Hello again. I'm back. Back in Orlando, after a very laidback holiday in Sydney. Back blogging after – oh my – three weeks of silence. And most noticeably of all, of course, I'm back on Typepad after ten months of Tumblr.
Tumblr was fun while it lasted, and it does have some cool tricks which I'll miss. But not as much as I've come to miss Typepad. I just don't think that my blog or I are destined to find a permanent home in Tumblr-land, and even the (admittedly tedious) process of transporting the bulk of my Tumblr posts over to my new (old) digs only served to reinforce how much better a match Typepad is. Returning to this blog — and to the seven years worth of writing which were here before I moved — is like coming home.
It does also mean returning to my old blog address and its matching title. So while I've enjoyed having a blog whose name I could tell people without feeling slightly pretentious — and as proud as I was of my play on words — I fear it's farewell to Vocal Supporter and hello again to Prima la musica. Again, the familiarity makes me happy, as does the continuity — my Facebook and Twitter profiles, and my email address, are all still primalamusica and I really do like it when stuff matches.
The Tumblr experience has made an impression, though. I've grown used to short format blogging alongside my more verbose efforts, so I think that will probably continue, even if posting videos, photos and so on isn't quite so ridiculously simple over here. That said, it already seems easier than it did ten months ago, when I moved, and my guess is that that's something Typepad will keep on improving.
So if you moved with me from Typepad to Tumblr, then I hope you're not too irritated about moving back; if you only ever read me on Tumblr, then I'd love it if you stuck with me despite this betrayal; and if you gave up on me completely when I made the switch (and fair enough) then, well, you were right. Here I am, back where I'm pretty sure I belong.
Oh and speaking of resurrections: while it wasn't the reason we went, one of the biggest bonuses of our time in Sydney was the Sydney Symphony's performance of Mahler 2. First time I've heard it live. Pretty darn cool. And no prizes for guessing that the highlight for me was the one and only Michelle DeYoung. Who was amazing – that's really not a big enough word – and made me wish Mahler had given his alto soloist maybe fifty times as much to sing. I could listen forever to that warm, velvety and all encompassing voice. She just seems somehow to operate on a higher plane than us mere mortals. How she does it is anybody's guess but I'm just honoured to sit back and behold in wonder. (Yeah, I might be a bit of a fan. Michelle, you rule.)
By way of conclusion – if you're feeling strong – here she is to make you weep, in the performance of Mahler 2 given in New York this past September to commemorate 9/11.
Oh, and a remarkably well timed email from the Sydney Symphony has just informed me that you can watch selected concerts from their Mahler Odyssey – including the Mahler 2 – online here.
