What in hell?

Look! I filled out one of those forward-this-to-four-people polls! Now tell me how funny I am, or I will drink myself into a stupor.

( The original questions were boring. )

Come on, do your own in the comments. It will make you a more proficient lover.

Current Location: ShaveLab 3000
Current Mood: PLEASE LIKE ME
Current Music: WHATEVER MUSIC YOU ARE LISTENING TO IS WHAT I AM LISTENING TO TOO

Diary of the Dead was a good movie, but now all I can think of are captions for LolZombies:

I Can Has Braaaaains?

I has a lerch.

I made a frend.... but I eated it. :(

Death. Ur doin it rong.

Mai chompings. Let me show yuo dem.

etc, etc, etc..

Current Location: My tiny awesome apartment
Current Mood: perplexed

There is a certain purity to writing entries in a Lab Notebook - not so much the detachment as the cerebral thoroughness. While any details about the contents of the entry would have to be redacted, I can say that it feels good to be in a Lab Notebook again. That, and programming, are the two things I miss from my old job.

I did a good job today.

Current Location: ShaveLab 3000
Current Music: The Beatles - When I'm 64

Today, I learned that high levels of work-related stress can always be made less enjoyable by getting a Phil Collins song stuck in your head.

Current Location: ShaveLab 3000
Current Mood: stressed
Current Music: That one Genesis song that gets played all the time on soft rock stations

Windows XP wants me to install Service Pack 3. Is that something I would regret doing?

So, I took my dad to a James Taylor concert a couple of weeks ago, which was a lot of fun. Of the only songs of his I knew, he didn't do "Fire and Rain," which I assume he's very, very tired of singing by now, but he did sing "Going to Carolina in my mind."

"Going to Carolina" is a very nice song, but it's been stuck in my head for 10 days running. Any song that gets stuck in my head for too long, I find myself changing the lyrics to be a little off-color, but damn, this one's too easy! I'm pretty sure what I'm humming now isn't what JT had in mind...

...Or maybe it is, since the original chorus does have the line "just like a friend, to hit you from behind."

Current Location: ShaveLab 3000
Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Sexy, sexy soft rock.

I'm almost finished reading Matt Taibbi's excellent book, The Great Derangement (review to follow... eventually), which investigates the causes and manifestations of a peculiar American laspe of reason. On the right, we have bapist megachurches of the Ted Haggart/John Hagee variety, which preaches about the evils of reason and the coming apocalypse... again. While this is scary, it is to me much less alarming than its equivalant on the left, the 9/11 Truth Movement. These are the people who believe that Bush & company planned the 9/11 attacks, and that a spectacular coverup took place: the planes couldn't have caused the Twin Towers to collapse on their own, because science is a lie, and so the towers must have been packed with explosives for a controlled demolition. Similarly, the Pentagon was hit with a missile, not a plane, because.. well, I'm sure there's a good reason for it. I'm not going to get into it too much, because frankly, the Crazy scares me.

What I found really intreguing (read: frightening) about the Truth movement is that it is effing huge. A poll cited in Taibbi's book states that 36% of Americans believe that Bush either passively didn't prevent the attacks, or actively participated in their planning. Now, I hate Bush as much as any red-blooded American does, but really? All the terrible things he actually did, and people want to obsess over make-believe? Anyway, 36%. That's more than a third of Americans. Which means, if you're an American and you know more than two people, you probably know someone who thinks a massive government/industrial/military/academic conspiracy killed 4500 people. So if you don't think this, look at the person to your left, and the person to your right, and ask yourself which one of them does.

I've been wondering who among the people I know buy into this crap, so I'm going to play a fun internet guessing game. L and D, for a certainty; I haven't seen them for a few years, but the combination of pseudo-science and a chance to feel more informed than ones peers must prove unresistable to them. A lot of my high-school friends, probably - B might, C almost certainly does, and D is probably there too. And a few of my gamer friends probably buy into this as well, although I couldn't guess which ones. Most of the ones who are cynical enough to believe it are also smart enough not to. I'm pretty sure my work friends, chorus friends, and normal friends are not Truthers.

