Muse a toast to Vermeer

I've never met Ektoras Binikos, but his cocktail recipes have been intriguing me for many a year, and I'm sure that you, too, would be pretty fascinated by a guy who tried to incorporate dried blood into a cocktail.
The people who hired him to create the drink wouldn't allow the blood, so he tried to add some tears - a specific woman's tears, of course - to the drink, but they didn't go for that, either. It was back to the drawing board.
Ektoras is a Greek born artist who tends bar in New York City, and any decent search engine will lead you to sites where his work is on display. I'm particularly fond of his video, "Explaining an Image to a Stuffed Hare (After Joseph Beuys)," though I'm sure it's not to everyone's taste.
The "blood and tears" drink was created for the 60th birthday party of performance artist Marina Abramovic. She's a woman who is fond, it seems, of freezing herself onstage, and she incorporates other acts of self mutilation into her art form, too. It's not actually my cup of tea, but the world would be oh-so-boring if people like this weren't among us, right?
Being denied permission to use human body fluids in his drink, Ektoras went for cayenne pepper, instead. Good choice, right? But this wasn't any old cayenne pepper. It was cayenne pepper that Abramovic had placed under her pillow and slept on for seven nights, "so that it would absorb her auratic energy," he told me.
The birthday party was a big hit. People such as Lou Reed and David Byrne turned out for the event - it was held at the Guggenheim Museum in New York a few years ago - and Binikos' cocktail was a big hit, too. "As everyone toasted her, a strong auratic energy vibration simultaneously connected Marina with everyone in the room," he said.
More currently, Binikos sent me a recipe for a drink that he calls the Milkmaid. He created it to celebrate the painting of the same name by Johannes Vermeer. There's no milk in Biniko's Milkmaid cocktail, and there's no bread pudding in there, either - the maid in the painting is sometimes thought to be making that dessert - but there's an ounce of geneva from the Netherlands in there, so the ever-so-Dutch Vermeer would probably approve.
Although you'll have to go to the bother of making a citrus-mint syrup to make this baby, give thanks for the fact that you don't have to track down Marina Abramovic so you can persuade her to sleep on some cayenne pepper for you.

'Camera's Muse' at Mitchell Gallery

"The Camera's Muse: Photographic Portraits from the Collection of Robert M. Infarinato" - 40 black-and-white portraits, many by acclaimed photographers including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Arnold Newman, Ansel Adams, Alfred Eisenstaedt and Ruth Bernhard - is on view starting Nov. 1 at the Mitchell Gallery at St. John's College.
An interpretative reading, opening reception and family program will be held Nov. 1, beginning at 2:30 p.m. with an exhibit related presentation by Annapolis actor, writer and musician Tim King and musician John Starr. From 3:30 to 5 p.m., art educator Lucinda Edinberg and collector Robert Infarinato will co lead a tour of the exhibit, which will be followed by a hands on workshop.
Infarinato began collecting photographic portraits in 1984. His personal collection now consists of some 200 portraits and includes many of well-known artists such as Duke Ellington, Pablo Picasso, Carl Sandburg, Georgia O'Keefe and Alberto Giacometti.
His collection includes portraits that capture well-known artists in private moments. For instance, Infarinato describes one of his numerous jazz portraits: "Duke Ellington is seated on a piano bench in his dressing room, looking away from the piano and music. There's a closet full of suits, his desk is covered with his personal effects, a tie hanging down a lamp, and things are all over the place. This is his space. He is taking a moment to smile for someone who is in his dressing room. He's all about the music ...
He'd take a piece of new music on to the stage and say, 'OK let's play it.' This image evokes him and his world."
Another photo, of Alberto Giacometti taken by his good friend Henri Cartier-Bresson, shows a gallery space. "There are two statues of human figures: the one on the left is bent. The one on the right in the back is totally erect. Giacometti is walking between them, carrying another statue.
He is bent over, with a cigarette in his mouth, in a similar stance to the statue on the left. This is a man in his milieu. He is not working on a sculpture. He is a sculpture."
When describing his collection Infarinato says, "These are 'situational photos' ... I look for something that reflects some aspect of the person, more than a headshot. I look for context. It doesn't matter if the person is famous or not famous. The person in the photo may be unknown and the photographer may be a great. Or perhaps the image itself is well-known and the subject is not recognized, and may never be seen again. In the fabric of life the subject wouldn't stand out, but as a portrait it does."
The exhibit is on view through Dec. 17.

