The sotto voce Mephistophelean rasp of blogging has pulled me back in, a few days before the appointed end of my hiatus. No, I did not finish the draft of my book (many thanks to all who sent encouraging messages). I did, however, finish the Stravinsky chapter, which also takes in Bartok, Janacek, Ravel, and Les Six. It’s the last big chunk of my main historical narrative, which begins with Strauss and Mahler and ends with the Minimalists. What remains to be done, aside from some filling in of holes here and there, is a final chapter covering the state of music now, an introduction (roughly plotted out), and an epilogue (ditto). Just a bit of editing, a bit of fact-checking, and the merest smidgen of cutting — no more than 100,000 words — and I’m done! Oy. In the days that follow, I’ll try to catch up with bløgtroversies that I missed in my absence and preview a very promising spring schedule. My main issue right now is figuring out why I’m getting around twenty Google searches an hour for Karita Mattila. Did someone do a big media story about her? ACD: aw shucks, thanks!