Michael Brecker, who had been sick with a particularly complex form of cancer, died today. He won Grammys, played with Joni Mitchell, Horace Silver, and a slew of other jazz and rock musicians.

He had just finished an album two weeks ago. We'll eagerly wait its release.

YouTube, as always at these times, has been flooded with Brecker clips. This one's my favorite so far, a slashing performance of "Madame Toulouse."

Sirius will mark James Levine's 35th anniversary at the Metropolitan Opera with a week of broadcasts from 1973 to 2005.

If you've got Sirius, click on over to Met radio, channel 85, starting on January 15.

Among the highlights:

Rossini's "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" from 1973 with Marilyn Horne, "Cosi fan tutte" with Cecilia Bartoli, and a complete Ring Cycle.

This is sort of outside my bailiwick, but it's also too bizarre - and terrible sounding - to avoid. Perry Farrell, late of Jane's Addiction, has a new group, Satellite Party, which will put out on an album in May.

We'll let the press release do the rest of the talking.

"Blending sounds as varied as rock, electro, urban beats and symphony, Farrell enlisted guitar virtuoso Nuno Bettencourt with new musicians Kevin Figueiredo on drums, Etty Lau Farrell on background vocals and Carl Restivo on bass. The album, produced by Farrell, co-produded by Nuno Bettencourt and executive produced by Steve Lillywhite, features a host of guests participating in the recording, including The Red Hot Chili Peppers Flea and John Frusciante, UK production duo/beat-makers Hybrid, New Order/ Joy Division bassist Peter Hook, down tempo pioneers Thievery Corporation, Porno for Pyros' guitarist Peter DiStefano, Black Eyed Pea's Fergie, film composer Harry Gregson-Williams (Chronicles of Narnia, Kingdom of Heaven), and a 30-piece orchestra.

One of the album's highlights features an unreleased Jim Morrison vocal track, the first unheard Morrison performance in almost 30 years. Entitled "Woman In The Window," Morrison sings against a backdrop of Farrell's music, "Just try and stop us, we're going to love" before the song culminates with an elegant piano outro. Farrell calls the track the mantra of The Solutionists. Other tracks include the "Wish Upon A Dog Star," which is also the album's first single, "Kinky," and "Celebrate," a Sly Stone-like groove marrying calypso and disco. Farrell also shows his softer side on the tender "Awesome," written about seeing the world from the heavens, which marries David Bowie-esque vocals with the understated beauty of Nick Drake."

Poor Suisan. She wants to take her daughter to the art museum. And all her mother wants to do is see the Titanic (below) exhibition. God. And she can't stop talking about Boston. Never mind that they're in San Francisco. It's Peabody Essex this, MFA that.

Wait. Why am I trying to tell this? Suisan can do it so much better.

Grudge Match 1
Grudge Match 2

I bet Mitt never got one of these. Dan Hunter, head of the Massachusetts Advocates for the Arts, Sciences, & Humanities, sent out an e-mail asking arts lovers to send the new governer a "thank you" note. The solicitation opens with a slam of the Herald's recent story "criticizing Governor Deval Patrick’s support for the arts. The Boston Herald likes to print stories about small corners of the state budget. These articles will continue to come and go with little long term significance."

Then there's this link to the thank you note template.

Back in June, Globe photographer Bill Greene snapped this wonderful shot of Irene Konefal, a Museum of Fine Arts conservator, examining Whistler's mother.

We feel a special connection to the photograph, as it's a close cousin of the iconic picture used as the Exhibitionist's title image.

Here's Greene's account of taking the shot.

Time for another update, this on the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's expansion plans. When last we wrote, the Gardner had announced it had hired Italian architect Renzo Piano to design a building on the museum's site. The project, which officials said would cost at least $60 million, would move offices and the café out of the existing "Palace" and triple the Gardner's special exhibitions space.

To make room for Piano's building, the Gardner says it needs to knock down a pair of structures on the site. One is the carriage house, built by Mrs. Gardner in 1907. The second is a two-story annex, constructed in 1933, after her death.

[Below, are two views of the carriage house. A third diagram gives you a sense of where the Gardner plans to expand.]

Earlier this week, the Boston Landmarks Commission told the Gardner it could knock down the annex, but said museum officials needed to offer a better explanation before removing the carriage house.

As far as the annex, "it was built in 1933 after her death, it was an adminstrative support building," said Roysin Bennett Younkin, architectural historian for the Landmarks Commission. "[In regard to the carriage house, "their concern was the association with Mrs. Gardner."

James Labeck, the Garder's director of operations, said the museum intends to prove its case before April 9, when the Landmark Commission's 90-day delay expires. The museum has tried to incorporate the carriage house into Piano's plans, but it won't work, Labeck said.

My review of Calvin Trillin's "About Alice" ran a few days ago. Here's Lizzy Ratner's fantastic feature on Trillin in the New York Observer. She details how the New Yorker essay (and now book) about his late wife seemed to "trip some kind of secret wire in urban romantics' hearts."

My favorite exchange:
As for the thorny question of dating, he responded that he could conceive of it, though "not in some organized way."
"I don't want to be fixed up with your aunt, if that's what you mean," he said.

Calvin Trillin (pictured with Alice after their London marriage in 1965) benefited from his wife's contributions as muse, straight woman, and sounding board. (courtesy of calvin trillin)

A few months back, I sent a note to Glenn KnicKrehm to ask him to call me about the status of the Constellation Center. That's the arts center he plans to build in Cambridge.

