Ain't this pretty?

Nambé Tilt Wine Decanter

"Who really controls America?" is a question I often ask myself, when I'm trying to decide whether to spend £1.20 on a coffee.

Brought to you by Gordon's Wine Bar in London, dubbed as the oldest wine bar in London.

Tags: america, control, funny signs, london, war, wine bar
Current Location: Budapest

The funniest thing is that my British friends may not find this sign the least bit funny...

... brought to you by the considerate staff of LOCAL HERO, a delightful coffee-shop in the Fulham section of London.

Tags: coffee shop, funny signs, london, poetry, tinkle, toilet, wipe the seatie

"ABSS Five" on Google Video
A tiny bit of Googling brought back to me a delightful short film I scored a few years ago called "RED WAGON" - a sort of surreal tale, directed by Alison Marek. Soundtrack features performances by Jeremie Michael on piano (then the music director of "The Fantasticks" in New York) and myself on viola. Enjoy!

Dear LJ friends,

Please welcome thesoupasonic!

I've decided to start a more "professional" blog, one which will concentrate more heavily on music, gear, and soup. This blog (WhatMePractice) will continue to serve as a vehicle (ventricle) for more off-topic, embarassing things.

If you want to read the new blog, please add TheSoupASonic to your LJ friends.

See you out there!

-LJova

Current Location: Bucharest
tüns: Golijov

Several months ago, my dad wrote me a letter - but it wasn't a usual letter, it was a very nice + wordy letter. Rather than simply sending it to me, he decided to publish it in his new book, and refused to show the letter until he could deliver the whole book to me in person. (The book also has letters to my mom, Rachmaninoff, Thomas Mann, and others.) Finally - weeks after the book was released to the Russian masses, I got my copy. Here's my attempt to respond. (If you want to try an English translation, go right ahead.)

( Russian text follows )

Tags: papa папа music музыка книга books
Current Location: Budapest

This morning, I've finally figured out something to cure one of my recent frustrations - accepting friend requests on MySpace.

Key frustrations:
-- each friend request is an imposition to check out someone else's page.
-- each band page has four songs, or about 15 minutes of music.
-- I get 10-15 of these requests a day.
-- if I skip a day, I get 20-30 requests.
-- if I go away for the weekend, you do the math.
but perhaps the biggest frustrations are:
-- I'd *really* like to listen to everything, and read about all of these wonderful people.
-- I know that once I hit "approve", chances are that I'll never hear this music again.

But life is short, and since there's much to do outside MySpace, here are some tips to surviving the onslaught. Feel free to add your own in the comments.

technical points:
-- I'm on a Mac, and find that the Camino browser works fastest for me.
-- set your browser to open links into tabs. have those links "load in background", if possible.

non-technical:
-- I always do something else - write emails, blog, eat breakfast, wash dishes (quietly), read, do crunches - while surfing MySpace. I have enough capacity to listen to music like this -- if it grabs me, I'll quit what i'm doing and listen attentively.
-- I try to give each band enough time to show me a verse and a chorus. If I like them, I'll stay for more. If I'm really in love, I'll listen to another song.
-- I only comment on bands I like a lot. Relentless commenting used to bring in a lot of add requests from bands and fans whose music I didn't really enjoy. By keeping it somewhat small, my friendbase and my musical tastebuds grow organically.

and finally:
I wrote to Beyonce via MySpace, but she didn't respond. However, my appreciation for her work has not waned a bit. I've written to others, and sometimes they listen, sometimes not. Regardless, I've learned that I'd much rather hear new music from people I admire rather than hear about their day, or how much they enjoyed my counterpoint.

It goes both ways -- my MySpace friends are also overwhelmed with music to listen to. They're grateful for the four tracks I've put up, but I'm only one of the 10,000 bands they're "friends" with... I'd be excited to compare their MySpace wealth with their CD collections, where I'll be lucky if I find even 10 CDs from those MySpace bands.

The real trick on MySpace is how to convert these "friends" into proactive fans, the kind that help set up shows and man merch tables, and bring their friends. These people are jewels, pillars, and our best hope.

See you out there!

Tags: music myspace promotion community
Current Location: Moscow
tüns: eh

If you read or speak Russian, visit here to read something truly wonderful.

Всех Русскоязычных читателей этого ЖЖ, прошу уделить минуту внимания сюда.

Osvaldo feeds off Gustavo's ears, and Gustavo is in awe of Osvaldo's magic. One "writes" music, the other "produces" music. They both make an evening of fun. Is it just a question of tools?

Whenever I meet good singersongwriters, they're always in awe of my wide-ranging credits and training, while I'm simply amazed at the songs they created with no training whatsoever. They try to ask me for composition lessons (I laugh); I ask if they need any arrangements, hoping to learn for myself their gift, their craft.

