Kissing is in the air, and not just because it’s spring and my allergies are attacking my face to death. No. Led by Tino Sehgal‘s “This Progress,” which opened at The Guggenheim back in January and featured “Kiss”, where exclusively male-female couples made out on the rotunda of the museum for like, all day, kissing [...]
Leggo My Bel Canto
On Friday, Anthony Tommasini took a moment, in a hot piece on new technologies in opera, to parenthetically lament the current sate of affairs at The New York City Opera: (Remember the good old City Opera, nearly dormant and badly struggling right now?) Never fear, T-Bone. CC is here. Since my announcement, I’ve received some [...]
C.C. for New York City Opera Directorship
Counter Critic for the Directorship of The New York City Opera “A Key-Change We Need” [Update: WATCH VIDEO] Preamble I hereby announce my candidacy to assume directorship of The New York City Opera. In these uncertain times, artistic organizations need stalwart leadership that will provide vision, direction, and most importantly, thought that isn’t lodged in [...]
Proposition 8 Remainders: All this backlash is giving me whiplash
So… First, Proposition 8 passed and there was a wave of gay-friendly outrage, most of which was aimed at the Mormon church, and some of which was, apparently, leveled at the African American community. Now there’s a backlash at the gays who have appeared–to some–as a pack of wild, fornicating racist assholes. The back and [...]
One Word: LAME
Some of you may wonder why I haven’t written a damn word about last week’s news that the New York City Opera and Gerard Mortier canceled their wedding. Basically, I find it depressing. I don’t even want to write about this. The New York City Opera is said to be “the people’s” opera. And the [...]
A Measure of Change: Or, What “Sleeping With The Enemy” and Goat Island’s “Lastmaker” have in common with the election of Barack Obama
If this election cycle has had any single theme that has dominated all possible themes, it was without a doubt: CHANGE. Not only did Barack Obama’s campaign coin it and stick to it, but John McCain’s campaign co-opted it in an effort to portray the McCain/Palin ticket as the real agents of change. It is [...]
Note to Democrats: MAN UP
Before I begin, let me say that I am not registered as a member of any political party. I like my independence in many forms, and politics is not exempt. Granted, the Democrats generally appeal to my tastes on many issues, even if their official platform tends to be a little watered down from my [...]
On A Musical Note
I thought I’d send y’all out into the weekend with a thought about the debate that’s been simmering on these two posts. Some of the comments concern this idea that atonality is unnatural, and therefore, illegitimate in some way. Bernard Holland’s recent comment that serialism is “made up” represent this notion that there is something [...]
C.C. PSA
Ok girls and boys, we normally don’t do this sort of thing, but here’s a cause that C.C. is definitely getting behind. Click, watch and learn. Doesn’t matter who you are, information is information, and you never know when you or someone you know will decide to throw caution to the wind and have some [...]
Don’t Need No Hateration
Here’s more evidence of the campaign to oust atonality from the concert music scene. Bernard Holland reviews a concert of new piano music at Greenwich House. He writes: …something seemed to be whispering in my ear that the Dark Ages of postwar atonality were over and tentative reconnections to the past were under way. To [...]
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