Major orchestras around the country have several positions for musicans open. These seats tend to stay unfilled for long periods of time for several reasons. It’s cheaper to pay a substitute than hire a permanent replacement so there’s no financial incentive to hire quickly. There have been several musical director transitions and outgoing directors will let their successors fill the spots. And the multiple steps of the audition process combined with the busy schedules of the committee and director make for lengthy selections.  It’s nice to know there are well paying (six figures!) jobs for classical musicians out there, if only they could just get hired.

Filed under “Questions I Wish I Hadn’t Asked”: is there a Hello Kitty theme park?  Answer: Harmonyland in Kyushu, Japan.  Featuring Lovely Angel Coaster of Hello Kitty and The Time-machine of Dreams (with seats that give off scent!).  Plenty of pink shopping of course.  There’s also Sanrio Puroland in Tokyo.

In summertime, in the height of the movie season, the thoughts of nostalgic types at certain news outlets turn to the drive-in theater, a venue type that still hangs on, barely, in our HDTV, IMAX 3-D world.  The Seattle Times ran a piece on the remaining seven drive-in theaters in Washington.  In Pennsylvania the Palace Gardens Drive-In is celebrating its 60th anniversary.  Long ago they used to run “all-nighters” with movies until dawn.  The local paper in Milford, Massachusetts interviewed residents who remember fun nights watching from the car with dates or with the kids.  At the one remaining drive-in in New Jersey, the owner has just instituted a “trunk check” policy after noticing that parents have been hiding their kids in the back (seems to me this practice has been around long enough for this new rule to be prompted by the economy rather than safety as the owner claims, but perhaps the parents are also being more economical these days).  Some drive-in related websites: United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association (they list places for sale if you’re interested), Drive-In Theater, Drive-Ins.com and DriveinMovie.com.

It’s not open to the public, but employees and official visitors can enter a small museum at headquarters that houses “a remarkable collection of tools and artifacts used by the Secret Service and its foes.”  The archive includes many counterfeit $100 bills, weapons, and the window with a bullet hole from President Reagan’s limo.

It was kind of the N.Y. Times to throw David Bowie fans a little bone at the very end of their profile of his wife Iman. Bowie’s last tour was cut short in 2004 when he underwent emergency angioplasty.  He’s performed a few times since then, but there are no albums or tours in the works.  He tells the Times  “And I’m not thinking of touring. I’m comfortable.”  He’s continuing his hobbies of painting and art collecting.  He joined Iman at the CFDA Awards on Monday where she received the Fashion Icon Award.

Peter Gabriel has joined the campaign to save Woolley Valley near Bath, Somerset in England. The valley, which sits beneath the hill that inspired his song “Solsbury Hill,” is being developed by a farming company to raise chickens and alpacas. The company points out that proper farming of the land will preserve it, but the work includes adding animal sheds, access roads, also cutting hedgerows and draining wet areas. Those opposed wish the landscape to stay unspoilt.

I remember turning around in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and unexpectedly coming face-to-profile with “Whistler’s Mother,” a painting I thought would be residing in the United States. But there it was amongst a wealth of French paintings, frame after frame of the greatest hits from the impressionist and post-impressionist periods. The museum is undergoing a renovation and selections from the collection are on two tours, both stopping in San Francisco.  Right now, the de Young Museum is hosting “Birth of Impressionism” through September 6th.  Soon after, the post-impressionists get their turn. It’s “a masterpiece everywhere you turn”, and Whistler’s mom gets to see her home country.

From the NASA History Office, a pdf list of every known astronaut wake up call song. It begins with Gemini 6 and “Hello Dolly” and includes the morning songs sent to the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars. David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” is listed only twice (and the second is in a medley). Elton John’s “Rocket Man” is listed four times (twice in medleys).

On the 30th anniversary of Ian Curtis’ death, KEXP DJ John Richards played a chronological history of the Joy Division music scene starting in 1976.  I’ve captured the playlist.  Book-ended with “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, the set featured multiple songs from David Bowie, Iggy Pop, the Ramones, Blondie, The Clash, The Cure, The Jam, Elvis Costello & the Attractions, singles from several other groups, and 15 from Joy Division including the last song of Curtis’ final gig in 1980.  Curtis had listened to Iggy Pop’s “The Idiot” right before his suicide, so Richards added a song from that album as the penultimate and only non-chronological entry in the tribute (other than the opener).  (previously: KEXP Tribute to John Hughes)

Disneyland is a busy place after hours. 600 late night maintenance workers clean up after park visitors, scrape gum off of sidewalks and benches, touch up wear and tear, repair mechanical attractions, and weed the gardens.  Security workers check the usual hiding spots for guests who’ve decided to spend the night.  An estimated 200 cats who have moved in over the years come out of hiding and help manage the rodent population (presumably overlooking any presence of Mickey and Minnie). Disney workers have set up feeding stations for the cats and take steps to keep the population under control. After the streets are clean and the sun rises, the rope drops and the crowds enter to start the cycle again.