In Brief

Here is your regular Sunday dosage of interesting items, from Blogville and beyond:

• The late Spalding Gray was one of the most perceptive and witty commenters on life. George Hunka discusses a new play that uses some of his words, put together by Gray's widow, Kathleen Russo. [Superfluities]


• John Massengale has a funny joke about Yankees fans and Red Sox fans. [Veritas et Venustas]


• I mentioned Lou Harrison's opera Young Caesar this week. Here is a great and detailed review of a recent performance. [Sequenza 21]


• Luc Bondy has compared his vision of the character Salome to Paris Hilton: "Salome is not truly evil. She's a 16 year old girl: egotistical, too rich, too spoiled, always getting what she wants. Think of Paris Hilton: a woman who's almost beautiful who says I want this, I want that, without thinking of the consequences." I recently compared Salome to "a brazen teenage Britney Spears." [Opera Chic]


• Kriston Capps published a great opinion piece for The Guardian, about the executive salary scandals at MoMA and, shame of shame, at the Smithsonian. What is happening in the museum world is symptomatic of a general concentration of wealth that is all out of proportion. [Guardian Comment Is Free...]


• Marion Lignana Rosenberg has been feeling out of sorts lately. We are feeling sorry for ourselves because we miss her acidic commentary so much. Happy International Women's Day, MLR! We men may be biological accidents or walking abortions, as she cites with good humor from the S.C.U.M. Manifesto. I, for one, can be content as an incomplete female, but only if I can be an incomplete Mondo Marion. [Vilaine Fille]


• Matthew Guerrieri has some excellent thoughts on the classical concert paradigm. Is the experience of hearing a concert of classical music really so forbidding, as a student of Greg Sandow described it in an essay? Not surprisingly, the same people who advocate making classical concerts more like rock concerts also advocate making classical music more like popular styles of music. The reason to sit in silence and focus on the music is that the music is worth sustained attention. There are styles of music that do not merit that kind of concentration -- in fact, they are not meant for it -- and they are played in different venues. When that kind of music is presented for serious listening, I get very annoyed. [Soho the Dog]


• Phil Ford writes about what music he had played at his wedding. Mrs. Ionarts and I had Vaughan Williams and some other excellent organ music, two wonderful soprano friends singing Gregorian chants I transcribed and Monteverdi's Salve Regina for two sopranos, as well as a string quartet at the reception. Musicians and their weddings, right? [Dial M for Musicology]