Thursday, July 22, 2010

Literature in a jugular vein

Speaking of blood, I just read a book about vampires, werewolves and an opera singer.
Called Mozart in the jungle, or something with Mozart in it.

Actually called "Mozart's blood" by Louise Marley.
"Mozart in the jungle" is by Blair Tindall.
They are both about nastiness in the music biz.
Blair's is autobiographic.
Louise's is metaphoric.... 



And maybe psychological-autobiographical.

I'll read anything with Mozart in the title.

Actually, it's a pretty good story even discounting the vampire/werewolf gimmick.

 

17 Comments:

Blogger Glenn Buttkus said...

Mozart's Blood is like 400 pages long.
It does sound intresting:
Louise Marley, a musician and writer, has produced a stunning drama inspired by the life of Teresa Saporiti, the first Donna Anna. Teresa, an aspiring singer, was turned into a vampire by a Czech aristocrat. As bad as the need for blood are the memories of the victims, which remain with the taker. Teresa has learned to deal with them, but Mozart, whom the baroness bit at the same time, never did and died painfully because he could not bring himself to satisfy the unnatural thirst. In San Francisco in 1906, Teresa meets Ugo, a Silician werewolf with a very curious past of his own. They become partners, guarding each other's backs. In twenty-first-century Milan, an egoistic baritone thinks he has figured out Teresa's secret and abducts Ugo to obtain the blood that holds Mozart's memories. The story covers four centuries, but the shifts between the past and the present are seamlessly handled, and the development of Teresa and Ugo over those centuries is impressive. An engrossing piece, from overture to final chord.

I like stories with time shifts. Guess that's
why I was ga-ga for the first HIGHLANDER
film, with music by Queen, while Freddie
was still among the living. That was before
the three lame and lamer sequels and three
season of it as a TV series.

Mozart in the Jungle, at 336 pages, by
Blair Tindall sounds pretty cool too:

By age 16, the author of this alternately piquant and morose memoir was dealing marijuana, bedding her instructors at a performing arts high school and studying the oboe. Later, her blossoming career as a freelance musician in New York introduced her to a classical music demimonde of cocaine parties and group sex that had her wondering why she "got hired for so many of my gigs in bed." But the vivace of the chapters on her bohemian salad days subsides to a largo as she heads toward 40 and the sex and drugs recede along with dreams of stardom; the reality of a future in Broadway orchestra pits (where she reads magazines as she plays to stave off boredom) sets in. Tindall escaped to journalism, but her resentment of an industry that "squeezed me dry of spontaneity" and turns other musicians into hollow-eyed "galley slaves" is raw. She mounts a biting critique of the conservatories that churn out thousands of graduates each year to pursue a handful of jobs, the superstar conductors and soloists who lord it over orchestral peons and a fine arts establishment she depicts as bloated and ripe for downsizing. Tindall's bitterness over what might still strike many readers as a pretty great career is a bit overdone, but she offers a fresh, highly readable and caustic perspective on an overglamorized world.

Sounds like you have a Jones for old
Wolfie, enit?

7:14 PM  
Blogger Glenn Buttkus said...

Actually considering your attraction
to any book with Mozart in the title,
and disregarding the 35 biographies
written about him, here is a nice
list of future reading projects for
you, sir:

BOUNCE: MOZART, FEDERER, PICASSO,
BECKHAM, and THE SCIENCE OF SUCCESS
By Matthew Syed

THE MOZART EFFECT
by Don G. Campbell

MARRYING MOZART
by Stephanie Cowell

MOZART AND THE WHALE: AN
ASPERGER'S LOVE STORY
by Jerry Newport

MOZART'S BRAIN AND THE
FIGHTER PILOT
by Richard Restak

MOZART & MASONRY
by Paul Netti

MOZART: THE WONDER CHILD:
A PUPPET PLAY IN 3 ACTS
by Diane Stanley

MOZART & THE ENLIGHTENMENT
by Nicholas Till

UNDERSTANDING THE WOMEN
OF MOZART'S OPERAS
by Kristi Brown-Montesano

MOZART'S SISTER
by Nancy Moser

IN MOZART'S SHADOW:
HIS SISTER'S STORY
by Carolyn Meyer

Have you read any of these books?
If you do, make sure to write
up a synopsis or book report
for your loyal FFTL readers.

7:26 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Humanity, I love you
because when you're hard up
you pawn your intelligence
to buy a drink.

.............e.e. cummings

7:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

There is nothing wrong (burp)
with getting shit-faced
on a (burp) regular basis.
It is a coping mecha(burp)nism
and it works, and (burp)
it is legal.

