American critics seem to hate me. British critics seem to be a bit nicer. I’ll take this, from just a few days ago…

From The Herald of the UK:

Dynamite. Sheer dynamite from beginning to end. That was the BBC SSO’s amazing concert on Thursday night with American conductor Andrew Litton and Canadian pianist Stewart Goodyear. From top to bottom it was a real, live, electrifying performance, absolutely free of artifice, unselfconscious in every respect, and delivered with a compelling mix of evident meticulous preparation and almost heady spontaneity.
The opener, John Mackey’s breathtaking Redline Tango, was a giddy urban whirl of a piece, driven by exhilarating rhythms and high-speed flashing images such as the eye doesn’t quite catch through the window of a speeding subway.
A stunning event.
Star rating: *****

I just read on the Associated Press that MillerCoors is no longer going to make Zima. You remember Zima — the lightly-carbonated alcopop beverage introduced in 1993. According to the Chief Marketing Officer of MillerCoors, “the decision was due to weakness in the malternative segment.”  Go figure.

Goodbye, Zima.

Oops — that’s Madeline Zima from The Nanny (although I thought it was Macaulay Culkin). Silly Google Image Search. Let’s try one more time.

That’s better. Farewell, Zima. You will be missed. (Well, to the extent that I had no idea it was still in production.)

I didn’t book much travel this fall because I knew I’d be writing, but I have a solid week of travel starting tomorrow morning.

The itinerary starts with a drive to Nacogdoches, Texas, to work with the music department at Stephen F. Austin State University. There’s a lunch upon my arrival, then rehearsal, and then a concert including three of my pieces — Undertow, Damn, and Clocking. There’s a post-performance party, and then on Thursday morning, I speak to a few classes (conducting, composition, and a band administration class), followed by a “debriefing” with the performing ensemble. Then another lunch, and then I drive home to Austin.

Thursday morning, I fly to Columbus, Ohio — my hometown. I have a performance at Ohio State (Go Buckeyes!) on Friday night, and on Saturday, I’m going to the Ohio State – Penn State football game. I’m awfully excited about that. Sunday is “visit with the family day,” and I fly back to Austin on Monday — and then resume orchestrating “Asphalt Cocktail.”

I’d better charge my camera’s battery…