a unicorn appearing on the roof of a Hooters

Kreayshawn, from here.

The Sequoia String Quartet, Benjamin Britten: String Quartet No. 2 / John Crawford: String Quartet No. 2 / Paul Chihara: Sequioa & Ellington Fantasy
Rene Leibowitz, Anton Webern: Concerto for Nine Instruments, Op. 24, Piano Variations Op. 24; Four Songs, Op. 12; Quartet Op. 22

• In this week's Record Crate blog for 225: new albums by Wilco, So Percussion; RAIN and Wanda Jackson in concert.
    
• Thanks to these weird daily blasts of a ~1000 readers that started about month ago, my little blog is going to hit 100,000 pageviews any day now. I'm gonna start looking into incorporating more robot humor, should that be the audience. Nothing against robots; I wanted to be one as a child, so I'm happy to at least provide some sort of entertainment for them.
   
• I think string quartets are maybe the the most human means of musical expression: manageable social scale, simple enough to be self-regulating, enough sonic real estate to let everybody display their wonder (there is a reason the modern rock quartet of two guitars, bass and drums follows this same general model). It is also as close as we get musically to robot precision.
  
  
  "String Quartet No. 2 in C major" Benjamin Britten - Sage Quartet
   
• I don't know what to make of Chihara's Ellington Fantasy. I mean, I hesitate to say it's nice enough, given the fervent love people have with Ellington's music. It is nice enough. But sing-song, whereas Chihara's other string music I've heard has a misty, dream-logic take on melodiousness that is my favorite kind of art music. Lose me in your dream cloud, don't take me for a ride I feel I've been on already.
    
• With Webern, you feel like he doesn't even know where he's going.
  
  
  Webern: "Concerto For Nine Instruments" Op. 24
  
  That's what I find so appealing the other day (and always) about Cage's Concerto for Prepared Piano; the piano is the only thing prepared for what's gonna happen.
  
  One of my favorite things about the free Spotify is the sudden burst of the ads, the non-sequitirs that spiral therefrom. Like Kreayshawn gettin' all up with her Popsicle in the middle of Webern's mouse-furtive Concerto for Nine Instruments had a singular sort of juxta-beauty. It was like seeing a unicorn appearing on the roof of a Hooters. There, that should bring in 2000 readers. All demographics covered.
  
  
  I said, CAN I SPEND THE NIGHT AT YOUR HOUSE?!