Aisle Be Seeing You

ABSU is a "Favorite Place" on Google Maps - um, yay!?

According to the A) viral marketing materials designed by Google to get me to promote Google for Google, or B) nice letter from the good folks at Google, this blog is A) a Favorite Place on Google found by over 14,000 people between July 1 and September 30, with 1186 people requesting driving directions or other info about Aisle Be Seeing You, B) a small business, or C) a good target for Google marketers because, "this guy will post anything, including stickers."

Seriously, I would like to thank all 14,245 of you for checking in. And thanks for the sticker, Google!

Recent previews & reviews: Vega, Sondheim and the Berlin Phil

Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic at Symphony Hall on Sunday (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

Suzanne Vega (November 6, Sanders Theatre)

The Boston Phoenix (Carrie Battan)


An Evening With Stephen Sondheim (November 14, Sanders Theatre)

The Hub Review (Thomas Garvey)

Berlin Philharmonic, Sir Simon Rattle, conducting (November 15, Symphony Hall)

The Boston Globe (Jeremy Eichler)

The Hub Review (Thomas Garvey)

The Boston Phoenix (Lloyd Schwartz)

The Boston Herald (Ed Symkus)

Real pain for my SPAM friends #326

SPAM, while annoying, does have its pleasures. I love the ambiguity of today's spam comment:

"your blog too enjoyful."

Is it so enjoyful that they just can't stand it?

Is it "just too much, man?"

I don't really want to know the answer any more than I want to try the ant-herpes product they're hawking...

Pianist Ingrid Fliter's recital reviewed

Three reviews have appeared to date of Ingrid Fliter's Boston debut recital this past Sunday:

The Boston Globe (David Perkins)

The Arts Fuse (Caldwell Titcomb)

The Hub Review (Thomas Garvey)

Sir Simon signs on with Berlin Philharmonic until 2018

From the Los Angeles Times' Culture Monster blog:

"The classical music world is known for planning concerts and events years in advance. But the Berlin Philharmonic takes the cake today with its announcement that it has secured Simon Rattle's tenure as head of the orchestra for another nine years."

Read the complete post.

Berlin Philharmonic comes to Boston November 15.

For Maestro Slatkin and the DSO, "Change is in the Air ;-)"

Leonard Slatkin

A humorous little post from the blog of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra - a pseudo-introduction of the coming season - has confused a number of otherwise worldly and alert adults into thinking the cracks therein are to be taken seriously. Here are some rather obvious samples of Slatkin's playfulness:

On distraction:
"To begin, the orchestra will be seated with their backs to the audience. Music Director Leonard Slatkin said at a press conference yesterday, 'I feel that the listeners are distracted by seeing the faces of the musicians. By turning around, people will tire of looking at backsides and focus purely on the music.'"

On Beethoven's 5th Symphony:
"So for these performances of the overly familiar Beethoven score, the opening five bars will not be played, since everyone knows how they go. It will be straight into the 6th measure. In fact, every time the four-note motto comes in and is played loudly, the passage will either disappear or be performed softly."

Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring:
"Other emendations include orchestration changes. The opening of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, played by the bassoon in a high register, will now be intoned on the tuba, two octaves lower than printed."

On formal attire:
"Finally, in keeping with the new seating arrangement, the orchestra will perform in street clothes, but the audience is requested to come in formal attire.

'Let them learn how long it takes to put on white tie and tails.'"

And finally:
"Season tickets, subscription renewals and cancellations can be taken care of directly with the DSO box office."

If the Schikele-esque notions above were not adequate proof of mirth, the post even goes so far as to include the winking emoticon, ;-), in the headline, but still there were those who remained unsure if they were witnessing a joke or not. That tells this reader that the classical community in general could use a bit more of this sort of thing ...

DSO blog post, with comments

Leonard Slatkin's web site

Mind the Gap blog on Artsjournal.com

Daily Observations blog, with comment

Jonathan Biss gets back on his blog horse

He had not, as he acknowledges, posted anything on his blog since March, so Jonathan Biss decided to make use of his time on a trans-Pacific flight to get his readers up to speed ...

"The Semiotics of Classical LP Cover Art (ca. 1970), or, When Things Started to Get Fun"

The 1970s, it turns out, are almost always good for a chuckle. Here is a fun post from the AllMusic Blog entitled "The Semiotics of Classical LP Cover Art (ca. 1970), or, When Things Started to Get Fun." Fair warning, the post includes near nudity and full frontal kitsch.

A nod to The Well Tempered Blog for the road map.

My SPAM friends #214

I've said it before, I'll say it again:

"BU YATAK BAK YATAK."

It's one's closest friends that can say the things that truly need to be said.

Updated blogroll

Regular readers (I know you're out there) may have noticed that the Aisle Be Seeing You blog roll on the right panel has migrated. I have added a few blogs and categories to the list and put them all on their own page, here.

Bloggers, if you don't see yourself there and think you should be listed, drop me a line.