And LJ-friends? I can think of a few that wouldn't surprise me, but it feels slimy (slimier than the rest of this post) to speculate in front of them.

Current Location: ShaveLab 3000
Current Mood: cranky

Netflix reversed their decision to drop a feature that allows for multiple rental queues, and so, a week later, I am back to loving Netflix again.

Multiple queues are little-known and not well publicized, but they are also the single best feature that the service offers. If you are a subscriber and need help setting them up, let me know.

Current Location: ShaveLab 3000
Current Music: R.E.M. - some song or other from the mid-90's.

To-day, I wish I was a freestyle rapper, mostly so I could rhyme "mendacious" with "dem geishas."

Current Location: ShaveLab 3000
Current Music: Radiohead - There There

Thanks to this entry from Brittany, I do feel a little better about Obama's seeming collapse on the FISA/immunity bill. My comment to her post covers my thought process; here's an addendum:

I would have liked to see a (largely symbolic) Nay vote from him, as a symbolic gesture of honesty, but the more I think about it the more acceptable his Yea vote is. It was purely pragmatism, not necessarily triangulation (running to the center, a la Gore and Kerry), but rather gathering favors. The Democrats clearly wanted this bill passed, and the Republicans obviously wanted the same. I would hope that his support of the already-inevitable (but still thoroughly despicable) bill will help him get other, better legislation through Congress should he be elected. I can forgive his Yea vote here if it means comprehensive health care reform can happen.

Current Location: ShaveLab 3000

Dear Internet Diary,

Because I haven't said so yet - Tanglewood last week was AWESOME. I sang fantastic music, discovered many excellent restaurants, drank absinthe, saw a free James Taylor concert (with surprise Travolta), and generally had a good time of things. Unlike last summer, I never lacked for activities; I was always either invited to, or able to invite myself into, plenty of dinner/lunch excersions. And so passes my great fear of summer residencies.

It was basically what I always assumed adulthood was meant to be like: a constant stream of friendly, interested, talented people, going out to eat and drinking lots of wine. Was I uncertain when the time came to sing from memory five hours of music I did not entirely know, before a crowd of thousands? I was not. Was I surprised when a board member of the Pittsburgh Symphony decided to buy drinks for four of us at one-thirty in the morning? I was not. Was I confused when, ninety-minutes later, a very drunk and ADHD-rattled woman commanded me to re-write Candide as an Amish fable, as a metaphor for secret societies? ..I was. But at least I wasn't shocked by it.

I came back from the week exhausted, but very confident - as I tried to explain at the end of the Candide session, none of these people know Family Eryk, Lab 420 Eryk, Jobless Eryk, or any of the less-than-totally-secure Eryks: they just know Chorus Eryk, and Chorus Eryk is pretty cool. I've been riding that ever since. I'm not saying I'm as effortlessly connected as fanw is/was, but it's a start.

I've also been completely restless. I haven't gotten more than six hours of sleep a night since getting home on Sunday; come nighttime, I am full of nervous energy and have to putter for a few hours before I can go to bed. Once in bed I fall asleep almost immediately, but it's hard to get there. I'm hopig this passes; in a way it's like being back in high school. The hours, I mean, getting up at 6:30 and not going to bed until 12:30 or 1. I would like this to pass soon, honestly.

Apropos of nothing, money is very tight for a while - my budget has been derailed by a lot of unexpected expenses, and I have yet to get it back on track. May I was out a lot due to allergies (contractors don't get sick days); June there was the wedding, which wound up costing about $300 more than expected; July I missed a week due to the plant closing at the beginning of the month, plus I need to come up with a month of rent for the new apartment. Next month I need to pay movers, as well as missing another half-week at Tanglewood. Sometime around mid-September I hope to be back on track, which will of course be easier if I get hired (or even just renewed at a slightly higher rate). Fingers crossed...

-E

Current Location: ShaveLab 3000
Current Music: Berlioz - Les Troyens - Act III Finale

I haven't written about Troyens week yet - I plan to do so soon, or possibly not at all. In the meantime, I'd like as many of you as are able to summarize Candide in around one paragraph in the comments.

