Monthly Archives: December 2012

My Windows 8 Experience

So here’s what I think of Windows 8. I keep a nice, well-designed Samsung laptop around for keeping au courant with the latest developments in WindowsLand. I’m not quite sure why I want to do that, save perhaps some kind … Continue reading

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Dirty Word

C|Net columnist Steve Guttenberg touched—or rather jangled—a collective nerve in a recent column, in which he asked why it is that audiophiles often recoil from identifying themselves as audiophiles. His comments section, usually well-mannered on the whole, erupted into vitriol, … Continue reading

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Two Nations

North Pacific weather patterns have been manifesting at spec. Our San Francisco holiday season has turned out soggy, dank, chilly, and gray. There being no point in griping—if you don’t like gray skies, don’t live in San Francisco—most of us … Continue reading

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Britten on Music

I’m coming around to the conclusion that Benjamin Britten’s 1964 address on receiving the Aspen Award should be required reading of all young musicians, particularly composition students. Perhaps a test should be given the first day of their entrance into … Continue reading

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Natural Selection

Life as a professor provides mostly a steady stream of joys and satisfactions. Once in a while it tosses in a disappointment. Being obliged to watch as a fundamentally bright and gifted student screws the pooch—through a combination of inactivity, … Continue reading

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Treasury

A friend and fellow orchestra wonk recently directed me to several rare recordings by an almost completely forgotten conductor, Selmar Meyrowitz, an apparent suicide in 1941. Thanks to those fine folks at Pristine Classical I was able to come by … Continue reading

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