Yearly Archives: 2021

Fanatical publishers

This entry was posted in Writer ethics Writing Writing as business and tagged music publishers on by

This post deals with a music publisher, GIA. That puts it a little beyond my blog’s usual scope, but it’s still publishing, and I write lots of songs (though only one has ever made me money) and have edited convention songbooks. The story is hard to believe, but the reports I’ve seen support it. My primary source is a Reason article by Robby Soave. I’ll grant that since I tend to agree with Reason‘s positions, I have to watch out for bias, but in my experience the site’s fact-checking is good, and they don’t often publish wild fictions.

On the other hand, if the report is accurate, the company it calls “the major publisher of religious content” (in choral music) is run by fanatics who don’t just support arson but think there’s “no justification” for opposing it. Or perhaps GIA is run by miserable cowards who will do anything that they think will help their revenues, no matter how unjust. Both possibilities are disturbing.
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Blogs vs. podcasts

This entry was posted in Writing and tagged blogs podcasts on by

To be “cool,” you need to have a podcast, not a blog. Or so a lot of podcasters think. There are certainly times when a podcast is more appropriate. When musical performances are the point — FilkCast, for instance — then a blog with links to audio files doesn’t work as well as an all-audio presentation.

But if the point is to present news and commentary, then give me a blog. Here are a handful of reasons why blogs are better:
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Negotiating a world of suppressed information 1

This entry was posted in Censorship Commentary Writing and tagged coronavirus writing on by

When information on a topic is broadly suppressed, what are we writers supposed to do? There are two easy answers, both error-prone. One is to reject all claims that there’s suppression and call them a “conspiracy theory.” The other is to assume that whatever is being suppressed is true.

Let’s look at the hypothesis that COVID-19 originated in a lab in Wuhan and somehow escaped into the population. I don’t know if that’s true, but the circumstances make it a possibility worth investigating. There have been many attempts to discourage an examination of the question. A Vanity Fair article by Katherine Eban summarizes the battle.
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Writing about music

This entry was posted in Techniques Writing and tagged music writing on by

“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” It’s not clear who first said this, but it reflects the difficulty of discussing music in words. It doesn’t mean either one is impossible — I can imagine a good ballet on the creation of a monumental building — but both are challenges.

The problem comes when addressing a general audience. If you’re writing for musicians or music students, there’s a whole technical language for the job. But how do you say meaningful things about a musical piece without talking about voice leading, diminished chords, tonality, and other esoteric concepts?

I like to make music and write about it, though I haven’t often been paid for either. I enjoy good writing about music and have a lot of books on the subject. Based on that, here are some of my thoughts on how to write about it, with examples that I didn’t write.
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The “Pro Act” bill threatens free expression

This entry was posted in Commentary Writing Writing as business and tagged law liberty writing on by

The more I hear about the “Pro Act” bill (it’s not an act till Biden signs it), especially from its supporters, the more convinced I am that it’s a threat not just to writers’ livelihoods but to free expression.

As I wrote in an earlier post, the bill is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. On the surface, it just grants freelancers a freedom we didn’t have before, the freedom to deal with clients through organizations. This ignores the reality of labor law, which gives unions the power to compel employers by force of law to enter into agreements. Outsiders often have the choice of joining the union, giving the union money without joining, or not working for a unionized employer.
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