Category Archives: Personal ruminations & essays

Any interpreter

Posted on March 27, 2014 by barczablog

Am I like everyone else? Could be. I know people who get bored with music, are incessantly searching for new tunes, new interpretations, new sensations.  I don’t use that B word, which strikes me as a kind of obscenity.  How … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Personal ruminations & essays | 5 Comments

Pesky Porter raccoons

Posted on March 23, 2014 by barczablog

I had a conflict of interest, I’ll state it right off the bat.  I love flying to New York on Porter airlines.  As a resident of Scarborough it doesn’t make that much difference going to Billy Bishop Airport on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, domestic & wild, Art, Architecture & Design, Personal ruminations & essays, Politics | Leave a comment

Pain and meds

Posted on March 15, 2014 by barczablog

The 1980s were a decade of pain.  It was a momentous decade for me including: a marriage the birth of a child a divorce another marriage While lots happened –joyfully and painfully– on the outside, my biggest drama was going … Continue reading →

Posted in Food, Health and Nutrition, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Martin’s music

Posted on February 4, 2014 by barczablog

I’ve crossed over to the other side.  I’m sitting onstage rather than in the audience for a student production at Ryerson, playing an electronic keyboard alongside capable student singers & musicians.  As I mentioned in a recent post, I’ve been … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Personal ruminations & essays, University life | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Back to school: open-hearted, open-minded

Posted on January 17, 2014 by barczablog

I’m inspired by last night’s announcement of Canadian Opera Company’s 2014-2015 season.  Anyone bumping into me today will see that my appetite is indeed so whetted that they might prefer to run in the opposite direction.  I can’t help myself. … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera, Personal ruminations & essays, Psychology and perception | Leave a comment

Pollyanna’s Picks for 2013

Posted on December 26, 2013 by barczablog

Last year around this time you might have seen “Pollyanna’s Picks for 2012”, a list looking “through the rose-coloured glasses of someone who prefers to avoid negativity.”  Had I not been knocked back to the Stone Age by a power … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal ruminations & essays | 7 Comments

Born on December 22nd

Posted on December 21, 2013 by barczablog

If you’re a child born on December 22nd you might grow up perpetually frustrated because of the proximity of your birthday to Christmas.  There you are, early in the sign of Capricorn, and everybody’s celebrating someone else’s birth instead of … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Personal ruminations & essays | Leave a comment

My Person of the Year

Posted on December 17, 2013 by barczablog

I added “my” to the headline because otherwise a reader would assume I’m referencing the annual feature in Time Magazine. Given the usual content in this space you might expect me to pick a composer or a performer.  Pollyanna will … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal ruminations & essays, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Blessedly unfamiliar

Posted on December 15, 2013 by barczablog

The Sunday church service the morning after the ATG Messiah (and the effort to do it justice in my review) is like a meditation on what does and does not work in a ritual. As I ponder Christianity I keep … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged | 4 Comments

Evangelist Season

Posted on December 9, 2013 by barczablog

One has to be careful with metaphors.  We use them without safety nets or training wheels, which is to say, they’re a kind of figurative language that’s riskier than simile,  those constructions where the relationships in the signification are spelled … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Personal ruminations & essays, Spirituality & Religion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment