William C. White » Paavo Järvi

New Website

willcwhite — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 03:47:55 +0000

Don’t you just LOVE my glamorous new web site? It combines the things that I love most: me, my music, and gold (see the background). My really good friend and righteous composer Stephanie Smith designed the hell out of this thing. Kudos and thanks!

Getting the content ready for this site, I’ve been out of the blogging game for like a week. Just a few things:

1) Closure to the Paavo Järvi debâcle.

2) More gossip about the Rufus Wainwright opera. Burrrn. My hopes are still high though!

3) Liberace: The Musical.

And finally, there are shows on YouTube now. Great idea, but boy, so many issues. For one, could somebody please TURN THE VOLUME UP?? I’ve got my speakers as high as they will go, and I can still hardly hear the Jack Benny Program. Do they know who their audience is for that show? It’s people who need it a little louder.

Also, isn’t it so disappointing when you see shows from your childhood that you adored and it turns out they really, really suck? Case in point: ALF. I guess I shouldn’t really admit that I ever liked it, but I definitely remember thinking it was just swell. I really hope that they don’t put up “Small Wonder” and “Mr. Belvedere”, because I have a feeling I might be crushed.

Ok, this is the LAST thing, but I also watched an episode of He-Man. When I was 4, He-Man was basically the beginning and end of my world. Despite that, I had really forgotten even the most basic elements of the show and I must say that on review I am confused. And I mean confused. It’s amazing what slips by you when you’re a kid.

It must be a slow news day in Cincinatti

willcwhite — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:50:33 +0000

The Paavo Järvi saga continues: Mr. Järvi has entered a plea of not guilty in an Ohio court. But let’s go to the videotape and be the judges for ourselves:

Also, reader challenge: WHAT IS HE LISTENING TO? You only get to hear it for like 4 seconds at the start of the video.

It gives me a certain satisfaction to see that there are no fewer than 8 pages of reader comments on this story at cincinatti.com (linked above), the only problem being that so many of the commentators have a real attitude problem, seeing Järvi as some elitist trying to skirt the law. Why can’t fun little classical music scandals without it being some kind of social commentary? Where’s our Amy Winehouse or Britney Spears?

Woe is me.

gossip

willcwhite — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 07:05:49 +0000

How often do we get two (2) legitimate items of gossip from the world of classical music?

1) Paavo Järvi, of the Estonian dynasty, charged with DUI.

2) Rufus Wainwright’s opera REJECTED! (Actually, from the description, I’m really looking forward to it.)