one week only.
The current run is a piece called “Vinyl Girl” by Glenn Barr, whose work includes the background styling for The Ren and Stimpy Show and Bjork’s “I Miss You” video. The 16” x 25” five-color silkscreen costs $60.
(Girls love vinyl, I am telling you.)
21 More Records from 2012
A couple of weeks ago, I listed my favorite records of 2012. There are over 100 records on that list. And, even though I do believe that all those records belong on the list, I can’t help thinking that one person can’t possibly really, deeply, truly get to know 100 records in just 365 days. After all, I regularly hear new things in records that I’ve been enjoying for years.
Well, then, how really deeply, truly do I know any record? Does it matter? Whatever.
Here’s another list: Records that I didn’t get around to in 2012, but that I hope to spend quality time with in 2013.
21 Tracks for Newport Beach: A Playlist
T.H.E. Show Newport Beach will be held May 31 through June 2, at the Hilton and Atrium hotels, near Orange County Airport, in Irvine, California. John Atkinson and Jason Victor Serinus will cover the show for Stereophile.com, while Tyll Hertsens and Michael Fremer will represent for InnerFidelity and AnalogPlanet.
Jason asked if would send him a flash drive carrying a few demo tracks that he might use to audition systems at the show—a fun idea, however one that I can’t successfully realize: At this time, I have no real library of high-resolution (or even CD-quality) digital files, nor do I have proper means of ripping CDs. Simply put, while I do plan on building a proper computer-audio system, I haven’t gotten around to it yet. I’ve been busy hanging out with girls and cats, decorating the new apartment, and admiring the Mets’ ability to find creative ways to lose close games. Give me a few more months.