GREEN DAY

From the desk of James Reel on Friday, September 29th 2006 at 8:47

    I'm still bedeviled by this cold, so not only am I not on the air today, I skipped last night's Tucson Symphony concert, so no review this morning. (My wife, who went with a neighbor, loved it.) If you're terribly disappointed not to be able to read ...

POETRY AND OTHERWISE

From the desk of James Reel on Thursday, September 28th 2006 at 8:37

    Today's Tucson Weekly also carries a nice review by Jarret Keene of a volume of poetry by my friend Pamela Portwood, each poem inspired by a historical figure with epilepsy. While Pamela was doing research for a poem on Edward Lear, master of the limerick, she got into limerick ...

FROZEN

From the desk of James Reel on Thursday, September 28th 2006 at 8:31

    I may be off the air today (bad colds make bad radio), but I'm back in print. The gist of my latest review in the Tucson Weekly:

Three brave and understated performances provide enough warmth to contradict the title of Bryony Lavery's most honored and controversial play, Frozen ...

HEADS ON A PLATTER

From the desk of James Reel on Wednesday, September 27th 2006 at 7:14

    Follow this link to a story recently broadcast on All Things Considered:

    One of the leading opera houses in Germany has cancelled a production because a scene that might offend Muslims could create a security threat.
    The production of the opera Idomeneo features a scene in which a character presents ...

NOT TO MENTION ZHDANOV AND VOLDEMORT

From the desk of James Reel on Tuesday, September 26th 2006 at 7:02

    Separated at birth: Dmitri Shostakovich and Harry Potter. Follow the links for photographic evidence.

ADELA PEÑA

From the desk of James Reel on Monday, September 25th 2006 at 7:41

    So what’s happening with violinist Adela Peña, one of the founding members of the Eroica Trio? According to Playbill, she’s now been permanently replaced in the group by Susie Park. Peña, according to Playbill, “has been out of commission due to illness since February.” That sounds ...

WORTHWHILE?

From the desk of James Reel on Monday, September 25th 2006 at 7:12

    Oboist-blogger Pattricia Mitchell is going through one of her periodic periods of doubt, wondering what she’s doing in the music biz. I suppose nearly every professional musician, except the most arrogant, has similar doubts from time to time, no matter how well the career is going. (Sometimes the most ...

MORE ON THE TSO WEB SITE

From the desk of James Reel on Friday, September 22nd 2006 at 8:03

    Speaking of the Tucson Symphony, Drew McManus e-mailed me a few details of the very low score he awarded the orchestra’s Web site in his annual survey: “Tucson dropped quite a bit from last year, due mostly to a number of incomplete pages, bad links, lack of secure transaction ...

CHAMPION JACKIE DUPREE

From the desk of James Reel on Friday, September 22nd 2006 at 7:59

    In today’s Arizona Daily Star, Tucson Symphony concertmaster Stephen Moeckel declares his favorite dead musician to be “Jacqueline Dupree.” I assume Moeckel knows who he’s talking about, even if the reporter doesn’t. Hint to arts reporters who are out of their depth: If you haven’t heard ...

BAD CALL

From the desk of James Reel on Friday, September 22nd 2006 at 7:57

    Responding to my post linking to explanations of radio and TV call letters, soon-to-depart KUAT-FM announcer Michael Dauphinais says, “I heard a story once about KNTU, named after North Texas State University. Seems that the school's name was later changed to University of North Texas … but for obvious reasons ...

REVIEWING 101

From the desk of James Reel on Thursday, September 21st 2006 at 8:07

    Critic Greg Sandow, in preparation for a Juilliard course he teaches on music criticism, has posted an outline of what constitutes a solid review. I heartily agree with his points, and I commend the outline not only to students but also to working critics who just don’t get it ...

NYRB

From the desk of James Reel on Thursday, September 21st 2006 at 6:49

    New York Magazine has an article about the history, and purportedly the future, of the New York Review of Books, the publication that has been rubbing ink onto the fingers of left-leaning American intellectuals since 1963. James Atlas’ article provides a nice account of where NYRB has been, with vivid ...

DECODER

From the desk of James Reel on Wednesday, September 20th 2006 at 8:05

    While I was doing an Internet search just now for something completely unrelated (information on the Warehouse District downtown, if you must know), I stumbled upon this great list of the origins of radio and TV call letters. KUAT's is one of the more straightforward: the UAT stands for ...

THIS IS A RECORDING

From the desk of James Reel on Wednesday, September 20th 2006 at 7:34

    During my vacation, I not only soaked up a great deal of Tuscan and Venetian scenery, drank too much wine, ate too much oily high-carb food, hiked up and down too many steep hilltown streets, and stared numbly at too much Gothic and Renaissance art; I managed to read six ...

DOWN IN THE DUMPS

From the desk of James Reel on Wednesday, September 20th 2006 at 7:14

    Drew McManus has released the results of his annual review of orchestral web sites, one area in which orchestras of almost any budget can compete on a level field. The Tucson Symphony’s site has dropped 22 places since last year’s evaluation; it’s ranked 62 out of 80 ...

RETURN OF THE NATIVE

From the desk of James Reel on Tuesday, September 19th 2006 at 10:33

    I’m back, and pleased to be here. I’ve never had a vacation I didn’t enjoy, but in the end I’m always happiest at home. (The finale of this vacation wasn’t especially pleasant, though. After getting up around 5 a.m. Florence time, trudging all of ...

OFFLINE, OFF CONTINENT

From the desk of James Reel on Friday, September 1st 2006 at 7:08

    I’m absconding to Italy for my first vacation in two years, and I anticipate spending much of the next two weeks exploring towns in Tuscany so quaint and backward that they have no Internet connection. Or at least I’ll pretend they’re that quaint and backward, so I ...