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OK, I’m a bit behind on my posting this week because I usually write at least some of my posts ahead of time on the weekend, especially Sunday, and this week we went to Rochester for a day of fun and buying stuff at Trader Joe’s. (Yes, we have a Trader Joe’s in Buffalo. We actually have two Trader Joe’s, but we don’t like the main one (actually the store itself is fine, but its location on Niagara Falls Boulevard is really a pain to get to) and we haven’t been to the new one that opened a few months ago yet.) SoDown the rabbit hole….

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Two weeks out! I hope your shopping is done. And if it isn’t, well, you have time. Anyway, here’s something just outstanding. I usually feature the full soundtrack album of A Charlie Brown Christmas at some point during this series, and this year is no different…but it’s not the original. Apparently there’s a jazz trio called The Commercialists, based in Milwaukee, who get together in December to go around performing…the entire soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas. This is just wonderful. Enjoy! Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….

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I make an attempt every now and then, maybe once every year or two, to acquaint myself with the music of Alan Hovhaness, and I invariably come up short. I don’t really know why, but I’ve yet to find a work of his that really speaks to me on some deep level. His music is often described as naturalistic and mystical, but ultimately I don’t usually hear that; all I find in his work is long meandering passages that sound like melody but…aren’t, tempos that never change much, and long pages of pizzicato work in the low strings. I knowDown the rabbit hole….

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Another by Eric Whitacre, this one is called Sleep. Here it is for wind ensemble: Lovely and meditative, isn’t it? But it’s not doesn’t end there. Whitacre actually composed this piece for choir first. The idea was to set a Robert Frost poem called “Stopping By Woods On a Snowy Evening”, and Whitacre did in fact compose it that way at first…before learning that Frost’s poetry is still under copyright. So Whitacre had to get a new poem for the work, and he did, by Charles Anthony Silvestri. While Whitacre is happier now with the new lyric than with the original,Down the rabbit hole….

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I’ve been thinking for years about vlogging and video content. I’ve even made some, here and there! But now, I’ve decided it’s time to get serious about this, now that I have actually decent video gear and also now that I’m starting to get more used to the way I sound on video. So, to that end, I have relaunched my YouTube channel, and here’s my introductory video over there! Make sure to watch, “Like”, and Subscribe! Onward and upward! Zap! Pow!! Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….

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We started 2024 in the usual fashion: with the Vienna Philharmonic. Here is the delightful and traditional end to that concert: On the Beautiful Blue Danube followed by the Radetzy March. Note our conductor, Christian Thielemann, directing the audience’s rhythmic clapping. That is an important job! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVlx3UhOxOQ   Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….

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(Blame SamuraiFrog for this one, folks — he gave me the title! I deny all accountability. Except for the part where I write the following tale. Which I’m doing stream-of-conscious, right off the top of my head. No editing.) Lore has it that there is one, and only one, substance that can stop Superman dead in his tracks. Kryptonite. Irradiated fragments of rock hurled into the deep dark of space when his planet exploded, Kryptonite’s radiation and other qualities unique to its place of origin make it near-lethal whenever Superman comes in contact with it. So, of course, every oneDown the rabbit hole….

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In college, every year we did a big Christmas Pageant thing, a big concert of sacred music performed by the combined forces of the concert band, the choir, and the jazz vocal group. This was all tied together by a voice narration by a professor from the Religion Department, mostly Biblical quotes from the passages in the Gospels pertaining to the birth of Jesus. While most of the selections changed every year, one stalwart work showed up on each performance, for obvious reason: it’s something of an ostentatious showpiece. It’s called “Sing a New Song”, by composer Frank Bencriscutto. BencriscuttoDown the rabbit hole….

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    Sheila O’Malley has a typically lovely post about Frank Sinatra, whose birthday is today. I started composing a comment on her site, but then I realized that my thoughts were getting away from me, so I decided to bring it over here. Sinatra has been a part of my universe for as long as I can remember; my parents owned a bunch of his records, which were on constant rotation in my childhood. I remember his distinctive sound, sometimes clear and sometimes with just a hint of rasp (depending on what he wanted to express), his sense ofDown the rabbit hole….