Douglas McLennan

Whenever an organization is having problems – as this one clearly is – it's helpful as a reporter to step back to consider how a successful, well-run organization might respond in the situation. Then you compare it against what the actual response is.

Yes, music directors quit all the time, but virtually never in the middle of a season and, in the modern era, not effective immediately.

With 721 stories this year, Post Alley has explored local, national and international issues.

It’s difficult to plumb the true depths of the hazards at Hanford. John Brodeur, an environmental engineer and geologist who worked at Hanford in the 1990s, wrote that the DOE’s leak-detection method is “not only flawed, but designed to avoid finding leaks.”

Many listeners have attended for decades and are deeply knowledgeable about what they’re hearing. They don’t by any means expect to love everything; indeed, they can get as excited about the music they hate as about the performances they thrill over. The biggest crime in Ojai is not a misfire but a performance or piece of music that fails to provoke reaction.

Newspapers have seen their traditional ad-supported business models fray and fall apart, while Google, Insta, Facebook et al have grown fat and sassy. And news publishers look at Google & Co.’s pots of money and cry “foul – you’ve stolen our ad dollars.” Surely reparations are in order.

I call. And get a recorded message that the “call center” is currently closed. Would I like to complete my request by text? No, but okay. The bot comes on and asks for my first name. I comply. Now it needs my last name so it can verify my account. Grrr. Okay.

What is the big Paris-size vision for a new Seattle -- for a city that works better, spreads its wealth more equitably and is built to thrive during the challenges ahead? And more important -- where is the leadership -- people who aren't just selling themselves as mitigators, but who have a vision for the extraordinary region this can be?

While Ste. Michelle seems like a homegrown institution (which it is), it's actually been owned by big tobacco companies since 1974.

The fact that a whole year has gone by, during which the public has heard and seen nothing, and a committee to “advise” on the future of Bumbershoot is only now being formed -- is an indication that there’s no creative spark at the center of this reinvention.