HOWDY

posted by James Reel

    During the past couple of days, two bloggers have kindly linked to Cue Sheet: Rich Russell, who blogs mainly but not exclusively about the world of opera and choral music, and Greg Sandow, who (among many other activites) covers classical music for the Wall Street Journal and has a lot of great ideas about how to keep music connected to the audience. So if you’re new around here, welcome!
    You can find an introduction to the blog here. Perhaps, now that I’ve been doing this a full month, it’s time to elaborate on a few points. First, I’ve noticed that nothing in the design of this site tells you who I am, and something needs to be done about that because I believe people should put their names behind their opinions. So … Name: James Reel. Occupations: morning announcer for KUAT-FM (weekdays between 5 and 11 a.m. Mountain Standard Time, you can hear me by going here), and freelance arts journalist. This site is hosted by KUAT, but needless to say the opinons expressed herein are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of KUAT staff or management, the University of Arizona, the Arizona Board of Regents, my various other employers, the political party I vote against, the people I give positive or negative reviews, my two dogs, or any of my friends or detractors.
    You can read the blog entries from a particular day by clicking on a calendar date at the right. Or you can browse entries in reverse chronological order, or by category:
    Classical Music is self-explanatory, and is in part the holding tank for concert reviews I’ll post from time to time once the season gets underway.
    Radio Life consists of revelations about goings-on at KUAT, and ruminations about the broadcasting biz.
    Tucson Arts is commentary about non-music arts action around here, including links to my theater reviews in the Tucson Weekly.
    Seven o’clock Cellist is where I post the occasional remark about being an over-age beginning cello student (I started lessons in May, just after I turned 47). The title comes from a story my teacher, Harry Clark, told me about the prominent cellist Janos Starker, although I haven’t yet confirmed this anecdote. It seems that Starker was getting tired of hearing his fellow musicians moan about how their concerts didn’t go as well as they’d thought, since they’d played everything perfectly while practicing just before the eight o’clock recital. Sneered Starker, “The world is full of seven o’clock cellists.” Since I generally sound better alone than when I play for Harry, I count myself among that sorry lot.
    Quodlibet is where I dump material that doesn’t fit into any other category. The word was used mainly in the 18th century to denote a musical hodge-podge of short, unrelated, often humorous pieces. I could have called it something French, like “Mélange” or “Potpourri,” but I enjoy pretending to know something about Latin.
    Have fun, and feel free to contact me by clicking on the e-mail link in the right-hand panel. I don’t allow the blog software to post unfiltered comments, because I’ve seen too many sites hijacked by spammers and monomaniacal wackos. So send me e-mail, and unless you tell me otherwise, I’ll consider your comments (positive and otherwise) for later posting.