David Byrne reviews Sufjan Stevens.... Things I would do if I could be everywhere at once: attend the Oct. 14 world premiere of Jón Leifs's massive oratorio Edda I in Iceland, seventy years after it was composed.... Matthew Guerrieri digs up the insignia of the Salvador Army's Atonal Quick Reaction Infantry Battalion, and wonders how this outfit got its name. He also notes that Randol Schoenberg, grandson of Arnold, will be very handsomely rewarded for his work in winning back Gustav Klimt's portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer for the Bloch-Bauer family. Cosmic justice at work: his grandfather retired on a UCLA pension of $38 a month and was rejected by the Guggenheim Foundation when he applied for a grant to finish Moses und Aron. I can't resist linking again to Randol's astounding resumé, which contains the phrases "Nazi-looted Picasso painting," "NASCAR reality show," "Music-Related Problems in Combinatorics," and "Charlie Sheen."... Many thanks to all who came out to my New Yorker Festival event last night with Joanna Newsom, Nico Muhly, Corey Dargel, and Mason Bates, and, especially, thanks to the participants. Joanna played "Emily" from her new album Ys, Nadia Sirota and Antony (on tape) performed Nico's Keep in Touch, Corey and his band played "Boy Detective," "Don't Let Me Disappoint You," and "Gay Cowboys," and Isabelle Demers performed Mason's Digital Loom. I liked the fact that the evening ended with Joanna speaking in praise of Judith Tick's biography of Ruth Crawford Seeger.
