(“Achoo! I think I have a cold today. Better call in sick. And read Sequenza21!”)

Sometimes you don’t need to travel far to be where the hot stuff’s happening. We’ve got fresh action on a lot of fronts here at the ole dump.

First stop: Composers Forum. Robert Zimmerman, a new voice here whose presence advances our already unstoppable progress through Dixie, finds the whole “I’ll be understood after I’m dead”-thing a bit ridiculous. But he knows a few famous folks these days who don’t. I think I’m going to go leave a comment . . .

Back now. Moving on.

Next: Lawrence Dillon has a reflection or two on Ned Rorem’s Our Town. And some interesting dirt on the John Williams.

Next: the inimitable Elodie Lauten problematizes the notion of calling oneself a composer. Uh-oh.

Next: things are getting a bit slow for Jay Batzner. But he has some spoils from the battlefront nonetheless.

Next: take a stop in CD Reviews and read about a sexy new thang featuring some Babbitt and Rakowski. Yowza! Then go see what happens when you look up “Hayes Biggs” in Grove.

And – as if this weren’t enough – Jacob Sudol finds a particularly well-established contemporary German composer to be no lach-ing matter. Hardy, har, har . . .

Phew.

There’s only one course of action left for the reasonable person: drop everything and call in sick. You have some catching up to do.