I'm a Bachelor - both by degree, and by identification. I've never applied for a Masters, and have neither joined the camp of "composers" or "songwriters". I went to college for music, but have been using as little of what I learned there in my work as possible. At the same time, the squares (pun intended) that satisfy and inspire most songwriters are rigid and worrying for me, they make me feel responsible, give me head rushes that scream for a change.

I try to write this "Bachelor" music - music for the dogmatic snobs that still have their hearts open, this kind of sound where you think you know the world but have barely traveled, where you act confident but when you sit down, your knees are shaking; the kind of music which can be described by a 25-word tagline which is a confidence-instilling, attention-grabbing synonym for "I don't know... enjoy..."

Tags: music composition
Current Location: Prague
müd:: cheerful
tüns: vague

I must've spent too much time listening to NPR, and have spent too much time thinking about how to talk about music. In truth, we all pursue something because it is either inspiring or financially rewarding. Trying to make the two meet is the musician's constant struggle. Sometimes it can be magical.

I'm trying to pursue dance music because I see a deep void that needs filling. Yet, I have no desire to learn anything about dance. Part of it is lazyness, and part of it is because traditional dance forms do not inspire me. They don't inspire 99% of the population who try to dance (in an informal way), same way that Mahler symphonies don't really inform 99% of singer-songwriters. For some people, all the distilled danceforms are a charming and fun way to spend time after work; for me they're stale and annoying. Probably for me it's over-saturation -- I've seen, heard and performed far too many waltzes, and far too many choruses of "in the mood".

But whatever it is, all the talking ought to stop. It's taking away from the creation of new music.

Current Location: Budapest
tüns: Jay-Z: Show Me What You've Got

Polkas, Waltzes, Gallops, Gigues, Jigs, Reels - all just a few once-popular dance forms, now primarily relegated to weddings and rennaisance fairs.

That's all I know, as a classically-trained musician and semi-curious (and semi-optimistic) consumer. But after spending a little time traveling in Hungary, I'm inspired to investigate further.

I'm not an ethnomusicologist, so I don't have specifics -- but it's amazing to hear the many varieties of rhythms and beats to be found in my native Eastern Europe alone. How many dance forms in Transylvania, Serbia, Macedonia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Moldavia, Croatia, Ukraine? Hundreds of exciting, brilliant ideas for moving your feet to the music. Unfortunately, you won't find little of this music on the radio -- there, you'll mostly find the trashiest Europop and major-label rock/hiphop/R+B from the US.

I am shocked and appaled that no popular music I know of has thusfar embraced any of the wonderfully angular and playful rhythms of folklore.

99% of the music I inadvertently hear is in what is known as "Common Time" - or 4/4 - four beats to a measure. To a large extent, a kid growing up today could only be exposed to a singular musical genre, and reject all others. I've met these kids - 100% techno, all the time. They think they're "eclectic", because they reject rock-n-roll. Their only exposure to any shift of pulse and emotion is in the cinema (though even there, with movies becoming vehicles to sell the soundtrack compilation album, that is also changing).

Off the top of my head, I can think of a handful of major names which come to mind as made an effort to bring uneven music to the masses:
The Beatles
Billy Joel ("She's always a woman")
Goran Bregovic
Bjork

Others? Not really. Why not? I haven't the foggiest clue, other than songs and dances in 4/4 are easier to learn... though I have a suspicion that if Shakira recorded and made a video of a 7/11 tune, the next day everybody would want to learn the steps. (Everyone except me - would I watch Shakira?!)

It has to change. It will change. Before the decade is out, I want to see this on MTV -- and I don't mean Magyar Televízió - though that could be even more fun.

I thought I could escape it all by moving from NYC to Budapest, but alas the Constructionist Revolution is a global concept. Have you not heard? If not, then you're either deaf, or you work in an office until 5pm or later.

Typical day: at 8:30am, Inna leaves to school and I clean up breakfast, sit down to work, and then, promptly at 9, my floor begins to shake as I hear the sounds of a monstrous drill, the sounds of objects falling, walls being scraped, and loudmouthed workers. WHY? The neighbors downstairs are remodeling their kitchen. If their workers are angels, they'll take an hour for lunch; if not, it's straight on till Inna comes home.

This goes on for a month. Then, the upstairs neighbors decide to renovate their heating system; then, the neighbor across the hall decides to throw an afternoon rave-music party..... and then, finally, on the weekend, it rains with heavy thunder.

This is how it is, all year long. It never ends. This is what life is like in a "quiet neighborhood" - it's "quiet", as long as you're there after 5. I pay to live with these noisy folks because they're "quiet" and "cool". What a bunch of chollunt.

Composers were meant to live in yurts. I'll even settle for a hut - like the one pictured here, where Mahler wrote his symphonies in Toblach. As long as there's internet, so I can vent, and a ceiling high enough to bow, I'm sold.

See you... after 5.

x
Ljova

best pals 2
Originally uploaded by ljova.

Soce, 'tis for you. :)

xx

best pals :)
Originally uploaded by ljova.

As they say in Atlanta, "she sang that song". :)