LET ME MAKE THIS SHORT

The Netherlands? The Netherlands?

Wait , hold on…so the Dominican Republic has a combined payroll of hundreds of millions in player salaries from those currently involved in playing Major League Baseball. The Netherlands has a grand total of zero in salary dollars currently in the major leagues. Wouldn’t you know it – the Netherlands beat the Dominican Republic today in that wacky off season World Baseball Classic. It’s becoming more fascinating by the minute. Ummm…nothing else on that, except that money can’t buy you victories. Oh, and yes, for all you Yankee haters - I’m still a NY Yankee fan. Must I always remind you that Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Petite, Jorge Posada, Robinson Cano, Melkey Cabrera, Joba Chamberlain (must I go on…really?) are all products of the Yankees only minor league farm system. So get off my case when I decide to shell out a few bucks to fill in a few roster spots.

RUN FORREST RUN

So me and my boy interrupted our viewing of the big Baseball Classic while routing for Italy (can you believe they have a team?), and caught the beginning of Forrest Gump and kept it on the whole time. First time I've seen the movie all the way through. I'll say this much....all in all an OK history lesson and a unique way to put a movie together. Hanks as usual is quite good and it's another music that causes you to think about what's important in life. I'd recommend it - was a nice way to spend Saturday afternoon before the big concert day.

ELECTRICITY

So Sunday I'll conduct my youth orchestra in the beautiful Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. There will be so many relatives and friends of these kids in attendance. We've given out 1400 tickets and I expect the crowd to be close to 2,000 in a 2,400 seat hall. I believe the performance will be electrifying. Does anyone have any idea how hard it is to get a bunch of teenagers to play with intensity and electricity? It takes a lot of rehearsal time and a lot of coaxing. In my pre-game speech tomorrow I will be telling them to play like it's game 7 of the world series......use your intelligence, channel your emotion, and give the people what they want. By the way - I'm too tired to edit tonight so sorry if there are some typos. Catch ya later.

REMEMBER THE PAST ? ? ?

RACISM IN BASEBALL

So I'm sitting here watching Chinese Tapei vs. China in the World Baseball Classic. I find it just as interesting and just as polished a style of baseball as anything in the U.S. Is there anyone at all out there who can tell me why it took until about five years ago for Asian players to work their way onto major league baseball rosters? I suggest it's extreme racism on the part of U.S. owners and agents. Japan has been so big in baseball for so long, yet for years, we as baseball fans heard "they're too small", "their stadiums are smaller"...."they won't adapt to American game". Are you kidding me? Really? I could be wrong but nearly all Asian players that have entered the majors in the past 5 years have been all-star caliber. I know you may so..."well, those are the best that we're getting". Well I guess this is my point...and it will continue to be my point until the U.S. can handily beat the crap out of every other team in the world: We're not the best baseball country in the world. All you need to do is understand the game and watch the world baseball classic to learn what teamwork really means in terms of playing winning baseball. American sports has patented the "do what's best for me" attitude and that shows when we send our best baseball stars out to play the world.

FIELD OF DREAMS

Even if you're not a big baseball fan, Field of Dreams is a beautifully done movie with some good acting by a younger Kevin Costner, young Ray Liota and always entertaining James Earl Jones. If you DO know the story of Shoeless Joe Jackson, the movie can really touch a special chord, as questions of "what if" pervade through the story of Shoeless Joe's career and through life itself and what others mean to us. I suppose at this point in time, or even back then, this movie would be termed a chick flick of sorts, albeit a sports chick flick. Nevertheless, if you just want to chill out, sit back, relax and enjoy without having to get to wound up in an intense action drama, Field of Dreams is nicely shot movie for all ages.

HOW IS IT POSSIBLE.................

to connect "Field of Dreams" and a baseball blog with music. Absolutely impossible...I've finally hit in snag.......oh....wait. Field of Dreams took place in Iowa. Hmmm....didn't Anton Dvorak have a home in Iowa? HELL YEAH!!!! I've done it again.....BOOO YA. Anton Dvorak spent the summer of 1893 in Spillville, Iowa just after completing writing his "New World Symphony" in New York that winter. In addition, he was drafted in the 3rd round of the Major League Baseball draft by the newly formed Boston Red Stockings. OK - now I'm kidding. But he did spend that summer in Iowa. Although his "New World" is one of the greatest and most popular of symphonies you can go ahead and pick up Symphonies number 7 and 8 on recording. Complete diverse in character, one field with drama and the other with utter beauty for life. If you get the chance to see either of these two or the New World in live performance you will not be disappointed.

