SUSAN’S
Blog

Only read this if you’re a complete music business geek. Like me.

November 13, 2007   |   4 Comments

This is the kind of thing that keeps me up at night. Upside Down: What Really Killed the Music Business In 2000 I said to a friend, “the music industry is dead. It’s just a carcass that hasn’t been drug away yet. Little things feeding off the remains but soon it’ll just be dust.” Not a pretty image, but not... READ MORE

Writer's Rooms

October 22, 2007   |   Leave a reply

I’m always tinkering with mine. Found this article on writer’s rooms on the Guardian website. I sort of can’t stop staring at it. Here’s what my office looks like currently. I LOVE to stare at pictures of other people’s workspaces. Hint, hint.

Songs That Made Me Cry #2

October 19, 2007   |   Leave a reply

Dancing in the Dark Bruce Springsteen dancing-in-the-dark.mp3 I was sitting outside the Tam O’Shanter Lounge in my cab, waiting for last call to see who might stumble out too drunk to drive. Cabbie was one of my first post-high school jobs and the best career alternative I could think of at the time. It was late August, about a zillion... READ MORE

Songs That Made Me Cry #1

October 18, 2007   |   2 Comments

Blue Skies The Allman Brothers blue-skies.mp3 My boyfriend and I were lying on the floor listening to music, smoking pot, waiting for the pizza delivery guy. I think I was about 18 years old. He wanted me to listen to “Blue Skies” by the Allman Brothers. Sure, I thought. Whatever. I like music. He cued it up and when it... READ MORE

Melancholy Music

October 15, 2007   |   10 Comments

Yesterday, Duncan and I were talking about what qualified a song as melancholy. Melancholy is not quite sadness. It seems to also include an element of longing, even of sweetness. As an enneagram 4, I feel eminently qualified to compose a melancholy playlist. (For more about the enneagram–and my obsessive interest in it, click here.) And so I did, and... READ MORE

ridiculously interesting UCLA study

September 21, 2007   |   2 Comments

i KNEW it was right to talk about my feelings all the time…And now it has been confirmed by science…

3 things that help with fear

September 12, 2007   |   2 Comments

Typically the suggestions to fight fear are based on confrontation. But this doesn’t always work, especially for women. Actually, men too. Here are three alternatives to “fight or flight” that you may not have thought of. 1. Hang out with your friends. It’s no accident that you feel better after a long chat with your best friend. Connecting with others... READ MORE

boston globe review

August 18, 2007   |   2 Comments

This is the first time i’ve ever received a real review. It was very cool and totally unexpected. I got a phone call while i was on the bus up to meditation retreat, telling me about it. I would have felt so awful if it was a bad review, but it was really good. thank you thank you thank you.

9 lies we tell without knowing they're lies

June 20, 2007   |   1 Comment

predictable self-deceptions their consequences and antidotes there are 9 of each I am right. Everyone else wrong. I trust that things are righter than I can ever know. I am needed. So you better treat me right. I give without agenda. I am important. I will overwhelm you with my credentials. I have no need to spread propaganda about myself.... READ MORE

Authentic BS

June 12, 2007   |   2 Comments

Some years ago, The New York Times ran an op-ed piece entitled, “Authentic? Never Mind” by Paul Krugman. It’s about how presidential candidates are trying to appear authentic. (Oxymoron.) One candidate, for example, switched from a Lincoln Continental to a pickup truck to appear authentic during his Senate run. Does anyone really fall for #(@) like this? Substituting the image... READ MORE

best career advice. ever.

June 11, 2007   |   2 Comments

“Never accept responsibility without authority.” I thought that to move to the “next level,” I had to take on more responsibility. I didn’t pay so much attention to who actually had the authority to make decisions about these responsibilities. Power (or whatever you want to call it) comes from more authority, not more responsibility. So now I work in a... READ MORE

cyndi lauper

June 6, 2007   |   1 Comment

i forgot. this is what music is supposed to sound like. listen to cyndi lauper offering tribute to joni mitchell at some awards thing-y. (mtv?) vocal is relaxed and intensely focused. the singer is listening to the band. the band is listening to the singer. the performer is deeply seated within herself. no one is in a hurry. the context... READ MORE