'I Belong To You' For 'New Moon' Muse Were Happy To Rock

Whether they wanted to or not, Muse have pretty much established themselves as the resident Twilight band. After being frequently shouted out by author Stephenie Meyer, the British rockers' "Supermassive Black Hole" was featured on the soundtrack to the first film. It surprised absolutely no one that they were asked to record a song for the second flick in the franchise, New Moon, but the band is pretty flattered to be the only artists to appear on both discs. "It might be something to do with Stephenie Meyer and that she loves us," drummer Dominic Howard told MTV News. "We met her quite awhile ago in Phoenix - it was before Twilight came out. She's a very nice lady and talked about how she listens to our music as she writes her books. This is all way before it turned into this huge success that it is, before everyone went vampire nuts." But now that everyone has gone "vampire nuts," Howard says they're happy to benefit from the extra exposure. "I think our music has reached out to whole loads of new people that haven't heard us before," he said. "It's great to know that people are discovering our music. It's a nice side project to be involved in."Muse originally recorded the piano ballad "I Belong to You" for their latest album, The Resistance. But just as that album came out, the brain trust behind the Twilight flicks asked them to rework the track for New Moon."I know the director [Chris Weitz] really, really liked that track," Howard said. "He actually wanted to get it into a scene somewhere, but they wanted a slightly change vibe of what was already recorded for the album."So, they headed back into the studio, and Howard said he's quite pleased with the results. "It's a bit more rock in some ways," he said. "We rocked it up a bit and put some guitars on it and did an alternative mix."Although Muse will soon be heading out on a tour, Howard said they might be able to fit the film's premiere into their schedules. "I think we got invited to the premiere, which might be in London the day before one of our shows in London," he said. "I liked the first one. I thought it was quite cool. I thought it was quite raw as well."

Muse Announces Receptor 2 Gets Solid State Drive

Muse Research and Development, Inc. is debuting a new Solid Sate Drive (SSD) technology option for the esteemed RECEPTOR 2 PRO line of hardware plug in players at the 127th AES show in New York City. SSD dramatically increases the data throughput of the RECEPTOR 2 PRO and PRO MAX for greater polyphony and lower latency, as well as increasing the ruggedness of an already robust design by replacing the traditional rotating hard drive with solid state drive technology with no moving parts.
The SSD option is available on either the RECEPTOR 2 PRO or RECEPTOR 2 PRO MAX models, and offers either 128GB or 256GB of storage. These new storage devices dramatically enhance the performance of the already impressive RECEPTOR 2 pro or PRO MAX by increasing the speed at which data is read from the drive by a factor of up to 5 when compared with a standard hard drive mechanism. The result is a dramatic increase in polyphony, along with reduced boot time, faster sample loading, and the ability to run some sample-based programs at much lower latency settings

