Anne Playing Chess

Anne Playing Chess

As a committed chess player from a very young age, I’ve been fascinated by the current blockbuster mini-series, “The Queen’s Gambit,” as well as the book upon which it’s based, (by Walter Tevis. In response to a New York Times article, “How the Queen’s Gambit Started a New Debate About Sexism in Chess,” by Dylan Loeb McClain (Nov. 10 2020), I wrote a letter to the Times that remains unpublished. I’d like to share it here.

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Sonic Ventures in Post-Truth Surrealism: Raudelunas, the Rev. Fred Lane, and LSD: Huxley’s Last Trip

Sonic Ventures in Post-Truth Surrealism: Raudelunas, the Rev. Fred Lane, and LSD: Huxley’s Last Trip

In the arena of contemporary music and performance, truthiness—a fuzzy-edged concept linking “truth” and “post-truth”—provides a malleable framework for examining how musicians and musical communities are confronting, reacting to, or embodying belief systems grounded in deception. Does the notion of authenticity embrace deliberate falsifications? In an attempt to answer such questions, I will offer examples of performers, writers, and artists cavorting along the truthiness bridge.

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Darmstadt 1980

Darmstadt 1980

When a contemporary musician hears the word “Darmstadt,” he automatically associates it with a certain school of thought rooted in the highly structured musical languages of the 50’s and exemplified by such strong figures as Boulez, Stockhausen, and Xenakis.

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