During the summer of 2002, KnicKrehm told me he planned to open in 2005. A few months later - in December of 2002 - he said this:

"A lot of projects come and go. But we're real. We have the land, we're fully permitted, we have the design team, and we have a lot of money."

Okay. So where's the Constellation Center? It has a website. But what about a plan?

That's why I tried to contact KnicKrehm. When he didn't respond, I moved onto other issues. Then, last week, I saw him - he didn't see me - in the crowd at the American Repertory Theatre when Robert Woodruff delivered his emotional speech. (KnicKrehm's on the ART's advisory board.) After the event, I called his office. Nothing. Then I sent this note.

Glenn:

Best, Geoff

This, finally, elicited a response, though not from KnicKrehm.

Joyce Linehan, hired to do public relations for him, wrote back.

"Planning and design for the Constellation Center continues. There is no timeline or more particulars we'd like to give you now, but when there are, I will be in touch."

"My very first ear-opener was an old 78-rpm record I found in Mom's collection. It was Bing Crosby singing 'Sweet Leilani' and 'Blue Hawaii,' " Kleinow wrote in 1978. "There was a steel guitar on it that made my eyes misty, and I couldn't stop playing that record."

The Los Angeles Times obituary.

A few news nuggets worth blogging...

- The American Symphony Orchestra League has given the Longwood Symphony Orchestra one of its Metlife Awards for excellence. (The other recipients are: Oakland East Bay Symphony, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra.

The LSO gets $7,500 for its "Healing Art of Music Program."

- The Cleveland Orchestra is going to record again. Under music director Franz Welser-Möst, the Orchestra is going to tape this week's performances of Beethoven Symphony No. 9. The Orchestra will release the recording on CD and the Net. What's sort of odd, from the article, is that there is, as of yet, no label signed on to release the planned disc.

- Eager for more illegal antiquities talk? SAFE "Saving Antiquities for Everyone" is doing podcasts with, among others, Donny George (former director of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad), author Roger Atwood, and law professor Patty Gerstenblith.

- Time's Richard Lacayo has launched a blog. In this entry, he discusses the Institute of Contemporary Art a bit.

- Doesn't Jim Rice deserve to be treated better than this?

Once in a while, a press release catches our attention not because of its rippling prose or the revelatory news contained within. No, it catches our attention because it just keeps coming. Everyday. From multiple sources.

I got this three times from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, twice from WGBH, and then once from my editor. Thanks, boss.

I give. I am raising the white flag.

"The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s meticulous process to replace Symphony Hall’s century-old stage floor – while preserving the hall’s world-famous acoustics – will be featured in an upcoming episode of This Old House."

"This episode of the This Old House East Boston project may be seen in Boston on WGBH-2 on Saturday, January 13, at 5:30 p.m. and on WGBH-44 on Sunday, February 4, at 6 p.m."

With Robert Woodruff out, the American Repertory Theatre needs a new artistic director. For now, it'll be Gideon Lester, Woodruff's right-hand man over the last five years. Lester, the ART's associate artistic director under Woodruff, will be his interim replacement as the organization searches for a new, permanent artistic director and plans its 2007-08 season.

Lester, reached yesterday, threw his hat in the ring for the permanent ART gig. But he said he's not viewing this appointment as a try-out.

"Right now, I'm not really thinking about that," said Lester. "I'm focussing on steering the organization through next season. I know I'll learn a tremendous amount."

Here's the email sent out by ART Executive Director Robert Orchard:

Dear All,

Sincerely,
Rob

Gideon Lester

At 2:41 p.m., we're told, Howard Stern news reporter Lisa G's report on my report on Howard Stern - does this sound incestuous enough for ya? - will air on Sirius.

Also, here's the transcript of our on-line chat.

Ken Johnson's review of the Scott Black exhibition didn't sit well with a few folks. Here are the letters that ran Sunday if you didn't catch 'em.

Too personal
Ken Johnson’s opening attack on ‘‘The Romance of Modernism: Paintings and Sculpture From the Scott M. Black Collection’’ struck me as strangely negative and personal (‘‘Mixed blessing,’’ Weekend, Dec. 29). An art critic should focus his attention on the art, not the donor who generously chooses to share his paintings and resources with the public.
SHELLEY KOORIS
Newton

I can understand the temptation to knock Scott Black down a peg or two. Perhaps Black might have earned Ken Johnson’s praises if he had spent his money buying flavor-of-the-month trendy contemporary artists who sell for way too much money.
Since Johnson obviously wouldn’t be caught dead hanging a ‘‘vapid’’ portrait by Renoir, a ‘‘mediocre’’ Monet, or a ‘‘paint-by-numbers’’ Cross, what does he collect? Perhaps Johnson collects contemporary paintings that are so new that they have no history; that way he can pretend to be avant-garde. Or perhaps he zeros in on some not-well-collected category of drawings or prints — something esoteric that allows him to, again, play the art intellectual while bashing mere millionaires that collect third-rate paintings.
RICHARD CONNOR
New Bedford

Ken Johnson’s review of the Scott Black Collection is mean-spirited at best and an ad hominem attack at worst. His arrogant and denigrating comments on the paintings and collector are well beyond the norms of artistic reviews, almost suggesting a personal animus. Shame on Johnson and the Globe for publishing such drivel. We readers expect more.
WALTER B. GOLDFARB
Portland, Maine

At 11 a.m., I'll be chatting at Boston.com about all things Howard Stern. Feel free to stop by, even if you haven't been listening to "The King of All Media," and want to commiserate about the sad state of radio.