tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56594950327681094622011-07-31T01:28:35.271-04:00Matt Beckmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13456454458329538646noreply@blogger.comBlogger161100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659495032768109462.post-90583281478337138562011-04-10T12:11:00.000-04:002011-04-10T12:11:26.221-04:00

Goodbye, blogger! I'm moving on to the world of the self-hosted...my website is finished and it includes a new blog at this address:  http://www.mattbeckmann.net/blog. Hello, new website:  http://www.mattbeckmann.net Now is the time that you update your RSS feed, because i'm not going to do that for you. Don't be shy, you're going to like my new home. And with that, The Kansas In Him is no

Matt Beckmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13456454458329538646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659495032768109462.post-74736248694900785632010-05-24T10:10:00.000-04:002010-05-24T10:10:21.665-04:00

All anyone is talking about or thinking about this morning is last night's final episode of LOST.  I am one of those people.  Everything good and bad has been said, and there looks to be an equal divide among critics and fans. Oh, and for those of you (alyssa) who haven't seen the final episode or even any of the sixth season, i'm going to do the impossible - review the end of LOST without

Matt Beckmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13456454458329538646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659495032768109462.post-65089873553441092702010-04-29T11:13:00.000-04:002010-04-29T11:13:29.897-04:00

We all have friends that we wish we talked to more.  Friends we think about all the time, who are genuinely an important part of our lives.  But we never talk to them.  After a seemingly arbitrary, yet tangible amount of time, you cross the threshold of "hi, how are you?" to "damn, I haven't talked to you in FOREVER!" Once you pass that point, there's no going back.  The longer you wait to call

Matt Beckmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13456454458329538646noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659495032768109462.post-64986114698583874102010-02-26T23:22:00.001-05:002010-02-26T23:26:16.920-05:00

So i'm watching the men's 5000M relay. That is a crazy sport. I especially like that instead of a baton, you push your teammate's butt to get them going.  It's just one big melee of men in foam helmets and unitards and butt-shoving.  In High School I struggled with the inherent contradiction of being a musician and a quasi-jock.  My music friends thought sports and my jock friends were stupid,

Matt Beckmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13456454458329538646noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659495032768109462.post-79264866475108733522010-02-26T22:50:00.002-05:002010-02-26T22:52:13.204-05:00

David Soyer, former cellist of the Guarneri String Quartet, passed away yesterday.  He was 87.  In 2001 he left the Guarneris after 37 years, and, as the group's only personnel change, was replaced by his protege Peter Wiley.  It is hard to describe the impact that Mr. Soyer had on the music world as it is today; not only do cellists mourn, but all lovers of classical music share in the void left

Matt Beckmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13456454458329538646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659495032768109462.post-46270944860618294462010-02-10T11:51:00.002-05:002010-02-10T12:21:52.269-05:00

It's snowing hard here in Brooklyn.  I like that. I spent the last week in Miami Beach, playing with the New World Symphony, America's Orchestral Academy.  It was sunny and 80 degrees just about every day, and I even went to the beach (more than once!). Also in Miami last week was the Super Bowl.  Hard to say which had a greater impact on the economy of Miami Beach: me, eating out 3 meals a day,

Matt Beckmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13456454458329538646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659495032768109462.post-83313671251378540782010-01-22T12:37:00.001-05:002010-01-22T12:38:16.073-05:00

Barack Obama has been POTUS for one year and one day.  Hooray!!!!!! It's been a rocky year, and i've tried to stay optimistic about it all, which is becoming harder and harder. Through all this, especially with the results of the MA Senate race of this week, a lot of big questions have come up unanswered. The reasons why I am still largely in support of BO are many: We have a President who does

Matt Beckmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13456454458329538646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659495032768109462.post-14180578192215297952010-01-20T00:06:00.002-05:002010-01-20T11:47:07.327-05:00

Wait a second... For those of you keeping score, it's been the new year for 19 days, and I haven't blogged in much longer than that. What gives? I've been doing lots of cello playing and everything, and sometimes I get into these ruts where I block out the rest of life and go on in a trance practicing and eating and sleeping and whatnot.  I'm waking up, and I think i'll start writing on this

