Monthly Archives: February 2011

Red Poetry

It looms in our sky, fascinating us for the whole of our recorded history. Reddish, bright, and moving weirdly retrograde to other points of light in the heavens, Mars beckons, inspires, and intrigues. Mars turns out to be a place … Continue reading

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Headphone Enhancements and Additions

My audiophilia embraces fabulous room-dominating speakers (Fasolt & Fafner, the mighty B&W 803D towers in my living room), but also extends inwards to the relatively private and rarefied world of headphones. I’m really quite the little headphone whore when you … Continue reading

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No Tears for Borders

The news that Borders filed for bankruptcy has elicited no flood of crocodile tears from these middle-aged eyes. To be sure, Borders isn’t actually disappearing from the landscape; just some Borders stores are closing. And here in San Francisco, the … Continue reading

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A Garden for Music

On occasion I propose a mind-experiment to my music appreciation students: what if Beethoven had been born, not in Bonn in 1770, but in Philadelphia in 1830? What would he have done? Would he even have gone into music at … Continue reading

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Speaking for Itself

“But won’t the music just speak for itself?” asked my student, as we discussed his current progress and the pressing need for him to plunge deeper into the emotional world of the pieces he is studying. Behind his question lay … Continue reading

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Young Musicians and the Ethical Swamp

Musicians of all stripes often lack ethical boundaries. Software publishers know all about that, so music-related software is typically locked down with anti-piracy protections so stringent that should they be applied to standard productivity software you would hear the howling … Continue reading

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