Results tagged “classicalmusic”

The police have released a sketch of the suspect who attacked and robbed a man of $149,000 in cash on West 56th Street on Friday. The incident, which occurred around 2PM, scared Midtown pedestrians as a shot was fired. But in spite of the number of witnesses, the suspect got away.

, hit shelves late last year. The tome delves into the cultural history of music since 1900, and even has Björk touting: "Alex Ross's incredibly nourishing book will rekindle anyone's fire for music." Tonight he'll step away from the printed word and you can catch him chatting with Stephen on The Colbert Report.

MUSIC: The Stone has been bringing out the big names lately. Tonight Marc Ribot brings his solo act to the 8pm set, then follows himself up by delivering his experimental sounds with none other than Laurie Anderson. Avant-garde all the way.

Salt & Samovar are a Brooklyn band that sound more like they're just visiting here from Upstate...or a Coen brothers film. Their live shows are described as "pentecostal revival-like performances that evoke the musical and spiritual heirlooms of a cherished American past." A simpler and simply transporting sound that'll have you pining for the past. Come check out their revival-rock this Friday at Mercury Lounge -- get your tickets here.

Inside Schools describes PS 236 thusly:

PS 236 is a well-run, well-equipped school in a neighborhood with lots of stay-at-home mothers and one- and two-family homes with manicured lawns. Fifth graders lead The Pledge of Allegiance and sing The Star Spangled Banner over the public address system each morning. Classes are tracked, with children placed in groups according to their abilities. Homework is heavy. "They start homework at 4 in the afternoon and don't finish until after dinner," one parent said. "This breeds discipline and will pay off down the road." Even kindergarteners have homework assignments, such as filling out a phonics worksheet from a workbook. The school has an inviting library with classical music playing, plants, dioramas made by the kids, and big windows that overlook a playground. Students in all grades perform and stage musical plays.

If you haven't heard about Christina Ricci, Samuel L. Jackson and Justin Timberlake's Southern Gothic exploitation movie, .

(pic via Maryanne Ventrice's Flickr)

The NY Sun had a fun article about the different kids of music played at various transit hubs in the area. For instance, the Port Authority plays Handel and Bach and the area airports play "light classical." At Penn Station, there's "string quartets and flute piccolos" at Amtrak but top 40 music at the LIRR area. Why?

sic, composed to serve as background music, best soothes the preoccupied, traveling mind.

Continue reading "Music Makes the Commute"

• Sasha Frere-Jones took first place in music criticism for his work in the The New Yorker, the New York Times, the Village Voice and others. We like his blog, too.

Some study from some university in some UK town, name ending in -ester or -ilshire or something, finds that fans of hip-hop music have more sex than other music fans. 38% of hip-hop fans in the study had had sex with multiple people in the past five years while only 1.5% of country music listeners had had more than one square dance partner. Also (we can see the angry comments now), more than 50% of hip-hop and dance music fans claim to have committed a criminal act in their bass-driven pasts. Other secret habits revealed: a quarter of classical music fans have smoked weed and about a tenth of opera fans dig magic mushrooms. To get involved in the study, check out: www.musicaltastetest.com.

Next up in our Tourist series, is The Parker String Quartet, a young classical string quartet that performs in venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and Wynn Walent. Walent is a New York singer songwriter who recently released his debut album. These two acts recently joined together for a weeklong tour (co-presented by Concert Artists Guild and Kitchen Sink Music). The tour brought classical music into bars and clubs, pairing it up with music you would usually hear in such places. Below the two acts documented their experience:

Bruce Levingston, Clasical Pianist

So you are the Related Companies. You have a nice plot o' land over on 42nd and 10th, the former sites of the 286-seat Houseman and 199-seat Fairbanks theaters. Thanks to some goverment tricks, if you build some nice theaters on the site you can also build an extra-tall tower to boot. So, What do you do?

The Parks Department's - and City's - decision to attempt to limit the number of large gatherings, aka rallies, held in Central Park is prompting a rally this Thursday on the Great Lawn, the night before the Parks Department holds a public hearing about the bill. The bill would limit the number of gatherings of over 50,000 to six per year, with four of them already slated for classical music events. Opposition groups claim that the Great Lawn has handled large protests and concerts in the past, but the Parks Department's argument is that they are trying to protect the Great Lawn's condition from the tramping, inconsiderate feet of protestors who don't have corporate backing to clean up and repair the lawn (large concerts have been allowed because the concert promoters have agreed to pay the Parks Department money to make sure the lawn is cared for). Gothamist wonders if there are any deep-pocketed billionaires who would sponsor rallies in Central Park. Anyway, opposition groups are threatening legal actions if the number of rallies are limited, while the Parks Department continues to threaten to charge taxpayers with the expense of maintain the beauty of the lawn.

Dale Peck, Writer

Few people walk in to a situation like Steve Hurst... literally. While working at The Weather Channel, he walked into his producer's office for something, and walked out, with the job of choosing the music for the local forecasts. That may not seem like that big of a deal, but for a lot of people it is. Gothamist has mentioned to several friends that we got the opportunity to speak to Steve, and the overall reaction was in the general vicinity of, "Cool!". The job has gained some street cred in recent years as Steve began to replace some of the coma-drool inducing elevator music with songs by bands like Phish, Pink Floyd, and Moby. And believe it or not, he has people tracking him down to praise him, threaten him, and request songs.