This is cool

Borrowed from the LA Weekly:

Addictive Music Website Alert: The Ambient Genius of "You Are Listening to L.A."

By Gustavo Turner, Thu., Mar. 31 2011 @ 10:00AM

​One of the most annoying things about the current state of the Internet is its lack of elegance. When Mark Zuckerberg wiped the floor with the cluttery, vile thing MySpace had become, his mantra was "make a product that is useful and doesn't suck" (Facebook has struggled, with different degrees of success to retain that mantra through all the changes and the growth).

That's why we get particularly happy when someone comes up with a simple concept that works. It's not that common.

Some enterprising soul San Francisco's Eric Eberhardt has created a genius ambient music project online that consists of only three variables: a photo of a city, a randomized selection of very good, chill ambient music, and the feed from the police radio scanner for that city. They call it "You Are Listening To..."

"You Are Listening to New York" is typically gritty, "You Are Listening to Montreal" is fascinatingly French, but our favorite (of course) is "You Are Listening to Los Angeles":

Click here. Play it as background music. We dare you to turn it off.

Doug Rosenberg's Senior Recital!

Senior Recital featuring

Doug Rosenberg, composition

When: Sunday, April 3rd at 7 p.m.

Where: Bird Studio

Admission is free.

Support Oxy Music!!

The Seven

The Theater Department Presents
THE SEVEN written and directed by Will Power

THE SEVEN is a hip-hop adaptation of Aeschylus' SEVEN AGAINST THEBES,
which follows the struggles of Eteocles and Polynices, the two sons of
the cursed King Oedipus, as they fight for the throne of Thebes. This
is a story of war, family, and a cursed society unsure of how to free
itself. Writer and composer Will Power has taken this classical tale
of pre-destination versus choice and updated it with an urban idiom to
explore modern themes including poverty, race and the abuse of power.
The entire script is in rhyming verse, interwoven with such musical
styles as calypso, do-wop, R & B, funk, and blues. The amazing Kathyrn
Bostic (Musical Direction), grace shinhae jun (Choreography), and a
cast of 18 join Will Power to create this complex and ambitious piece
that will make an old story come alive for a new generation.

April 15-17 & 21-23 at 7:30pm and May 14 at 8:00pm in Keck Theater.
Join us for a post-show discussion with Will on Friday, April 15.

Tickets are $15 for students, senior citizens, and Oxy faculty & staff
Group rates are available. Call extension 2922 or email
theater@oxy.edu for tickets and information.
You can reserve your tickets in the quad during lunch starting April 11.

Visit http://departments.oxy.edu/theater/The_Seven.htm for more
information.

Senior Recital 4/2/11

Come see Oxy's own senior, Alexandra Forman, perform violin pieces by Tchaikovsky, Bach, and Brahms. The concert will be on April 2nd at 7:30 pm in Bird Studio. Admission is free.

Help Japan!

Dear Oxy Community,

Please support aidJapan @ Oxy, a campus-wide effort of faculty, staff and students who are committed to relief efforts for Japan.

Wednesday, March 23

Cranes on the Quad

12:30 - 1:30pm

JSC Quad

Come help us build a thousand cranes! Learn how to make these small pieces of origami art. Funds raised will be used towards relief efforts.

Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Teach-In

5:30pm - 7pm

Johnson 200

An opportunity to hear faculty, student and community member expertise about historical, geographic and cultural issues surrounding the disaster in Japan.

Candelight Vigil

7 pm

Steps between Johnson Hall and Fowler Hall

A campus wide moment to remember the victims of the earthquake and tsunami as well as express support for the people of Japan.

Coming up

Benefit Concert

April 16

2 pm - 4 pm

Bird Studio

Featuring:

Junko Ueno Garrett, piano
Yuri Inoo, percussion
Naoko Takada, marimba
Robin Sharp, hand percussion
Allison Allport, harp
Allison Bjorkedal, harp
Joel Pargman, violin
Carrie Kennedy, violin
Oxy Drumline (at reception)

For more information, please contact civicengagement@oxy.edu.

(Photo credit to http://www.oklubi.com/2011/03/japan-earthquake-video-2011.html)

Celebrate Bach's Birthday with the LA Chamber Orchestra!

The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra presents "Bach's Birthday".
8pm this Saturday at the Alex Theater in Glendale.

Featuring Bach's most beloved masterpieces:
1) Bach Keyboard Concerto No. 6 in F major, BWV 1057
2) Bach Cantata 170, "Vergnugte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust" ("Contented
rest, beloved soul's desire"), BWV 170
3) Bach "Erbarme dich, mein Gott" ("Have mercy, my God") from St
Matthew Passion, BWV 244
4) Bach Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068

Follow this link for more information and program notes
http://www.laco.org/performances/149/

Occidental College Dance Production 2011!

Come check out Occidental College's biggest club, where student choreographers and dancers showcase a multitude of dance styles, from hip hop to hula, and bellydance to ballet!

This Friday and Saturday at 7 pm

Tickets:
Student: $5 *
Faculty: $8 *
General: $10

* Discounted tickets are limited- please arrive early to ensure discounted rate.

Come on out and dance to the music!!!

LA Opera performs The Turn of the Screw

I have recently discovered that one of my favorite novellas, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, is also an opera adapted by the great British composer Benjamin Britten. I was delighted to discover simultaneously that it is being performed this month by the Los Angeles Opera.

