Music & Performing Arts
Here's Where Superchunk Comes In
Superchunk just announced that their tenth studio album "I Hate Music" is set to release on August 20th. To prime the pumps, we thought we'd run Jason Panella's 2010 piece on why...
Other Post
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Nothing But The Blood
May 13, 2013 -
Tinker, Tamper, Strings and Dampers: the Prepared Pianos of HAUSCHKA and John Cage
April 11, 2013 -
Hospitality, Intimacy and The Great American Songbook
April 01, 2013 -
SXSW Interview with Easter Island
March 13, 2013 -
Not by Fate
February 22, 2013 -
Swn y Chwedlonol (The Legendary Sound)
February 06, 2013 -
The Shot Heard Round the World: Meditations on "Son of a Gun"
January 04, 2013
The Baddest Girl Around
Maybe Canadian-born rapper Drake has never read Rainer Maria Rilke’s advice in Letters to a Young Poet: “Do not write love poems; avoid at first those forms that are too facile and commonplace: they are the most difficult, for it takes a great, fully matured power to give something of your own where good and even excellent traditions come to mind in quantity.” Or maybe he has chosen to ignore it. [caption id...
The Sound of a Voice
I stand beside another man in casual day-wear and sing the same words and melody he sings, and we learn from each other. I learn, among other things, that one of us is better at staying on pitch than the other. He discovers that I like to belt the music out, occasionally to the detriment of others. I find out that he is a bass, and he finds out I have sinusitis. We make noise. We hope it’s joyful. Every Sunday...
Channeling Affections: Whitney, Modigliani, and Me
I keep thinking of things I'd like to read, eat, or clean today, (Lauren Winner’s new memoir! Roasted Tomato and Eggplant Cous Cous! The guest bathroom!) instead of doing what I know I should be doing-- writing. In the last few months I've spent a lot of time and energy talking to artists of faith about their process, about the importance of showing up for their work, even if, especially if-- in that day, or tha...
What Will We Do without the Avant-garde?
I recently had the distinct pleasure and honor of performing a new piece of music with composer Christian Wolff and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in the final performances of its Legacy Tour. This groundbreaking dance company served as a vital space for cross-fertilization between dance, music and visual art for what became a legendary generation of New York artists. According to the final wishes of the choreogr...
The Lost Art of the South
A gift from my musically esoteric boyfriend, my record player has been my proverbial time capsule to the American Southlands I call home. I load dusty albums from the past--kings and queens of country--on the record’s arm and they drop by themselves. So I stack up five of those melancholy discs, and listen to the A-sides. They play through, drop down, and I flip and start with the B-sides. Sadness, coated with betr...
Music from Life
We are often told that our sense of smell is the means of perception most closely associated with memory. For instance, for me, “childhood” smells like the hot vinyl upholstery of a 1980 Caprice, Ivory soap, and slightly stale Cheerios. “Fall” evokes the smell of burning leaves, and “college” smells like a particularly over-sweetened latte. You (almost literally) get the picture. Lately, however, I’v...
Winter Albums: Sounds for the Season
IAM, the publisher of The Curator, is a movement upheld and supported by those who are a part of it. Make a donation and help us continue to serve artists and creative catalysts all over the world. As much as I enjoy all of the seasons, I’m glad to see the last flickers of autumnal warmth snuffed out by the cold. I enjoy watching trees shake themselves free of leaves. I like watching my breath roll away as I w...
The Return of the Old Time Variety Show
The Friday before Halloween sees queues for New York City’s Fright Shows snaking round corners, but two Curator writers and a half dozen of their friends coiled into Tribeca’s City Winery to peek into John Wesley Harding’s Cabinet of Wonders. While nobody screamed in horror, the evening is worth an explanation. As the Master of Ceremonies, Wesley Stace a.k.a John Wesley Harding gathered and lim...
