Now Is The Spring Of Our Discontent

It seems that a number of folks throughout the culture blogging community are taking issue with what could perhaps best be described as the Chicken Little Think Tank, or the group of voices within the field that seem determined to convince all of us that resistance is futile. Apparently, these efforts have pushed some over the edge of discontent to the point where they are not just resisting, but pulling some …

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A Letter To Tony Woodcock

Dear Tony,

I watched your appearance as a panelist on the WQXR American Orchestras: Endangered Species? program on 5/4/2011 and became concerned with what came across as a very aggressive and unproductive posture toward orchestra musicians and the basic system of collective representation not to mention the greater field as a whole…

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Labor Relations And The Arts

I’ve had a number of requests for a copy of my TEDx presentation on labor relations and the arts so I wanted to take a moment today and post the slides along with the script. Since I used an iPad teleprompter app, the actual presentation was pretty much verbatim; as such, this should provide a very clear idea of what transpired…

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Looking Back To Move Forward In Philadelphia

The 5/8/2011 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer published an extensive article by Peter Dobrin which takes a very hard look at the Philadelphia Orchestra Association (POA) bankruptcy filing in a much broader sense than we’ve seen elsewhere to date. In particular, issues of accountability are brought to light…

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TEDx Overview

I had a thoroughly enjoyable time at last Saturday’s TEDx Michigan Ave event. There was a wide variety of talks and an equally wide assortment of those in attendance. It’s always fascinating to cross pollinate with other sectors inside the wider arts field and the focus of each talk combined with the field concentration of each speaker, produced a great event… Although all of the presentations were engaging, I found a …

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