Fear ‘Fess Up

01. January 2009 · 1 comment · Categories: Links, Ramble

Mrs. T and I were chatting about the decline and fall of Western civilization while driving from Smalltown to St. Louis the other day, and I offered the following Universal Explanation of everything bad about the world: Most people are stupid. She agreed, reluctantly.

-Terry Teachout (I read it here)

Oh dear. Here’s a fear of mine: I fear my stupidity. I fear I’m not as smart as I think I am … and I already think I’m not all that smart.

I also fear I’m actually a horrible musician and no one has the heart to tell me.

And I fear that people are being nice to me — pretending to be my friend — because they feel so sorry for me. I know at some point they’ll come clean and explain that.

A puzzlement:
At the same time I think I’m smart (or at least not-so-dumb), a good musician (or at least not-so-bad) and that my friends like me (at least a little).

How stupid is that??

TQOD

01. January 2009 · Comments Off on TQOD · Categories: TQOD

It’s the best instrument in the world. No other instrument can replicate the sound of a DUCK as well as the oboe does. Period.

Will I Continue?

01. January 2009 · Comments Off on Will I Continue? · Categories: Ramble

I think folks here know that I subscribe to emusic. It’s handy, and I find a lot of music. But here’s the thing: I have so much music, between all the emusic downloads, some iTunes things I’ve downloaded, and all the CDs I’ve purchased. I can’t even imagine how many days of music I have.

Just how much do I need to own? How much will I really listen to?

So maybe it’s time to drop the emusic subscription. Some months I can’t even figure out if there’s anything I want. So far the pop music I’ve tried ends up leaving me empty after a couple of listens.

I haven’t done the New Year’s resolution thing in the past, but perhaps I’ll change that and resolve to simplify this year. I can drop things like emusic. Lessen what I have. Or at least not add more.

I’m also not renewing my Opera News subscription. If they would have an online subscription only, that would be fine, but I don’t read it enough to continue getting the mag in the mail. I also dropped MUSO; it just wasn’t meaty enough. Sure had gorgeous musicians it it, though. But I’m done with hard copy mags … I’ve minimized my catalogues via Catalogue Choice. The less paper, the better. I’m nearly fed up with a few charities, too; they continue to send me renewal notices, and I can’t believe how much paper they spend on me when I pay up once a year, period.

Will this actually be a year I resolve to do something. Write about it. And then do it? It could happen.

2009

01. January 2009 · 3 comments · Categories: Ramble

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

(For whatever it’s worth; I think more by school year, as that’s how the symphony and opera seasons work, along with the university. Go figure.)