Bloglet, the gentleman's mock turtle soup -- Moss made it sweeter than myrrh ash and dhoup
An atheist's discourse on redemption.
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10:52:46 PM,Friday 7 May 2004
My mom's coming home from Norway tonight! Whee! {clean clean clean}
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(2)
09:37:56 PM,Friday 7 May 2004
I wish Salam Pax was still blogging.
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08:30:09 PM,Friday 7 May 2004
Bach's Double Violin Concerto and Outkast's "Roses" are playing simultaneously in my brain. In fact, they have been, without respite, for the last two hours. The pain. Oh, god, the pain.
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09:54:39 AM,Friday 7 May 2004
Just officially withdrew my application from the Peace Corps. The lady on the phone was very nice about it. She was all, "So, what's the reason? Job? Cold feet?" And I stammered, "It's, um, y'know, one of those... affairs of the heart kinda things." And she laughed and said, "Yeah, I sort of got that impression. Well, best in everything." So... there it is. Mexican Toast.
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(3)
07:24:19 PM,Thursday 6 May 2004
Technovelgy -- where science fiction authors went right. From Enorgis.
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04:55:58 PM,Thursday 6 May 2004
Robert Karma Knight, Sr. (hint: not a nun)
Born May 6, 1927, and still kicking, the old cuss.
Here's to life, love, and lechery!
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(4)
10:39:56 AM,Thursday 6 May 2004
Guinea Pig Zero, a journal for human research subjects. No, I'm not quite that desperate yet. But I may consider it, depending on how things work out over the next couple of months. Gotta get to New York. Gotta gotta gotta.
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(3)
12:41:20 AM,Thursday 6 May 2004
I miss talking about books with people.
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(10)
12:43:17 PM,Wednesday 5 May 2004
Night Thoughts.
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(5)
06:48:51 AM,Tuesday 4 May 2004
"No, I have not been reading your blog. I could kick myself for not writing down your blog address. So I have absolutely no clue about what has been happening with you. Rather a lot, i suspect. Dad said [I called once] that the Peace Corps had called and that you had been accepted. why do i have a feeling that you might not go? Yes, I have been to Prague and everywhere. Lord yes, we shall talk."
Gah. This woman. Too damn smart for her own damn good. Gah.
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(3)
03:40:09 AM,Monday 3 May 2004
Oh. Oh. Oh.
I'm drowning.
(Nectar.)
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(1)
02:05:03 AM,Monday 3 May 2004
Well, since I'm avoiding doing any useful work on my resume, I might as well give you that blogswap commentary I mentioned. The title comes from my instant irkment whenever I hear another person say, "Oh, yes, classical music! It's so soothing." Grr. Sure, some of it can calm your savage breast and all, but that's not what it's for. Any music that's only inoffensive and nothing else is axiomatically suck. Not to say that the slow, quiet stuff can't be as rich and powerful as the frenetic stuff I put on this one, (in fact, I'm sort of thinking of putting together an album of slow, quiet, anti-wallpaper.) but I just wanted to prove the buggers wrong as forcefully as possible. So it's music that gets me hopping; that's how I picked it. I had to leave off my two favorite headbanging numbers, the Haydn and Gluck bits that I put on the end of the blogswap before this one, but there's plenty where they came from. So:
1. Bach -- The Art of Fugue, Contrapunctus 9 a 4 alla Duodecima
Nice warmup, huh? RAWR! I love the Art of Fugue on string quartet better than any other configuration. You'll notice I was sort of going for balance on this CD: one of each of the big composer studs, a few in the second tier, and a healthy handful of complete unknowns; some each of chamber music, vocal music, concertos; heavy on the baroque and classical, with romantic and renaissance filling in the ranks. That sort of thing. Anyway, this one should put a demon leer on your face in preparation for the rest, if it's all going as I planned. Dig the sixteenth-note runs on the cello. Rakes its fingers down your spinal column, don't it? Glory.
