Posts Tagged ‘dallas’

Today is World Accordion Day!

1. I will be celebrating world accordion day by playing my accordion to the desert plants and sand and cactus at the familial home here in the Mojave Desert of California. How are you going to celebrate it? 2. Europeans award pork spending to accordionists. 3. Behind the Bellows documentary showing, plus the band ofRead more..

Contrast: My Accordion Video with the Very First Accordion Film Ever

I remember reading a huge biography of Thomas Alva Edison. The motion picture camera was amongst the many things he was credited for inventing. Then in college I mentioned that fact which was rebutted by some film student who claimed it was a French guy. Who knows? I don’t really care. Here’s the First AccordionistRead more..

Oktoburlesk – Girls, Accordions, Thrills

Alex Meixner at OctoBurlesk
He’s playing this great show (I’m jealous) with the buxom girls of Wassabasco Burlesque. Next thursday!

Back to the Usual Squeeze

The Philly Fringe Fest Show Cirque Ular came and went. For me it was all consuming, and kept me from updating on here. Then my computer died, and I got a cold. But I’m over the cold, have a new computer and am recording the music to Cirque Ular here at the house. I shouldRead more..

Busking: Americans Don't Like Street Performing

Busking is the ancient art of street performing. Americans often confuse buskers with pan-handlers or the homeless. Buskers are artists who have taken the world as their stage. They are intrepid entrepeneurs, corageuosly battling so many things in order to make a few dollars at what they do. Busking takes pride, patience, courage, talent, 100Read more..

The Conductor of the Muses

Netflix gave me a short biography of Igor Stravinsky. Which is appropriate because Stravinsky stood 5’2″. When it was over I fired up the iTunes and found Stravinsky’s ballet Apollon Musagéte (Apollo, Conductor of the Muses.) Just gorgeous music, neo-classical and modern. Listen: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuDR0nTeDsU]

I am composing for Cirque Ular

What if you ran away with the circus . . . and regretted it? A mix of death-defying circus performances, live music, and original story, Cirque-ular tells the story of a bitter ringmaster whose career comes full circle when he meets an optimistic young juggler who dreams of joining his circus. The 2009 Fringe FestRead more..

Jean-Louis Matinier

Fantastic, I can’t get enough of listening to it. The debut album, Confluences, by French accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier. Fast-moving melodic lines and ostinato figures, shining melodies, brilliant ensemble work and some very nice improvising. You can listen to a bit of it here. Held together by a lacework of body-moving rhythms and made creative byRead more..

Andras Schiff & Beethoven's Sonatas

For anyone at all interested in an understanding of classical music, and in particular one of the following: the piano, musical form, harmony, orchestration, Beethoven, classical performance, I must recommend the free library of Andras Schiff’s lectures upon all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonata’s. Andras Schiff is one of a handful of performers at thisRead more..