I’ve been thinking about starting a blog for ages. But somehow it always ended up on the back burner. But after an energizing experience at urban stew‘s Play! Festival and a move that leaves me with a substantially better working environment, the time has come to get on with it.

So why the impetus to start a blog? By now I’ve realized that the traditional venues don’t have a place for me. With academic and arts funding being cut, no one can afford to hire. By the time anyone has a budget, they’ll be looking for someone fresh out of graduate school. It is clearly time to look into alternative venues.

Journals might have been great alternative venues years ago, but they aren’t the best alternative for non-academics. They are slow and cumbersome for those who don’t need tenure. And they don’t cut it for the small-town artist who needs a real-time community.

So I’m creating a space of my own to pursue multiple projects. I miss teaching, so I plan to make a series of tutorials (requests welcome!). I have trouble writing music without an audience–the notion of collecting scores unseen in my bottom desk drawer lacks appeal. (What does it really accomplish? Am I supposed to expect some well-heeled burglar to be incredibly impressed and hook me up with a series of gigs?) Instead, I’d like to discuss ideas with colleagues. I’d like to get feedback and maybe even collaborate. And while I’m at it, I might as well write about more personal things, like my garden, culinary experiments, musings on life, the universe, and everything, and so on.