WEB:

Classical fandemonium

Where in the world is JoAnn Falletta? That’s just one question you can answer by dropping in on the easy-to-use Web site www.instantencore.com. Warning: The site can eat your whole day. You can sign up as an artist’s fan and get e-mails alerting you whenever that artist is mentioned in a blog or elsewhere in the media. You can also track any artist’s concert schedule. You can also listen in on great ensembles and musicians, listen to classical podcasts, browse blogs and download apps. And there’s a Buffalo tie-in: Instant Encore’s music director is Steven Carlson, who is from Angola and was a host of the evening classical music program on Niagara Falls’ WHLD-FM. It’s fun to see him moving music into the new millennium.

BLOG:

A personal adventure

Some people shun the New Year’s resolution. (We understand and respect these people!) But an Illinois woman named Kimberly Hula put a twist on the January promise to ourselves that we appreciate. She’s asking people to commit to an adventure. On her blog, yearof52adventures.word-press. com, she asks for brainstorming and listing, and then networking about other people’s goals for adventures in 2010. Why? Because they’re different and cool. For example: “Learn a Thelonious Monk song on the organ.” “Give away something I love.” “Milk a cow.” “Get hypnotized.” You get the picture—now get an adventure!

BOOK:

Find the message

“Everyman’s McLuhan” (Mark Batty Publishers) distills the essence of media/technology guru Marshall McLuhan’s concepts into neat, sound bite-sized nuggets of wisdom, courtesy of McLuhan biographer W. Terrence Gordon. And there are plenty of nifty graphics accompanying the McLuhan aphorisms, to boot! Perhaps you’ve noticed that McLuhan’s concerns—the effects of technology on human existence and the individual life, broadly speaking —seem particularly prescient in the present tense. Famously, McLuhan suggested that “people want desperately not to know what is happening to them.” If this doesn’t apply to you, spend an hour or two with this book.