Ordinarily, I think I’m a pretty laid-back guy. When I’m not explosively angry, that is. But something happens to me when I write. Give me a word count and a deadline, and I’m like a lackadaisical Seabiscuit until he catches another horse coming up out of the corner of his eye. Word counts are shredded, the fabric of time is tested, and editors despair.

I just submitted 1600 words on Julian Grant’s new harpsichord concerto, “Vaudeville in Teal,” to be given its premiere by Mahan Esfahani and the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, March 7 & 8. On the same program with Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella?” You know I’ve got plenty to say.

The article is scheduled to appear in the community newspapers U.S. 1 and Princeton Echo next week. But it might just as easily be taking up all the memory in somebody’s inbox, crippling their account.

princetonsymphony.org