1) In the very (very) near future, I will be adding an entry to my links page: Steven Kazuo Takasugi. There’s one piece I love the most, but I’m not even going to tell you which. They are all astonishing.

Included at the end of his bio are instructions for listening:

Laptop (Computer) to Headphones = Not Ideal!
Laptop (Computer) to Stereo Amplifier to Headphones = Good!
(Volume and physicality of sound are of utmost importance)
Lights out.

2) I didn’t know Jem Finer was a founding member of the Pogues when I came across Score for a Hole in the Ground. Now I want to go to this forest in Kent.

Finer is also involved in a thousand-year-long, multi-continental composition/trust/graphic score/assemblage of Tibetan bowls called Longplayer.

3) Eric Wubbels’ excellent review of Nature/Culture, Peter Evans‘ latest solo CD.

4) One of the most interesting thinkers (and doers) in the sound arena shows up in the mainstream media. I was not expecting that. I’m not so sure that David Dunn would classify himself as an avant-garde composer as the subtitle does, but the content of this article, Beetle Mania, in The Atlantic is just fine, and actually quite funny at points.

5) A surprisingly engaging review in the LA Times of a Monday Evening Concert called “Mostly Californian.”

6) A ticket. Boston to London, where I’ll hear ELISION play a great program titled Terrain (after the Ferneyhough piece, which is included). Also on the program are works by Liza Lim, Aaron Cassidy, Bryn Harrison, Mary Bellamy, and James Dillon. Then from London on to Berlin for MaerzMusik, whose program has just been announced today.