John Adams's new blog, Hell Mouth, having already caught the attention of New Yorker music critic Alex Ross, has now been recognized across the Atlantic by The Guardian. Writer Charlotte Higgins sends "Cheers for John Adams and his blog," describing it as both "hilarious" and "brilliant." You can read the composer's latest entry, "Conversation Out a Truck Window," at earbox.com.

The St. Lawrence String Quartet continues its world tour with a program featuring the String Quartet Adams wrote for the group in 2008 and which the St. Lawrence premiered earlier this year in New York City. This weekend, the group performs the piece twice in concerts at the Des Moines Arts Center tonight and at the University of Michigan's Rackham Auditorium in Ann Arbor on Sunday.

In a preview of the latter event, the Detroit Free Press's Mark Stryker writes: "While John Adams is on nearly everyone's short list of America's most important living composers, it's a curiosity of his catalog that there's only a modicum of chamber music." All the more reason, says Stryker, "that the appearance of a new Adams string quartet is big news." Read more at freep.com.

The St. Lawrence's cellist, Christopher Costanza, tells the Detroit News just how the composer chose to give his group this new piece and describes it as covering "a broad range of tones and rhythms." You'll find that article at detnews.com.