Rises Again Muse

Matthew Bellamy is unstoppable. By now, even he must know it. Of course, we're not living in Europe, so our faithful readers might not yet be familiar with the name. Key word: yet. The cyrrent release of The Resistance means that Bellamy is on the fast track to becoming a household name or perhaps we should be referring to him with his more recognized moniker: Muse. I don't mean to take away from the other two thirds of the English rock band, bassist Christopher Wolstenholme and drummer Dominic Howard. Both are masterful musicians in their own right who are not (entirely) dispensable. But let's face it: Bellamy, with his powerful pipes, fluid piano and guitar work, and, most importantly, writing credits (that's right…on every single song) should feel free to lay claim to any praise bestowed on the name of Muse.The previous two albums, Absolution and Black Holes and Revelations, quite firmly established their style within the realm of progressive rock so that upon hearing that passionate vocal range, pounding beats, and dramatic compositions, there was no doubt that we were experiencing Muse. The Resistance does not offer much more in the way of style. Although I would have liked for them to tread some slightly more radical grounds, fortunately there is no disappointingly jarring shift we see too often in artists trying to experiment with sounds (see Chris Cornell's Timbaland-produced 2009 album, Scream).The Resistance makes up for this possible repetitiveness in pure ambition. Muse has always been nothing short of what can only be called epic. The last album obviously didn't cut it for them, because Muse ups the drama and widens their scope, bringing us an album worthy of singing Beowulf to. As if to show off his cultured knowledge of music, Bellamy features an excerpt from Frederic Chopin's Nocturne in E-Flat, Op. 9 No. 2 in the track titled "United States of Eurasia/Collateral Damage." He also rearranged parts of "Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix" from Camille Saint-Saens opera "Samson and Delilah" for the track "I Belong to You." Yeah, I don't know what those are either, but they sure sound sophisticated.

Muse (EW RELEASES)

Muse¡s music has always lent itself well to stomping around like a badass. This would explain why the first half of their latest album, The Resistance, would have been perfect runway music for the current fashion weeks in Paris and Milan. The band sets off the plaintive wail of lead singer Matthew Bellamy with full, pulsing instrumentals that, as the album progresses, grow increasingly operatic and orchestral. This crescendo of heightened musicality reveals the ambition behind this offering (look the last three tracks, which make up a tripartite symphony called, of all things, Exogenesis). Aspiring to such lofty results comes with mixed success, as the best tracks definitely come early, like Resistance and the very Depeche Mode Undisclosed Desires. Still, the band deserves applause for its serious efforts, which show that without a doubt, Muse could never be content with offering its acolytes the status quo.

By Hannah Bae

Muse

The Resistance¡±

Label: Warner Bros.

Genre: Rock

Muse will play these show shedule

Muse will play these shows in support of The Resistance:

Oct. 3 Raleigh, NC @ Carter-Finley Stadium w/ U2

Oct. 6 Atlanta, GA @ Georgia Dome w/ U2

Oct. 9 Tampa, FL @ Raymond James Stadium w/ U2

Oct. 12 Arlington, TX @ Dallas Cowboys New Stadium w/ U2

Oct. 22 Helsinki, Finland @ Hartwall Arena

Oct. 24 Stockholm, Sweden @ Hovet

Oct. 25 Oslo, Norway @ Spektrum Arena

Oct. 26 Copenhagen, Denmark @ Parken

Oct. 28 Hamburg, Germany @ Color Line Arena

Oct. 29 Berlin, Germany @ O2 World

Oct. 31 Lievin, France @ Stade Couvert Reional

Nov. 1 Amneville, France @ Le Galaxie

Nov. 2 Antwerp, Belgium @ Sportspaleis

Nov. 4 Sheffield, England @ Sheffield Arena

Nov. 5 Liverpool, England @ Echo Arena

Nov. 6 Dublin, Ireland @ O2 Depot

Nov. 9 Glasgow, Scotland @ Scottish Exhibition & Conference Centre

Nov. 10 Birmingham, England @ National Indoor Arena

Nov. 12-13 London, England @ O2 Arena

Nov. 14 Rotterdam, Netherlands @ Ahoy Sportspaleis

Nov. 16 Cologne, Germany @ Lanxess Arena

Nov. 17 Paris, France @ Le Bercy

Nov. 18 Zurich, Switzerland @ Hallenstadion

Nov. 20 Munich, Germany @ Olympiahalle
Nov. 21 Bologna, Italy @ Futurshow Station

Nov. 22 Lyon, France @ Halle Tony Garnier
Nov. 25 Toulouse, France @ Le Zenith

Nov. 27 Barcelona, Spain @ Pavello Olimpic
Nov. 28 Madrid, Spain @ Palacio De Deportes De La Comunidad De Madrid
Nov. 29 Lisbon, Portugal @ Atlantico Pavilhao
Dec. 1 Limoges, France @ Zenith