INFLUENTIAL BEHAVIOR

WOW - SLOW SPORTS DAY

Really?!?!!....I just noticed that the top 3 sports stories of the day all had to do with players signing multi-zillion dollar contracts. Perfect timing...hard economic times and we should feel great that Manny finally has his 45 million dollars for 2 years. I was thinking it would be nice to sit down with my agent and ink out a 5 year, 1 million dollar contract myself. That's all I want. I don't need more. But if I perform well I may want to re-negotiate after a few years. If the university doesn't like my offer, I'll be accepting offers from other schools. How's that? Multi year deals!! Bonuses!!!! I guess that's the price I pay for being in this profession. The good news...Manny is peaking in his 30's. I'll peak in my profession just before I drop - remember that I have genes that won't allow me to live past 70. But that's still ok. At least I won't have to talk about how great my career was once I'm 45. ooohhh....that's coming up a bit too soon

MAD HOT BALLROOM

Independent film - flew completely under the radar two years ago. This is a fantastic documentary about a ballroom dance program in the New York City Public School system. I know - sounds goofy .....not when you see the kids that get involved in this program. Evidently it was the second largest grossing documentary that year - second to March of the Penguins. The film follows individuals and groups of students at three different schools and inspires us to see what can happen when teachers really care about kids as individuals. I could not recommend it more highly. GREAT film.

FIREBIRD

I thought that my blog didn't connect for the first time but actually Mad Hot Ballroom has to do with the importance of teaching others and giving them role models (just like Manny and his big contract)....and well..the Firebird - it's a ballet!!!!! So I'm walking my little girl to art the other day and she said out of the blue "Daddy, I really like Firebird". I said, "How do you know Firebird?" (wrong question by dad) "Uh...dad....I was at your concert when you did it last week". So there it is...my daughter, who sketches art through most of my programs and pretends not to pay attention remembered that piece. And now today in the car, my boy gets in and I crank the Chicago Symphony playing Firebird. He immediately noticed differences in instrumentation from the version we're playing with my youth orchestra which he is a part of. We're doing the 1919 version and the recording was the later version with some re-orchestration. I kept trying to shut it off but he wouldn't let me...."no, I want to hear more..I want to hear more....uh......dad, we can't do that part that slow...we have to do it fast just like you conduct it". First time he ever slapped my hand away when trying to turn off a recording. I guess how we influence kids may happen at moments when we just don't realize it.

BREAKING NEWS

IT'S ALL ABOUT FOOTBALL

There, I wrote it. "Breaking News". I'm just going to write that every day. I mean, come on...the news stations use it for every single story whether it happened last week an hour ago or now. So here is my breaking sports news for the day. I'm sort of in a bad place on these next statements. I'm caught in the middle. First off, I think it's awful that a boat capsized off the Florida Coast and three professional football players (or 2 plus a college player) are still missing after 3-4 days. I'm happy that they found the fourth person alive. The coastguard is pretty sure the others could not have survived in those waters this long. I just wonder how often things like this happen with every day citizens (i.e. - no athletes). I also wonder why some national news stations including CNN have been covering the story all day long. It has always been a media problem. The lives of these athletes are significantly more important than the lives of everyone else who has died in a tragedy in the past week. Here is the pecking order for news coverage of these kinds of tragedies: 1 - Famous People including world leaders, actors, rock musicians (not classical or jazz), 2 - Athletes who are not quite famous but are athletes nonetheless, 3 - Illegal aliens trying to get into our county but drowned at sea, 4 - Regular people. That's the pecking order for news coverage. Cool, huh?

CAST AWAY

Again - a smooth transition even if I do say so myself. I don't remember many moments in the history of cinema where a single person was required to be on the screen....all by themselves for over an hour. That takes some serious balls. I'm not sure it's Tom Hanks greatest performance, I think he was fantastic in "Philadelphia" and some others but it is certainly a testament to his skills as an actor. He may not be an actor that easily transforms himself - you can always tell it's Tom Hanks. But, he does have a special skill at shifting emotion and having an audience feel what he feels. Through his acting you being to feel his frustration at every turn. So as much as I hate to recommend during the tragedy covered in paragraph one, I do think it is worth watching.

FOUR SEA INTERLUDES FROM PETER GRIMES

Wow - this really does work when I just rattle things off the top of my head. I will make this one brief for those of you non-musicians and musicians alike. There is an opera called "Peter Grimes". The opera is by Benjamin Britten. There are CD's available that include 4 Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes plus Britten's fabulous "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestras". The Young Person's Guide is great for adults and children to learn instruments of the orchestras and their sounds and characteristics. The Sea Interludes are simply some of the greatest moments in orchestra writing. These are some of my personal favorites of all time. Oh and yes...in the very dark opera there seems to be a problem with Mr. Grimes boy apprentices disappearing at sea but that's a whole other blog.

