HubArts.com

Dubus' "Garden Of Last Days" in the media

Big story in the Times today on the most honored writer in my little corner of Essex County. A reporter returns with Andre Dubus III to the Florida strip clubs where three of the 9/11 hijackers whiled away their final hours, and where Dubus researched his new novel "Garden of Last Days." It's the kind of piece the Times does when your last book ("House of Sand and Fog") was an Oprah fave and an Academy Award-nominated movie. A stripper and a hijacker are among the troubled characters whose paths collide over the course of a few hours in the new book.

One of the first places you would have read about the book was right here at HubArts: "When 'The Garden of Last Days' does hit shelves, I suspect you will again be reading much about the author from Newbury."

Janet Maslin was not kind in her Times review of the novel yesterday. But John Dufresne gave it a rave in the Globe last week. "Dubus knows that you may not make sense out of the incomprehensible, but you can make art. He has done just that in this incandescent and absorbing novel," Dufresne wrote. I'm going to read it this weekend.

Obama Bollywood Video: Do Not Watch This While Tripping

My friend Aaron just posted this insane piece of Indian video on his blog, and I have to share it with you here, despite a complete lack of Boston content, unless you count the fact that Aaron lives in Somerville. As he wrote, "Oh my god there are people dancing in his mouth!"

BSO touts its economic impact

Geoff over at The Exhibitionist pulls
a few key numbers out of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's new consultant study of its economic impact on the state. Including the Symphony, the Pops and Tanglewood, the BSO pays out $33 million in wages every year and $43 million on goods and services, out of a total $138 million in direct economic impact. The BSO report breaks out visitor spending separately, at $55.9 million annually for Suffolk County (home of Symphony Hall) and $24.5 million annually in Berkshire County (home of Tanglewood). There are some interesting factoids in the document. As a primary or secondary reason for rich people to maintain a second home in the Berkshires, the report says - OK, "rich" was me - "The Boston Symphony Orchestra and Tanglewood play a direct role in generating approximately $2.3 million in property taxes for Berkshire County towns through second residences." Since this is a consultant report, of course it's impossible to make all the numbers line up; 10 minutes with the .pdf and my brain hurts.  Suffice to say classical music patrons are a well-heeled lot and unafraid to open their wallets. Hope so; as Geoff points out,  the study is an early step in a huge BSO fund-raising campaign.

Pic: BSO/Michael Lutch

Jazz Week '09 ready for your calendars

The dates are April 25-May 3, but I think that announcement just gave the folks at JazzBoston an excuse to send around some other facts, namely the highlights on Jazz Week '08:

• More than 215 events were held in over 80 venues in Greater Boston.
• Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, Dorchester, the South End, Hyde Park, and Back Bay were among the Boston neighborhoods that hosted events, in addition to Cambridge, Somerville, Belmont, Brookline, Acton, Wellesley, and Newton.
• The world premier of former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky with an ensemble featuring drummer Rakalam Bob Moses and reedman Andrew Urbina at Berklee Performance Center.

Got to get down to "Swingtown"

OK, this is why you have DVRs, people. We're all going to be watching the NBA Finals tonight, I presume. But you'll want to record "Swingtown" on CBS at 10. This summer series follows the wife-swapping, Quaalude-popping escapades of a bunch of Chicago suburbanites in the summer of '76, and it's either going to be one of the most talked-about guilty pleasures in TV history or one of the most laughed-at failures. It's a hoot. I mention it here only because I have a big review of "Swingtown" over at the day job: "Night Is Fallin' and The Music's Callin'." Check it out.

It's worth watching just for this guy's porn-star moustache =====>

Esperanza Spalding On Letterman

It's been a long time since I got one of Esperanza Spalding's sprightly emails pitching for one of her gigs at (the late, lamented) Bob's or another venue around town. The Berklee grad and faculty phenom, bass player and singer, is really coming up in the world with her new album, and she's probably got A-line publicists on the job now. I opened the Globe this morning and saw that she's playing on "Late Show With David Letterman" tonight - and Jimmy Kimmel next week! Sweet. She deserves it. here's a taste of her at work:

Good news for chamber music (and more) in Rockport

Most of you would have missed the story, which only appeared in the Globe's North regional section yesterday. But for classical music fans, summer visitors and anyone interested in the area's performance venues, check out Rockport Breathes Sigh of Relief for Performance Center, by David Rattigan. With a legal challenge settled - those pesky abutters - the Rockport Chamber Music Festival is free to begin work on the new $17.5 million Shalin Lui Performance Center overlooking Sandy Bay. They expect the 325-seat venue to be open in time for the 2010 festival, and to be available to other performing arts groups. Previous projects by the designers include Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood. In other words, this is a very good thing for the North Shore and all of Boston.

Boston's new lead singer, the Home Depot dude

Tommy DeCarlo has loved the band Boston since he was 12. Now he's the lead singer. No, really. In one of the stranger twists in the ever-strange saga of this band, Tom Scholz and co. chose DeCarlo to become the band's new singer after Brad Delp's suicide. A MySpace page made by his daughter, complete with DeCarlo singing along to Boston karaoke tracks, made it happen. North Carolinian DeCarlo's story made the ABC World News last night, and you can watch the video here. Maybe you can tell me - what's up with his hair? ... And while we're on the subject of Bay State lead singers, Steven Tyler says he went to rehab in California because of pain after foot surgery. He says he needed a "safe place" to get it together. Okkkkkkkkkk.