Thanks!

Current Location: My tiny awesome apartment
Current Music: Weezer - My Name is Jonas

My bags (as well as THE CRATE) are filled with clothes, books, and supplies for a six-day residency at the Tanglewood Music Center. I'm half-enthused about this week; the timing for one is a little poor (the residency is the same week that I'd usually be up at the Cape, being drunk with my extended geek-family), and I think I'm going to have to work harder at socializing this time around. Fewer automatic dinner invites, meaning I'll have to invite myself into other people's plans (a fairly common practice for residency weeks).

On the plus side, I will be seeing at least one, possibly both sets of parents, for a picnic dinner and lawn concert. I'm hoping B will come up as well, but I'm not holding my breath.

As for the music... I don't like "rush learning" pieces, especially not ones I know I'd like under normal circumstances. I've had three rehearsals on Les Troyens, which for a five-hour work is not that much. I'm not worried about the memorization; there are plenty of strong baritones, and I don't think I'm expected to take my usual leadership role for this one.

Anyway, see you all on Monday.

Current Location: My tiny awesome apartment
Current Mood: calm

Apparently this is the year when Blizzard gets all my money.

Current Location: My tiny awesome apartment

Of all the careers I never pursued, the only one I really regret not considering is in music - conducting, specifically. I'll be the first to admit I'm not great with my arms, and I think I would have struggled more than most in learning basic technique.. but once those hurdles were overcome, I would have had a great deal to say.

It used to be that I would hear great works and dream of singing or playing them. Now, perhaps because that first dream is repeatedly fulfilled, I think instead of conducting them, of meeting with choral conductors and concertmasters and hashing out a vision for each piece, and speaking directly with the ensemble. I have sung under the batons of a handful of truly great conductors - Sir Davis, Levine, Haitink, Frubeck de Borgos - and so much of the value of the experience is in the discussion during rehearsal (especially with Levine; often most of the music happens while he is speaking, not conducting). Perhaps it is just the fact of experiencing greatness, and it has rubbed off on me?

I think not; my first conducting fantasies were in California, almost a decade ago. I only knew one sort-of-good piece then, a Britten cantana of some worth, so that's what I dreamed of. Since then my repetoire has expanded considerably; right now I am (still!) focused on the superlative St. Matthew Passion, which I sang three months ago; the Dies Irae and Lacrymosa of the Berlioz Requiem also float in and out, but there's nothing that I can do with them that Frubeck didn't do vastly better.

I'm a scientist now, and I don't regret the decision: I consciously chose to keep my primary passion as a hobby, so that it never becomes work. Still, while I don't often feel this way about my life, I will always regret this path not taken.

Current Location: ShaveLab 3000
Current Mood: melancholy
Current Music: Berlioz - Les Troyens - Act II, Scene II

This is not okay.

In response to this announcement:

( Read more... )

If you subscribe to Netflix and like me, please write and call to complain about this. If they go through with this, I fear my movie-arranging OCD may get out of control.

UPDATE: I am not alone!

UPDATE 2: ( I got a copy of the email addresses for Marketing, PR, and the company President. )

Current Location: My tiny awesome apartment
Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: Pink Floyd - Money

Today I got up at six-thirty, made progress on three fronts at work, bought excellent semi-formal and business clothes, went to see a surprisingly funny movie, and then walked home in the rain. In short, I lived a day in the life I'd really like to live.

Let's try it again tomorrow?

Current Location: My tiny awesome apartment

This is a good music season, more or less. There is Berlioz' Les Troyens, which is huge and by Berlioz, but I'm so far behind in learning the music that I probably won't really appreciate it until August or so, well after the performances in early July.

Then there is much Beethoven: the BSO standard 9th Symphony, and the highly underplayed Mass in C. Mass in C holds a very dear place in my heart; it was the first "real" choral piece I sang, certainly the first major work, and hearing the opening chords of the Kyrie always gets me a little verklempt. First rehearsal is tonight, and our conductor for the performance in August will be the inimitable Rafael Frubeck de Borgos. Rafael is also of special significance - his Berlioz Requiem was, so far, the best BSO program I have sung. And look, there's Berlioz again; I find that with Tanglewood, despite the wide-ranging selection of programs, I always come back to the same themes.

