Then and Then

 Iron Tongue of Midnight is 20 today!

• Read my first three posts, in which I introduce myself and blame Alex Ross (sorry, Alex!).
• Read my first professional review, which was published in SFCV and then lost in an unfortunate data loss there. (Sorry, everyone! I think I'm doing better now.)
• Read Joshua Kosman's take on the same concert.

And take a moment to rejoice in the continued presence, at age 97, of Herbert Blomstedt, Conductor Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony, on podiums the world over. He'll be with SFS on January 30, 31, and February 1, 2025, leading Schubert 5 and Brahms 1.

News, Tips, and the Like

Just a note that I am always open to hearing news, tips, and the like about what's going on in the Bay Area opera and classical music scene. I keep confidences, as you would expect.

My email is findable on this page, in pretty small type. I'm also reachable on Blue Sky Social (@lisairontongue.bsky.social) and Facebook. Happy to talk on the phone or set up a Zoom, also.

Blogger Weirdness

Yesterday, I discovered that about 130 previously-published comments had somehow gotten re-classified as spam. I've been slowly republishing them, but if you get a notice that one of your past comments was just published....this is why. 

Do Not Trust Blogger Stats

If you're a Blogger user, you've probably glanced at the Blogger Stats page and admired your numbers. I am sorry to tell you that those statistics clearly include a lot of spam - fake hits on your page by bots - because there is no processing at all done.

I've got Google Analytics installed on this blog, and here are screen shots of Blogger Stats and Analytics, by user and country.

Analytics for the last week (click to enlarge):

Blogger Stats for the last two days (click to enlarge):

It's nice to think I got 8,000 hits in the last two days, but I didn't. The Google Analytics stats are the ones to be trusted because of spam filtering.

Honestly Trying Not to Turn Into a Photo Blog: Explanation

Yes, I know, I'm writing fewer blog posts than I used to. I still haven't wrapped up the posts about my Chicago visit....which was six months ago.

The reason is simple: the transfer from Google Mountain View to Google San Francisco, which has been fabulous for my sleep and my sanity, has been bad for blogging. That's because I am no longer spending an absurd amount of time cooling my heels in a comfortable shuttle that's equipped with both wi-fi and tables. I have more time at work and at home, less time in transit, and I spent a lot of that transit time managing incoming email and writing blog posts.

I'm trying to make up for this; I know I've failed to write up any number of interesting concerts I saw, the upcoming season, political issues (groan), and on and on. I miss writing about this stuff! Just need to adjust to the new schedule.

Guest Blogging

Going to a concert I can't get to? Or an opera in the northeast or Europe?

Let me know if you'd like to write a review of it, to be published here. I might do some editing, so please be prepared for that.

Let me know by email, lhirsch@gmail.com, if you'd like to give this a try. I can't promise press tickets, just some glory.

How to Handle Corrections

People send me corrections to blog posts on a regular basis, either by email or in comments. Almost all of the time, I acknowledge the correction with thanks and fix the post. I try to leave an UPDATED notice and indicate what I've corrected, in the interests of, well, the truth.

Okay, I don't bother to note when I've fixed a typo or added a missing word. Those don't usually affect the meaning of a post in a material way.

I did write one significant silent correction, where a friend quite rightly emailed me to say I'd been unnecessarily nasty to someone. The edited post was a lot better than the initial version.

Yesterday, I found an error on a blog I've been reading for a couple of years: a photo caption that incorrectly identified a street visible in the photo. I wrote a polite comment noting that street X was actually street Y, and that street X was not visible in the photo.

The author removed the photo, didn't publish the comment, and didn't acknowledge me or note the change. Oh, well! Not how I would have handled it, but it's not my blog, either. I wonder how many unpublished comments are out there. At least the author acknowledges on the blog that comments might be edited, which has happened with me.

Comments: Public Service Announcement

I've known for some time that I don't get email notifications for all comments submitted to the blog, so I am in the habit of checking Blogger daily for any comments that need to be reviewed and published.

