In Brief: Independence Day Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to good things in Blogville and Beyond.

• Listener Richard Gould sounds off about why he and his wife are canceling their National Symphony Orchestra subscription. Too much coughing. [Washington Post]


• Also, do not miss our favorite critic-sniping cranks taking aim at the above. [Detritus Review]


• Andrew Patner is blogging from the Risør Chamber Music Festival in Norway, and he has a picture of Leif Ove Andsnes kissing a mackerel. [The View from Here]


• We in the District of Columbia are used to having the results of our democratic process undone by the Federal government, so it was hardly a surprise that the Supreme Court overturned the city's ban on handguns. (Given the court's current composition, few bans of any kind on guns anywhere will likely stand for long.) Still, the thought of corner handgun shops opening in Washington has me thinking about moving. [DCist]


• Prof. Ralph Locke asks the question "Why do we do research, why do we publish?" At one point, he also asks, "Would we musicologists find it stimulating (refreshing, challenging) to think more about what we ourselves find engaging and informative on the page?" You know you want to read the rest. [Dial "M" for Musicology]


• Via Maud Newton, maybe I should not have taken my laptop to Italy. They don't have WiFi anywhere anyway. [Baltimore Sun]


• Heh. A Christian Internet news site automatically changes the word gay to homosexual, leading to the headline "Homosexual eases into 100 final at Olympic trials" about Tyler Gay winning in the semifinals. Imagine what would happen to an article on Bernstein's Candide and its famous aria Glitter and Be Homosexual. [Boing Boing]


• An incredibly valuable database of online scores has finally reopened. Tanned. Rested. Ready. [IMSLP]