Author Archives: Scott Foglesong

Having just heard a group of conservatory student jury examinations, in which a 5-minute performance presents a make-or-break situation, I’m thinking of The Moment, that situation in which something important hangs on one’s performance right here, right now, right at … Continue reading →

I have come across yet another “greatest classical recordings” list, from the BBC music magazine, topping out at no less than fifty selections. That’s an awful lot of “best.” Way too much. Nobody is likely to find fault with the … Continue reading →

Consider a row of books currently molding away on a shelf in my home office. They are about programming Microsoft Windows using the Microsoft Foundation Classes, about FileMaker Pro version 7, about Microsoft FrontPage, about Mac OS X “Tiger”, about … Continue reading →

San Francisco’s Castro Street has gone through a number of personality changes over its history. For much of its existence it was the main thoroughfare of a working-class neighborhood, noted mostly for its modest stores, repair shops, and inexpensive restaurants. … Continue reading →

I am giving away no secrets by acknowledging that I’m getting older. (What else, pray tell, would I be doing?) Aging, while no Sunday stroll in the park, has its privileges. Lots and lots of them, in fact. Among the … Continue reading →

Periodically the recording industry flexes itself into a new technology. Sometimes the transition goes smoothly, and sometimes not. Consider the move from acoustic to electric recording in the mid-1920s, as emergent radio brought microphones, amplifiers, and speakers into the picture, … Continue reading →

The pedagogy folk, i.e., those who spin elaborate theories about education from the rarefied heights of their ivory-tower aeries, are enthralled with the idea of “engagement.” They cough up lengthy academic tracts bristling with terminology: consider “The Construct Validity of … Continue reading →

We have at my workplace a paper towel dispenser that cannot properly dispense a paper towel. It can rip, shred, and tear a paper towel. It can peremptorily dump a half-dozen folded paper towels into your hand or onto the … Continue reading →

It’s a common shibboleth that multi-tasking is an unpleasant but necessary fact of life in the high-tech 21st century. As with so many hyperbolic statements, the idea is true enough after a fashion but ignores human history and evolution. We … Continue reading →

The other night I took myself over to a favorite neighborhood restaurant for one of my favorite indulgences: a pizza Margherita with the addition of a crisp and pungent made-in-house bacon. I suppose purists would scoff at putting bacon on … Continue reading →