Today, I heard from a regular commenter asking about a comment of his - and I haven't even received an indication of the comment in Blogger.

Please let me know if you've attempted to post a comment that didn't get published. Use my email address, lhirsch@gmail.com.

I Am Just a Bit Ahead of John Marcher.

He hit a thousand posts this week, a major milestone.

Here's the post count for this blog:

Anonymity on the Internet

Jessica Duchen's blog turns 10 years old today, a milestone that this blog and others will reach later this year. Her celebratory blog posting is a worth a read. She has good comments on the problems created by trying to make everything low-cost or free (also see Dennis Tobinski's New Music Box article Fair Trade for Sheet Music).

She has a good point, also, about the potential damage done by anonymous reviews, but there are excellent political and social reasons to allow and support anonymity and pseudonymity on the Internet. I'm going to defer to the Geek Feminism wiki on this; the stalwart contributors put together some excellent stuff during the Google+ real names debates a couple of years back.

• Anonymity
• Pseudonymity

And read some of the links to supporting articles and commentary.

I also support anonymity/pseudonymity because of Proper Discord. Remember, when Andy Doe was working for Apple, he wrote that blog without his name attached.

Lastly, blogging platforms allow a variety of comment settings. I currently have this blog set so that it allows pseudonymous, but not anonymous, commenting, so you have to have a consistent identity to post here; that identity just doesn't have to be the name on your legal ID. In addition, I have comment moderation enabled. 

Those settings eliminate spam postings and allow me to spike seriously problematic comments - which I have done exactly twice. My view is that unless you're Alex Ross or Tony Tommasini (who doesn't have a blog), you should have comments turned on, but moderated, with a clearly-stated moderation policy. Yeah, there might be trolls, but more likely there will be people making intelligent contributions to the conversation.

P. S. I have no idea what Jessica is talking about in this section:

But the most worrying thing at present is the reduction in freedom of expression that results from this bizarre climate of mass hysteria and free-for-all, line-toeing mudslinging, encouraged by the tabloids and a few bloggers who like high ratings. Such a climate has never happened before in my lifetime.

A look at newspapers in the 19th century might be useful for a look at free-for-all mudslinging. 

Now We Are Nine.

For once, I remembered my blogoversary. The name was to be The Witching Hour, but that was taken - by someone who made three postings - so I settled on a favorite Shakespearean moment.

No Proselytizing

Email sent in response to a comment, which was not from a regular reader:

Dear [redacted]:

You have attempted to proselytize for Christianity in a comment on my classical music blog, Iron Tongue of Midnight.

I must ask whether you read the blog posting to which you attempted to post. It is about the sexual abuse of minors at the Royal Northern College of Music and Chetham's Music School in Great Britain.

Comments at my blog are moderated, and I will not be publishing yours. It is off-topic and I do not allow religious proselytizing in the comments.

Yours,

Lisa Hirsch

The Ebb and Flow of Blogging

At Musical Assumptions, Elaine Fine is lamenting what she calls the fall of musical bloggery. First off, the ebb and flow of one blog doesn't mean the blogosphere is dying. Second, there is a seasonal aspect to all of this; there's less going on in the summer musically (at least in my neck of the woods) and people are more likely to be outdoors than blogging, reading blogs, or attending musical events. I mean, Dial M for Musicology had no postings in January, but they're back in business and have had several this month.

Here are some of my own statistics for this year, with apologies for formatting issues:

Month      Number of Postings      Number of Visits    Number of Page Views

July               24                                   2900                             3800
June              27                                   3600                             4500
May               17                                   3800                             4800
April               20                                  3700                             4700                           
March            32                                   5400                            7500
February       26                                   4400                            5800
January         34                                   3900                            5200

Now, what might account for some of the ups and downs? In my case, there were a few things going on in the first three months of the year:

• Season announcements, which I track and comment on.
• San Francisco Symphony strike, which I didn't cover as closely as I should have (a planned summary posting was pre-empted when the strike was settled, for example).
• The death of SFS principal oboist William Bennett.