In case you're not familiar with The Turn of the Screw, I will give you a brief summary of the plot (a more in depth synopsis can be found on the LA Opera's website). The Governess- we never learn the name of our protagonist- is charged with the complete care of two children, Flora and Miles, while their guardian is away. Shortly after arriving at the estate, a strange man appears before her. She describes the man to the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose, who identifies him as Peter Quint, a former man servant at the estate who had seduced the former governess, Miss Jessel. Both Peter Quint and Miss Jessel are dead, yet both continue to appear before the Governess. She becomes convinced that the two spirits are after Miles and Flora, and she becomes determined to protect them. As the story (told from the eyes of the Governess) unfolds, the Governess becomes increasingly paranoid while the audience begins to wonder if the phantoms are merely in her imagination. The ambiguity of the novel is what makes it so chilling. We are left to wonder what is real and what is imagined, and what really happened between Quint and Jessel and Miles and Flora. I am curious how the stage adaptation will incorporate this ambiguity which, in the novella, is created by the unreliable narrator.

The LA Times describes the LA Opera's production of The Turn of the Screw as one worth notice for the "cleverness of a director and designer and the devotion of singers, a virtuoso instrumental ensemble and [conducter James] Conlon's engaged conducting". After tonight there will be four more performances, the last on Wednesday March 30th at 7:30. Tickets range in price from $20 to $240. For more information on this chilling opera, visit the event page here.

Cast:

GOVERNESS: Patricia Racette

PROLOGUE/PETER QUINT: William Burden

MILES: Michael Kepler Meo

FLORA: Ashley Emerson

MRS. GROSE: Ann Murray

MISS JESSEL: Tamara Wilson

Rebecca Black's Friday is Just Awful

Rebecca Black recently achieved internet stardom with the single "Friday" and not because it's especially catchy or good. Rather, this may be the worst song I've ever heard, and most people on the internet seem to agree. Read this yahoo news post that captures my thoughts exactly:

Hey kids! Guess what? Apparently awful is the new great. In an age when the music business is suffering dearly--when even vocal dynamos like Christina Aguilera can't sell albums or concert tickets anymore, and thousands of unsigned, undiscovered artists have to sell records out of their car trunks--a mind-meltingly horrific song called "Friday," by a previously unknown, marginally talented teen-pop singer named Rebecca Black, managed to rack up more than 2.2 million views on YouTube (yes, that's right, TWO-MILLION, TWO-HUNDRED-THOUSAND) just over this past weekend.

It must be seen, and heard, to be believed:

The video got its first big promotion, perhaps not coincidentally, last Friday, when Comedy Central's Tosh.0 blog posted it under the headline "Songwriting Isn't For Everyone." And that was all it took. By the weekend's end, "Friday" had been Tumblr'd, Facebooked, blogged, and tweeted by countless baffled viewers--and dozens of covers and parodies had popped up on YouTube as well, including an amusingly Dylanesque one.

The virality of "Friday," a wannabe weekend-party anthem for the new generation, had nothing to with the song being any good, Rebecca being particularly attractive or gifted, or even with the fact that it was, well, the weekend. It's simply because it was so unbelievably BAD. ("A whole new level of bad," according to none other than Time magazine.) And it's because the song and video raised so many fascinating questions...such as:

Who the heck is this girl? How did she get a record deal? Why is she sitting at a bus stop, if her friends are picking her up in their car? Why is she so indecisive about whether to sit in the front or back seat? If the girl standing to her right is her friend, then is that girl on her left her frenemy? Did the general public REALLY need to be informed that Thursday comes before Friday, or that Sunday comes after Saturday? And, most importantly: Is this a real thing? Or is this an SNL Digital Short for which the Lonely Island are responsible?

Honestly, we're not sure if these questions will ever be properly answered. But we do know that "Friday" is the churned-out product of a Los Angeles-based company called the Ark Music Factory, which sends out casting calls looking for singers between the ages of 13 and 17 to record its songs and, if all goes well, become overnight YouTube stars (a la Justin Bieber). Rebecca Black's "Friday" is Ark's first major hit--and after this, we sincerely hope it's the company's last.

Pi Day!

This is really interesting. Using 31 digits of Pi (3.14159265.....), this man made a song out of it. It may not have a conventional melody but it does make an oddly appealing song.

What Pi sounds like @ Yahoo! Video

Happy Pi Day!

Public Radio Meets Adorable Indie Jam Sessions

Ok, I admit it. I love npr. There's nothing I like more than cuddling into my bed on a rainy day with a mug of sipping chocolate and the dulcet voices of Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich on Radiolab, or driving on a sunny afternoon blasting Ira Glass. Ah, but I digress.

Bob Boilen, host of All Songs Considered, records an enormous variety artists performing stripped and acoustic mini concerts at his office desk, and puts them online for your listening pleasure, providing a beautifully intimate look at some of the most famous folk and indie artists to date. Artists include Iron & Wine's Sam Beam, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Adele, Jakob Dylan, and even Tom Jones, just to name a few. It's really fun to hear not only the music, but also to see these musicians having fun in such a relaxed, cozy atmosphere. So grab your oversized mug of organic tea, slip into your most comfortable pair of Tom's, and head over to NPR.org for a little slice of live music heaven!

The Strokes' Newest Album

I've been cultivating an obsession with Julian Casablancas for a while now, and I'm incredibly stoked for the newest Strokes album coming out March 22. Check out the two singles they've released so far, I think they have all of the old-pre Julian's solo career catchyness while still encompassing some new ideas. This album is supposed to be more of a collaboration between the bandmembers since most of the previous music was written by Julian alone.





P.S. Check out this picture of Julian Casablancas as a rocker daddy.