Soapbox rants
It’s all new
We’re spotlighting the Hear Now Music Festival in this week’s event newsletter, and always encourage our readers to support new classical music whenever the opportunity arises. Whether it’s buying a ticket, showing up, volunteering, making a simple donation, or contributing to a commission, these activities help classical evolve into its next, very dynamic phase, and what … Read more
About that love thing…
It’s been an incredibly long day, but I couldn’t let Valentine’s Day slip away without a few words. Beloved or maligned, this holiday stirs up big emotions. Do something this whole week that reminds you how valuable you are, and how much you value the people in your life. Valentine’s Day has become about more … Read more
The most deafening silence
A few months ago, I found the following coming out of my mouth during a discussion about a person I’ve known for some time: “She has the most deafening silence I’ve ever known.” I wrote it down, partially because I’m a big word geek, but also because it so thoroughly defined a particular relationship in … Read more
Fourteen ways to annoy a job lead
Please don’t make the folks behind the table make faces like this… We list a lot of different things on the Lauri’s List site, including both public and members-only jobs and gig listings. Some of these require quick action, and we’ve discovered over the years that even some of our more experienced Listers (me too!) … Read more
Ponds and fish
Are you a big fish in a small pond, or a wee fishy in Lake Michigan? The real question is, what do you want your work to be? If you feel like a small fish, you’re in danger of working (and sounding) like one more often than you’d like to admit. If you believe you’re … Read more
Indigenous
Can a challenge for Indigenous Peoples’ Day give you an excuse to learn something new about our world?
Two films (sort of) about singing, Part 1
Lauri reviews Amazon’s “Annette”, a difficult film that includes a lot of singing and poses many problems as it creates a glorious cinematic journey.
(Re-)discovering Frederic Rzewski
Sometimes a missed opportunity becomes a new challenge on its own. With the recent and sudden death of composer and pianist Frederic Rzewski, those of us in SoCal have proximal reason to mourn, as the titan was scheduled to be part of Piano Spheres’ upcoming season, and it would have been my first chance to … Read more
My vaccine came with bonus insights
Yeah, that’s a big claim. I’m not sure I can actually live up to that title, but I couldn’t resist. You see, I got vaxxed on Saturday, with no small amount of ridiculous drama. My appointment was sudden and unexpected, I really hate needles, I had to get a friend to drive me about 35 … Read more