Alexandra Gardner | Building Noises

The wonderful Steve Smith has written a lovely profile of composer Kaija Saariaho, whose rising success is heartwarming. Her music has been a great inspiration to me for many years; it makes me think of the most finely wrought gold cloth, shimmering in moonlight. As a lefty, I especially like the extra bit Steve included [...]

This is turning into a deliciously summery summer, with plenty of exercise (jogging and tennis are my favorites!), fresh vegetables and fruit, spontaneous friend gatherings, sunsets watched from the roof deck. I am heading out once more to North Carolina, this time for a little beach romp at Blackbeard’s home. Having spent nearly every summer [...]

Has anyone read this article in The Atlantic?? I thought I was just becoming really scattered; turns out my brain is being reformatted, and it is totally catching! Truthfully, since entering into a more “webby” existence, my book reading habit has slowed to a crawl…measures are being put in place to fix that. After all, [...]

Some tidbits regarding the National Perfoming Arts Convention, in no particular order… Overall the convention seemed well organized. If there were train wrecks, I missed them. Because this event was all about the AmericaSpeaks process, many caucus meetings were attended. The week also involved numerous martinis. Had the martinis been integrated into the caucus meetings, [...]

When my friend Nadine sent this video, entitled Freeze Barcelona, I assumed the city had experienced a sudden cold snap. Not so! I so wish I had been around for this….can you imagine los guiris (tourists) wandering amongst a plaza full of frozen figues, wondering what on earth….???

Happy Spring everyone! How did that happen?? Back home and more or less de-jetlagged from 2 weeks in Spain – er, Catalunya! Bueníssimo as always…. A few days in Castellón, then to Barcelona for a visit with Los Austriacos Guapos, who are up to some most interesting and creative things. The view from their terraza [...]

I won’t give you the entire rundown of this event since that has already been done, but suffice it to say that Phil Kline’s rapidly spreading holiday boombox parade (this version in Baltimore organized by Brian Sacawa) is the most holiday fun I’ve had in ages! Honestly, how many Nutcrackers or Messiahs can a girl [...]

Every year during the holidays I make a CD for my friends of favorite music from the past 12 months. This year I fell in love with a lot of different music, but because the Mix is geared towards all things celebratory, I stuck with the danceable, fun and/or relaxing. iTunes won’t let me burn [...]

This ipod-requiring meme has been making it’s way through the new music blogging community, and although normally I’m not so much a joiner when it comes to these exercises, this one was irresistible! On a recent train ride back to DC, I pulled out Matilda (every loyal travel companion needs a name, especially when she [...]

Recently back from a delightful week at Blackbeard’s home. Trading computer and phone for bicycle and kayak does a metabolism good. The friends we vacationed with possess the very endearing ability to identify every plant, bug and bird one might ever hope to encounter. They see so many things I would miss – the tiiiiiny [...]