We live in a time when people do not really have much interest in “keeping their word”.
Various Posts
When Economics Drives Everything
It’s helpful when the people who are in charge of an artistic endeavor have knowledge, experience and skill. It’s helpful if they have developed tastes and a broad perspective. It’s very helpful if they look at their art as an opportunity to make a contribution to the world by shaking things up, by allowing the audience to be touched or moved, or by transforming life through the creation of the artistic expression or through it’s execution.
Making Trouble
Some people like to cause a stir. They exist to constantly get underneath other people’s skin. It makes them happy to make other people unhappy.
Why I Hate Competitions
I had occasion this evening to attend an amateur singing competition for kids and young adults. They had been selected via video clips and were in a semi-finals to compete for a nice package of prizes and money totaling about $25,000 as the grand prize for the winner.
Small Time – Big Time
I’ve heard recently that recording artists have so much done to their recordings that it’s nearly impossible to know what they actually sound like live. They probably don’t know themselves what they sound like live. I don’t view this as a good thing.
Ain’t No Mountain High Enough
What is excellence? Isn’t what we are watching on the Olympics representative of excellence in every way? Of course.
Music As Magic
I once looked up the root word for music and found (somewhere) that it had the same origins as the word magic. For those of us who are musicians, that’s not surprising. Music is magical. It can totally change things.
Followers
When I was young, I was very sure I did not want to teach anyone anything. Then, at 22, I found myself vocal directing a production of “Finian’s Rainbow” in Connecticut that had, in 1971, a budget of $20,000. I directed the chorus and understudied the lead, Sharon, and I got good feedback about my aspects of the show in the local newspapers’ reviews. Somehow, I had launched myself as a teacher, whether I had intentions to do so or not. I have been teaching singing ever since.
The World We Want
The world we want is not the world we have. The world we want is always in the future, it is perfect, it is constant. The world we have is none of those things. The world we want is one in which all things are balanced and fair. This has never been a reality and if it were, we would only tolerate it for a very brief period of time.
Political Correctness
Being “politically correct” is very tricky. Many people who depend on university positions in order to support themselves or their families are unable to speak up vigorously about various departmental issues, lest they anger their colleagues and perhaps lose their jobs. This is particularly true of adjuncts, who have no protection, but can also happen with tenured professors who may not lose their positions, but can end up creating for themselves a toxic atmosphere in which to work.