Candlelight Vigil in Honor of Jose Sucuzhanay: Info

CANDLELIGHT VIGIL FOR A BUSHWICK HATE CRIME

Below, information for the upcoming candlelight vigil in honor of Jose Sucuzhanay. The primary organizer for the event is Meg Hitchcock, and a special thank-you goes out to the writer Nathan James for helping to put this together.

Sunday, December 14th

Dear Everyone, Early Sunday morning 2 brothers from Ecuador were walking to their homes in Bushwick arm in arm. They were attacked by 3 men who shouted anti-gay and anti-Hispanic insults as they beat the brothers with an aluminum baseball bat and a broken bottle. Jose Sucuzhanay died Tuesday morning from extensive brain damage and skull fractures. He co-owned a real estate business in Bushwick. A vigil has been organized by a Bushwick community member, Meg Hitchcock. Note, this event is not organized by Arts In Bushwick, but we will be there and we hope you'll come show your support in protesting this horrible attack on a member of our community. Sunday, December 14th Meet in front of The Archive café at 49 Bogart Street (at Seigel and Bogart) at 7pm. We will walk to the scene of the crime at Bushwick Ave. and Kossuth Place and have a few moments of silence at 8pm. Please bring extra candles. And, spread the word!

Random Thoughts, 12/10/08 Edition

My beard itches.

Mixed-meter motets are hard at 160 beats per minute. No, soprano clef does not make them easier.

If I trim the beard now, it will be less itchy but also less majestic.

Re: Sir Michael Tippett's King Priam, composers who are not trained librettists/playwrights should generally not write their own libretti. "How, Helen, after such love with me, can you now go lie with Menelaus?" Yeah, Helen, what the f*@k? Pwned.

If a big, hairy, middle-aged gay man is a bear, and a young bear is a cub, and a skinny, hairy middle-aged gay man is an otter, and a second train leaves Chicago heading east at 65 miles per hour, then what am I (a 20-something, skinny, hairy gay man)? A baby otter? Isn't that like a pup or something?

If I wait and let the beard grow out, will it get both less itchy and more majestic? If you could graph this itchiness vs. majesty relationship (X = majesty, Y = itchiness), would it look like this beautiful bell curve?:



My friend A--, who just finished 25 minutes of a 45-minute film score in four days, by his sheer awesomeness makes me feel like a wuss for complaining about the two minutes of composing I have to do by tomorrow. Thanks, A--, thanks a lot. Also congratulations.

This motet is actually kind of pretty.

Gay Activism Round-Up: Upcoming Events

Just a quick note tonight on some upcoming LGBT-related action events:

There will be a meeting for the NYC chapter of Join the Impact (the people who organized, from practically nothing, a massive nationwide day of protest against Proposition 8 on November 15th that drew hundreds of thousands of people) at the LGBT Community Center (W. 13th Street, between 6th and 7th). If you're interested in helping plan and carry out upcoming actions, this meeting will be a great place to be.

Also--and I'm waiting for specifics on this one--there will be a candlelight vigil held by New York's Latino, immigrant, and LGBT communities to mourn the brutal, anti-Latino and anti-gay murder of Jose Sucuzhanay, a straight man who was beaten to death with an aluminum baseball bat by four men who merely thought he was gay (the PDA that led to his death was, according to various reports, an arm around his brother's shoulder, a coat put on his brother because it was late and cold). I will of course keep you posted on specifics when I find them out.

The Story Behind the Banner: #1

I took the photo that became this banner at the first NYC protest against the passage of Proposition 8 (November 12, 2008). We gathered at the Mormon Temple on 65th and Columbus, but there were so many thousands of people that it became a march down to Columbus Circle, which is where I got this shot. There was a kind of buzz and positive energy in the air that night; it was the first time in my life that I got to participate in a mass gay protest, and I'll never forget that feeling. Vive la resistance.

¡Ay, qué día tan triste en Granada!

Stay tuned for a review of Sunday's concert performance, by Dawn Upshaw, Kelley O'Connor, Robert Spano, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's (and many, many amazing others), of Osvaldo Golijov's supremely awesome one-act opera AINADAMAR at Carnegie Hall. It was a searing, heartbreaking performance, and you'll hear all about it as soon as I find a few more creative ways of saying that it rocked the f*@#ing house.

Welcome (Back)

Welcome to A Wall of Sound! It's taken me a long time to figure out what I want this blog to be about--first it was a travelblog-a-logue, then it was, well, nothing--so consider this A Wall of Sound 2.0.

I originally wanted this post to codify what the blog was going to be about, in a sort of angsty high-Germanic sturm und drang way ("If you STAHT in ze C, you must END in ze C!"), but I think it'll be much more fun to just write about whatever the hell I want.

Test, test

1, 2... 3?

Shabbat in Jerusalem!

Welcome back to the Israel Travelblog-a-logue! There was a long and troubling gap in there, but rest assured, Fearless Reader, that we are now thoroughly back in the saddle.

In the first of many ridiculous signs to come, at our outdoor Shabbat circle, a stray cat (the first of many, many stray cats we'd see in The Holy Land) decided he wanted to be the center of attention, surprise surprise.

In Jewish tradition, on a Friday night (the beginning of the Jewish day of rest), the women light the candles. I was once told that the candles represent the willful creation of the universe, over and over, in each instant, forever, and the candle--forever renewing itself--embodies that spirit of continuous creation. (It's also just pretty).

After the ritual washing of the hands, we sat down for dinner. Needless to say, we were all very, very excited.

"Dinner!!!"
Awake clock: somewhere approaching 50 hours. Yeesh.

The breaking of the challah (bread) symbolizes the start of the meal.

In a salute to John Mackey, here's my first ever (!) food shot. Stuffed grape leaves, green beans, mixed olives, carrot-cole slaw, and grilled lamb. A-maz-ing.

Part of Shabbat was our first Israeli sunset. Watching the light fade over Jerusalem was pretty surreal. Holy sunset!


And now, to close out the post, some gratuitous dessert nudity!




Ending the meal with (from left) Brooke, Carly, Karen, and Hannah.

Now that I'm back...

... what will this blog be, exactly?

A few things to expect:

1. The Israel travelogue-a-blog will continue. Woo!
2. Quick, snappy items about Autumn in New York, various cultural happenings, and everything society you'd expect from a composer living la vie bohéme in the Big Apple.
3. News about my music, as well as the still-in-labor birthings of the new band/ensemble my friends/roomies and I have started, TOAST. Stay tuned...

Rumors of My Death

... have been greatly exaggerated. I am, indeed, alive and well, and I owe you all an explanation for exactly where the bloody hell I've been since August 27.

The short version (those of you who know me already know the long version) is that September bit the big one. The slightly longer version is that at various points throughout the month, I had zero jobs, a job and a half, five jobs (FIVE!), and now things have finally settled down to two big jobs, two little jobs, and a gig.

In addition to that, I had been typing on the floor, sitting on a cushion with no desk, with my computer on my coffee table, and I finally royally screwed up my back (I'm old!). So that put me out of commission for a while.

So I assure you, Fearless Readers, I am back to stay this time. Promise. Forgive me?