CALLERS

From the desk of James Reel on Tuesday, February 28th 2006 at 7:46

    Being a classical radio announcer—a “Bach jock,” as astronomer Bill Hartmann calls me—is physically solitary, but it’s not exactly a lonely job. We get phone calls.

READING WITH MY LIPS MOVING

From the desk of James Reel on Monday, February 27th 2006 at 7:56

    During this past weekend’s Arizona Cultural Forum, actress Lesley Abrams and I read excerpts from a haunting book I won’t name here because we didn’t bother to get permission from the publisher. (In the non-profit world, it’s easier to ask forgiveness than to ask permission.) I enjoy reading in public, which is perhaps hypocritical because I dislike being read to. Here’s what I wrote about that a few years ago in a now-defunct literary e-zine.

STROKES OF GENIUS

From the desk of James Reel on Friday, February 24th 2006 at 6:39

    In public radio, we’re not allowed to give prices for events—too commercial. We can’t even say that something is free, because “free” is, essentially, a price. Our code term for “free” is “open to the public.” So now I would like to invite you to an “open to the public” event I’m helping to run during these next three days.

THUMBS SIDEWAYS

From the desk of James Reel on Thursday, February 23rd 2006 at 7:43

    A couple of times, people have read my review of some play or concert and asked me, “So, did you like it or not?” If critical response were that simple, all I’d need to do is plop some thumbs-up or thumbs-down icon on the page and be done with it. But I’ve rarely encountered a performance that is either a completely wonderful, stunning, orgasmic experience or complete, abdominal-cramping crap. Even the best presentations usually have one or two elements that don’t quite come off, and when I point that out, readers wanting an all-or-nothing response ask, “Doesn’t he like anything?” Well, of course, but I hardly ever like anything completely. By the same token, I can usually find some glimmer of hope in even the least successful productions.
    So, look at my two reviews in the latest Tucson Weekly; did I like the plays or not?

DUBIOUS DEFINITIONS

From the desk of James Reel on Wednesday, February 22nd 2006 at 11:57

    Composer and sometime critic Ken LaFave has passed along some music definitions you won't find in Grove's.

OPUS 2

From the desk of James Reel on Tuesday, February 21st 2006 at 13:25

    KUAT relief announcer and busy pianist Michael Dauphinais sent this response to my screed about opus numbers on the radio:

    Your blog entry about opus numbers is spot on. I recently caught myself almost blurting out a "forbidden" opus number when back announcing a Chopin etude. As you know, you ...

BY THE NUMBERS

From the desk of James Reel on Monday, February 20th 2006 at 7:36

    Saturday night, driving from one play to another and then home, I had “Music Through the Night” on the car radio, and as usual the Minnesota-based announcer did something annoying.

GOOD PLAYS

From the desk of James Reel on Thursday, February 16th 2006 at 9:32

    Today I'm off the air, but still in print. The latest Tucson Weekly holds my review of Scenes from an Execution, a production I suggest you see forthwith, despite some little problems:

    Don't be misled by the title. Howard Barker's Scenes From an Execution is not a ...

SAME OLD TUNE

From the desk of James Reel on Wednesday, February 15th 2006 at 7:43

    Early Monday morning, the KUAT-FM music library database somehow got corrupted, and Steve Hahn, our music director, couldn’t print out any schedules until our computer guru cleansed the database of its impurities. So yesterday Steve scrounged up a printed music schedule from last November and had us use it again. That should explain to the two or three of you who follow our listings online or in the little printed thingy you get in the mail why what you heard didn’t correspond to what you read.

WRECKED

From the desk of James Reel on Monday, February 13th 2006 at 6:48

    It's nice that the National Public Radio news department is enjoying a hiring binge, but could NPR please employ reporters who are familiar with correct English usage? This morning, one reporter told us that the East Coast snowstorms are "wrecking havoc." This would be a good thing, I suppose ...

WHYPOD?

From the desk of James Reel on Friday, February 10th 2006 at 7:55

   The big buzz in classical music right now—until the next wet-T-shirt contest for all-woman string quartets—is that the New York Philharmonic is launching a music-download initiataive with Deutsche Grammophon. Pardon me while I yawn.

BOHEMIAN GIRL

From the desk of James Reel on Thursday, February 9th 2006 at 7:37

    In the latest Tucson Weekly I interview a UA voice student who seems poised for good things:

    When college student and budding opera singer Martina Chylikova moved to Tucson in 1995, she left behind not only her native Czech Republic, but also the distinctive Slavic vocal style that had spread ...

TWO REASONS TO DISLIKE BROADCAST NEWS

From the desk of James Reel on Wednesday, February 8th 2006 at 8:26

    NPR news reported this morning that those incendiary Mohammed cartoons were published in a “small Danish newspaper.” Well, I have it on good authority that “Jyllands-Posten, the Danish paper that originally published the 12 caricatures, has a circulation of about 175,000 and is Denmark's largest paper.” I suppose ...

BROADCASTING FROM "WONDERFUL WINO"

From the desk of James Reel on Wednesday, February 8th 2006 at 7:52

    Those nonsense subject lines that spammers generate can be amusing. I just got one that says "you beaujolais in workplace." Nice idea, but that's illegal here on state property.

LONG LIVE LIGETI!

From the desk of James Reel on Wednesday, February 8th 2006 at 7:40

    Gyorgy Ligeti wrote his String Quartet No. 1 just over half a century ago, but somehow I’d never heard it until last night’s Arizona Friends of Chamber Music concert by the Artemis Quartet. What spectacular music! I was predisposed to like it, because I’m enthusiastic about Bela Bartók’s quartets, and Bartók was a heavy influence on Ligeti at this early stage of the latter’s career. Even so, you can hear in this quartet hints of the composer Ligeti would become once he fled Hungary, particularly in its exploration of unusual timbres, like the spooky glissandi underlying muted solos near the end.

FROM THE TOP?

From the desk of James Reel on Monday, February 6th 2006 at 10:39

    LitLine/The American Book Review has posted a list of what it calls the 100 Best First Lines from Novels, and there’s trouble right from the start. What’s the very best line, ever?
    1. Call me Ishmael. —Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)
    Now, wait a minute. What’s so ...

MISSING IN ACTION

From the desk of James Reel on Friday, February 3rd 2006 at 8:27

    No review of last night’s Tucson Symphony concert from me today. I didn’t go, and I don’t usually write reviews of events I don’t attend. Imagine that.
    This is the second TSO concert I’ve missed this season, and I must say that I don’t ...

PLAGIARISTS OF EXPERIENCE

From the desk of James Reel on Thursday, February 2nd 2006 at 8:25

    Although it's Thursday, I have nothing of my own to promote in the latest Tucson Weekly, having found it prudent to let the week pass without contributing anything. (I'm not fully absent from the pages; Jimmy Boegle scolds me a little for something else in his editor's note. I do so love the attention.) Instead, I'll recycle for you an essay I wrote sometime in the late 1990s that is vaguely, extremely tangentially, and probably not really related to the current James Frey made-up memoir controversy ...

STOP THE MADNESS

From the desk of James Reel on Wednesday, February 1st 2006 at 7:35

    Mozart mania became so unbearable in 1991 that I’m now an old hand at ignoring the hero-worship and dealing with the man’s music on my own terms. Exaggerated claims for anything or anyone will inevitably inspire a backlash, and, sure enough, David Hurwitz is all too happy to ...