In the fall, there is Carmina Burana, again under Rafael. This will be a stunning concert, because Rafael is, to my limited knowledge, the best conductor currently breathing when it comes to giant, wall-of-sound compositions. He can do tender and quiet as well, but his loud, whole-orchestra-exploding technique is the best on the planet.

And I get to sing with him. Nyeah.

Despite all this, though, what I'd really like right now is a little Bach. I'm generally not a fan of chamber music, but I'd love to sing a few Bach motets. Not enough to re-audition for Boston's premiere Bach ensemble, the Cantata Singers (not that they'd be likely to take me back), but enough to want to look around a bit. Except that, knowing me, I'll have forgotten all about this in a week or two. I wonder if Boston has any classical music glee clubs I could just sing with for fun once or twice a week.

My last Bach motets were five or six or seven years ago at UNH. And for me at least, singing Bach in college with no formal training, was like reading Shakespeare or Dickens in high school - no context, no deep understanding.. I was doing it wrong. It was all notes, no line, none of the terrific breathing phrasing that a good Bach riff demands. I was fortunate to sing St. Matthew Passion this Spring, which was truly excellent, and of course is what's given me the Bach bug now. So I want to go back and revisit what I sang in college - Jesu Meine Freude, Singt dem Herrn, and many, many songs I've never heard of.

It is better to overdose on a good composer than to suffer from deficiency. Ahh well. It may not be the music I want right this second, but at least I have music. Lots, and lots, and lots of music.

Current Location: ShaveLab 3000
Current Mood: complacent
Current Music: J.S.Bach - Jesu Meine Freude

Via a link from This Modern World, it's Alternate Universe Google News! At first glance, it's Issues Porn, but the more I read it, the more I really like this. It's a page of unabashed optimism, but damn if that isn't needed sometimes. Looking at the fake headlines gives me a lot of hope: it's not that we have unsolvable problems, just that we have immobile leaders.

That, of course, is subject to change. In Obama, I see a leader who can define a generation, someone who can go beyond policy and truly change the way we view government and our nation. In Obama I see echoes of great leaders of a previous generation, John and Robert Kennedy. I've listened to his acceptance speech twice, and gone back to re-examine several of his previous speeches.. reading transcripts aren't enough; as with any great speaker he must be heard, not read.

On a similar note, Hillary Clinton's endorsement speech was absolutely beautiful. I didn't catch all of it, but the 70% or so that I was able to hear brought tears to my eyes many times. I was entirely wrong, I think I did not really understand her campaign until after it ended. I have read a few post-mortems on her campaign, some snarky and some kind, but I think her biggest flaw was simply that she was running against a miracle opponant.

As a privilaged white guy, it has been much to easy to overlook much of the meaning in this primary campaign, to cheer for my favorite candidate while not understanding what it must be like for those with a deeper connection. I am aware, on some intellectual level, of the invisible oppression in our transparent society, but I take no steps to confront it. I don't know if electing a black President will change any of this, but I expect I'll get all emotional in the voting booth, and I expect to be drinking celebratory cocktails for most of that week in November.

This will be a long day, the first in what looks to be a very long month. Many, many tests to run at work, and summer chorus rehearsals are beginning in earnest. I will be working an extended day today (8-5:30), and then I have two hours of rehearsal before I get home. I have been exhausted lately, with no energy, enthusiasm, or lasting joy for almost a month. I used to relish long productive days like this; hopefully it will jump-start me back to better ways. I can't seem to get out of this selfish, anti-social rut I'm in.

Life is long, though, and in the long view better days are always ahead. I am nostalgic for times past, but I have never lived a period where I thought "these are the golden years." The best, always, forever, is yet to come, and I am grateful.

Current Location: ShaveLab 3000
Current Mood: grateful
Current Music: Beethoven - Mass in C - Kyrie