Thinking and linking.

I've been pondering this blog's purpose and value lately. Don't get me wrong, it's not in danger of disappearing -- but I do sometimes wonder what service it's providing other than being a link dump for my New York Times writing. That was never the intention.

I started thinking about this a month ago -- and see, part of the problem is that it now takes me this long to get around to writing about it! -- when ACD of Sounds & Fury posted his list of the Top 50 Classical Music Blogs for the quarter. ACD's list followed the example of Scott Spiegelberg's lists at Musical Perceptions (the most recent of which is from December), but used a different method of calculation. After ACD's post, Ben at Classical Covert compiled four more lists using still other methodologies.

Night After Night has done pretty well, all things considered: I don't really stick to classical music, and due to an exponentially increased workload, I've been writing original posts far less frequently than I used to. What got stuck in my head after seeing all those polls, though, was not that I was in the Top 10 of all but one; it was that in the one exception -- the one Ben compiled using Google Reader Subscriptions -- I didn't make the list at all. (I'm still puzzling over that one a bit...)

On Tuesday night after the Elliott Carter premiere, I spoke with a prominent arts figure who mentioned that all he'd seen lately was "link, link, link." On Thursday I was privileged to spend some time talking with Derek Bermel's mentees in the New York Youth Symphony's "Making Score" program for composers under 23 years of age. In preparation for my appearance, they'd been assigned to browse my blog all season long. As I prepared to talk to them, I wondered just how much I'd given them to really chew on. Of the terrific, insightful questions they presented, more of them had to do with my wayward career path and Times writing than anything that had appeared on this blog.

All of which has me thinking about what I could do to get this blog back to a level of activity that satisfies me. I'm not sure what the answer is yet, but it's growing difficult to ignore my own dissatisfaction at what I'm achieving. I appreciate everyone who stops by this blog, everyone who's made it a regular destination and everyone who's linked to it; trust me when I say that I hope to make this place worth your while again.

While I've been brooding contemplating, I've started updating the blogroll at last. What today's additions have in common is that it's sort of embarrassing it's taken me this long to add them. Please welcome Marcus Maroney's Sounds Like New, Alex Shapiro's Notes from the Kelp, Scott Spiegelberg's Musical Perceptions, Dial "M" for Musicology, Andrew Patner's The View from Here, Bryant Manning's Mysteries Abysmal, Classical Convert, The Omniscient Mussel and -- last but most assuredly not least -- Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie.

Playlist:

Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3 - Royal Flemish Philharmonic/Philippe Herreweghe (PentaTone)

Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus - Best of Both Worlds Concert (Walt Disney/Hollywood)

Deicide - Deicide (Roadrunner); The Stench of Redemption (Earache)

Guillermo Klein and Los Guachos - Filtros (Sunnyside)

Comments

[Leilani]

I stumbled across this site by mistake and I was really intrigued by your blogs and especially your music choices. They are a very wide arrange of music that you put on your playlist. Which made me think that maybe, just maybe, you would be interested in this new upcoming genius that I found. (Especially since he will be playing on May 8th in New York City at Pianos). His name is Val Emmich. He has been around for quite some time but has been under the radar for too long. His now making a big impression with his latest album that was out and I'm really hopeing he will soar even higher with his new album that's out very soon. So if you can, please give him a listen or even check him out yourself. Here's all the info you need to check him out:

May 8th @ Pianos
158 Ludlow at Staton
New York City
7:00pm

myspace.com/valemmich

:)

[Ian David Moss]

I hear you. In the course of starting up my own blog (http://createquity.blogspot.com) this year, I've been subscribing to a lot more RSS feeds than I have in the past, and DAMN if there's not a lot of content out there! It makes one wonder how to maintain a unique voice amid the torrent of material. I mean, in my case there aren't a whole lot of other composers in business school with an interest in philanthropy out there, so I guess I should be ok for at least another year or so. But I think this is something that is not at all unique to the blogosphere. The internet is truly making Andy Warhol look prophetic. Every creative enterprise imaginable is now facing these dynamics: intense existing competition with few barriers to entry and very little exit (after all, even after people die, their work lives on). It makes me wonder to what extent we can leave time to appreciate the work of others, if we're all so busy creating our own. I know that I spend much less time contributing thoughts to sites like yours than I used to or than I'd like to, since I began doing Createquity. And it was the same when I was living in NYC and trying to make time for at least a few of the seemingly dozens of friends' concerts happening every week. It occurs to me that the Internet is kind of like its own NYC in that way.

That being said, I think anyone would tell you that you're being too hard on yourself. I mean, three top-ten mentions in a class of hundreds? That doesn't happen by accident.

[Marc Geelhoed]

Everyone knows that loneliness and a lack of fulfillment (romantic, financial, and/or professional) is what makes one a great blogger and gives one the time to maintain such a thing. I suggest losing your job(s), your marriage, and maybe a move to Scarsdale. That will give you everything you need to create a great blog!