So Alex Ross has a new book out, , which covers the history of 20th century music in his trademark accessible-musicological style, and he'll be in town to promote the book this week. Ross is speaking at City Arts and Lectures this Wednesday (with Linda Ronstadt!), at Berkeley for Cal Performances on Thursday, and Corte Madera on Sunday. Go and check him out!

A note of warning: Due to some comical mixups on our end, both SFist Ced and SFist Rita ended up sending questions to poor Mr. Ross, who nonetheless gamely answered all of the ones he could (thanks, Alex! Sorry again for the mixup.) We've picked and chosen our favorite answers from the ginormous set he received -- so it's a long post after the jump. But worth it! We had a hard time picking!

What do you think of the current San Francisco contemporary classical scene?

After the jump: Alex's answer to this question and many more, including his thoughts on recent classical music history, what we've got out here in the Bay Area that makes us such a hotbed of innovative music, what Britney Spears could learn from the Kronos Quartet, and how Alex got Björk to blurb his book. Björk!

For the record, Björk says "Alex Ross's incredibly nourishing book will rekindle anyone's fire for music."

The Rest Is Noise