Monthly Archives: March 2010

Of late I’ve been exploring a few silent movies from the ‘teens and the ‘twenties, not out of any particular interest in the things, but in the process of researching the oh-so-minor screen star Mabel Van Buren. Mabel Van Buren? … Continue reading →

Although I’ve been known to inveigh against fiction from time to time, I’d be the last person to deny that fictional works exist that break out of the confines of mere storytelling and playacting. I watched Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A … Continue reading →

Write a birthday greeting to a computer operating system? What an odd thing to do. What a hopelessly geeky thing to do. What a nonsensically sentimental, rabidly fan-ish, depressingly don’t-you-have-anything-better-to-do thing to do. It’s worth celebrating anyway, since without OS … Continue reading →

I never have any trouble figuring out when I’m on vacation. I can tell because I start thinking about stuff other than music or technology. During the school year/symphony season, I’m just too immersed in taking care of my students, … Continue reading →

We all know the situation: too tired to do anything challenging or engaging, but not quite ready to toddle off to bed. That was me last night. I solved the problem the usual way, by flipping through the TV channels … Continue reading →

An article by a fine music commentator recently included a gripe that a number of visiting orchestras weren’t being innovative in their programming, given that they weren’t including any music written after 1945. I was taken aback by that remark … Continue reading →

I’m often taken aback by how little of the standard repertory your typical music student knows, so I decided to throw caution to the winds and write up a guide to basic musical literature, a list of the pieces every … Continue reading →

As part of my current study of the Shostakovich Eighth Symphony, I’ve been delving into those pivotal years 1936 – 1945, the time of some of Shostakovich’s greatest triumphs (5th and 7th Symphonies) as well as some of his most … Continue reading →

Dmitri Shostakovich’s posthumous star has been steadily brightening during the past 35 years. I’ve been able to observe that process up close, given that for me Shostakovich is very much a living composer. I was within shouting distance of my … Continue reading →

The upside to being an early adopter of new technology is that you get to play with new toys before just about everybody else. The downside is that you wind up replacing stuff that has grown outmoded. Or maybe that … Continue reading →