My entourage tears up Colbert's green room.
Tom Stoppard has my book in his satchel. I've been nominated for the Bloggies. And, believe it or not, I'm scheduled to appear tonight on The Colbert Report. Though I can't rival Carl Wilson, whose (brilliant) book Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste has ended up in the Hands of Obama.
For those visiting this site for the first time, no, I'm not that Alex Ross. Here's a description of the book, here is related audio, and this essay explains what I'm about. I also like popular music. For iTunes I've made a personal playlist of favorite music.
Update: I survived Colbert. I was initially terrified — it felt like being the nerd in high school all over again — but I ended up having fun. The host knew a lot more about music than his onscreen character allowed him to show. Because a Jon Stewart routine earlier in the program ran long, some of our dialogue was cut, including, alas, an exchange about Stockhausen. It went something like this:
ROSS: ... and the Beatles were listening to avant-garde works by John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen, and ended up putting Stockhausen's face on the cover of Sgt. Peppers.
COLBERT: OK, but I’ve never heard of this guy Stockhausen.
ROSS: He believed he was from the star Sirius.
COLBERT: The dog star.
ROSS: He recently died — he’s on his way back to Sirius.
COLBERT: It sounds like some kind of cult.
Needless to say, I'm very grateful to Colbert for giving attention to my book, and to classical music in general.