..........Foster Brooksie

7:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey, some sonofabitch
put lemonade in my lemonade.

......William Claude Dunkenfield

7:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I was sober as a judge,
an inebriated judge,
while filming my TV show.

........Deano Martina

7:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sometimes you do something,
and you get screwed. Sometimes
it's the things you don't do,
and you get screwed.

..............Chuck Palahniuk

7:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What the hell are you saying, Chuckims?
Getting screwed is a lifetime pursuit for
some of us. I make a great film, and the
critics love it, and the public will not
go and see it; too busy watching flys
copulate. I make a lousy movie and
the critics predict my demise, the end
of my career, and everyone under 40
turns out to see it, telling their friends
it is a good as ERNEST SAVES CHRISTMAS.

..............Woody Allen

7:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I got screwed once, but
that was a long time ago.
It is hard to recall whether
I liked it or not. One thing's
for sure, I wasn't respected
in the morning, or the next
day either.

...............Rodney Dangerfield

7:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Music, even in the situations of the
greatest horror, should never be
painful to the ear--but they should
flatter and charm it, and thereby
always remain music.

.................Wolf A. Mozart

7:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Neither a lofty degree of intelligence
nor imagination nor both together
go to the making of genius. Love,
love, love--that is the soul of genius.

...............W. Amadeus Mozart

7:53 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I pay no attention whatever to
anybody's praise or blame.
I simply follow my own feelings.

............W.A. Mozart

7:55 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

To talk well and eloquently is
a very great art, but it is an
equally great one to know
the right moment to stop.

...............Mozart

7:58 PM  
Blogger Lane Savant said...

Blair Tindall now sells real estate in Los Angeles.
She was married to Bill Nye the science jerk who did her some dirt.

9:54 PM  
Blogger Glenn Buttkus said...

Did a change-up this AM, and went
to the yards with Round Up, and
did not water. Exciting stuff.
I have my medical treatment today,
and since I get done at 3:30pm,
I will slink over to the Grand, and
see the new flick, WINTER'S BONE.
You have not responded to all
the possibilities and inquiries I
have left for you, but then, what
do I expect? You are your own man.

If you get bored with the Mozart
reading list I compiled for you,
here is a film list, most of which
are still available to screen:

IN SEARCH OF MOZART (2006)
THE LIFE & LOVES OF MOZART (1953)
MOZART (1982) Mini-series.
MOZART, WHOM THE GODS LOVE (1936)
WOLFGANG A. MOZART (1991)
MOZART (1975) TVM
AMADEUS (1984)
MOZART & THE WHALE (2005)
THE MOZART OF PICKPOCKETS (2006)
FOREVER MOZART (1996)
FROM MAO TO MOZART (1981)
THE MOZART BROTHERS (1986)
THE GENIUS OF MOZART (2008)
MOZART; REQUIEM (1991) TVM
THE LIFE OF MOZART (1967)
MOZART IS A MURDERER (1999)
MOZART TOWN (2008)
MOZART & MEISEL (1987)
THE MOZART BIRD (1993)
ZEHN MINUTEN MOZART (1930)
MOZART; QUEST FOR FREEDOM (1998)
IN THE FOOTPRINTS OF MOZART (1914)
THE DEATH OF MOZART (1909)
MEET MISS MOZART (1935)
DECIPHERING MOZART (2006)
MOZART & SALLERI (1957)
MOZART SELLS (2006)
OPERATION MOZART (1988)
PASSWORD MOZART (2009)
ROLL OVER MOZART (2006)
THE MOZART MINUTE (2006)
THE OZ OF MOZART (1991)
WHAT MOZART SAW ON MULBERRY STREET
(1956)

NOW, with all these Mozart books
and movies to check out, for
crying out loud, get busy.

9:08 AM  
Blogger Lane Savant said...

i am busy (to busy to capitalize 'i')
i got your list; i will look for the books.
i will read, i will write music, i will find a pianist for the next salon, i will ride, i will finish this sentence.

11:34 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hallo, Lane & Glenn!!
Marley's book sounds like she's a halucagenic, depraved psychopath!
On the other hand Tindall's book (I have a copy) is an unfortunately true account of the trials and tribulations of talented musicians in a declining market for their services!! But she's probably making more money in real estata (see Dino Rossi!) than if she had landed a permanent position in the oboe section of the NY Phil, where she filled in when needed back then.
Tschuess,
Anonomann

3:19 PM  

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