John Adams just accepted my friend request on Facebook. There is a delicate art to figuring out if it’s really John Adams. (On MySpace, where nobody is who they say they are, it would be another story.) Here are some pros: he lists “Steve Riech” under favorite music (no official impostor from Boosey & Hawkes would let that slide). Actually that’s the only pro. Many more cons: his photos are all head­shots of himself, dating back to the 80’s. I think it’s time he brought back the horn-rimmed spec­ta­cles, though I am biased in that regard. The “about me” section is just his program bio, with “I” replac­ing every instance of “John Adams”. This makes for a rather hilar­i­ously self-aggran­diz­ing profile begin­ning “I am one of Amer­i­ca’s most admired and respected composers”. Really John. Do tell. 

In other news, I am now a New Yorker/freelancer/bum. I stay at home all day and do things on my own computer, which is nice! Here is some­thing I recently worked on; hire them for your next Rosh Hashana gath­er­ing. I am applying for grants; I am procras­ti­nat­ing on writing a violin concerto by compos­ing iPhone ring­tones in Logic (for fun, sadly, not profit); I am consum­ing endless quan­ti­ties of WNYC program­ming, which is incom­pa­ra­bly better than WNPR (hearing Faith Middle­ton’s voice makes me want to get out my knife sharp­ener). I think I saw Ursula Oppens at the midtown Fairway last week; I couldn’t see what she was buying (Nancar­row, in bulk?) but she looked befuddled.