Dec. 2 Dijon, France @ Zenith

Dec. 4 Turin, Italy @ Pala Olimpico

Lily Allen Top Big Day Out Lineup, Muse

British alternative rock trio Muse, pop artist Lily Allen and returning local heroes Powderfinger are booked to play the 2010 Big Day Out festival tour of Australia and New Zealand. Others confirmed by arranger today (Sept. 29) for the line up include British electronica acts Groove Armada and Calvin Harris, swaggering Brit rockers Kasabian, alt-rock band the Horrors, rapper Dizzee Rascal and rising local artists Ladyhawke, Lisa Mitchell and the Temper Trap. But there was no space on today's announcement for David Bowie, who had been widely tipped by bloggers to gig down under for an acoustic performance. Now entering its 18th run, the Big Day Out is the largest outdoor music event of its kind in Australia. Attendance for the six-date 2009 edition reached 263,054, down slightly from the all time peak of 282,692 for the 2008 tour.The BDO 2010 kicks off Jan. 15 at Auckland's Mt Smart Stadium, before moving on to venues at the Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and concluding Jan. 31 at Perth's Claremont Showground. Tickets will be priced at $140 Australian ($100) for the Australian dates and $132 New Zealand ($92) for the Auckland event.

Debuts At Top Of Euro Chart

British rock band Muse goes straight to No. 1 on Billboard's European Top 100 Albums with its fifth album "The Resistance" (Helium 3/Warner Music). David Guetta's "Sexy Chick" (Gum/Positiva/Virgin/EMI), featuring Akon, withstands the challenge of Madonna's "Celebration" (Warner Bros.) to start a third week atop European Hot 100 Singles.The Muse album goes straight to the top in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Ireland, Norway and Switzerland. Outside Europe, it tops the charts in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Korea and Mexico, in addition to a career-best No. 3 debut on the Billboard 200. Across Europe, the No. 1 rankings in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Italy and Norway are Muse's first in those markets.In the United Kingdom, the album's first week generated 148,000 sales, the highest weekly tally there for a British act this year, and well up on the 115,000 for Muse's 2006 predecessor "Black Holes and Revelations." Matthieu Lauriot-Prevost, SVP, international marketing, Warner Music, tells Billboard that the album "has taken Muse's popularity to the next level. There's a palpable sense of genuine excitement amongst both their long-term following and the newer fans."Mark Knopfler's "Get Lucky" (Mercury/Universal) also makes a confident start, at No. 2 overall. U.K. sales of 14,000 take it to No. 9 there, and it's new at No. 2 in Germany, Italy, Norway and Denmark, No. 3 in Holland, No. 4 in Spain, No. 5 in Switzerland, No. 6 in Sweden, No. 9 in Portugal and No. 10 in France. Knopfler's last studio set "Kill To Get Crimson" also debuted at No. 2 on the collective chart in 2007.Whitney Houston's "I Look to You" (Arista/RCA/Sony Music Entertainment), which fell 1-2 overall last week, dips again to No. 3, while last week's leader on Top 100 Albums, Guetta's "One Love," is down to No. 4.Two more heavyweight debuts are next on the composite chart: Jay-Z's "The Blueprint III" (Roc Nation/Warner Music) at No. 5 and Nelly Furtado's "Mi Plan" (Nelstar/Universal Music Latino) at No. 6. Jay-Z's album starts at No. 3 in Ireland and a career-best No. 4 in the United Kingdom, on sales of 38,000. Furtado's new entries include No. 3 in Switzerland, No. 5 in Germany, No. 6 in Austria and No. 8 in Spain.Black Eyed Peas' "The E.N.D. (The Energy Never Dies)" (Interscope/Universal), now in its 15th week on the aggregate survey, falls 6-7. Two albums in Apple/EMI's Beatles remasters campaign are up into the top ten: "Abbey Road" 12-8 and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 13-10. Michael Jackson is down 5-9 with "King of Pop" (Epic/Sony Music Entertainment)."Sexy Chick" continues to rule the European Hot 100 ahead of a 12-2 climb for the Madonna single. Shakira's "She Wolf" (Sony Music Latin/Epic) is up 8-4 and Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" rebounds 30-5 thanks to a No. 3 debut in Germany.

