Lately, it seems I’ve been waking up almost every morning with some manner of song in my head. Yesterday, it was Must Be Dreaming by Frou Frou. The day before that, it was Vivaldi. Monday, well, I don’t remember back that far.
Do you wake up humming a tune on more than an occasional basis? Yes or no, give a shout in the comments section. If you woke up with something stuck in your head this morning, tell us (yeah, all 2 of us) what it was…
I know there’re at least a handful of people – some of whom might even be readers of this site – who are surprised by my recent re-emergence into the world of instant messaging. In truth, I feel there are a few people from past lives (RIT, home, etc) whose kinship I have been neglecting. In response, I’ve been trying to keep my AIM client online a bit more lately, in hopes of catching up.
I’ve installed Pidgin, a multiplatform IM client, on the PC I use most frequently at home. The only problem is, Pidgin doesn’t seem to notice when I’m around. It pretty much goes into the idle-triggered “away” state automatically, after 10 minutes, whether I’m sitting at the computer or not. Eventually, I’ll figure this behavior out – but for now, take my “away” status with a grain of salt…
Update 2007-10-07 1530: With thanks only in part to a small handful of marginally-helpful people on the #pidgin freenode channel, I managed to recompile Pidgin a few times this afternoon and get everything working. I now have appropriately-updated statii (that’s multiple statuses, you know) based on my mouse movements and keyboard use.
Ahh, birthdays. We’ve come up with some pretty interesting customs in this country to celebrate them… The cake and candles gig, the balloons and gifts, and of course the greeting cards. It’s one more area of American culture that I wish I knew more about – there must be some reason someone decided to stick candles in a birthday cake – or bake one in the first place, for that matter. Rarely do these things enter the popular vernacular solely out of practicality or aesthetics, so there’s got to be a story.
Guess that’s what Wikipedia is for, but I digress…
For my stepmom’s birthday this past week, we decided to skip the cake and candes, and go for ice cream and music instead. After a delicious dinner at Camille’s, followed by an out-and-out sinful dessert at Coldstone Creamery, we piled into Kelly’s Vue and headed up to the Eastan School of Music (well, more accurately, the Eastman Theater) and enjoyed a positively breathtaking concert put on by the Eastman Philharmonia.
I can’t say enough good things about the music at the Eastman school. Kelly and I have attended experienced at least a dozen concerts there since we met in 2001, and each time we go our enjoyment grows. Every time I sit in the Eastman theater and listen to some of the country’s most talented music students perform, it makes me want to come back sooner and sooner. In our case, the Philharmonia’s concert was spectacular. They played three pieces totalling about 90 minutes’ worth of music, and there wasn’t a single note that wasn’t perfectly rendered or didn’t have a presence all its own.
For those not fortunate enough to attend, here are links to Amazon, where you can buy DRM-free copies of each piece they played:
Wagner, Tristan and Isolde Prelude & Liebestod
Brahms, Symphony No. 3
First movement
Second movement
Third movement
Fourth movement
The capstone of the evening, though, was the Mozart concerto played between the Wagner and the Brahms. Though her name escapes me, and the concert program is presently riding around in Kelly’s purse, the young pianist was positively amazing. She played the theater’s beautiful Steinway grand without sheet music, and without batting an eye. While she was precise, she played with feeling – and whether it be by extensive rehearsing or extraordinary perception on the part of the conductor, the orchestra managed to track her expression with every note. While a recording certainly pales in comparison to the goosebumps that she surely imparted on many in the small audience Wednesday night, you can find the piece here:
Mozart, Concerto for Piano & Orchestra No. 21 in C Major, K.467:
First movement
Second movement
Third movement
Classical music is a lot like red wine – a glassfull a day is good for the heart. If I could wake up every morning to the music we heard this past Wednesday night, I’m sure my heart would fare just fine.
daverea.com: getting you up to speed, one random thought at a time.
Surprisingly enough, I’ve encountered enough new music this week to ensure the survival of our new Saturday morning tuneage feature for another two installments. While one of the bands is proving to be more-than-a-little elusive, I’ve at least got this weekend covered. You’ll have to check back to hear more…
Kelly and I spent this evening in traffic court. Now there’s a joyous experience. They had all the cliches: the repeat offender who brags aloud about how many unpaid tickets he’s sitting on, the nervous lady with a twitch and a lapsed-inspection citation, the scared-but-defiant teens with parents in tow, the inevitable 10% who can’t seem to comprehend the “No Cell Phones” sign on the wall as they approach the security checkpoint, and of course the guy with the scary-looking rash. And about 150 other people. And us. Fortunately, when it was our turn at the bench, things turned out pretty well. ‘Nuff said!
Now – on a completely unrelated note – I know a few of you have been patiently visiting daverea.com for quite some time now, in hopes of learning the cure for all the problems that plague your frusterating lives. After somewhere approximating 8 years on the air, bringing you the best in commentary that only distracts you momentarily from concentrating on being bored, I think I may have finally found your answer: ball bungees. Since you can buy them by the 25-pack these days, you might just be able to amass a sufficient capacity for temporary fastening as to fix all those things that keep you from being happy.
Coming full-circle, I’m thinking about starting a new link category over on the much-neglected daverea.com navigation panel. I’d like to post links to every DRM-free music store I can find, and it turns out there’s a pretty good cross-section of them in addition to the latest member of the pack, Amazon. If you have any suggestions from past shopping experiences, feel free to post them in the comments!
Or, just comment for the hell of it.
Please?
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