2. Haydn -- Quartet in G minor ("The Rider"), Allegro con Brio
Less agitation, more banter, but plenty of oomph. I first heard it when I was trekking along a barren stretch of highway at three in the morning. It fit.
3. Albrechtsberger -- Concertino For Jew's Harp and Mandora in F, Allegro Molto
Ok, this one doesn't really fit. It doesn't have the same hot pulse as all the rest. But you understand why I had to put it on, don't you? I mean... dude. If you don't get it, it ain't in my power to get it for you. Jew's Harp Concerto. Jew's Harp Concerto. Or, er, Concertino. Whatever. But you need a mellow one around now anyway, or you'll be exhausted by the time C.P.E. comes around. So there.
4. Scheidt -- Galliard Battaglia
Dueling cornettos! Starts out simple and gets nuts. I picture an all-out brawl by the time the last note's sounded. Oh, for a tongue like theirs...
5. Leclair -- Sonata for Violin and Viola in F, Allegro assai
See, now, this one's got plenty of vim, but it ain't so aggressive. What I wanted was the jump and the bounce -- that's what all these have in common. They make you pay attention, is the point. Least, I hope so. I'm interested to know how the rest of you guys respond to it.
6. Schubert -- Quartettsatz in C minor
One thing I can do on an all-classical mix that I don't feel I can get away with on my regular pop/classical hybrids is including songs that are more than seven minutes long. But ain't it worth it, though? Man. Light and dark in stripes and spatterings.
7. Corelli -- Concerto #8 in G, Allegro
Sorry about the glitch at the beginning of this one. Didn't get around to smoothing it out. They used to call Corelli "Orpheus reborn". Sometimes he's just good fun, but sometimes he's really damn good. I dunno which category this snippet falls into, but I dig it. Short. Also Brutish. Perfect for my purposes.
8. Fiocco -- Missa Solemnis in D, Et Resurrexit
Those spazzy Belgians. I love 'em. This one cools down in the middle, (it's the one I was talking about a while back) but, y'know, countertenors and trumpets. Cutlets in sauce.
9. Piccinni -- La Buona Figliuola, Furia di Donna
I didn't like this one the first twenty times I heard it. But then I was coming down from hiking the M, and I was all sweaty and grinning, and it came on, and I bleated it out, not knowing any of the words, all out of breath, just blooming godawful. So much fun. Had to put it on. So if you don't like it, try it out in singalong style. Then see.
10. C.P.E. Bach -- Flute Concerto in D minor, Allegro di Molto
I dare you, I dare you not to flail around like an ergot-munching madman when you hear this song. Dude, I don't even like flutes, as a rule. But it rocks my ass so god damned hard. Fwahaaaaa! {leaps headlong into bottomless pit, sniggling madly all the while}
11. Monteverdi -- Vespro Della Beata Virgine, Lauda Jerusalem
This one's kind of odd, isn't it? But what it lacks in finesse it makes up for in raw hollering. I'd like to hear it live, in a giant old cathedral.
12. Mozart -- Piano Concerto in Eb, Allegro
Now, see, this one isn't hyper or growling the way lots of them are. But it gallops. By the second or third refrain, I'm completely incapable of keeping quiet. I'm forced to scat along to it (ba-lump-bump-bump ba-whum-pumb!) and grin 'til I crack the welkin. Also, this song was stuck in my head for more than a month, 'cause one of my clients had a little toy thingie mounted on his bedrail that played "The Farmer in the Dell" every time I bumped my knee into it, which happened about four times a morning. And, if you'll notice, the two songs open identically, so I'd always sing this one to him instead. God, ain't it great? {basks}
13. Salieri -- La Secchia Rapita, Son Qual Lacera Tartana
No, it ain't a mistake that Salieri follows Mozart. What's a mistake is taking that old Limey's avowedly fictionalized word for it that Salieri sucked. Listen to this. Is this the work of a mediocrity? Holy hell! If not being Mozart means you suck, there ain't no hope for anybody in this world. So keep your ears open, rock out like crazy, and apologize to the Maestro. 'Cause he whups.
