The Afiaras will work with the Kronos Quartet in their "Signature Works" workshop series in Carnegie Hall at the end of April and will be back in San Francisco to play full recitals at Seventh Avenue Performances (May 13th) and the San Francisco Conservatory (May 25th). On May 27th, a special collaboration with Project TTT follows; appearing with timpanist Louis Siu, who is eagerly promoting David Herbert's innovative tenor timpani (a new instrument with a range never before possible with timpanis), the Afiaras will give two premieres from composers Alain Chiu and Winton White.
I'll also play (for the first time on the West Coast) Huck Hodge's Phantaisie for solo amplified cello.
Tropicana Fruit Squeeze
Tropicana has released a new drink line, described: "Looking for something juicy? We've squeezed real Tropicana fruit juice into cool, crisp water, giving it a light, refreshing taste. It's water so juicy, you'll want to squeeze one for yourself." Water so juicy. It could just be me, but the problem I see here is that, flipped backwards, you could just as easily say, "Juice so watery." "It's juice so watery, you'll wonder why you didn't just water down the juice yourself, why you just paid full price for half the juice, why this purchase did not strike you as an immediately bad idea." I can just see how this kind of thing would not have flown 5-10 years ago.
So much for updating regularly. It's been hard getting enough time to update the Events page itself and I'm about to give it up for loss. The easiest way to find the next performances is on the Afiara site. I just can't bring myself to html my way through all that stuff for now. There aren't any solo performances in the next month anyway.
Upcoming San Francisco performance: The Afiaras will be playing the Shostakovich Octet with the Alexander String Quartet this coming Wednesday, April 4th, at 1 pm in Knuth. If you want to hear Afiara, go to the new MySpace link below for four selected pieces.
The Bison Effect
I read in Time magazine the other day that bison has rebounded back in numbers from near-extinction. The reason? Digging back to Old West roots: Apparently, bison on plates are in vogue with American appetites again. Just strange to think of the effect of marketing and consumption. That in order to save bison, we have to eat bison. In other news, I recently read that Captain America is dead. Somehow, someone thinks killing a superhero will bring back their golden days of this same marketing and consumption. To be sure, it worked for the Superman franchise. But this one's a stretch and a little too obvious in its pining for attention, if you ask me. (I know, who's asking me.)
