I drove down to SoCal today. Using our old car soon to become Kelsey’s new car, which doesn’t have an iPod hookup (how pathetic, eh?), I had to choose which CDs to bring along (I didn’t want to take to many, as I’ll be flying home). Early on I listened to some Piano Quintets (Rachmaninoff—yeah, no oboe in that one—,Mozart & Beethoven). The first didn’t excite me a lot, but I really never seem to get Rachmaninoff. (I heard his second piano sonata later on, and again there was just too much “stuff” and I get overwhelmed. Call my simple.) The Mozart and Beethoven are both so great, and I’d love to play them again sometime. I attempted Werther, since we begin rehearsals next Tuesday, but listening to opera in a car just doesn’t work. Too many changes in dynamics. (The same goes for a lot of classical music; chamber music works okay, but symphonies and operas have too much dynamic contrast.) After that I moved to Annie Lennox’s new CD. It’s nice. I’m not sure I’ll listen to it a much more; for some reason I get less and less out of pop CDs while I tend to get more from the classical music upon multiple listens. (Yeah, I’m a nerd.) Following Lennox I just verified that my download (legal, thank you very much) of a ton of “Lamb” was wasted on yours truly. I just don’t get them. Ah well. (Reminder to self: Self, do NOT downolad a ton of stuff just because you hear one tune you like! You are being silly if you do.) Interspersed with the final CD, Joni Mitchell’s new one that includes a “fakestra” some of the time, was news because of the horrendous LA traffic. (And accident … as usual.) The Mitchell CD doesn’t do it for me. It’s just too preachy and not in a poetic way. I love her voice … nice and smokey (ah, what cigarettes with do, eh?) … but I really don’t need to be told any more how horrible we are or how the earth is being ruined. I just don’t need it. Maybe I’m just old and jaded. Even her “Paved paradise, put up a parking lot” tune wasn’t as good as before. The one tune I enjoyed until the end was her song to the Kipling poem “If”. Too bad she changed the ending.
And now it’s on to wedding plans! Woo hoo! Exciting times ahead.
