Sometimes a vacation just isn't a vacation. That's why I'm at home today, recovering from a four-day excursion in which practically nothing -- apart from attending the Philip Glass opera and spending some quality time with my sister (whose birthday is today -- cheers!) and nephew in Houston -- went according to plan. I've been running on fumes for days, and now I'm paying for it: I feel like an old shoe.
Still, it's a good excuse to do a little bit of housekeeping on the blogrolls. Under "Prompter's Box," please welcome at long last the tasty, titillating Opera Chic. In the "Blue Notes" section, I've finally added Rifftides, an Arts Journal blog by the estimable Doug Ramsey. In "Poptones" you'll now find a link to Audiofile, Salon.com's MP3 blog, updated daily by David Marchese. And way down in "Players," I've finally updated my link for Thomas Meglioranza's blog, which moved to a new address way back in November; the blog formerly known as Tomness can now be found at Meglioranza.com.
I'm so completely behind in getting around to posting about The First Emperor (attended December 26) and the Dark Funeral/Enslaved show at B.B. King's (January 10) that I might as well apply a statute of limitations and admit that I'll never get around to doing either of them. About the first, I will say that I'm in agreement with Alex Ross's typically elegant, sober-minded New Yorker essay, and thought that James Jorden provided strong additional insights in his Gay City News review. Regarding the latter, Enslaved was epic and glorious, Dark Funeral predictable but entertaining to watch nonetheless. Over at the Determined Dilettante, my Time Out New York colleague Elisabeth Vincentelli posted on The First Emperor and fashioned a killer black-metal essay for the Dark Funeral rites; go read them.
I feel better already.
Edit: Mere moments after I hit "save," a fine new review of The First Emperor went up on the U.K.-based MusicWeb International, by Bruce Hodges (of Monotonous Forest repute). His essay includes valuable insights drawn from the movie-house simulcast he caught a few weeks after seeing the work in the opera house. Good stuff.
Playlist:
Charles Wuorinen - String Sextet - Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; Second String Quartet; Piano Quintet - Group for Contemporary Music; Divertimento - Tashi (Naxos)
Grateful Dead - Live at the Cow Palace, New Year's Eve, 1976 (Grateful Dead/Rhino)
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