John Mayer, a 1998 alumnus of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, is nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance Grammy Award. Scroll down for the other Berklee grads or faculty members who were nominated. This photo and the one below are by Phil Farnsworth.And a happy Thursday to Y'all. Actually, I have trouble believing today is Thursday. Busy, busy week. What? You've heard me say that before? When, I guess, you are wondering, is it not busy around here. Um, let me get back to you on that.
A lot of us are trying to clear the decks because we have a Web writing class coming up the next few days that will take up a chunk of time. As EWL and SR told you in their blogs earlier in the week, we have a really cool Web redesign coming up in a few weeks, so we are getting ready for that.
I do spend a lot of time writing stuff for the Web (like my blog stuff, for example), but I have never really had instruction in it. My goal once we have the new Web site in place is to update my news online as frequently as possible. I am looking forward to learning something new.
Right now I update the news once a month. I basically take the news that is printed in the magazine for the upcoming month and add stuff. I include information there wasn't room for in the print version. I include tons more photos, that kind of stuff. That is what I spent a lot of time on this week, preparing the February online news, the text and photos. I think I have mentioned that DP then takes all of that stuff and creates my online version. He is wiz. The February news will be up sometime next week.
I am sure you are aware of the the tug of war that is going on between print and Web right now. I grew up with print, worked for a daily newspaper and this is my second magazine job. I really think both mediums have strengths and weaknesses.
I love the immediacy of the Web, the fact that you can link video, audio, photos and text for a complete multi-media experience. On the other hand, it is all so instant gratification. There isn't as much time for reflection and context. The 24-hour news cycle has been a reality for quite some time now.
My husband is a newspaper editor and his reporters cover politics. Throughout the day they are writing for the paper's Web site, updating when necessary and writing for print. It is almost a never-ending job, if you want to get it right.
Now, am I saying I will be updating my MENC news around clock once our new Web site is up and running? Uh, no. But I want to make it fresher and more-up-to date, so look for my news once the Web site is launched in the spring.
Hmm. Music stuff I discovered this week. I found this cool story ab0ut Beethoven's lost opera on the NPR music site this week. Actually, the story discusses whether Leonore is a first draft of Fidelio its own piece. Check out the arguments and the music.
Also recently I received a press release from the Berklee College of Music headlined:
Berklee Alumni and Faculty Earn 24 Grammy Award Nominations
Nominees include John Mayer, Steve Vai, Howard Shore, Diana Krall, Juan Luis Guerra, and Quincy Jones. Click here to read Berklee's press release.
As for Berklee, the photo below, right is of Oscar Stagnaro, one of the nominees for best Latin Jazz album, is a professor of bass at Berklee. He performs Funk Tango in the Paquito D'Rivera Quintet along with Diego Urcola '90, Pernell Saturnino '95, Alon Yavnai '95,
and Mark Walker, a Berklee associate professor of percussion.
The 50th Annual GRAMMY Awards will take place live on Sunday, Feb. 10 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. And yes, they will take place, despite the strike by the Writer's Guild. The Grammy folks were granted a waiver for writers to "script" that witty chatter presenters utter before they hand out those cute little grammophones the nominees are dying to get their hands on. I can't wait.
Nominees Alicia Keys, Brad Paisley and the casts of "The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil" and Across The Universe in a special Beatles segment are the latest performers announced for the 50th Annual GRAMMY Awards telecast by the Recording Academy.
Two summers ago, my husband, son and I saw "Beatles LOVE" in Las Vegas. It was so fabulous, both the reworking of the Beatles' music and the Cirque du Soleil performers. Can't wait to see that on Feb. 10. I am an awards show geek. Truly. And especially for the Grammys.
For a complete list Grammy nominees, click here.
I include the snippet below from the Grammy press release. Click here to read the whole thing.
Hope things around your neck of the woods (as weather man Al Roker says) are going well. Let's chat next week about the music performances at the Super Bowl this Sunday. You know you want to.
Til Next Thursday. RF
