Anthony Joseph Lanman

Bottles, Blends and Brews

I discovered this video podcast through the Adagio TeaV podcast that is hosted by Zack Luye.  He started with this podcast, along with co-host Dana Schuermann basically reviewing all things drinkable.  This could be sodas, teas, smoothies, whatever.  Like the tea podcast, it’s really strangely entertaining, and I’m liking this podcast even better than the tea one.  Drinks have always kind of been my thing, so this is right up my alley.  Give it a try!

The Phileas Club

This podcast, hosted by French dude Patrick Beja, is like a political/news discussion round table podcast.. The thing I find really interesting about this podcast is, the participants are not only “regular” people (not people trying to make careers out of yelling at each other on cable news networks), and the table always consists of a wide range of people of different national, cultural and religious backgrounds.  So for instance, one show might be Patrick from France, someone from Saudi Arabia, another from Yemen, another from India, and another from Canada or something.  And all these people are there in their own countries - its not like they’re all in the US, but from these other places.  They are living in these places.  One of the really fascinating things they discuss is local news stories.  It’s amazing the things we never hear about, and also some thing they never hear about.  It very real insight and looks into other cultures and countries and it’s always REAL (I know I keep saying that) and fascinating.

Coverville

Hosted by Brian Ibbott, Coverville is basically a music podcast featuring nothing but covers.  It’s very entertaining and ranges from awesome and unique covers all the way to the strange and laughable.  Often he’ll do theme shows, like all Stevie Wonder, or all Radiohead covers, etc.  I’ve discovered several great tracks that I’ve since gone and bought - very cool show.

I will be doing a full presentation of my music in Second Life, Saturday, May 23rd @ 12PM PST.  Please come join me!  Contact me for more information, or in Second Life (my SL name is Tanku Kaligawa) - or contact Kate Miranda.  For more information you can visit the Music Island blog.

I’ll be presenting many of my works and talking about how my own personal music language has evolved over the past 10 years.  I’ll be starting with Sonata 46 from 1998 and ending with Synaesthesiac from 2008.

We’ll have open discussion and interaction with the audience, and I’ll have links to .PDF scores if audience members want to follow along with the music.  Should be cool.

Since the mid-90’s I’ve been a huge fan of Antonio Vivaldi’s music.  The recording that really turned me on to his music was a CD of his Four Seasons concertos performed by violinist Gil Shaham and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.  Prior to this, the Vivaldi performances I heard were always very light and delicate - almost gentile in character, and, well, boring.  However, the Orpheus recording was really the first balls to the wall performance I heard of Vivaldi - it was totally irreverent, down and dirty - it just rocked.

Since that time, more and more groups have been releasing Vivaldi performances in that new light.  Another particular favorite of mine was the recording of Vivaldi songs performed by Cecilia Bartoli and Il Giardino Armonico.  Today, a friend of mine on Facebook turned me on to yet another one of these recordings - the most balls to the wall I’ve heard yet.  It’s incredible to me that this 300 year old music (played on instruments of the time no less) can sound so vibrant and relevant to our modern ears.  This performance is so full of life and passion - so awesome.  I’ll link a You Tube video below - make sure you watch it in high quality if you can.  It kicks much ass - these guys rock harder than most rock bands - srsly…

I’ll be presenting some of my music this Friday, May 15th at 2PM CST in Second Life.  This will take place at the Music Academy Online.  Please message me for more info on how you can see the presentation (or message Tanku Kaligawa or Benton Wunderlich inside Second Life), or if you just want a guide into getting in to Second Life!  I’ll be talking about my Etudes for classical guitar, a solo classical guitar piece called Meditation, Dance & Sacrifice, my song for voice and piano Siuil o Run, and also playing the intro to my latest piece for orchestra Synaesthesiac.  Benton Wunderlich will also be presenting some of his works.

I just posted a status update today on Facebook that I was attending a violin recital in Second Life.  Someone asked me how do you do a live concert in Second Life?  First of all, a little about the artist I saw today.  His name (in Second Life) is Young Zeid.  He is a professional violinist that plays many concerts, both solo and with other musicians, in Second Life.  This is no mere amateur - he is not just simply some guy that likes to play violin and plays online - this is a world class player.  For instance, during todays recital, he performed a solo violin suite of John Corigliano from the movie The Red Violin.  It was just - holy wow - this dude is good.  Great music - wonderful musicianship and the piece was just a technical tour-de-force.

So, how does this work?  Basically, these performances are kind of like live radio broadcasts with more interactivity.  The performer plays live, and streams the performance into Second Life.  The performances usually take place at some kind of virtual performance hall.  Today, the performance was at the beautiful Amadora Concert Hall, owned by Clarissima Schuman - another great Second Life performer.  The great thing about these concerts is that you can interact with the people in the audience and talk about the piece or the performance as it’s happening - something you could never do in a live concert situation.  You can also interact with the performer on stage.  Here are a few screenshots I took of todays performance - you can click on them to get a more high resolution picture.

