I promised myself that by year’s end I'd finish the massive bio of Brahms by Jan Swafford (Johannes Brahms, a Biography, Vintage Books, 1997), which I've been reading all year with great enjoyment. It's been slow going, since it’s such a huge compendium of knowledge and information about the life and times of Johannes Brahms and his many friends, colleagues, and relations over a long lifetime of music-making. Also, every time Swafford goes into an analysis of the music Brahms was composing during different periods of his life, which is often, I find myself stopping to listen to the works he's describing. 

An account of a recent trip to Luang Prabang in Laos where I attended a conference on service learning, mixed cement in a remote mountain village, and toured the temples of this UNESCO World Heritage site.

Some tips for urban travelers who want to get the most of the city they are visiting, from a Shanghai flaneur in Barcelona (kinda like an Englishman in New York)