Excuse Me While I Kiss the Sky
Reader Bill Westfall passes along this link to a story about a new research study that reports more than one quarter of classical music fans use cannabis and 12.3 per cent of opera buffs have tried magic mushrooms. This, I suppose, is as opposed to the 100 per cent of Grateful Dead fans who do and have.
The finding suggests an interesting topic: Great Composers Who Were Stoners. Discuss.
And speaking of discussion, get on over to the new, spiffed up Composers Forum page and weigh in on Rob Deemer’s question about how important a web presence is for an active composer’s career.
Meant to mention this a couple of days ago but the WaPo has a profile of William Friedkin, director of Sorcerer, indisputedly the worst movie ever made, who is directing Duke Bluebeard’s Castle at the Washington National Opera.
I am told by a reliable source that new Met manager Peter Gelb was once punched on the grounds of Tanglewood by Michael Steinberg, who was then the Boston Symphny’s program book annotator. Anybody got details? Pictures?
Coffee and cannabis are perfect psychotropic balances. I have always believed in the power of cannabis, but many get sick, paranoid, or fall asleep. For me, it puts on blinders and keeps me focused on the task at hand. It is now legal to smoke a joint in public in West Hollywood. Medical pot seems to be everywhere here. Times have changed fer sure dude.
doode. i saw glitter in the theater opening day.
Meant to mention this a couple of days ago but the WaPo has a profile of William Friedkin, director of Sorcerer, indisputedly the worst movie ever made, who is directing Duke Bluebeard’s Castle at the Washington National Opera.
Oh, come on. He made The French Connection, too, which more than makes up for it.
And Sorcerer? I’ll admit it’s nowhere near as good as it’s source material, but it’s far from the worst…
It reminds me of a theory class with Bain Murray that came to address Symphonie Fantastique. Bain was in and out of the hospital with leukemia throughout my college career (passing away just hours after a composition seminar my senior year.) He commented that the symphony was inspired by opium use and that it was “good stuff.” He went further to clarify that his consumption “was for medical reasons” although any of our consumption might have been for other reasons.
i’m pretty sure stockhausen must have a personal lab there up in the hills! i can just see him and ligeti all happy and wandering around some electronic studio getting excited about african music –
speaking of captain trips, someone told me the story of Romitelli Fausto’s “Proffessor Bad Trip” series once, here are some clips: http://www.ictus.be/MP3/badtrip1.mp3
do we need more kool-aid at concerts? i don’t know, it makes me light headed just thinking about it.
You know, I thought I saw somebody at a classical concert recently that wasn’t a druggy. One of those mythic old rich bitches that supposedly snobbingly control the classical music scene. Turns out I was hallucinating… It was just some gray-haired stoner in drag. Weird.