Matt Beckmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13456454458329538646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659495032768109462.post-46668535797188921642009-11-27T12:50:00.001-05:002009-11-27T19:11:35.199-05:00

Recently i've been reading "Silence," a collection of writings and lectures of John Cage, the American avant-garde composer.  Both the title and subtitle come from Cage's well-known "Lecture on Nothing," first delivered in 1950.  Cage's most widely known work is 4'33'', the culmination, if not the epitome of his thought that any sound, or silence, is music.  4'33'' is his most controversial as

Matt Beckmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13456454458329538646noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659495032768109462.post-71830158747997339412009-11-25T10:57:00.000-05:002009-11-25T10:57:06.562-05:00

Remember those two plane tickets which disappeared from my bank statement yesterday? well, they reappeared. turns out I don't know the system all that well. The lady I talked to on the BofA customer service hotline was very nice and explained that, for whatever reason, when you buy something from an Airline, Hotel, or Rental Car company, the initial charge posts, then disappears, then posts again

Matt Beckmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13456454458329538646noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659495032768109462.post-15801033241063519702009-11-24T09:12:00.000-05:002009-11-24T09:12:58.365-05:00

I think it's fitting that this post, for reasons which will soon become obvious, takes place in the Charlotte Airport, where, out a big window, I can see the Bank of America corporate headquarters. Lots of weird things have happened to me in the past 36 hours as I auditioned for the Charlotte Symphony. Full Disclosure: I didn't win. The audition was semi-disappointing, and I have a lot to take

Matt Beckmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13456454458329538646noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659495032768109462.post-79273758124288265592009-11-17T13:56:00.001-05:002009-11-17T13:58:00.014-05:00

Many thanks to Mark Passaro, a dear friend, who turned me on to this.  Vanity Fair has been publishing the Proust Questionnaire of many famous people for the last who-knows-how-long, and on it's website they let you take your own, and see which celebrity you share the most answers with.  I am 93% the same person as Giorgio Armani.  I think the next time i'm on 5th avenue, i'll take this in and

Matt Beckmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13456454458329538646noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659495032768109462.post-71865859155582462692009-11-15T11:52:00.000-05:002009-11-15T11:52:20.416-05:00

I've been out of school for 6 months now.  I went back to Boston earlier this week for a lesson and to grab some things from my old house, and I figure this is a good time for a progress report. Subject: Studio Cello Instructor: Self Grade: C+ Being out of school is much harder than I thought it would be.  My idyllic post-grad school freelance life included the occasional (or more than

Matt Beckmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13456454458329538646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659495032768109462.post-73388051418327835272009-11-10T23:50:00.000-05:002009-11-10T23:50:45.585-05:00

I've been thinking about this topic for a long time and i'll admit I'm having trouble forming coherent thoughts.  It would be nice if I could just create some kind of direct link from my brain to the internet so that my consciousness wouldn't have to be the middle man here.  Straight from brain to blog. Other people do it, obviously--why can't I?  Maybe it's just because I'm new at this. I'll try

Matt Beckmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13456454458329538646noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659495032768109462.post-60005741196292538082009-11-06T22:42:00.001-05:002009-11-08T21:16:49.012-05:00

Today's topic is coffee.  Growing up, my parents drank a lot of coffee.  My dad (a violin maker) probably went through 2 full pots a day at the height of it, and my mom (a violinist) had a few cups throughout the day.  When my brother (once a violinist, now an architect/engineer/acoustician/gourmet) started drinking coffee I thought it was the strangest thing.  It took me a long time to warm up

Matt Beckmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13456454458329538646noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659495032768109462.post-50228063183021775352009-11-05T18:36:00.002-05:002009-11-06T19:41:56.074-05:00

I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while. Yet, i've been plagued by a few questions. First, what's the point? I have enough to worry about as it is, and I don't need one more thing to keep track of. Second, there are plenty of blogs on the internet about people just like me. How will one more blog about a struggling musician in New York City be different? Will I merely add

Matt Beckmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13456454458329538646noreply@blogger.com0