Can we declare today Create Something Day? Or how about this week? I bring it up because I'm feeling inspired, and David Morneau is my flashing beacon. Every day for the past year David has produced a new 60-second composition, and his personal creative marathon is over today! Congrats, David! Like the most irritating news reporter, I rode along side him during the home stretch and shouted out some questions from the air-conditioned pace car. Morneau must not have been even slightly winded, … [Read more...]

Asymmetrical haircuts and ironic clothing just not your thing? If the prostelizations coming out of the Church of How Indie Rock Will Save Concert MusicTM leave you cold, perhaps it's time to look elsewhere. With faces as straight as Stephen Colbert, the gentlemen of HGP take a few cues from their hometown club scene, slide everything off the table, and throw down. Destined to be the #1 Hot Summer (New Music) Jam of 2008, come on, boyz, shake it up (but watch your language). … [Read more...]

Since moving to Charm City, I've spent quite a few hours alone in a room with only my computer for company--and it was starting to drive me insane. I hadn't realized how crazy until today when a friend came over to do her own work in the quiet of the next room. Companionate typing and coffee break conversation is all it took to realign my perspective on the world and improve my mood entirely. Ever since NPAC, I've been unable to shake a comment that was made at my table during one of the group … [Read more...]

Just got word that a friend has gone off to fight wars again. He actually speaks the right languages and has an inspiring moral code, so I'm not passing judgment but holding on to a kind of prayer. He introduced me to some of my favorite daily reading; if you're not following Pearls already, might I recommend a link? Pig is my favorite. … [Read more...]

This interview is part of a series in which very talented people indulge my curiosity about their work. If there's someone you know that I should meet, please let me know. Alaska seems a strange home for a composer, John. If you were looking for unusual landscapes, couldn't you have gotten a suitably cheap and isolated studio a little closer to the action (not to mention a few more musicians) in, say, Detroit? Is that much snow and darkness good for your work (not to mention your … [Read more...]

While I've been overcoming the sleep deprivation and the jet lag, I've been reviewing what went down at this year's massive National Performing Arts Convention and contemplating why it's left me both incredibly inspired and intensely frustrated by the state of the arts. Unlike the sort of test-run NPAC in Pittsburgh in 2004 where meeting-and-greeting outside my field was possible due to proximity in hallways between sessions but a high hurdle to clear, this time around the individual disciplines … [Read more...]

It only looks like I'm blogging here. Really, this NPAC convention has kicked my butt, and I'm only thinking about a time when I'll be sleeping, so I will make this quick. At the end of today's general session, "Radical Ideas from Beyond Our Borders," something a little unexpected happened in this otherwise astoundingly well-organized and congenial conference bubble: quiet protest. Initially, it seems, this "Radical Ideas" session had been billed as the chance to hear from Jose Antonio Abreu, … [Read more...]

This week I report to you live from the National Performing Arts Convention in Denver. In many ways, conferences such as this one are a time for reflection on the big picture, away from the nitty gritty details of everyday office life. That said, I don't think I have shut up since 7 a.m., so I am seriously doubting how well I am reflecting. It seems like every time you turn around here there's some amazing new person to talk to, and it's hard to stop. I did lock it down long enough to take in … [Read more...]

Many, many thanks to Corey for minding Mind the Gap while I was off in The Land of Fire and Ice. I was grateful that he made time in his schedule and accepted the invitation, and quite impressed to come home and see all the fun you guys have been having. Since the beginning, Corey has been a sounding board for my own work on this blog and is never far from the ideas on these pages even when he's not typing the text himself, so even though I'm back I hope he won't stray too far away. In fact, I'd … [Read more...]

by guest blogger Corey DargelMolly has returned to the United States of 'Mur'ca, so she'll be reclaiming her blog next week.  Thank you all for reading and commenting on my writings.  I was trying to think of a single, big topic to end with, but I've come up empty.  So instead, I'll leave you with a few predictions about the future of music:1) There will emerge something called a "gay aesthetic" dubbed as such by metrosexuals who hope to be able to conceptually experience a … [Read more...]