second Twilight film, Muse remixes song

London (ANI): British alternative rock band Muse is set to be one of the bands contributing to the soundtrack of New Moon, the second film in the Twilight series. The band, from Devon, have remixed a song off their latest album 'The Resistance', called 'I Belong To You', for the soundtrack, reports the BBC.
The soundtrack will be released on October 19, a month before the film. Included in it are The Killers (A White Demon Love Song) and Radiohead's Thom Yorke (Hearing Damage), who have written brand new tunes. Other artists who've contributed include Editors, Lykke Li, and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Death Cab for Cutie song Meet Me On The Equinox is the title track to the film, and it was Zane Lowe's hottest record in the world on his Radio 1 show last week. The first Twilight soundtrack has sold more than 170,000 copies in the UK so far and more than 3.5 million copies worldwide.

The full track listing is:

1. Death Cab for Cutie Meet Me On the Equinox

2. Band of Skulls Friends

3. Thom Yorke - Hearing Damage

4. Lykke Li - Possibility

5. The Killers - A White Demon Love Song

6. Anya Marina - Satellite Heart

7. Muse - I Belong To You (New Moon Remix)

8. Bon Iver & St. Vincent - Rosyln

9. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Done All Wrong

10. Hurricane Bells - Monsters

11. Sea Wolf - The Violet Hour

12. OK Go - Shooting the Moon

13. Grizzly Bear - Slow Life

14. Editors - No Sound But the Wind

15. Alexandre Desplat - New Moon (The Meadow)

UK charts to Muse's new album proves irresistible

LONDON (Reuters) British rock band Muse shot straight to the top of the UK album charts with their new release "The Resistance" outselling the next three top albums combined, the Official Charts Company said on Sunday.
British World War Two armed forces' sweetheart Vera Lynn, who last week became the oldest living artist to have a number one album, dropped a place to number two with "We'll Meet Again," a collection of her best known songs.
That meant singer Peter Andre, whose marriage break up with glamour model Katie Price, has dominated tabloid newspapers in current weeks, had to settle for third place with his new release "Revelation."
U.S. rapper Jay-Z was another new entry in fourth with "The Blueprint 3," while singer-songwriter David Gray's "Draw The Line" went into the charts in fifth place.
In the singles chart, Taio Cruz, whose writing and production talents have been used by the likes of Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and the Pussycat Dolls, debuted in top spot with "Break Your Heart."
David Guetta featuring Akon stayed in second place with "Sexy Chick," while Madonna was a new entry in third with "Celebration."
Jay-Z featuring Rihanna and Kanye West remained in fourth with "Run This Town," with "She Wolf" by Shakira climbing 20 places to fifth.

'The Resistance' Muse, Album review

This over the top English trio has long played to smaller audiences in the United States than it does throughout Europe, where Muse is considered among the biggest rock bands on Earth. (In 2007 it played two sold out shows at London's 75,000 capacity Wembley Stadium.Yet singer-guitarist Matt Bellamy, bassist Chris Wolstenholme and drummer Dominic Howard received a considerable encouragement on these shores last year when their song "Supermassive Black Hole" was featured conspicuously in the hit movie "Twilight." And last week came news that "Uprising," the lead single from the band's fifth full length, had topped the U.S. alternative rock radio chart.In some ways, "The Resistance" seems designed for an American breakthrough: "Undisclosed Desires" rides a lithe R&B groove that could've come from a song by Nelly Furtado, while "Uprising" finds Bellamy sympathizing with folks who consider themselves victims of Wall Street greed. Over a thumping disco glam beat he sneers, "It's time the fat cats had a heart attack," a line that's probable to draw a huge reaction later this month when Muse opens a string of U2 shows on the East Coast and in Texas.On the other hand, much of "The Resistance" reflects how uninterested the members of Muse are in dialing down their appealing flamboyance to attract Daughtry and Nickelback fans. That arty intransigence often improves the band's music, as in "United States of Eurasia," which proceeds from a pretty piano ballad intro to an Arabian accented orchestral rock climax.Occasionally, though, it can make Bellamy and his bandmates sound like the world's most successful sourpusses. You don't have to make it all the way through "Exogenesis," the three part symphony that closes the new album, before you start hankering for a Nickelback style chorus.
Mikael Wood
Muse "The Resistance" Warner Bros. Two and a half stars

