oboeinsight

I was a member of emusic.com for a short time, and managed to pick up a number of oboe works. Most were older works on the Naxos label, but I also found an Alex Klein CD of Martinu, Sydor and Yano. All three works on the CD are new to me, as are the two latter composers. I burned a CD last night of the Martinu and Yano (the Sydor didn’t fit, and it turns out it’s actually a double CD in the real world). I’m absolutely stunned at what Klein can play, but I’d heard him on some Telemann and Bach which astounded me as well, so that didn’t totally surprise me. I was shocked, though, when the music suddenly stopped in the middle of the Yano first movement, and then, in the second there was this huge pop that nearly sent me driving off the road. Sigh. The second movement of the Yano sounded lovely—at least what I heard of it! Unfortunately there was either a glitch in the burning, downloading or else emusic has a problem with some of their tracks. But I can tell this is going to be a “must have” so if there is a problem with my copies I’ll simply have to purchase the double CD set. It’s well worth the money, in my little opinion.
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There are certain blogs I visit daily. There are certain writers that I enjoy so much (even if I don’t always agree with the folks who write) and some, whether they know it or not (and I suspect they don’t), with whom I feel a strong connection. Terry is one of them. So when he writes, “Please don’t forget about me while I’m gone! I shall return,” I have to smile … and even laugh. And shake my head. And wonder if he thinks his readers would do that!

The BlogWorld is an interesting place. We … okay I … read some blogs and I can’t quite see the human being behind the words. I think some are trying so hard to be clever—or they really are that clever—and there’s something about clever that puts up a barrier; somehow constant cleverness can get in the way of the actual person. I still read those sites, mind you, and I find them witty. But I don’t feel any connection to the writer. Sometimes those sites make me feel mocked too. Can’t say why, though. It might just be my insecurity.

There are other blogs that just lose me. I’m not sure if I’m just stupid or simple minded, or if the sites require some sort of special “knowing” that I don’t have. They remind me of Dana Gioa’s article Can Poetry Matter? when he writes about the poetry that appears to be written only for those who are “in” (these are my words, not his) the special isolated world of poets that speak a special language. (I’m not talking about the subject matter, mind you. I’m referring to some music blogs that I can’t figure out. Call me slow.)

And then there are blogs like mine. Simple blogs. Short words. Easy sentences. I checked, and my blog is, according to some site I ran it through, easy to understand and probably written at something like the sixth grade level. Sigh. I’m not sure what this says about me, but I suspect it ain’t good. But it does allow me to use the word “ain’t” so there you go.
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