Los Angeles vs. Buffalo

[Bunjee]

Originally Posted by astroia 34567

Yes these threads run into nonesense. But here is one surprising things that Buffallo and Los Angeles share

Buffallo - a few decades back Morton Feldman, probably considered one of the greatest classical American composers and profound influence upon ambient music, taught at University Buffallo which is known as a hot spot for contemporary classical music and arts. With him and other musicians and visual artists their efforts started the June in Buffallo series which features classical and experimental music with some visual art presentation from around the world for several weeks in the June in Buffallo festival. It is actually worth the trip to Buffallo to attend this and see the falls - the weather is especially pleasant in June.

Los Angeles - Arnold Schoenberg (along with many emigre musicians from Europe) begins teaching at UCLA and he with Igor Stravinsky (Rite of Spring and much else) create one of the major classical and experimental musical centers of the world from the late 1930's through the 50's and spurred some cool crossover into area of pop over time. Let us just say that such artists enabled the Beach Boys to get the studio musicians to play the arrangements extremely well for ground breaking albums such as Pet Sounds.

Of the two I would say Buffallo has more experimental stuff going NOW but very concentrated in the academic world while LA may have a little less that is RECOGNIZED. Of course, for a musicians there are far more options for work in LA due to its huge film music market and generous support of its performing institutions (LA Philharmonic is a famous example).

From what I have read on the forums and checking Google maps, I would say one of the biggest cons of LA is there is so much bland architecture you have to go through before seeing something noteworthy. Buffallo being much smaller offers more architectural interest you can take in easily - especially IF you are interested especially in structures from 18th to early 20th century.

But comapring the two is rather extreme and especially the weather - two entirely different climates that will depende on the person. I like snow but I also like warm, dry summers, so I would be happy with a bit of both climates.

Don't forget John Cage, student of Schoenberg and pretty damn well recognized among people who care about this stuff. As for architecture, well L.A. has a well known legacy here too. Whether people prefer this legacy to that is a matter of preference, but we'll build a few blocks of knowledge for the OP to establish some facts first.

[astroia 34567]

Great point which in turn creates an odd connection between LA and Buffallo, Morton Feldman studied with John Cage when Cage moved from LA to NYC in the late 50's I believe. Of course we could play 6 degrees of separation with this but your mention of Cage shows an unexpected link between the two cities - LA- Buffallo via NYC.