14. Beethoven -- String Quartet #3, Allegro molto
Don't think there's anything to be said about this one. It's the summation. Goodnight.
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(3)
03:55:35 AM,Sunday 2 May 2004
Fine, fine. Frigging in the rigging; there's nothing else to do. I skipped over spoken word tracks, tracks without words, boring tracks like recitatives, and tracks with lyrics I couldn't google the translation of.
1. You gotta wear a pair of ugly old jeans.
2. May day, every day, my day.
3. Ezekiel connected them dry bones.
4. Gey ikh mir a freylekher, zing un knak mir niselekh. (So I walk around happy, singing, cracking nuts.)
5. O togliete a me l'impero, o a me date un altro cor! (Either take the empire from me or give me another heart!)
6. So if you pass me by, three hearts will break in two.
7. Her fingers, like a weaver's, quick and cool.
8. Dann ist die Erd ein Himmelreich, und Sterbliche sind Goettern gleich. (Then earth will be a heavenly kingdom, and mortals will be like the gods.)
9. Luego despierto y me rio; soy mucho menos que nada. (Later I wake up and laugh; I am more or less nothing.)
10. Uru achim belev same'ach. (Awaken, brethren, with a cheerful heart.)
11. I saw them at the pictures, a tangled heap of love.
12. In said led wed dead wed dead said led lead said wed dead wed dead lead.
13. I'll hide me from the sight of Day, and sigh, and sigh my Soul away.
14. Mentira lo que cuece bajo la oscuridad. (What cooks below the darkness is a lie.)
15. So he decreed in words succinct that all who flirted, leered, or winked (unless connubially linked) should forthwith be beheaded.
16. Somebody said he came from New Orleans, where he got in a fight over a Cajun Queen.
17. Al chor che, nudrito da speme d'amore, d'un'esca migliore bisogno non ha. (A heart nourished on the hope of love has no need of greater inducement.)
18. Every carpenter and cowboy, every lame man on a crutch.
19. Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-geno!
20. Vienes a micasa a oir mis discos viejos. (You come to my house to listen to my old albums.)
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(31)
02:42:49 AM,Sunday 2 May 2004
Welsh by mp3!
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(5)
02:23:29 PM,Saturday 1 May 2004
Have I ever felt like this? The last time I promised myself to remember what I felt like was when I was 12 and deluged with hormones. I said to myself, "Now, the grownups always pretend that it wasn't this way. They make themselves forget. You won't do that. Promise me you'll remember." And I have. And I want to make the same kind of lecture to myself right now. It's much more complex, what I'm feeling, but it's just as overwhelming. Did I feel it before? Have I forgotten? Am I dishonest? Oof, memory. But I try to drum up what it was like last time, and there was none of this. Or, at least, there's none of it left. But it doesn't really matter. It's academic. This right now, it's... well. It is. That's all. And oh!
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(6)
01:45:03 PM,Saturday 1 May 2004
"You know Eminem? He did a film, and I said, ‘My God, he is the best rap in the world. I have to go to the movie.’ I loved it. At the end, there were three or four young people near me, and they said, ‘Grandma — did you like it?’ I said, ‘I did like it.’ And they said, ‘Why?’ I said, “I come from opera, and I was curious. And I did like him.’ And they shout, ‘Hey! We have a grandma here who likes it!’ They were all around me! It was wild."
Régine Crespin is adorable.
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(3)
12:54:11 PM,Saturday 1 May 2004
On the upper cusp of so-so: from slacker to slug to swot.
Poseur = poser, but more so. Is it true, or is it not?
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(2)
09:20:39 AM,Saturday 1 May 2004
Wow. Does this sound interesting, or what? Never heard of the guy. I wasn't at all sure that people ever got around to writing modern epics these days, much less worthy ones. Gotta check it out sometime, I think.
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(8)
12:01:19 AM,Saturday 1 May 2004