I was out of town for the first 11 days of May and tired out after that, so May was slim pickings in posting. I had readers anyway.

I'd like to see statistics for a number of blogs over a several-year period showing a fall of musical bloggery. The stats for one or two blogs over less than half a year don't show a pattern. I can definitely say that my readership has increased over the last few years. I obviously can't speak for anyone else.

What I can say is that the 50 or so music blogs I read are alive and well, and with the Proms on right now, there's almost more than I can keep up with. Anyone who thinks there's a gradual fall of music blogging might just consider a change of reading material.

UPDATE: I originally labeled the third column Number of Visitors. It is now corrected to Number of Visits. They're not the same thing.

Dear Blogger:

You will have to tear my current template from my cold, dead fingers before I replace it with the unreadable, photo-blog-oriented crap you're currently pushing. What is wrong with you?

No, I do not want my blog to look like Google+!

Oh, wait - I can tell you this internally, and I will.

Luv,

Lisa Irontongue

Setting Up a Blogger Blog for Mobile Devices

Of interest primarily to users of Blogger, but I'm willing to bet that TypePad and WordPress have comparable settings.

Smartphones are selling like hotcakes, and people who have smartphones read blogs on them. This can be damned inconvenient, because of the small size of the screen; blogging platforms default to an assumption that readers are on a laptop or desktop computer.

On Blogger, you can set up your blog so that Blogger detects when a smartphone asks to see a page of the blog. From the Dashboard, click Settings > Email & Mobile. In the Mobile Template section, select the radio button labeled Yes. For more information, read this informative posting on official Blogger Blog.

Anyone want to contribute TypePad and WordPress instructions?

Update: From C.K. Dexter Haven, WordPress information, hoisted from the comments:

 believe that WordPress has the default set to show mobile templates because every time I've read a WordPress blog, that's the version I see.

But just in case:
Start at the Dashboard
- on the left menu, click on Appearance 
- at the bottom of the sub-menu that opens, click on Extras
- ensure that the box labeled "Display a mobile theme when this blog is viewed with a mobile browser" is checked.

Also on the Blogroll

As a big fan of MoRunnicles, of course I had to add the UK blogger Tam Pollard, whose blog is called Where's Runnicles? (I wonder about that too.) Also adding The Back Deck, the new blog of Santa Fe Opera, Notes from Valhalla, San Francisco Opera's Ring blog, and the Seattle Opera Blog, which is called just that.

New to the Blogroll

Beloved reader C.K. Dexter Haven takes up the pen, er, keyboard with his new blog All is Yar. Go forth and read!

Musicians Don't Comment?

Over at Classical Life, critic Tim Mangan's blog, Tim has picked up on a point from my Blogging Basics page. An interesting discussion has ensued, with a range of readers weighing in, including the illustrious Martin Bernheimer.

My own experience is that classical music bloggers will, eventually, hear from performers. I certainly have, and I listed some of those I've heard from in my comment at Tim's. I should note that to my knowledge I've never reviewed one of flutist Tod Brody's performances; I've reviewed many SFS and SFO performances in which Carey Bell played. (Some day I'll catch up with them both at SFCMP.)

I'm reasonably sure that in part it's the informality of the medium, in part because some performers who wouldn't necessarily write to, say, Anthony Tommasini or Joshua Kosman with a complaint are perfectly willing to write to a blogger or comment on a blog. We're not always regarded as legitimate reviewers. I had one intense email exchange with a performer in which the performer asked me about my credentials - and then dropped the discussion.

Blogging Basics

You'll notice - well, you probably won't, which is why I'm posting this - a new item in the sidebar, a page called Blogging Basics. This goes with Web Site Basics and Publicity Basics. It's based on a short presentation I gave at the annual conference of the Music Critics Association of North America. Nothing complicated, just some nuts and bolts advice about running a blog and attracting an audience.

Belated Comments

I just okayed three comments for publication for which I evidently did not receive notifications....or else I just accidentally published duplicates! Apologies, in any case.