Young Zeid performs at Amadora

Audience at recital

There are many, many super talented performers and composers that I have met in Second Life, which was a big surprise to me.  It’s also got many knowledgeable professors of music that give fascinating lectures.  Last week, I saw a lecture given by Benton Wunderlich on Stravinsky and how the Japanese wood cuttings of Hokusai influenced his music.  If you’re a music nerd - it something worth checking out.

So, I just saw the new Star Trek film today. In short, I loved it. I’ve been a huge Next Generation fan since that show aired in the late 80’s, and that show was really my introduction to Star Trek. I had seen the movies previously, but because I was just a kid, and had never seen the original show, I didn’t have that much invested in them at the time, although I liked them. Since then, I have seen all the movies multiple times, and some of the original series, even though I never got into that like I did with the Next Generation. I also really liked Deep Space 9 - I thought that show was great, and had some great writing and characters. Tried to watch Voyager and Enterprise and never really got hooked by those. Anyway, one of the best things about the new movie is how they really brought in story lines and lore from the past Trek movies and shows, and incorporated those into the new story. Also, the way in which they re-launch the original franchise and basically start over again with a clean slate is just brilliant.

If you want to avoid spoilers, don’t read any further!

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For the past 3 or 4 days, I’ve begun practice on a new performance program that’s really part of a new initiative to get me out there and performing more often. Up to now, I’ve had many internal battles that have kept me from actively performing, and they relate to battles I fight even when I compose. These are all related to self-confidence and overcoming my own inferiority complexes. Today, while working on the Bach 1st Cello Suite, I came to a realization, and I felt I had to write it down, and share it. I realized that in order for me to really move forward and become an active performer, I need to accept 3 absolute truths. Those are:

1) That I will always be terrified before a performance.
2) That I will never feel 100% “ready” for a performance.
3) That during any performance, I will always make mistakes.

Realizing these truths is the beginning - truly accepting them will be the challenge. In our age of absolute note perfect recordings, we have become a society that is completely intolerant of any error, no matter how small. However, in live performance, this just isn’t realistic. In the past, I’ve listened with such critical ears, that I turned those ears onto myself, until every little slip - every misplaced accent - every mis-shaped phrase - every flubbed note would send me into a downward spiral of “I can’t do this.”

I think I finally had the epiphany I need - now I need to work on acceptance.

I’ll be presenting some of my music this Friday, May 8th at 12PM PST in Second Life.  This will take place at the Music Academy Online.  Please message me for more info on how you can see the presentation (or message Tanku Kaligawa or Benton Wunderlich inside Second Life), or if you just want a guide into getting in to Second Life!

Since I do much of my work from home these days, I have become addicted to podcasts. These are basically like radio programs that are pre-recorded, or recorded live, then uploaded to a server where they can be downloaded and often times even subscribed to via iTunes, or similar audio programs. When you subscribe to a podcast in iTunes, it will automatically download the latest episode whenever it’s available, then you can listen to it at your leisure. Since I’ve been working from home, I’ve discovered a lot of interesting and cool podcasts - I thought I would share some of my favorites. These can range from pure online gaming geekery, to science, to music, to tea.

MUSIC ACADEMY ONLIVE

Music Academy OnLive is a classical music talk show that is filmed entirely in Second Life.  The host, Benton Wunderlich (in RL, David Schwartz) hosts the show from his Music Academy Online, located in Second Life.  He is presented as a virtual avatar, and everything, including the stage is virtual, including the guests.  What’s interesting is, Dave can host the show right from his living room in Santa Barbara, California, and his guests can be in their living rooms from anywhere in the world.  They can chat as if they’re in the same room, and even perform live on the show.  his recent guests have included violin virtuoso Mark O’Connor and the great wind quintet, Imani Winds.  I was actually a guest on the show early on, and I’m slated to make a return sometime soon, so watch for that!

MY EARS ARE OPEN

My Ears Are Open is another classical music podcast, but this one is aimed more at composers, and also performers of new classical music.  Host James Holt interviews some of the best classical music performers out there that play a lot of new music and often work directly with living composers.  They talk about their experiences, good and bad, in working with composers and performing new works.  It’s interesting for performers, but invaluable for composers.

EXTRALIFE RADIO

Extralife Radio is a podcast full of nerdy goodness.  Podcaster/web cartoonist Scott Johnson, along with his cohorts, discuss whatever topic of geekdom they feel is important to discuss that week.  This could include talking about a new movie that just came out, a new piece of tech gadgetry, a new video game, etc.  Very informative, if you’re into that kind of stuff (and I am), and very professional and entertaining.