The Ideal eReader

Following up on a comment by Myke Cuthbert and a previous post at TechCrunch, here is my wishlist for an ideal eReader / Internet tablet. This list is compiled from a research / academic perspective, so I guess that basically everyone who is in academia or research will be a potential customer. Hopefully academic publishers [...]

Heartily Approved

I can only support Michael Arrington’s ideas over at TechCrunch. Yes, an easy-to-use-larger-than-stamp-size-internet-tablet is what we all want. And while we’re at it: what about a same-size, touch screen eReader that let’s you annotate texts and comes with a zotero-like software to organize your bibliography?

Rhapsody.com still not useful for classical music listeners

As some of you may already know, rhapsody.com has added a mp3-store to its portfolio recently. While I welcome this move, especially since the mp3s are DRM-free, the main drawback with the service, namely its poor user interface, still remains an issue.
The problem as I see it is a lack of a sufficient search-engine for [...]

The Future of Music Making

Surfing the web today, I came across a very interesting talk by our music colleagues from the MIT Media Lab. In this video talk Tod Machover, Adam Boulanger, and Dan Ellsey give a quick overview on their work on new musical instruments and the impact that their research has on society.
What I find most compelling [...]

Skype, Facebook, YouTube = Fun Evening

Earlier on today I was chatting with a friend from Munich who seemed to have a lot of fun with the YouTube videos of the Mozart Karaoke that I put on this blog a while back.
By accident I came across an interesting video on facebook today that I wanted to share with you. Remember [...]

Do you live in Berlin?

To be honest, I moved to Boston again, and as you may agree, it’s quite hard to write about music in Berlin from here. I haven’t decided yet what’s gonna happen to this blog. Will it become a blog about music in Boston? Maybe not… Will it become a blog about about music in general? [...]

Walter Kempowski: 1929 - 2007

Walter Kempowski (1929 - 2007)

A propos

What I should have said to Peter Sloterdijk when sitting next to him on the plane:
Do you talk like you write?
[Thanks, Frederic!]

Walter Kempowski in the Academy of Arts

The Academy of Arts in Berlin will open its exhibition on the life and works of Walter Kempowski tonight. No other book in recent years has fascinated me as much as Kempowski’s Echolot. A collective diary, as Kempowski call his opus magnus in the subtitle, the book brings together thousands of autobiographical reports, letters, diaries, [...]

Ridiculous Dress Code at La Scala

This has probably been roaming around for quite a few days but nevertheless I don’t want to deprive you, dear readers, of this fabulously ridiculous story about a new dress code at the Scala in Milan.

The dress code
Our correspondent Opera Chic in Milan on the matter
Tagesschau covering

God, I’m glad I live in Berlin. The [...]

Happy Birthday Seda Sesigüzel!

Doğum günüm kutlu olsun, aşkım! Seni çok seviyorum!
Seda is in Istanbul today to celebrate her birthday with her family. If you feel so inclined visit her website to send birthday greetings! :-) In the meanwhile you can listen to a recording of her playing the first movement from Beethoven’s Sonata “Pathétique” op. 13:
::Seda Sesigüzel - [...]

Die-hardism and music

Thank you to Jonathan Bellman for an inspiring post on Bach and the lunatic musician’s life style we all adhere to!
Dial “M” to see the details!

warning! this music fit only for lunatics, university types

Arnold Schoenberg: Serenade, op.24; Suite, op. 29. Robert Craft (conductor). Koch Classics, 1997.
“and talentless composers. the music contained on this cd is proof enough in and of itself that Arnold Schoenberg was a mediocre musical talent, and turned to composing in an alienist atonal style only after he could plainly see that he could not [...]

Leere

There is simply nothing to report from Berlin. Maybe I have more to say next week when I will be going to the Salzburg Festival again. Take care for now.

Shopping

After weeks of abstinence I finally bought new CDs, scores, and books yesterday. For those of you who live in Berlin, check out the Kulturkaufhaus Dussmann. It has a huge collection of classical music CDs in the basement. Here is what I bought: 1) The Camerata Salzburg conducted by Sandor Vegh with Bartok’s Divertimento for [...]