Barbara Froman's Blog
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Mar.25.2013
What comes to mind when you see the title Tango?
Do you think of the dance? Its melancholy airs of mystery? Its teasing sensuality? Do you think of its straightforward beat beneath a tune with displaced accents, or syncopation?
Before the music begins, and lines are punctuated by silence,...
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Mar.23.2013
...before I continue.
Musicians spend a hefty amount of their education studying music's nitty gritty—history, performance practice, orchestration, and, of course, theory, which encompasses methodologies from Harmonic to Schenkerian analysis.
And I'm not going to discuss any of that here.
The...
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Mar.20.2013
I used to make my Creative Writing students listen to music, analytically.
It never fazed me that they lacked the training and vocabulary required for in-depth analysis; I just wanted them to use their ears. I wanted them to describe what they heard with the vocabulary they had.
Of course, one...
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Mar.13.2013
...with a book—lines unwritten, lines rewritten, characters drawn, characters redrawn, characters abandoned, pages discarded, chapters filed, files embedded in other files for future reference....
You get the picture. This oeuvre from Hell has had fourteen titles and more plots, sub-plots,...
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Mar.10.2013
Last week I caught an interview with Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush, the directors of the new documentary, A Place at the Table, on The Daily Show. As hunger and homelessness are of great concern to me, I knew I had to plug this important film.
Read more and see the trailer here.
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Mar.06.2013
We have new neighbors in back of us. We haven't met them yet, but we've seen the tops of their heads from our yards, and we've heard their dog at all times of the day and night. We've watched their children aim for clouds on their swings, and marked time by the step-by-step erection of a playhouse...
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Mar.04.2013
Van Cliburn died last week.
Howard Reich, music critic for the Chicago Tribune and author of the book, Van Cliburn, wrote a wonderful tribute to the late pianist in Sunday's paper.
For those who are unfamiliar with Cliburn's artistry, or those who just want to hear him play again, here is a...
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Feb.25.2013
This is an especially timely post given the U.S. Military's decision this year to open combat posts for women. Many thanks to Cyndee Schaffer, co-author of MOLLIE'S WAR, for providing it.
How many of us remember childhood taunts shouting "Your mama wore combat boots" when we were in...
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Feb.07.2013
Writer and filmmaker Victoria M. Johnson invited me to write a guest post for her blog's new series, Creative Spaces.
I hope you'll check it out!
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Feb.06.2013
I blame it all on the Super Bowl power outage.
What to do during that agonizingly long half time? The popcorn was waiting, the battery on my iPod was running down. We'd read the Sunday paper, I'd done all the puzzles. I wasn't going to open a book when the game could resume at any time,...
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Jan.31.2013
My example disappeared—a video I wanted to use. I blinked and it was gone, which was unfortunate because it was a perfect illustration of the point I wanted to make in this post.
Of course, I could still tell you about the the time I was teaching a short story to one of my Intro to Lit...
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Jan.28.2013
That is Toa Fraser's adaptation of Lord Dunsany's novel, Dean Spanley (2008), a film which was distributed directly to cable.
Set in Edwardian England, Dean Spanley is a wise, witty, and understated story of familial love, loss, and reincarnation.
Full post here.
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Jan.26.2013
On January 24th, a new production of Rodgers' and Hammerstein's Cinderella went into previews at New York's Broadway Theater.
What better way to celebrate the event, then to present a bit of the musical's history....
Full post and videos here.
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Jan.11.2013
Oh yeah.
I was determined to keep writing...at my desk...as usual....
Ha.
Turned on computer.
Opened current project. Ran spell-check. Saved file.
Coughed. Moaned.
Stared at screen.
Tried to find synonym for "Thing."
Watched words melt into each other.
Decided "Thing" should stay "thing...
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An unrehearsed expression is born just like that, and the camera registers that expression.
”
—The Magic Lantern — Ingmar Bergman
About Barbara
I began my early studies of music at the Juilliard School’s Preparatory Division, then received degrees in Music Composition from Ithaca College and Northwestern University. I've worked in advertising, directed the Creative Writing Program at Mundelein...
Connections
Causes Barbara Froman Supports
Chicago Coalition for the Homeless
Greater Chicago Food Depository
Lawyers for the Creative Arts
Barbara’s Favorite Books
The Ghost Writer, Portnoy's Complaint, Mickelsson's Ghosts, Henderson the Rain King, The Lecturer's Tale, Middlesex, The Little Stranger, Perfume, Quantum...
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