HOW I SPENT MY NON-VACATION

posted by James Reel

Sorry about the paucity of blog entries recently. Besides my usual radio duties, a lot of other distractions have pelted me this month: about 500 reviews and features arrived for me to edit for Fanfare magazine; I'm serving as dramaturge for Arizona Onstage Production's forthcoming version of Master Class, in which Maria Callas, haunted by her past, makes life hell for some vocal students; I'm one of the actors involved in this weekend's Antonio Vivaldi show, written by Harry Clark and presented by Chamber Music Plus (I'm typecast as a know-it-all); and I've had a general technology meltdown this month--dead computer printer (retired), declining audio-video receiver (replaced), unreliable "classic" car (finally replaced with a new hybrid), spontaneously rebooting Kindle (fixed by taking it out of its official Kindle case, which causes the unit to short out).

The next thing I have to do is get ready for a little talk in Green Valley, and then prepare for my next meeting with the participants in Arizona Theatre Company's teen critics program, for which I'm a mentor. On the subject of criticism, blogger Lisa Hirsch offers this interesting item about what separates real criticism from a mere personal essay.