Monday, March 18, 2013

Announcement / Music Stuff / Defeat the Inner Critic

BORING BUT NECESSARY ANNOUNCEMENT/REQUEST. I am trying to post fewer items on Facebook. For the last couple of weeks, nearly everything I've posted has been a link to a new blog post. It makes me feel narcissistic and self-promotional to have this be the only sort of thing I post on Facebook, and I'd like to stop having to do it every time. (I'd probably still post links to blog posts I especially want to emphasize for whatever reason.) But I have a suspicion that the way I get most of my traffic is through these links. I'm trying to work out a solution to this that keeps us all happy. If you got here through Facebook, and you want to keep reading these posts, please:

1) Leave me a comment telling me that you love clicking through Facebook to get here and I shouldn't quit posting the links, or
2) Subscribe by e-mail, which you can do in the frame to the right, or
3) Subscribe with a feed reader (although not Google Reader anymore, BOOOOOOO). Chrome has an app which has garnered mixed reviews from me so far. I hear that Firefox has one too. Other suggestions for a feed reader you enjoy using, anybody?

Thank you for your attention. Have a nice day.

--

I am completely engrossed in Revolution in the Head to the exclusion of much else. Since I'm familiar with much, but not all, of the Beatles' catalogue, I'm supplementing the reading with the songs themselves on headphones, which is a treat and a pleasure. If there exists pop that rewards repeat listening more amply than the Beatles, I'd love to hear it. In any case, what a wonderful and valuable and fascinating book this is. It's a must if you're a Beatles fan, but anyone who's bewitched by 1) music studies, 2) cultural studies, or 3) psychology will probably like it.

No other good news, either in reading or writing. After the prior post about writing an exercise every day, I have not written at all. I got a new contracting job on which I was working pretty intensely for a few days which was then cancelled without notice or payment. Then it was a busy weekend of movies and reading about the Beatles. Maybe today I'll get back to the notebook.

If you have a potent inner critic, watch the video below. It is logical and comforting in equal measure. For context, the speaker, Joyce DiDonato, is an acclaimed mezzo-soprano in the opera world, and she was conducting a master class at Juilliard when this was recorded. 


Incidentally, for one of my favorite opera clips ever, go here: Joyce D. in rehearsal. She has a very unique and beautiful warble, like no other opera voice I've heard. I saw the full-on version of the opera she was rehearsing here, and I actually prefer this performance. I got a much better idea of her power and artistry as a singer. 

8 comments:

Bret Hays said...

I quite like the status quo. I don't need more e-mail or another app to supervise, but the people who would prefer those methods of notification can make use of them.

Your posting of links doesn't come off as narcissistic. The best thing about Facebook is getting substantive updates from friends. If you were posting nothing but political blather or cat pictures, that would be another matter.

The second-best thing about Facebook is that you can limit or shut off posts from friends who post things you don't like. So anyone who does have a problem with your posts should have already dealt with it on their end since indeed, it's their problem.

Katharine Coldiron said...

Thanks much for the input, Bret. I guess I'm saddled to FB after all. :)

Maleesha said...

I get the notifications of a new post via FB.

twinklysparkles said...

I come over here in a few ways--from Facebook or my blog; sometimes if you have commented at Paul's blog and I'm there, I will click through. It doesn't make any sense, there's no rhyme or reason. I really like to come over from FB because I spend (too much fucking) time there.

I like the FB updates. I do not think it is narcissistic at all, though I feel squeamish when I do it for my own blog...not too many folks seem to click over from FB, but I'm starting to doubt that I understand how the stats counter works on wordpress. I'm so confused!

I do have a friend who posts her blogposts via FB and she is narcissistic, mostly because she won't "like" my blog's FB page or put me on her blogroll or pay me any mind at all yet wants attention. In other words, don't piss me off, Ms. Coldiron, because I won't keep clicking over.

Just kidding.

XO, Katherine

twinklysparkles said...

I mean just kidding about the not clicking over here part, not the rest of it.

As usual, I always appreciate your support and attention. It's amazing how much of a difference it makes for me. It's not so fun not having input....some bloggers get 50 comments a day or more, but then they keep up. That would be too much. But a little attention is very nice.

Ciao again!

Katharine Coldiron said...

More helpful feedback! Thank you both.

twinklysparkles said...

In re: the video:

She hits on, for a second, one of the things I think about in regards to habits of negative mental chatter--that the negative talk becomes a substitute for recognizing that one is doing the hard work. As long as I'm giving myself the feeling of chiding and criticism, I must be working very hard. It's a habit and we all have the mental chatter around some thing or another.

I noticed by my third year of teacher training in the Alexander Technique that every time, without fail, that I thought something negative about myself, the second I judge myself as wrong or not good enough, I would "pull down." Pulling down is another way of describing an overall collapse in the body, the instrument, if you will, since we are talking about performing arts here.

The next equation is that positive mental chatter is also a way of not being present or attending psychophysically to one's self in any given endeavor.

I am not sure any of this makes any sense and usually I edit my comments, but I'm just too fucking tired right now. So I'll let it stand.

Thanks for the video. I would love to watch all of her videos. Fascinating and maybe it would teach me a little more about opera!
K

Katharine Coldiron said...

It's a good point about substituting negative thoughts for actual effort. I do that a lot. It's also interesting that you could prove negative physicality when negative thoughts appear. I'm not sure if I could self-diagnose like that.

I watched a 35-minute video of her at this same master class, helping a young singer with an aria, and it was fascinating. The whole class is quite long, but I really want to watch it all.