Adam Baer

Biography

Adam Baer lives in Los Angeles. A former NPR cultural producer and Travel + Leisure correspondent, he has worked as a music critic for the Los Angeles Times, and has written essays for Harper’s Magazine, the New York Times, NPR, and anthologies such as Before & After: Stories from New York (Mister Beller’s Neighborhood, 2002).

See Work

ESSAYS / Spring 2013

Sound + Vision

By Adam Baer

For some of us concerned about the fate of sheet music, Song Reader also served as a litmus test of sorts: How many music fans (at least among the sample Beck attracts) still read, or know someone who reads, Western music notation, notes...
CRITICISM

A New Way to Read Music

By Adam Baer

New systems (and apps) are best when they solve problems, but learning to read Western music notation isn’t a problem that requires a solution.

 

ESSAYS / Winter 2013

If You Were Cool, Rich, or Bad Enough to Live Here, You’d Be Home

By Adam Baer ,  Photography by Elizabeth Daniels, Ken Hively

When I first moved to Los Angeles, I found myself energized by the city’s aesthetic extremes and, upon watching Brian de Palma’s Body Double, quickly sought out John Lautner’s Chemosphere house, arguably the film’s most pivotal character...

The Sheats–Goldstein House, master bedroom. (Elizabeth Daniels)