Frequent Citations

Emigrante

The Orishas cd I've been waiting for finally arrived today.  There is something about their music that compels you to get up and dance. The problem is that they're Cuban, and I learned my Spanish in Mexico, so I miss a lot of the slang. And Cubans really only use slang, which means I'm missing a whole lot.

Still, the music is good.

Since I'm doing all the studying around here, I think it's time for a quiz:

You Are A....Pirate! -rebel -sneaky -troublemaker

What's Your Halloween Costume? .:with pics:.
brought to you by Quizilla

Go ahead, play along at home and let me know what you'll be for Halloween. And gosh, yes, this is exactly what I look like. Bwa hahahahahaha. I do have those boots.

Sending On The Love

In my last post, I forgot that when you do the meme you're supposed to pass it on. Oops.

I figure most of my readers who are bloggers also read Shellvester Diaries and have thus been tagged by Shell. However, I would love to hear from True. I was listening to a fantastic Fado cd she gave me recently -- I know she has great taste in music.

So, True, tag! You're it.

Gifts of Euterpe

Shell, in a break from blogging about the terrors of law school, tagged all her readers with a music meme she got from Listless. (Incidentally, Listless also has some excellent, if somewhat unorthodox, tips for law school.

Well then! I find this good timing, since I just yesterday finished unpacking all our cds and found places for them. Most of them are stashed in the new china cabinet that came with the dining room set. Did I tell you about that? 1930's cherry dining table with chairs and a china (cd) cabinet for WAY cheap: yay for Craig's list!

Anyway, now that we're all over the excitement of my very first actual dining room chairs, we'll return to the original topic of music. Here are the questions:

1. Total volume of music
2. Last CD I bought
3. Song playing right now, or last song played
4. Five songs I listen to a lot or that mean a lot to me

1. When I was sorting and stashing cds I did a very rough count, and we have approximately 400. More or less (a bit less, I'm fairly sure) half are rock/pop/alternative/what-have-you, a disgusting percentage of the remaining are classical piano (gee I wonder why?),  a fair smattering of other classical, and a sizable chunk of jazz and miscellaneous.

Then there are the cds I've put on Laptop the First, Bessie; I'd guess maybe another 75ish. There are also records. (Yes! Vinyl! Including Some Girls, which has one of the greatest covers ever. Cd covers do not measure up to the same entertainment standards.) I've no idea how many records we have -- maybe 100? And then too there are dozens of cassette tapes. No 8-tracks, sorry.

So we have some music. Not enough, but some.

2. Last cd I bought was from Amazon and there were 3: two of Dave Brubeck and Beck's Odelay. However, I currently have 3 more cds in my basket, which I might just go ahead and get because I am BAD: Nina Simone, Blossom Dearie, and Ornella Vanoni. Annie is very much to blame for these because she encourages all my natural badness and I really appreciate that about her.

3. I just put on Beleza Tropical 2 which is a replacement for the first one we had -- a casualty of too many trips in and out of the cd player. It's a fantastic compilation; Rivers, Bridges, and Overdrives is a special favorite. I happened to have left Segovia's Bach cd in the player so it came on as well and it is wonderful. However, I still have some of the latest White Stripes running through my head.

4. How to narrow it down? I'm going to have to cheat. In no particular order:

1. Horowitz's recording of Scarlatti. This is comfort music -- delightful, soothing, exactly right.
2. Tom Waits, Heart of Saturday Night. I love the entire cd, but that song in particular means a great deal to me for a certain reason. I also love to hear TFL sing along to it.
3. In the Moment, composed by GirlChild. If you heard it, you would know exactly what she's like because it reflects her personality wonderfully: joyous, complicated, deeper than you would suspect, unpredictable.
4. Vodka, by George Gershwin. Enough said.
5. A song my father wrote years ago and was always my favorite of his songs was Come Then My Love. But I can't think of my father singing without remembering his powerful, warm, rich voice singing that wonderfully silly song My High Silk Hat. So they both have to be on the list. 

Christopher Columbus, now what do you think of that? That big fat lady, she sat right on my hat!

*humming merrily*

Random Music

Over the summer Chicken Magazine of  Magic Cookie came up with the idea of a cd exchange. Neat, I thought, that would be fun to do.

Being the slothful and dilatory person that I am, I finally sent the cd off yesterday. It is more or less an hour of the most random music, pulled off my computer late one night. I think there are five different languages on it, there is everything from classical to rap, and the only thing all the tracks have in common is that I like them.

