Douglas McLennan

The ability to access any style, any era, any genre and remix at will gives audiences unprecedented power over what they hear and consequently more power to influence our contemporary musical culture and what gets made, played, and why.

So why do people read? To learn? To amuse? To fill in the cracks of boredom? Probably all of these.

Every Monday afternoon Post Alley writers gather for a newsroom meeting. When the website first started, we'd meet in person, down at Peter Miller Books in Pioneer Square. But...

Whenever an organization is having problems – as this one clearly is – it's helpful as a reporter to step back to consider how a successful, well-run organization might respond in the situation.

Yes, music directors quit all the time, but virtually never in the middle of a season and, in the modern era, not effective immediately.

With 721 stories this year, Post Alley has explored local, national and international issues.

It’s difficult to plumb the true depths of the hazards at Hanford. John Brodeur, an environmental engineer and geologist who worked at Hanford in the 1990s, wrote that the DOE’s leak-detection method is “not only flawed, but designed to avoid finding leaks.”

Many listeners have attended for decades and are deeply knowledgeable about what they’re hearing. They don’t by any means expect to love everything; indeed, they can get as excited about the music they hate as about the performances they thrill over. The biggest crime in Ojai is not a misfire but a performance or piece of music that fails to provoke reaction.

Newspapers have seen their traditional ad-supported business models fray and fall apart, while Google, Insta, Facebook et al have grown fat and sassy. And news publishers look at Google & Co.’s pots of money and cry “foul – you’ve stolen our ad dollars.” Surely reparations are in order.

I call. And get a recorded message that the “call center” is currently closed. Would I like to complete my request by text? No, but okay. The bot comes on and asks for my first name. I comply. Now it needs my last name so it can verify my account. Grrr. Okay.