NPR Music Articles

I was listening to the NPR Most-Emailed Stories podcast on my flight yesterday, and heard a bunch of good music-related articles:

• Band Tries to Make It Big Without Going Broke
• 'Violin Dreams': Chasing Bach's Elusive Chaconne
• Tackling Mahler's Fifth Symphony

Check them out.

A visit to Philadelphia

I wanted to write briefly about what we did and ate during our recent visit to Philadelphia, which was a lot of fun. We took some recommendations from this Times article. In no real order:

• Kingdom of Vegetarians: We ate here on our first night. Good food, but very large quantities; one appetizer and a main dish is probably enough for two. I was impressed with the number of vegetarian places in center city Philly; we had lunch at a vegetarian falafel place once, and there were plenty of other options.
• La Colombe Torrefaction: Recommended in the Times article, this place does in fact have amazing coffee.
• The Rosenbach Museum: A small, cozy museum showcasing the rare books collection of Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach and some antiques. Lots of neat stuff here, and you can see everything in under 2 hours.
• Porcini Restaurant: A friend took us to this friendly Italian restaurant, where the owner typically mingles with the diners. It was a bit cramped, but the food was quite tasty.
• Pietro's Pizza: The coal oven pizza was good, but stay away from the salad.
• Naked Chocolate Cafe: Go here for some intense hot chocolate, very dense and served like an espresso shot; wow.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun we had during the trip; Philly is a place worth visiting.