GirlChild pointed out that the cd goes from one tuning frequency to another and then back, depending on whether it's more or less techno music. It's a bit disconcerting once you notice it. She then swiped the cd, so I had to burn it again.

I have to go try to clean up my act and get my id picture taken. Whoot. I despise having my picture taken, but once I have the id I am back in the Land of Student Discounts.

Music Exchange

There were a gazillion (6) teenagers in the house last night. A bunch of GirlChild's friends came over to hang out and some of them were foolish enough to play Monopoly with Boy.

Boy has been slaughtering all in his path since he started playing Monopoly at age 6 or so. He has to trap unwary strangers into playing with him because no one related to him will go near the game any more. The scars, the painful memories.

As one of the guys was leaving I saw he had a fistful of cd's. Hello? Oh right, he's the one who burned all the rap he felt GirlChild should be familiar with before she goes to college. In exchange, she loaned him a handful of some of our favorite classical music: some piano, some violin, and some guitar. Good choices, I thought. Although the whole exchange did strike me as slightly odd.

There was a post recently on Divine Angst asking for music recommendations. It was fascinating to see how wide-ranging some people's musical taste is. Me, there is little I'll dismiss based only on the genre. I've even (gasp!) learned to like some country music. Hey, "Blue Eyes Cryin'" is a great song. There's a lot of music I despise because it's just bad, some I don't care for because other people do it So Much Better, and some that drives me insane.

Music Splurge

There was a consensus in the house that it had been far too long since we'd gotten any new cds. GirlChild and I decided to remedy the situation yesterday.

Our new favorite Beck cd was played at full volume on the way home.

We also got some Fall Out Boy, a Joe Jackson we didn't already have, some Exodus, a smidgen of Los Lobos, and something else I can't remember right now but I really liked. Yeah, we were in a slightly edgy mood yesterday.

Tequila Kills Me

Welcome to the post Cinco de Mayo and band rehearsal post.

I rolled into band rehearsal about, oh, 45 minutes late, and the mikes weren't even set up yet and half the band was still in the kitchen, fixing drinks. Pretty standard, in other words. Succumbing to fearsome peer pressure I allowed myself to be persuaded into a margarita. Or two.

Tequila, as I have said before and will again, is evil. That's really all I have to say about it.

No it isn't. That worm? Gross!! Freaks me the heck out. I'll stick with vodka, thankyouverymuch.

In other band news, Kelly the Drum Babe gave me the cutest tambourine ever.

And that's the sort of quality picture you get after 1 (or 2) margaritas.

My tambourine needs are now all met. Thanks Kel!

Come Down and See Me Sometime

Band rehearsal was last night. How is it that the drinking discussion sessions afterward last longer than the rehearsal itself? Then Kris got on the subject of Ralph Waldo Emerson and the travesty that is the naming of a local school... somewhere in the evening were in-depth explorations of the Catholic Church and a menage a trois... the TOPICS, not the actual things.

So I'm not at my most chipper today. No. However, by Saturday I will be all hot and sexy again recovered, so come down and see the band!

Recital News

GirlChild's senior recital will be May 29th, 2:30 pm. On the program will be works by Chopin, Debussy, Ravel, and Bolling. Possibly, if we ask very very nicely, she will include a Spanish dance.  A reception bearing an amazing resemblance to a graduation party will be immediately following, chez nous.

It will be fabulous. Please come!

Singing in Churches and Bars

This is the first year in I-don't-know how long that I'm not singing in the church choir for Easter week. It's odd. I think I miss the ritual and the beautiful music and the challenge of learning some semi-impossible Bach piece, but I don't miss TFL grousing about how much time I'm spending away from him.  (Poor thing, he just misses me so.)

There was a time when I thought I would always sing in the choir, regardless of outside obligations. I sang in it when the squirts were little, when I was working full time, when I was in school and would study Greek while singing in Latin (or Latin while singing in Greek). Then one day I found that I just couldn't do it any more.

The reasons are complicated; suffice it to say it was time to set that part of my life aside for a while. I still sing with the band, but that is neither a substitute for singing in choir nor the reason why I left it. Somehow, singing in bars is just not the same as singing in church. The music is slightly different too.

I feel disconnected. There's an important chunk missing, yet I cannot retrieve it. Not now, maybe never, I don't know.

Maybe I'll go find some chocolate now. There's got to be some around here somewhere -- it's Easter tomorrow.

Happy Easter.