Yesterday, I missed my mark for my weekly Wandelwatching series, due to a combination of conflicting chores, duties and circumstances. I'll get to that post a bit later, but first, an acknowledgement of something that happened yesterday in the social-media realm. A Facebook post I wrote in the afternoon – intended to set the record straight about a new development – caused rather more response than I'd anticipated. Here's the post:
Dear everyone: Since an official memo has circulated internally, and since word will now commence to spread outside of these walls, please allow me to officially state that after very nearly 13 years of dedicated service, I will be leaving Time Out New York on Friday, April 11. My departure is bittersweet but completely amicable, a choice that I made in order to devote more life and time to my fabulous wife and daughter, while also creating the brainspace for future developments to become clear.
Let me repeat, to ward off speculation summarily: there is NO foul play involved here. It simply became the right time for me to move on to the next stage, and to clear the way for some new professionals to make the most of an opportunity to shine.
More on that front soon. For now, please join me in congratulating new Music Editor, Craw enthusiast and Facebook refusenik Hank Shteamer. And to my Time Out peeps past and present, it's been an honor and a privilege to work with, laugh with, cry with and learn from all of you.
My closest confidantes have known for some time now that I'd been mulling a change of this nature, meant to clarify and simplify my life. I alluded to change strongly in this February post about my sabbatical surrounding the arrival of my daughter, who came just a few days later.
Annina, not surprisingly, acted as a strong arbiter of, and initiative for, some fairly drastic change, and that's what's finally taken place behind closed doors over the last few weeks. I'd realized even before she came that being able to spend more time with her – and with her mother! – took precedence over an overbooked, overextended schedule that had already begun to wear. Once she came, the choice was clear.
Something had to go, and Time Out – where I've done some work that I'm very proud of during the last nearly 13 years – was the proper choice. I talked about a wide variety of alternative scenarios with supervisors there, but it became apparent fairly quickly that moving on was the thing to do… not least because it will create an opportunity, albeit it a different one than what greeted me on my arrival as a wet behind the ears Classical Music & Opera Editor back in 2001. Whatever the trials and tribulations I may have faced over the years, they were more than matched by camaraderie, compassion and having a place to grow up in public, professsionaly and personally. Whoever takes up that particular torch is going to have a different experience, but a life-changing one nevertheless.
There's literally no way that I can thank everyone who deserves it, but I'll always be grateful to my friend and colleague K. Leander Williams for inviting me to visit the office on Broadway between Bleecker and Houston for an intriguing conversation; to Joe Angio for deciding that I was a risk worth taking; to Elizabeth Barr, ever my rock; to Susan Jackson, my immediate predecessor as classical guru, for showing me the ropes with patience and good humor; to Jem Aswad, Elisabeth Vincentelli and Mike Wolf for wise lessons about editing that I still apply every day; to Olivia Marlowe-Giovetti, Amanda MacBlane and Sarah Hucal for helping me to apply those lessons and making me look really, really good; to David Shengold and the sorely missed Marion Lignana Rosenberg for stalwart service and continual inspiration; to Music teammates Jay Ruttenberg, Cristina Black, Sophie Harris, Colin St. John, Corban Goble, Marley Lynch, Leah Greenblatt, Alison Rosen, Drew Millard and Kristen Zwicker; and to my successor as Music Editor, Hank Shteamer, for duty, valor and friendship above and beyond the call.
To everyone who responded to my news on Facebook or Twitter: many, many thanks. The kindness and generosity you've showed has been genuinely overwhelming. And for those who've asked: yes, my writing for The New York Times will continue, and almost certainly could even increase. Remember, though, that this is for Annina and Lara, who come first.
Comments