Instead of random Friday tracks, I'll offer random Friday thoughts:
- It feels like I spent all week camped out on memeorandum, tracking how crazy the world has been become (OU suicide bomber, NY terrorism alerts, Rove/Fitzgerald/Miller et al, Harriet, DeLay/Earle etc.)
- I work two blocks from the California Theatre in downtown San Jose. Walking by today, I saw bunches of people with Apple badges. Were they coming from the robot convention or were they preparing for the Steve Jobs announcement next week?
- For at least two years, I've been using bloglines to read my blog feeds. Today, I switched to the new google blog reader (basic operation with one finger). So far so good.
- Do I really need to read 577 personal and 130 job-related feeds? For example, although Lars von Trier' Five Obstructions was a peak experience, do I really need to continue to read every blog mention of it? (I won't delete the feed until I see this post showing up in it, of course).
- My tactic of adding a dose of the same composer's music to my daily iPod regimen for several weeks at a time is proving worthy. After so much Aaron Copland, I began to view the world as a melodious if occasionally bittersweet place.On the other hand, after a week or so of Varèse's music in preparation for next week's performance of Dr. A-, life is dark, complex, and confusing. Actually, I should be ok over the next week unless my skull cracks open or something.
- Density 21.5 is solo music for flute that doesn't strike me as particularly dense, compared to say orchestral works like Arcana. All of which is a lead-in to how come I don't know of any flute blogs? (This assumes Terminal Degree plays another instrument).
- Today, after ten or so tracks of Varèse, Be-In by Evan Ziporyn came on. Light, fun, and probably not a by-product of impossible parent/child dynamics. I don't mean this perjoratively, but it was like the difference between reading the NY Times and USA Today at least in terms of effort required. After reading all those blogs on Miller and the press and then trying to read the source articles, I think the comparison apt although to be fair "Be-In" is much more satisfying than the "McPaper."
- For the record, I do look forward to again hearing Poème èlectronique, Ionisation, Amériques, and Un grand sommeil noir.
- Change is in the air but I don't know if it just seasonal* or generational, which is I why I am interested to see if Doctor Atomic reflects this unraveling era or moves beyond it. Presumably, it is not a triumphalist portrayal as might be seen in the American High of the 1950s. I also wonder if Hunt Lieberson was missed. (On the other hand, I'm glad I'm not going to see that Elvis Costello opera instead.)
- Most importantly, tomorrow brings the new Wallace & Gromit movie, although a review I read today may have provided a cheese-related spoiler.
*Keeping in mind that California only has two seasons -- six months of summer and now six months of spring. That unwatered grass will be turning green soon...
rgable: aworks american high era culture wars era varese: aworks del.icio.us wikipedia google news yahoo audio singingfish If Varese, Ives, and Stravinsky had a four-way with Frida Kahlo ziporyn: aworks doctor atomic: aworks
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