No!
The power connector to my laptop burst into flames and sparks late last week, and I wasn't even celebrating anything. Thus, I've been laptopless. I hope to remedy this situation as soon as possible.
I'm still planning on writing a piece about Charles Koechlin sometime soon. Other than that, there is not much new. I look forward to Minnesota's beautiful springtime as a soldier's wife looks forward to seeing her man back from wintery combat. Springtime hits its peak here in about late April, and it will mean lots of basketball and biking for me. Apparently sitting around and eating Wendy's hamburgers all winter is not condusive to good health. This too, I hope to remedy.
I have been seeing some good movies and listening to some good music and reading some good books though.
MOVIES
The Flowers of Saint Francis
The Mirror
Ugetsu
King of Kings (1927)
MUSIC
Bartok-Second Violin Concerto
Messiaen (especially the Trois Petites Liturgies and Catalogue d'Oiseaux played by Loriod)
Reger (Hiller Variations)
Birtwistle-Earth Dances and Gawain
Boulez-Pli Selon pli (Old recording)
Koechlin-La Livre de Jungle
Sonic Youth-Goo
Daedelus-Invention
BOOKS
Euclid in the Rainforest
The Neotropical Companion
Tropical Nature: Life and Death in the Rainforests of South America
Messiaen (Peter Hill and Nigel Simeone's bio. Not an exciting life to say the least but the portrait the emerges of the man is enlightening. Most touching is the letters and pictures of Messiaen's family life in the 30s and 40s with his wife Claire and Pascal. A caring, thoughtful man who would play with his energetic little son and buy him toys in between writing some of the most daringly strange music of all time.)
A.J. Ayler's book on Hume
And of course, my tenth reading of The Da-Vinci Code. Has there ever been a more beautiful prose stylist than Dan Brown? I think not.
The power connector to my laptop burst into flames and sparks late last week, and I wasn't even celebrating anything. Thus, I've been laptopless. I hope to remedy this situation as soon as possible.
I'm still planning on writing a piece about Charles Koechlin sometime soon. Other than that, there is not much new. I look forward to Minnesota's beautiful springtime as a soldier's wife looks forward to seeing her man back from wintery combat. Springtime hits its peak here in about late April, and it will mean lots of basketball and biking for me. Apparently sitting around and eating Wendy's hamburgers all winter is not condusive to good health. This too, I hope to remedy.
I have been seeing some good movies and listening to some good music and reading some good books though.
MOVIES
The Flowers of Saint Francis
The Mirror
Ugetsu
King of Kings (1927)
MUSIC
Bartok-Second Violin Concerto
Messiaen (especially the Trois Petites Liturgies and Catalogue d'Oiseaux played by Loriod)
Reger (Hiller Variations)
Birtwistle-Earth Dances and Gawain
Boulez-Pli Selon pli (Old recording)
Koechlin-La Livre de Jungle
Sonic Youth-Goo
Daedelus-Invention
BOOKS
Euclid in the Rainforest
The Neotropical Companion
Tropical Nature: Life and Death in the Rainforests of South America
Messiaen (Peter Hill and Nigel Simeone's bio. Not an exciting life to say the least but the portrait the emerges of the man is enlightening. Most touching is the letters and pictures of Messiaen's family life in the 30s and 40s with his wife Claire and Pascal. A caring, thoughtful man who would play with his energetic little son and buy him toys in between writing some of the most daringly strange music of all time.)
A.J. Ayler's book on Hume
And of course, my tenth reading of The Da-Vinci Code. Has there ever been a more beautiful prose stylist than Dan Brown? I think not.
posted by PWS at 5:18 PM
8 Comments:
Hi Patrick,
Eating Wendy's hamburgers? Funny...
I'm ready for Spring too, though it was eighty degrees here yesterday, so really, no wait.
Glad you've had so many good books and CDs and movies and such to keep you company.
I've been reading Angela's Ashes, which is just wonderful.
Haven't read The Da-Vinci Code. Most people I know didn't care for it, actually.
Hope you're doing well.
Happy Wednesday,
~ Ash
Good to hear from you.
I was joking about the 'Da Vinci Code' by the way...
Just read this in Rosen's review of Taruskin's History of Western Overpriced Textbooks For Jerks:
"All this scholarly activity is salutary, but it has given rise to the most unsavory aspect of modern sociological criticism, the attempt not merely to separate legend from reality in the fame of the most important artists of the past, but to dynamite these legendary reputations, to claim that the prestige of whoever seems fair game— Josquin, Beethoven, Shakespeare—is entirely due not to any innate genius, but to a process of brainwashing by the cultural elite in power. This facile and practical substitute for criticism is sometimes mistakenly called deconstruction: one needs no interest in art, music, or literature to pursue it. All references to commonly shared and recognized values can be dismissed since these values are simply a successful imposition by an elite upon the society as a whole. Taruskin is far too intelligent to be taken in by this position in all its crudity, influential as it may be, but traces rub off on him as he tries to remain abreast of the latest developments in his field."
Anyway, it's out of context, but I thought it was interesting to hear his thoughts on postmodernism, obliquely.
Wow that's great stuff. Is there a link to that anywhere? I love me some Charlie Rosen.
I got it at:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18725
Your browser might have trouble with the link because of a cookie/subscription thing. This article's the first half of a two-parter, the thrilling conclusion of which is presumably in the works. (Rosen doubtless put the Taruskin on hold for his yearly re-reading of the Harry Potter books.)
Personally, I can't help but think Taruskin's a bit of a fake. Human lives are too short for any single individual to accumulate the knowledge to write something that could be billed as a History of Western Music. He should have called it something less provocative, like "Lenny T's BIG Book of Western Music Trivia!"
i like the bacon.
you like bacon?
I like the painter. And the older Francis Bacon too. (Who wrote all of Shakespeare's plays, rite?)
Hate the food though.
Fair is fowl! Bacon no write tempest, romeo, or hamlet (though that one would be ripe for more stupid puns)
I find francis hard to read but brilliant. I also like the painter.
and i also dislike it on burgers or anything, for that matter.
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