Three days with folks who are immersed in new media was quite intense. And Inspiring.
Dreams of podcasts and tweets, more focused writing and network building dance in my head.
Ah, but what will actually emerge? How to tie things together?
Something to ponder through 3 airports, 2 flights, and a Cathedral fund raiser this evening.
Stay tuned.
There’s an interesting discussion over on ChoralNet about resources for sacred music for the Mass. Responding to a query by a newly-appointed director of music, folks are chiming in with various recommendations.
I don’t read and/or respond to everything over there, but ChoralNet is a wonderful resource and a great way to find out what’s going on in the larger world of choral music – professional, semi-pro, all levels of education, different churches than your own. I subscribe to a daily email update and quite often find something that is useful or entertaining or enlightening or heartening or motivating. Or some combination of the foregoing.
If you don’t know it, give it a whirl.
Schubert’s Der ErlKonig scared me to death as a child in an elementary school music class. And the accompaniment is a beast to play.
Duo pianists Anderson & Roe take this piece right where it belongs – and filmed in the Steinway factory as well. Who says classical music can’t knock your socks off! Thanks to David Cutler at The Savvy Musician for cluing me in to this.
I’ve been on the road quite a bit lately. When I look for places to eat, I check out the “usual suspects” – Trip Advisor, UrbanSpoon, Yelp. The range of comments on any particular restaurant is always entertaining. It’s always “love it” or “should have stayed home.” Despite the extremes, these sites do provide some insight, especially since smaller restaurants are unlikely to have websites or keep their Facebook pages up-to-date.
You, my astute readers, probably do the same. But here’s the question: Do you offer your opinion after you’ve supped, dined, or whatever-ed?
I encourage you to do so, especially if you have a great experience and the restaurant could use an endorsement. Or if all those glowing comments must have been written by the owners’ mothers.
It only takes a couple of minutes if you do it right away. And heck, it’s a big help to the rest of us. Thanks.
This is my favorite group “of the moment” – Klapa Mirakul. While this type of folk music was traditionally for men, women are now quite active. There’s lots to enjoy on YouTube – or of course, you could go to the festival in Omis. Enjoy!
I came across this project over at CNET. You may think that it’s like golf – “a good walk spoiled.” Or you may be intrigued. I, of course, take the latter view.
The Making of Listen to the Light by BLUEBRAIN from BLUEBRAIN on Vimeo.
Anyone who lived through the 60's and 70's may have been afflicted by a bad mime. San Francisco was particularly full of wanna-ba Marcel Marceaus. They made me cringe.
This will change your mind about real mime art.
Here is a segment by the late Tony Montanaro on how to mime a tug-of-war. Watching this superb performance while hearing it broken into components gives me a way to think about my own music – isolating the different components, bringing them together, communicating the whole. Enjoy the magic.
Some days I long fondly for a time when I didn't have to worry about web sites, Facebook, blogs, etc. And then I remember that I live right here, right now and I might as well get over it.
Today's struggle appears to be the interference of Explorer 9 with image posting. I look forward to the challenges that lie ahead. (I might as well try an attitude change.)
Now for the test image – success at last!
Here's the QR code for my website – www.mjballou.com
Obviously, there's a live link right here, but just how cool will this be on print materials?
A video about technological change. I'm old enough to have spent time in the basement of the university library with a keypunch machine for my programming courses. And as I spend time researching early music and chant online and converse with friends about these topics on the Internet, I'm delighted at the interaction of old and new.