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Here’s an interesting take on how 21st-century orchestra musicians deal with the fact that their jobs often drive them a little crazy: they go out and get additional jobs.

“Dual careers are almost always a bonus–both for the income and for the variety and exposure to contrasting environments,” says Barbara Sher, author of the 2006 book “Refuse to Choose: A Revolutionary Program for Doing Everything That You Love.”

The article politely leaves out the part about how a person manages to eat, sleep, shower, and interact with loved ones while treading this career path. Hey, welcome to the new economy! With luck, one of those jobs comes with health insurance (a.k.a. access to the supply closet where the band-aids and ibuprofen are kept), so just be thankful. Double bonus: The article was penned by none other than oboe-playing journalist Blair Tindall, of Mozart in the Jungle infamy. 

But seriously, I know from personal experience that not tossing all one’s eggs into the same basket helps keep the creative life a little more charged up and balanced out, even if it cuts into playtime pretty regularly. If this article leaves you contemplating a career move, you can to dip a toe into the glamorous world that is classical music journalism (no jokes about the double sinking ship, please) with this back stage pass to the NYPhil’s season press conference. Also, consider the potential of jingle writing.

When I first moved to New York, I often wondered why so many writers dream of typing their way to success in Gotham. Sure, there are plenty of coffee shops and it’s probably easier to network your way into penning an article for Harper’s at cocktail parties in Manhattan than it would be in Missoula, but with so much activity 24/7 and a cost of living that just never seems to give a sucker a break, isn’t the place also just a tease? You can chat up an editor from Farrar, Straus & Giroux, but you’re so busy copyediting for one place and freelancing for three more and meeting friends for drinks and plays and shows that you realize with horror that you don’t have a single new idea to pitch.

Or maybe it was just a personal thing, arriving in New York as I did from the hills of Appalachia. Perhaps I just romanticize the drama of the extremes because the suburbs, where I came of angst-y age, were what really filled me with existential dread?

But then today I saw some deep-seated suspicions writ large: How the city hurts your brain.

Truth is, artists need nature! Well, maybe not this much nature, but all the same. And here I thought I needed to escape the urban landscape just because of an ever-increasing desire to smack rude strangers in the subway. But this week’s science tells us that there’s more to those artist colonies in the woods than just the quaint fireplaces and the really good food. We need to see open space in order fill it with our creativity. Or is that just one way to spin this study? Assuming most artist types don’t have the luxury of a country home and a pied-à-terre in the city, where should the aspiring put down roots?

(Personally, I vote for the space that requires the absolutely smallest time investment in cleaning it.)

In my line of work, I endure a lot of ribbing for my love of radio rock. I can plead a case citing the emotional catharsis possible due to the harmonic choices favored in the composition of the triumphant power ballad (the tonality of testosterone?), but I’m still not going to win many converts. However, I think I have it figured: double the fun. Love or hate you some Nickelback, this is honestly musically pretty fascinating. Be sure to strap on your headphones first, or you won’t get the effect.

[via Trevor]

Just when you think music criticism will never offer the kind of professional drama the doctor’s of Grey’s Anatomy enjoy, we have a development.

• Music Critic Sues Employer, Orchestra Officers

Now who will play Don in the mini-series?

Elsewhere, why hire a music critic of your very own when you can share?

To the journalists in the room quaking in their Chucks, don’t faint. We may yet profitably move this show to the internet.

Elliott Carter got a birthday shout-out on the local news last night. It’s also rumored that there will be some Willard Scott attention tomorrow morning on Today.

UPDATE: The Willard Scott segment has been postponed till “early next week.” We’ll keep you informed.

UPDATING THE UPDATE: Our pal Sarah over at B&H phones in to report: “We received confirmation from the TODAY show that Willard Scott will wish Mr. Carter a happy birthday this Friday, December 21, at 8:30 a.m. EST.” Be advised, my Carterphiles.

Delivered without the nuance of the nation’s great editorialists, perhaps, but much less annoying than CNN’s Headline News, no? To be fair, school kids, not ADD office workers wasting time on the internet, are the intended audience for these two-minute music video newscasts.

Brian is teaching me the joys of being a cat person. We have adopted, but riffling through Russian literature and Greek goddesses is turning up nothing resonant as far as potential names. We’d call her Lulu, but that just seems to be courting disaster.

Any suggestions hit ya?

So, a few posts back I turned up the volume on an internal debate I was having between “intellectual” and “real world” creation. I got off on a rant because I was anxious about spending so much quality time with just my computer, and I was looking to get a little physical.

Since then, I have spun right round like a record. Obama may be on course for a smooth transition, but I am feeling a little lost while locking in on future goals.

This may be a bit of a red herring, but a major tripping point in my thought process has come down to the fact that I am a woman.**

It wasn’t until I turned 30, got married, and moved out of New York City that I confronted sexism head on (though thankfully, in my case, the overall dent has been minor). But even though I bring home an equal paycheck and can use my own power tools just fine, thank you very much, I admittedly feel held to and actually enjoy some traditional stereotypes: I like to cook and make things that people use–and use up. It’s a matriarchal work tradition, and I march in that parade with joy in my heart and conflict in my head. A lovely meal is, after all, eaten, and while it may not be forgotten, it won’t enter the canon of great art no matter how carefully I blog about it. And maybe that’s just fine. It sure does add to the quality of life and the household’s Gross National Happiness quotient. But then I retire with my after dinner drink to the living room, surrounded by our collection of great literature, and wonder if I’m apportioning my energies well. While I’m baking my own bread, I’m not pitching a new article to an editor. Looking further down the road, that’s not even starting on what adding children to this mix will mean.

Women have been confronting these questions for decades and finding a balance point for themselves one way or another. In the 21st century, there are probably quite a few men having similar debates. But it seems to me that the creative sector, especially in the Internet age, braids the line between home life and professional productivity in ways other professions don’t, and I’m surprised by how few models I have to look to as I make these decisions for myself. How are you working your creative mojo to make art, a happy family, and a satisfied self a reality? What helped you find your balance point?

** Related: Encouragingly, people are having more success making a real living off of their creative pursuits, but women
artists are statistically paid less for their work than men.

In an age when holograms beam in to report for CNN and I attend staff meetings via Skype, I guess it’s not so crazy that you can audition for a seat in a symphony orchestra without leaving your basement. Sure, you could MapQuest your way to Carnegie Hall, but why bother now that you can just upload your audition via YouTube and Tan Dun, MTT and Co. will listen at their leisure? Bonus: On-demand audition review mean no one risks missing the finale of Heroes or anything. Ah, the 21st century is a magical place.

It’s not cutting edge technology at work here, but of course that’s the point. So when you bring participation in that cultural beast we know and love as the Symphony and offer it to the People, what happens? I’ll be watching the comments on this one.

UPDATE: The Detroit Symphony is also getting its geek on in order to connect with patrons from “the generation that has figured out how to use that Internet browser thingie on its cell phones. ”