Links to Samples

Newspapers: Prima Donna Gets Premiere After All | Margaret Atwood: Re-inventing The Book Tour — Again
Magazines: Body Cavities: An Anatomical Risk Assessment | Passport Fraud: Are You Who You Say You Are?
Books: Profile Of A Subprime Borrower | Philanthropy On A Shoestring
Web: Choosing Web Colours | Help Choosing Broadband (both UK dialect)
Everything in one giant pdf file

TheOmniscientMussel.com

I started the site in September 2007 as a way to market myself as a classical music journalist. 800 posts and three redesigns later, The OM is one of the top 20 classical music sites and gets approximately 10,000 unique visitors each month. Small beans in the grand scheme of things but considering that I’m not permanently attached to any newspaper or organization, I’m rather pleased with how the site has grown.

My OM alter ego, Miss Mussel, is essentially an amplified version of myself. Discussions on the site run the gamut from the demise of the record industry to piano-playing cats. Not even classical music can withstand the tractor beam of cats doing funny things on the Internet.

Miss Mussel is particularly fond of trying to liven up an often over-serious, self-important crowd . Harnessing the power of the t-shirt cannon as a means of getting audiences excited about the concert is a bit of a running joke.

#operaplot

In March 2009, on a whim, I started a contest on Twitter. All people had to do was summarize the plot of an opera in 140 characters or less and they had a chance to win a pair of tickets from the opera house of their choice. It was the right idea at the right time and the game caught on like wildfire. It only lasted a week but by the end, people were nerding it up harder than I could ever have imagined with Ring Cycle limericks. That’s over 12 hours of opera with a fixed rhyming scheme in less than 140 characters.

When the dust settled in May, there were over 500 entries, 32 participating opera houses in 4 countries, 1 superstar soprano judge, over 100 press mentions including the Washington Post and The Guardian and an inner city school teacher in DC getting a Cinderella night at the Operaball.

The concept was borrowed by CBC Radio in August 2009 and I’m currently chatting with Opera Ireland to how the formula can be adapted there.

Almost a year on, I still can’t quite believe all this grew out of one throwaway idea. More details are available, on The OM.

Talk to me: +1 519 341 3138 (GMT-5) | Skype (For best results, ring after 1pm GMT)

Write to me: marcia.adair@gmail.com (Inbox open 24/7)

Have fun poking around. Who knows, you might just find that roll of electrical tape you’ve been searching for.

graphic design
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websites
AndrewGoodwinPhotography.com – bio text only
MarciaAdair.com (design, coding & content)
Respossesion Helpline UK – text only
TheNationalMortgageExpert.com (design, coding, no maintenance)
TheOmniscientMussel.com (design, coding, content)

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last updated February 2010

Journalists of all stripes have seen space for their work go the way of the dodo but it seems the pain is particularly acute for those of us who want to write about the performing arts. To combat this I have done what many others have and created my own space on the web. TheOmniscientMussel.com was launched in September of 2007 and 800 posts later, it’s still going strong. More details for those that care to know them are available here.

The following is a list of everything that I’ve written or created for newspapers, magazines and radio since 2007.

2009/10

April 2009 — “Human Trafficking: the aviation industry to the rescue” (pdf forthcoming) — Aviation Security International

April 2009 — “Albus Cavus: A Profile” (pdf forthcoming) — Energy of the City – lifestyle mag for Washington Gas in D.C.

March 2009 — “The Singing Policeman” — Short radio documentary for Saturday Afternoon At The Opera CBC Radio 2 (link forthcoming)

Jan/Feb 2009 — “Sounds Like Love: songs that stir the heart” (pdf) — Grand River Magazine (Kitchener-Waterloo)

16th November 2009 — DaCapo choir opens season with brilliant effort — The Waterloo Record
13th November 2009 — KWS: Baroque and Beyond — The Waterloo Record
11th November 2009 – Loads of promise, but young quartet has some mellowing to do — The Waterloo Record
30th October 2009 — Conrad Centre and orchestra need time together — The Waterloo Record

18th October 2009 — “NonClassical: London” — radio documentary for Sunday Afternoon in Concert CBC Radio 2 (last audio sample on page)

18th October 2009 — “The Nightingale And Other Short Fables” — TheOmniscientMussel.com

18th October 2009 — “Quartet tackles the meaning of life from a weighty, Goethe point of view” — The Waterloo Record
16th October 2009 — “Setting’s more comfortable, but jazz event at Music Room felt a tad uneven” — The Waterloo Record

October 2009 — Musical Instruments: A Screener’s Guide (pdf) — Aviation Security International

7th September 2009 — “To Aria Is Human, To Tweet Is Divine” — The Toronto Star – review of the Twitterdammerung, the Royal Opera House’s Twitter opera project.

5th September 2009 — Re-inventing The Book Tour – Again — The Toronto Star – reviewing Margaret Atwood’s book tour/road show

2008/09

All pieces for The Record unless otherwise noted

14th July 2009 — “A Respectable Effort From Novice Wainwright” — The Toronto Star – review of Prima Donna

11th July 2009 — “Prima Donna Get Premiere After All” — The Toronto Star – interview with Rufus Wainwright

11th May 2009 — “Da Capo caps season with a masterful show of colour and texture”
24th April – 3rd May –Open Ears Festival 2009– TheOmniscientMussel.com
2nd April 2009 — “KWS Back To Baroque” — TheOmnsicientMussel.com
23rd March 2009 — Kitchener Waterloo Chamber Music Society — TheOmniscientMussel.com
10th March 2009 — “DaCapo pours it on”
2nd March 2009 — “Menno masters Mozart”

28th February 2009 — “Opera Thrives Outside The GTA” — The Toronto Star — A look at what’s happening in Kitchener, Hamilton and London.

28th February 2009 — “Opera, Classical Music Branch Out” — The Toronto Star — A short round up of where to watch concerts, ballet and opera online.

2nd February 2009 — “Latin American Quartet Delights”
9th January 2009 — “Saint-Georges adds flavour to improving Baroque series “
24th November 2008 — “Cellists Show Off Improv Genre”
14th November 2008 — ” Miller Delivers Haydn With Style, Knowledge”
3rd November 2008 — “Oboist Adds To Nota Bene Offering”
27th October 2008 — “Bravo, Aviv’s Shostakovich”

October 2008 — “Body Cavities: An Anatomical Risk Assessment” (pdf) — Aviation Security International

26th September 2008 — “Penderecki Remains Tight Even In Close Confines”
30th September 2008– “The Kid’s Classic Approach” — Nico Muhly concert preview
22nd September 2008 — “Nota Bene Notes Well Violin’s Rise “

2007/08

June — “Religious Clothing And Artefacts: A Guide For Security Screeners.” (pdf) — Aviation Security International