Rambling
My morning ritual includes perusing the online version of The Saratogian, our local newspaper. Most mornings, the headlines are titillating tidbits of provincial poop, like “Gina’s Gelato moves to site of Turkish Treats on Broadway”, “Turkish Treats to occupy former Only Olive Oil store”, “Only Olive Oil store owner greases palms of zoning board members, gets banned from Broadway”, and so forth.
But today there is a headline that catches my eye: “Superstar cellist Johannes Moser to make SPAC debut.” Superstar cellist? Brazen. I click to read more, especially since there are photos and video to go along with this article, and I think that there must be footage of this rogue classicist doing windmill arms as he holds his cello like a Gibson guitar. Well, there’s none of that, and to further deflate things, the article starts out with: “German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser, hailed by Gramophone magazine…” German-Canadian? Gramophone magazine? Thbbbb (the sound I make with my tongue sticking out).
While The Saratogian has succeeded in losing my interest, I am still piqued by this “superstar” claim, and so Google this up-and-comer.
Va-va-va-voom.
And his website header imagery? Think “Calvin Klein meets off-brand Axe body spray”. This is a good thing. Just enough “voom”, and still sufficient amount of “approachable nerd”.
I hop over to Spotify, and search for Herr/Monsieur Moser. I am happy to find a bunch of albums, most with incredibly appealing covers (kudos to this lad’s handlers), and create a sublime playlist, making his music the soundtrack for my workday.
I don’t know if “superstar” is an apt descriptive for this fellow (or anyone in the classical music world, except that wacky Amadeus composer bloke). But from his website and blog, it’s clear that Johannes (“JMo”) has some stellar qualities: He can really pull off wearing purple shirts; he appreciates Monty Python humor; he reads books; and he is on a mission to make classical music cool with kids. Sa-weet.
So, thank you, Saratogian. This time, the headline “clicked”. And thank you, too, SPAC, where you will surely find me on August 4th and 5th.
Rock on, JMo.
ramblings & roasts 