Author: paulattinello
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In a hotel room, after midnight
London. “City, city!”, as cries Tom Rakewell. It’s been a pleasant if tentative weekend: having achieved a successful research seminar on Thursday, with the grand old man of musicological modernism Arnold W. in attendance (astonishing that he would be there – it couldn’t have been my topic, so I myself must have been the attraction),…
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The Voyage to Europe
[Fragments for an unfinished novel, 1992-4] Venice by Gondola The sophisticated traveler will develop a passion for the dramatic curves of the great black gondolas, which seem to cut into the stone façades of this ancient city. But be ready for the high prices which, when transformed from millions, from billions of lira – lira…
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Calm and troubled waters
A week of quiet – mostly: Reading Week, the week when we don’t teach classes. I have gotten many small things done, and worked a bit on larger ones. I’ve retrieved a certain calm from the time out – inevitably I’m a bit dismayed to go back to classes and meetings, and especially a research…
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Oppressive traditions
Last Thursday, I gave a lecture supposedly about defining research to our postgraduates – academic, composing, performing and what all. I got my feet a bit tangled around the whole question of why a creative or performing artist should know about history, tradition, the music that has gone before (always a tricky issue, and one…
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October
The weather has been doing very October-ish things the past few days – windy nights, rainy sidewalks covered with leaves, that kind of thing. This morning there was a bright sunny wash over everything, which was nevertheless golden – exactly like the proper light for late afternoon, but at ten in the morning; it was…
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Winter pleasures
A rather tired day, as a result of the usual gastro problems. (I’ve been impressed by my secretary Jane’s recent adventures with a homeopath, who has hugely reduced her long-term allergies – I may try that myself.) To brighten myself up, I did various at-home things: Henry James, Washington Square. I’d never read this short…
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Orange
Late this afternoon I orchestrated a lecture-discussion on research for a wide range of postgraduates – not the densest lecture (in terms of content) I’ve ever given, but successful I think, especially as I’d been worried about the rather vague theme and large audience. I was satisfied, and pleased with myself afterward; went to the…
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Homebody
Having wakened with griping gastrointestinals (as has happened most days over the past weeks), and nothing I absolutely had to do at the office (I missed an academic presentation by Spurious – but he’ll forgive me, it’s not as though he won’t have an audience), I spent the day lying around in a work-free environment.…
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Notes from California
An enjoyable, if too short and rather fragmented, trip to Los Angeles – saw dear friends (and missed a couple who couldn’t get in to see me); met a lot of new academics among the old ones; and gave, if I say so myself, a good presentation of a sexy topic. Almost everyone in LA…
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chemical bodies
[A draft of a short panel presentation for a Los Angeles symposium on musicals. Rather on the speculative/bonkers side – in the tradition of Adorno and the post-structuralists – but then I like that kind of thing….] Here we sit, in the unnamed capitol, or at least the largest marketplace, of accelerating physical transformation: from…
Paul Attinello 