Muse: 'would say yes' to Bond song

Rock band Muse have said they would be keen to record the theme for the next James Bond film.
"It's something we'd probably say yes to, or at least give it a good go," drummer Dom Howard told the BBC.
The new Muse album The Resistance, released this week, sees the band blending their stadium rock sound with strings and opera.
"Certainly some of our music fits with the James Bond vibe and I think it could work," Howard said.
Dom Howard talks Vera Lynn and James Bond
Daniel Craig is due to return as James Bond in the 23rd adventure of the series, although no production date has been announced.
The last James Bond theme Another Way to Die was recorded by Jack White and Alicia Keys.
Duran Duran were the last British band to record the Bond theme, more than 20 years ago, for 1985's A View To a Kill.
"The last few have been pretty good," said Howard. "But I think we could do a good job.

Alicia Keys and Jack White performed the theme song for Quantum of Solace
"United States of Eurasia (from new album) could have worked but it's probably a bit late for that now."
He added that bassist Chris Wolstenholme was a big Bond fan.
Orchestral symphony
The Resistance is the follow up to 2006's Black Holes And Revelations and features a three part orchestral symphony called Exogenesis.
So would Muse consider writing a full film score?
"Matt 9Bellamy) did the end credits for a film called The International," said Howard. "It's not something we've done as a band, but we sometimes get asked for that kind of thing.
"It's a bit weird in the Hollywood world, because you spend a lot time being told what to do and that's a bit of a pain because we like to do what we want.
"So, I think if you can find a director you can acually relate to, and it's a great film, and you know you can work well together, then it could be a possibility."

The Resistance reviewed Muse's

On The Resistance, Muse's fifth album, the band go big. A shocker, right? Not really. Since they first appeared as vague Radioheaders with 1999's Showbiz, it was appartend that grand schemes and notions of musical grandeur danced in the band's collective head.
Now those dreams are made manifest: Muse have grown up, grown into their appetite, and they create the sort of bombast that makes 'bombast' a much less deformed word.
Early into the recording, maverick guitarist and musical redical Matthew Bellamy hinted that The Resistance would be "orchestral" and "classical," sending shivers down many a spine. Would Muse lapse into a cringe inducing, ego inflated ELP/Rick Wakeman prog odyssey?
The good news is, not difficultly. Sure, Muse want to impress us, but more than that, and more significantly, they want us to feel. And because that impulse is so genuine driven most critically by frontman Bellamy, who writes the bulk of the material we do feel. In this day and age, that's saying something.
Bellamy has all of his authority lined up like ducks in a row here. There's Berlioz and Lizst, and a whiff of Rachmaninoff for nice measure. Chopin he virtually name checks, having included a passage from Nocturne In E-Flat Major in the shameless Queen tribute United States Of Eurasia. The same goes for opera I Belong To You features parts from Samson And Delilah.
But we also catch some Debussy and Gershwin (intentional?), along with an overall framework that recalls the epic theatre of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.
OK, you're scared, right? Don't be. On first listen, The Resistance is a masterwork that offers plenty of aural thrills. Bellamy's Manson guitars are locked on 'stun' throughout, although we do have a artifice, and it's a major one: He's a bit of a tease.
Every time Bellamy launches into a mind melting or soul magnifying solo, he pulls back, as if to say, "That's enough." This can be annoying since too much of a good thing is a great thing, and not enough of a good thing is a cheat.
That's the problem when you want to cram so much music into each song something's gotta give. Bellamy's a modern day rock god shred king, right up there with the best of them. On The Resistance, when he should let us bathe and luxuriate in his six string triumphs, he gives us brief, refreshing showers.