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Sooooo… I happened to mention to Arb’s mom, that I’d like to go to Home Hardware to check out their Christmas lights because they always seem to have different ones from everybody else. Being an inveterate shopper, my mother in law was all over that idea! So off we went… and all their Christmas merch was 50% off… And I came home with this glorious, so-bad-it’s good, monstrosity.
I’m sure the guests at our Solstice party tonight will be thrilled.
A love of Beethoven was one of the things Arb and I bonded over, early in our relationship. Going on a road trip in the mountains together, we brought along all nine symphonies, and the combination of gorgeous music, gorgeous scenery, and of course, plenty of New Relationship Energy, made for an almost transcendent experience.
Here’s a very unusual, and really well done take on the first movement of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. I wasn’t expecting to like it, but I really do. It’s fresh and full of energy and even though it’s different, the feel of the original is there. And the kid’s enthusiasm is just infectious.
I used to have a fantasy, before I knew how hard composing actually is, of writing a Rachmaninoff-style virtuosic concerto for electric guitar and full symphony orchestra. I think this just goes to show, somebody needs to do it.
I went to Youtube looking for more versions of Wagner’s Stehe Still to listen to, but, as it does, Youtube presented me with a number of recommendations before I typed in my search. One thing led to another, and now I’m… more educated I guess? Just sharing my joy!
Videos after the break because some people are phobic of rats. Or just don’t like gross stuff. Read the rest of this entry »
The other night, V learned to make a blanket fort!
He was so warm and cozy, he tolerated Fiona almost cuddling him.
Brief hissticuffs ensued (not photographed).
But then cozy snuggles won the day and they held hands for quite a while.
I used to be indifferent to falling back. The extra hour of sleep on the one day is nice but whatever. The choice of driving to work in the dark, or driving home in the dark, isn’t that material to me, and once December comes, it’s in the dark both ways regardless of Daylight time or Standard time.
Then I got into horses. And maybe Daylight time is great if you have horses on your property and getting up to do early morning chores isn’t quite as dreadful if the sun is up. I, however, am a city girl and I get my horsey time in the evenings. Which are now pitch black. It could be worse; the place I ride has a well-lit, semi-heated arena for lessons.
I’ve been sick and missed lessons; yesterday was my first time out since the time change. And it is worse: I had to go catch my assigned horse, in the dark. This presented a number of problems: Read the rest of this entry »
(I’m writing this early in the week, for publication Friday. I’m dreading coming back and editing this list…)
and Garissa, Kenya; Yola, Nigeria
and all the places being terrorized by “our” side…
Gustav Mahler wrote his song cycle Kindertotenlieder, Songs on the Death of Children, over a century ago, a setting of five (out of over 400) poems written by Friedrich Rückert some sixty years earlier, in reaction to the death of two of his children from scarlet fever.
“Now the sun wants to rise as brightly”
- Now the sun wants to rise as brightly
- as if nothing terrible had happened during the night.
- The misfortune had happened only to me,
- but the sun shines equally on everyone.
- You must not enfold the night in you.
- You must sink it in eternal light.
- A little star went out in my tent!
- Greetings to the joyful light of the world.
I (almost) never wear makeup to work. A whole lot of it is that I simply can’t be arsed, but it’s also a specifically political decision: men don’t have to, so why should I. I recognize that, as a knowledge worker who’s valued for my brainz, I’m honestly privileged not to have to focus on my looks, which even in 2015 is often an expectation for women in management, client-facing positions, and in the service industry. For many working women, presenting a “polished” appearance is a condition of employment, and just being clean and clean-shaven doesn’t cut it; you have to present with just the appropriate level of femininity, no more and no less, and among other things that means makeup. But not fun, self-expressive makeup. Makeup that pretends it’s not there, makeup that tries to naturalize your role as decorative object without calling attention to all the work you put into it – because working on looking good means you’re vain, right?
So much fucking bullshit.
So the other day a colleague commented on my lack of makeup. I told her Read the rest of this entry »
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
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