{"id":711,"date":"2010-09-01T15:53:50","date_gmt":"2010-09-01T19:53:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=711"},"modified":"2011-10-11T00:40:35","modified_gmt":"2011-10-11T04:40:35","slug":"disaster-at-lincoln-triangle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=711","title":{"rendered":"Disaster at Lincoln Triangle"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Sedgwick Clark<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

As if record and video companies didn\u2019t have enough problems, Barnes & Noble announced on Monday (8\/30) that in January, after 15 years, it would close its four-story superstore across the street from Manhattan\u2019s Lincoln Center. The stated reason: high rents. (Surprise!) B&N will try to find a more reasonably rentable location on the Upper Westside.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Fellow geezers still wedded to retail shopping for CDs will have no alternative than to go downtown to J&R, a store I get to only when I\u2019m on jury duty. Living near Lincoln Center, I\u2019ve never shopped anywhere else for DVDs. It\u2019s the worst news for West Side book lovers since the demise of Coliseum Books, at 57th and Broadway, and the most heart-stopping event since the demise of Tower Records, across\u00a0Broadway from B&N. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But, in all honesty, my household has no grounds to complain because I rarely go into B&N\u2014I might be tempted to buy something! (I\u2019ve got so many shrink-wrapped CDs and DVDs that it would be crazy to add to the pile.) And my wife bought a Kindle last month and can\u2019t bear to turn the damn thing off.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A Hot Time at Lincoln Center Tonight<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Continuing in its march to, uh, broaden its appeal, here\u2019s the first paragraph from a recent Lincoln Center press release:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Starting this fall, there will be a new destination for some of the hottest DJ parties in New York, when Lincoln Center launches its new LCDJ<\/em><\/strong> series at the David Rubenstein Atrium.\u00a0 On six consecutive weekends (October 2, 9, 15, 22, 29 and November 6), from 9 p.m. to midnight<\/strong>, cutting-edge DJ\u2019s will present evenings of eclectic listening and dancing\u2014with rhythms and beats from the heart of Brazil to indie clubs from across the East River\u2014as the David Rubenstein Atrium is transformed into an [sic] modern lounge.\u00a0 And the best part\u2014admission is FREE!\u00a0 There is no cover charge, and although drinks and refreshments will be available from \u2018wichcraft, there is no minimum.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Rafael Nadal\u2019s Serious Side<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

During play-by-play on Tuesday night\u2019s Open, talking about how Rafael Nadal is a serious guy, unlike Roger Federer who stays up late and goes to fancy bars, John McEnroe remarked, \u201cNadal\u2019s a big classical-music fan: He\u2019s seen Phantom of the Opera<\/em> six times.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Composer-friendly Pianism at Bargemusic<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t been to a Bargemusic concert in several seasons, but MA.com editor Susan Elliott convinced me to take a breather from my MA Directory deadline to hear an attractive program by 32-year-old American pianist Steven Beck. A Juilliard grad, he\u2019s a regular at Bargemusic and recently played all the Beethoven piano sonatas there.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Beck had planned to open with Stravinsky\u2019s Three Movements from Petrushka<\/em> but changed it to that composer\u2019s Serenade in A. The 1925 work was written specifically to fit on to a pair of ten-inch 78s, with each of the Serenade\u2019s four movements totaling approximately three minutes in length. I\u2019ve never warmed to its dry neoclassism (Charles Rosen writes in the liner notes to his recording that it \u201cis the most loveable, and the most original of Stravinsky\u2019s works for piano\u201d), and this poker-faced, rather soft-edged rendering didn\u2019t change my mind. I\u2019ll try again, starting with the Stravinsky and Rosen recordings.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

More impressive was Schoenberg\u2019s Suite for Piano, Op. 25. It\u2019s the composer\u2019s first completely 12-tone work, and Beck\u2019s unfussy approach allowed the music to unfold naturally. Again I sensed a lack of characterization\u2014three of the movements are dances, after all, and Schoenberg prided himself as being directly in the German tradition\u2014but I bow to Susan, whom I discovered played the Suite when she was studying piano. She was mightily impressed!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Debussy\u2019s Twelve Etudes<\/em> filled the second half of the program, and here I felt Beck was the complete master, offering an ideal balance of color, wit, and virtuosity throughout. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

P.S. The Fulton Ferry Landing, home of Bargemusic, has undergone an extraordinary transformation since my last visit. It was too close to concert time to look around, and the sun was setting, but I could see enough to know that a post-deadline visit is definitely called for. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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It Was Howdy Doody Time<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCowabunga,\u201d Chief Thunderthud would rumble. It\u2019s another boomer memory, vividly etched in the Peanut Gallery of our minds\u2014far more indelible than the concerts we attended last week or the rubber-stamp movies Hollywood has been churning out for the last 30 years.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Edward Kean, the creator of the chief and his unforgettable greeting, died on August 13 at age 85. In fact, according to Say, Kids! What Time Is It?<\/em>, Stephen Davis’s 1987 book about the Howdy Doody Show<\/em>,\u00a0 Kean wrote \u201calmost every line spoken and every note sung\u201d on the program, which ran from 1948 to 1956 and totaled over 2,000 episodes. It\u2019s doubtful that\u00a0anyone out in early television land knew Kean\u2019s name (he was only a writer, after all), but what boomer doesn\u2019t recall his inspired characters: Howdy Doody, Clarabell, Phineas T. Bluster and his flunky, Dilly Dally, Princess Summerfall Winterspring, and Flub-a-Dub? This is the first time I\u2019ve ever seen the Princess\u2019s name in print, and a poetic inspiration it was, too.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Times <\/em>got around to memorializing him last Thursday (8\/26), and a huge chunk of my childhood was resurrected in my reading of Dennis Hevesi\u2019s evocative obit. I, in my youth, figured that Buffalo Bob Smith was responsible for it all. Sounds like Davis\u2019s book is another I won\u2019t be able to put down. Maybe PK will have it on her Kindle.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n