Old Is the New Young

Mick's skin is like hand-tooled leather, but his pelvis is hot to trot.

Keith's hands are like the trunks of banyan trees, but he can still pull the blues out of his ax.

Ronnie may be scrawny, but he sure do make that slide weep.

Charlie could be your neighbor's grandpa, but his sticks are still sweet.

By gum, they're still the genu-ine Rolling Stones! Thanks Martin Scorsese, for capturing them in a film can while they're ONLY in their sixties. Nice!

One Hump or Two?

Greenpeace recently invited Imogen Heap to sing a few songs at a benefit in Beijing, since she was on tour in Asia anyway. Off she went. I mention this merely as an excuse to show this wonderful picture of Imogen with a Chinese camel.

Oh, Miz Heap is working on her next album; this means, as usual, she is locked away in the studio for several months, and friends push food trays to her under the door. Look forward to hearing it, Techno-Fairie!

Un-Masqued

John Dryden wrote the play King Arthur, and Henry Purcell wrote 90 minutes of orchestral and vocal music for it, turning it into a masque. Mark Morris, whose soul seems to have traveled across time from the Baroque, tossed John Dryden's play out the window, and has presented only Purcell's music as a ballet with singing that he calls King Arthur.

The Morris project is certainly not a masque, or an opera, or a musical, nor does it have a story. Um, nor does it now involve the character King Arthur in any way. The Times of London called it an "entertainment." That's precisely the term. Whatever it is, it's delightful; just don't expect any element of 17th-century theater.

Ditto Ditto

Those of us lowly Yanks across the pond from the "real" music scene finally get a chance to watch the Brit Awards on BBC America this weekend. I mostly look forward to seeing Mika's duet with the HUGELY naughty Beth Ditto from The Gossip.

I mostly don't look forward to seeing Rufus not win International Male Solo Artist. Yeah, great, another trophy for Kanye. Maybe now he can afford glasses with lenses in them. What kind of contest puts Rufus and Kanye in the same category, anyway??

International Harmony

I got a bit teary watching the PBS broadcast of the NY Philharmonic's historic concert in North Korea. Congratulations to all parties for letting this happen, and making it such a success. It was especially fun to see Maazel conduct "American in Paris," and eventually give in to the need to boogie on the podium, which is not at all his style. Apparently the ghost of Bernstein took over at that moment.

Pay Attention to the Beat

The pop world's most underrated drummer: Alex Van Halen. Go ahead, find a classier rock percussion performance than he gives on "Hot for Teacher." Yeah, you go ahead...

Speaking of those underappreciated on the skins, how very lame that the Grammys only got around to giving Max Roach a Lifetime Achievement Award now that his life has come to an end.

Fabulous Faye

For no particular reason (besides the fact that I happened to hear a track by her this morning), I say Cheers! to the memory of Frances Faye (1913-1991). Faye was a fine and funny, randy-dandy cabaret singer who, long before it was fashionable or even safe, was as out a lesbian as could be imagined in her time. She would even switch pronouns in love songs to suit her preference. Listen to her chew the furniture on the L-Word Season 1 sound track.