ARIZONA OR BUST

CAT SCRATCH FEVER

Some stats? Most consecutive appearances in the NCAA Basketball Tournament: 27 by North Carolina. Second place? Glad you asked......yup, it's my Arizona Wildcats with a currently active streak of 24 in a row. So this is the year - no more Lute Olsen and here we go - the Cats are on the bubble as we prepare for the selection. Every Wildcat fan holds there breath as we've been dreaming of them overtaking that Carolina record. This whole this holds a special place in my heart. You see, I went to Wildcats basketball games my freshman year of college. Their record that year? 4 wins....24 losses.......yup - quite a group. No tournament for the cats that year. As a matter of fact, from what I recall....every time they threw the ball inbounds it was promptly stolen by someone on the opposing team. Then came our saviour, the honorable Sir Lute Olsen. But I knew Lute couldn't last forever and now they hang on for dear life with just over a .500 record in the conference and an 18-11 overall record. Every says there on the bubble......I'm hoping their history can help push them in to keep this rather amazing streak alive.

OH....AND SPEAKING OF ZONA

Boy - what a transition - right to my movie of the week......your DVD selection and a cult classic - Revenge of the Nerds. This film was shot during my sophomore year in college on the campus of the University of Arizona. The university had decided that they didn't want a film with such a title filmed on campus.....somehow the students and film makers convinced them otherwise and the rest is history. Funny......good acting........over the top nerdiness.........my alleged twin Anthony Edwards and a host of others. Plus you get to see the beautiful campus including the old gym with the Arizona Wildcat basketball team of the 50's and 60's use to play. Enjoy!!!!

ARIZONA AND MUSIC

Well the best I have for you here is Leonard Bernstein's Candide. If you only want to hear five minutes of thrilling, energetic and lyrical music go for the overture. Yes, it was the first piece I ever conducted in my life and I'll be conducting it at Disney Hall in Los Angeles this Sunday. Big step from first having conducting it on the campus of the University of Arizona (you see...it all comes together if you just give me time). And if you really like it, buy the entire CD. The music is filled with much of the same fanciful rhythms, lyricism, latin and jazz elements that made his music to West Side Story so well known. If you don't want to go out and get the CD, watch a very very very old Lenny conduct the overture on youtube. You can still see the energy in his eyes, although you can tell he is nearing the end.

Safety, Doubt and Mass Murder

The Yeagermeister

Nope - not about beer....come on this is the sports part of my blog.....can't you figure it out by now? Nothing overwhelming in sports this weekend so I'll just give you a bit of baseball history. I'm standing at the batting cages at our baseball field in Chatsworth the other night talking to a parent and he says "yeah - Steve Yeager is the coach of my son's team". Yes, it was in fact star catcher of the the Los Angeles Dodgers of the 1970's in the cage throwing batting practice to Chatsworth Little Leaguers. So here is my tidbit for the day - thanks to Steve Yeager, catchers have that odd piece of equipment that flaps underneath their face mask to protect their neck. You see, Yeager was in the on deck circle in the 1970's when nine pieces of wood from his teammate's shattered bat pierced his neck nearly killing Yeager. From that point on he was given protection for his neck so that he could still catch behind the plate. It sometimes takes a tragedy or near tragedy to bring improvement in safety to sports. Just ask the Earnhardt family. No one has died in a major Nascar series since Dale Earnhardt's death in 2001 due to vast improvements made in driver protection.

DOUBT

Philip Seymour Hoffmann and Meryl Streep are two of my favorite actors. I was so happy to see them acting in major roles in the movie doubt. The actors (including Amy Adams) were all nominated due to their supreme acting ability. The acting in the film was undoubtedly superb. And, to be quite honest, I would do anything to have seen this ensemble of actors put on this movie as a play on or off broadway. I will recommend the movie to those who really enjoy focusing on an individuals ability to get lost in a role. However, I would consider the movie far from entertaining....it is dry, intense, bordering on dark....all elements that I enjoy in a good movie but as something that could potentially move into the mainstream it misses. It is a play on screen. So if you would like to see some of the great actors of our time at the very best, this is one to see. If you want to see action, over the top drama, and exciting nail biting ending....maybe this one is not for you.

A SURVIVOR FROM WARSAW

This is always one of the first musical composition I introduce to music appreciation classes. It's because I quickly realize that most people don't "appreciate" music unless they actually like to listen to the piece of music. To be honest, I don't care if you don't like it. I just want you to understand why a person, given their own personal and social circumstances may have created a work of art that you may not like but that still may be considered important in the art world. Schoenberg's "A Survivor from Warsaw" is one such work. This short orchestra/vocal work based on themes of the Holocaust is an intensely packed 10 minutes of music packed with unrelenting dissonance, intensity and drama. The work has narration in both Engish and German and ends with an anthem sung by full male chorus. In order for an composer to subjectively recreate one of the ugliest moments in human history, the composer must not be bent on entertaining. These events are often something the composer or artist witnessed and it is their desire, based on their own value judgements to put their own voice behind these events.