HOW TO WRITE AN OBIT

From the desk of James Reel on Friday, December 22nd 2006 at 8:26

    A bear at Reid Park Zoo has succumbed to liver cancer, and the Arizona Daily Star's Tom Beal has written a charming obituary that follows all the rules while also revealing far more about the bear's personality than do the usual sugar-coated farewells to human beings. Read the ...

PASTORELA REBORN

From the desk of James Reel on Thursday, December 21st 2006 at 9:05

    Say I in the current Tucson Weekly:

    The pastorela tradition has thrived in Europe (and later Latin America) since the Renaissance. It has flourished in Tucson for only 11 years, but already, it's gotten an overhaul.
    Every December, Borderlands Theater presents its version of the traditional pastorela, a retelling ...

IDIOT CONSULTANT UPDATE

From the desk of James Reel on Wednesday, December 20th 2006 at 7:48

    At the end of my post about dangerously dumb advice from a consultant to the Oregon Symphony, I wrote, “I can’t wait to see what A.C. Douglas has to say about this.” Well, Mr. Sounds and Fury has weighed in, and he is not only incredulous but speechless ...

ANOTHER IDIOT CONSULTANT

From the desk of James Reel on Tuesday, December 19th 2006 at 7:06

    The Oregon Symphony is in the hands of a fool named Elaine Calder, whom the Portland Oregonian describes as “a straight-talking Canadian arts consultant who spent the past five years turning around the continent's northernmost professional orchestra, the Edmonton Symphony.” Not only is she stupid; she’s dangerous, because ...

OUT WITH SCROOGE

From the desk of James Reel on Thursday, December 14th 2006 at 7:31

    Talk about donning gay apparel …

    A gruff, aging man sits alone in front of his television on Christmas Eve. He's too cheap to pay for premium channels, so he flips irritably through the usual offerings: It's a Wonderful Life. How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Humbug, all of it ...

BAD NEWS

From the desk of James Reel on Thursday, December 14th 2006 at 7:17

    NPR News is heavily playing the story of Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota undergoing surgery after an apparent stroke. This is valid national news—control of the Senate hinges on Johnson’s health, because his state’s Republican governor could replace him with a Republican—but to what ...

MUCHO PIN8

From the desk of James Reel on Wednesday, December 13th 2006 at 6:57

    Radio announcer conundrum of the week: How to pronounce the last name of dead-at-last Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet? The answer, according to Slate’s Andy Engber, is that you can find a justification for just about anything. Engber finally dug up a video of the man pronouncing his own name ...

DEM BONES

From the desk of James Reel on Wednesday, December 13th 2006 at 6:56

    Courtesy of oboeinsight, here’s a link to a human-interest item that supports your parents’ notion that nobody with any good sense becomes a professional musician. This trombonist, at least, suffers an obvious sense deficit. It’s hard to resist an article that begins like this:

    Paolo Esperanza, bass-trombonist with ...

DRAW EARLY, SHOOT SELF IN FOOT

From the desk of James Reel on Monday, December 11th 2006 at 6:40

    The University of Arizona is going after nearly all the Rio Nuevo tax increment financing money earmarked for development west of the freeway—money that’s supposed to cover a lot of things that have nothing to do with the UA’s museums. Get a load of this, from today ...

DEAD AIR

From the desk of James Reel on Monday, December 11th 2006 at 6:35

    Read what the New Yorker’s Alex Ross has to say about the impending death of classical radio in our nation’s capital.

ABOUT THAT MENDELSSOHN CADENZA

From the desk of James Reel on Saturday, December 9th 2006 at 17:15

    I don't think Strings magazine has gotten around to publishing that article I mention below about the Mendelssohn concerto, so I'll give you a sneak peak, even though it's a bit technical:

    “It has been butchered and malplayed by so many people, it’s time somebody pleaded ...

REVIEW: TUCSON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA/CAITLIN TULLY, VIOLIN

From the desk of James Reel on Saturday, December 9th 2006 at 17:09

    It seems counterintuitive that a slower-than-usual performance of anything could be refreshing, but that was exactly the case when teen prodigy Caitlin Tully, a freshman at Princeton, soloed with George Hanson and the Tucson Symphony in Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor Thursday night. The Mendelssohn is usually the ...

TSO SLINGS A NEW WEB

From the desk of James Reel on Thursday, December 7th 2006 at 7:43

    Remember the very polite round of fisticuffs I hosted in October, in which arts consultant Drew McManus and a former Tucson Symphony employee sparred over issues relating to the orchestra’s badly out-of-date Web site? Well, a few days ago an orchestra player alerted me that the TSO has finally ...

HELP WANTED

From the desk of James Reel on Thursday, December 7th 2006 at 7:30

    I apologize for my lack of bloggage this week. I’ve been busy with various things, one or two of which actually relate to my work here at KUAT. One thing I’m doing today is recording this Saturday morning’s shift, so I won’t have to come in ...

TRU TO ELLA

From the desk of James Reel on Thursday, December 7th 2006 at 7:20

    Two stage entertainments snag my attention in the current Tucson Weekly. First, Ella Fitzterald has been resurrected at the Temple of Music and Art:

    Last spring, a friend of mine was exasperated when he heard that Arizona Theatre Company would present Ella, a show in which an actress pretends to ...

TOWING THE CELLO

From the desk of James Reel on Friday, December 1st 2006 at 7:47

    Yesterday afternoon I developed car trouble on the way to my cello lesson, limped on to my teacher’s house and from there arranged for a tow to the garage. Not wanting my cello to roll around in the car during the long haul across town, I stashed it in ...