Joy to the World: Italian Superstar Peppe Voltarelli
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Joy to the World: Italian Superstar Peppe Voltarelli

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Peppe Voltarelli!

A rather lovely singer named Peppe Voltarelli and his girlfriend, artist Anna Corcione, came from Napoli to the US. They emailed ahead to il famoso scultore Sabin Howard to visit his studio. This is one of the great things about being married to an internationally-known artist: the interesting people who tumble into our lives. I love Peppe’s videos. Check them out.

UNIVERSAL LOVE: David Sklar’s Hit Song for THE LOVE OF MY (OTHER) LIFE
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UNIVERSAL LOVE: David Sklar’s Hit Song for THE LOVE OF MY (OTHER) LIFE

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So my friend, the talented composer David Sklar, loved the original screenplay for THE LOVE OF MY (OTHER) LIFE. He wrote a song for it, UNIVERSAL LOVE. Take a listen, it’s great! Check out David’s website at www.davidsklarmusic.com.

Also: Day 4 of the Blog Tour:  Simpson’s Paradox calls THE LOVE OF MY (OTHER) LIFE a “cute sci-fi romance.” See the review and ebook giveaway here.

Meg, who posted the review, declined to post the cover, saying, “This post is part of The Love of My (Other) Life blog book tour but you do not get any cover art here because it has a butt on the cover, and I don’t want your bookshelf to start getting too promiscuous.” (Which is a sly pun, in the context of her review.)

It’s fine with me if your bookshelf is promiscuous. My bookshelf is an unredeemed slut. Here’s the cover. Enjoy.

 

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Congratulations Taylor Swift: MEAN rocks!!

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Dear Ms. Swift:

You’ve given a voice to all of us who’ve been attacked by petty people. Congratulations on your well deserved Grammys, and on your wonderful performance of the song at the event.

I like your music and I look forward, with pleasure, to watching your career over the years.

“You, with your words like knives and swords and weapons that you use against me
You have knocked me off my feet again got me feeling like I’m nothing
You, with your voice like nails on a chalkboard, calling me out when I’m wounded
You, pickin’ on the weaker man

Well, you can take me down with just one single blow
But you don’t know what you don’t know

Someday I’ll be living in a big old city
And all you’re ever gonna be is mean
Someday I’ll be big enough so you can’t hit me
And all you’re ever gonna be is mean

Why you gotta be so mean?
You, with your switching sides and your walk-by lies and your humiliation
You, have pointed out my flaws again as if I don’t already see them
I’ll walk with my head down trying to block you out ’cause I’ll never impress you
I just wanna feel okay again


But all you are is mean
All you are is mean and a liar and pathetic and alone in life
And mean, and mean, and mean, and mean“

Valentine’s Day Concert at Gallery 300
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Valentine’s Day Concert at Gallery 300

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Valentine’s Day Concert

SABIN HOWARD SCULPTURE PRESENTS

 

VALENTINE’S DAY CONCERT

GALLERY300 (300 west 22nd street)

917 327 5714

JOHN LINK

Monday, February 14

7:00-8:00 p.m.

Playing arrangements of preludes by Frédéric Chopin

and

Beatles love songs

The performance will take place among the inspiring sculpture of Sabin Howard, including his latest life-size works, Apollo and Aphrodite.

www.sabinhoward.com

To pay in advance, go to https://www.paypal.com and send your payment to johnlink@nyc.rr.com, or send a check made out to JOHN LINK to the following address:

John Link

141 West 26th Street, 3rd Floor

New York, NY 10001

In advance: $10, children 9 and under $5

At the door: $12, children 9 and under $

SONOS fills the home with music
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SONOS fills the home with music

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Over the course of what felt like a particularly dreary and inelegant winter, I fell in love: with Mozart.

The gifted and lovely psychic Mary T. Browne advised me to listen to Mozart. Classical music had been only a distant interest, sparked mostly by watching dance performances. But, trusting the ineluctable Ms. Browne, I played Mozart.
The more I listened, the more I was entranced. The music has a balancing, peaceful effect, a sweet joy that’s a welcome surcease from the heartache of watching a 15 year old go off the rails, and listening to the self-righteous rantings of an ungrateful 19 year old. “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child,” wrote Shakespeare, in King Lear. And how right that master of human psychology was, whether the Bard really was Anne Hathaway’s husband, or he was Francis Bacon or Christopher Marlowe.
The point isn’t that everything important or meaningful about the human condition is found in Shakespeare, though that is true. The point is that the Andante in C major for Flute and Orchestra, K 315, makes my life better.
So I experimented with ways to imbue my home with music. The Apple wireless system with Airport worked well, and the app REMOTE on my iPhone controlled the system nicely. But I decided I wanted a more integrated look, feel, and sound, rather than having a Bose speaker in the dining room and a Sony speaker in the bedroom.
Ecco, SONOS. The Bridge plugs into my airport extreme and transmits to all the S5 players throughout the apartment. The speakers have good quality sound. The SONOS controller downloaded perfectly to my iMac, and the Sonos app to my iPhone, so I can DJ the music even from the bathroom. As for volume: it cranks!
We’ve discovered Pandora radio and Rhapsody. My husband Sabin, whose grandfather was a concert pianist and whose musical taste is more complex than mine, has his three favorite stations: Spanish Guitar radio, AC/DC, and Dvorak. My wild thing 15 year old daughter plays Glee Cast and Sexy Bitch radio. For my little one, there’s the Magic Kingdoms and Small Worlds station on Rhapsody. I have, okay, no scoffing, Rod Stewart radio, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart radio, and my Yoga playlist which includes Krishna Das, Cynthia Snodgrass, Deva Premal, a rockin’ Halleluya by Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, and some lush renditions of mantras like the great Om Tryambakam.
The Sonos system isn’t cheap, but it works well. There are a few glitches. Occasionally the music drops. Usually that’s a quick fix by switching channels in the control panel. I initially ordered four S5 units from the company; three arrived, and one showed up in Memphis as an empty box. Sonos was nice enough about it, but they wanted me to wait for the investigation to unfold. They weren’t altogether pleased when I articulated my belief that the empty box wasn’t my problem and I wanted another unit shipped to me pronto. To their credit, they did ship the replacement unit pronto, at great effort to themselves.
So “if music be the food of love, play on,” and fill my home with love!