It’s good to be young, but let’s not kid ourselves It’s better to pass on through those years and come out the other side. -You Were Cool The El Rey Theater on Wilshire Blvd. in L.A. was the kind of large, ornate venue that you’d expect chamber music to be coursing through. The walls [...]

This article is filed under Blog-Music, Music.

  I was late to the must-attend show in Chicago of 2011…and I’m better for it. James Blake went on stage around 10:00, I arrived close to 10:10, and before opening the heavy doors to the concert hall floor, I heard no indication that there was anyone inside. If I had arrived on time, I [...]

This article is filed under Blog-Music, Music.

What do you do when you get tired of the place you live in? When you can’t stand the idea of heading down road that gets you to your house one more time? When you’d rather just take a right for once. Do you move? Do you give up? Let’s say you’re in Demascus, Maryland. Then I’d say yes. I’d say yes, get out of there. Find another Safeway to forage in. Find another lawn to mow. But you can’t leave Los Angeles. You’ve learned that from the Eagles.

This article is filed under Blog-Music, Music.

We are pleased to announce the start of CLR’s new music blog. Ben Caro, a Los Angeles based writer, and Charlie Coffeen, a professional musician from Chicago, will be keeping you informed about all areas of the music world — concerts, albums, up-and-coming artists, as well as Charlie’s insights into life on the road and [...]

This article is filed under Blog-Music, Music.

Anna Nicole zipped herself up in a bodybag, surrounded by a crowd of camera-headed creatures which had been stalking her all the way through the second act, peering at her and sorting through piles of rubbish on the stage. The sudden blackout at the end produced a pause, then elated applause.

This article is filed under Music, Opera, Performing Arts, Theatre.

Happy arbitrary and consumerist holiday from CLR and The Fourth Wall! Richard Phillips’s album artwork is lovely. Dirty Vegas were basically a few-dance-hits-wonder, but if your one massive hit comes with a video like “Days Go By,” you win at awesome. Ten years ago, “Days Go By” soared onto pop radio and MTV’s after-school hit [...]

This article is filed under Movies, Music, Television, The Fourth Wall.

This week, Julia Rhodes and I (Dan Fields) recall a bygone era, when entertainment for kids – specifically the musical accompaniment – got as much attention and thought as anything produced for an adult audience. It’s not meant strictly to pick on Elton John, but he seems an appropriate figurehead for the rather bland trends in children’s movie music today. This is not your typical twentysomething anti-Disney rant. It is a cry of nostalgic woe, and includes a number of selections from pre-downhill-slide Disney. Please enjoy, and remember some songs you might like to track down and show your own kids.

This article is filed under Best Movies, Children's Literature, Humor, Movies, Music, Television, The Fourth Wall.

Every Tom Russell song has something to say about the human heart. In each voice he invokes there are universal echoes of love, doubt, weakness, fear, restlessness and faith. The figure of the wanderer – whether soldier, cowboy, nomad, pioneer, outcast or pilgrim – passes again and again through his work.

This article is filed under Africa, Art, Biography, Canada, Mexico, Music, Performing Arts, Westerns, Writers.

A movie can do a lot of things to an audience. It may move them, amuse them, disgust them, terrify them, or in all too many cases bore them. One thing only a handful of films can do is inspire wonder. Every once in a while, a winning combination of writer, director, designers, composers and cast meet in perfect harmony. Such, I feel, is the case of Marcel Carné’s 1945 epic romance, Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise).

This article is filed under Art, Best Movies, Classics, France, Humor, Literary Themes, Movies, Music, Poetry, The Fourth Wall, Theatre.

The amount of factual detail and insights that Ball brings to the themes under discussion is impressive in the extreme. On just one page, in the chapter dealing with rhythm, he weaves relevant examples ranging from Gyorgy Ligeti’s composition used in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, Karlheinz Stockhausen’s electronic work, Kontakte, Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, Chinese zither music and songs by Australian Aborigines that are accompanied by the clicking of rhythm sticks.

This article is filed under Music, Non-Fiction Reviews.