Isorhythm

Books Sputnik Sweetheart , Haruki Murakami;  In the Garden of Stone , Susan Tekulve; Bad Behavior , Mary Gaitskill Clothes Zara Long Flowy Skirt in Nude, $79.99 $39.99;  Zara Skirt with Contrasting Box Pleats in Sky Blue, $39.99 ; Everlane Raglan Boat Neck Sweatshirt in Black, $35.00 $15.00 Sound, Stage, and Seminar No Country for Old Men ; Saving Mr. Banks ; The Beatles Anthology ; Her ; The Act of Killing ; Ghostbusters Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival: Drama & Intrigue Adam Neiman, piano; Ara Gregorian, violin; Marcy Rosen, cello

"A long time ago in China there were cities with high walls surrounding them, with huge, magnificent gates. The gates weren't just doors for letting people in or out but had greater significance. People believed the city's soul resided in the the gates. Or at least that it should  reside there. It's like in Europe in the Middle Ages when people felt a city's heart lay in its cathedral and central square. Which is why even today in China there are lots of wonderful gates still standing. Do you know how the Chinese built these gates?" "I have no idea," Sumire answered. "People would take carts out to old battlefields and gather the bleached bones that were buried there or that lay scattered about. China's a pretty ancient country—lots of old battlegrounds—so they never had to search far. At the entrance to the city they'd construct a huge gate and seal the bones inside. They hoped that by commemorating  them this way the dead soldiers...

Books Thomas Mann,  Der Tod in Venedig Richard H. Hoppin, Medieval Music Inna Naroditskaya, Bewitching Russian Opera: The Tsarina from State to Stage Der Tod in Venedig  is still ongoing, but I haven't been keeping a steady regimen. The same goes for Medieval Music . Inna Naroditskaya's Bewitching Russian Opera , however, is a page-turner. Clothes Mossimo Women's Solid Skater Dress in Dark Red Sam & Libby Dominique Pointed Toe Pump in Pewter J. Crew Factory Double Stripe V-neck Sweater in Cloud/Brilliant Coral J. Crew Factory Always Cardigan in Black J. Crew Factory Colorblock Boatneck Tee in Ivory/Navy J. Crew Factory Clare Cardigan in Champagne The dress and shoes were emergency purchases for a wedding I attended. I realized at the last minute that all my semi-formal wear was only spring/summer appropriate and definitely not warm enough for a November ceremony. Now that it's over, I'm thinking about altering the skirt to make it a more ...

Books Thomas Mann,  Der Tod in Venedig Boris Pasternak, trans. Max Hayward and Manya Harari,  Doctor Zhivago Richard H. Hoppin, Medieval Music Keeping up a steady reading regimen has become more difficult now that I'm not riding the bus to and from work everyday. But I'm almost  done with Doctor Zhivago . Hoppin's Medieval Music  is more for notes in case I ever decide to go back to graduate school. It's nice, though, to be able to spend time with books I should have read more closely for class. Clothes Bonfire Stories Tunic in Red, $39.99 American Eagle Straight Jeans in Light Gray, $23.96 It was a light shopping month because I'm really trying to repurpose things I already own. But I needed new jeans, and the red plaid reminds me so much of camping and cold and the woods. Sound, Stage, and Seminar Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin , Met Opera Broadcast Dmitri Shostakovich's The Nose , Met Opera Broadcast I can't...

I've seen monthly recap posts on a few other blogs (namely here ), and I like the idea of looking back on what I've accomplished before flipping the calendar. September had a lot of stops and starts. Books Alan Light,  The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah" Thomas Mann,  Der Tod in Venedig Boris Pasternak, trans. Max Hayward and Manya Harari,  Doctor Zhivago Light's being the only book I started and finished. I don't expect to be done with Mann any time soon, as I'm attempting to read it auf Deutsch. Clothes Everlane Classic Tote in Burgundy, $35.00 Weston Wear Bloomfall Peplum Tank, $39.95 Leifsdottir Delancey Trousers, $39.95 (possibly returning) Maeve Zola Shift in Navy, $49.95 Pesqueira Lola Dress, $59.95 I'd been eyeing the Zola shift (left) for weeks and was thrilled when it went on sale. It's light, has deep pockets, and is a perfect length for work. The Lola dress (...

It is necessary that society should look at these things, because it is itself which creates them. ... "Remeber this, my friends: there are no such things as bad plants or bad men. There are only bad cultivators." Les Misérables . Victor Hugo.

2012 was one of the first long periods where nothing I read was required -- no book lists, thesis bibliographies, or courses to answer to. So I decided to go in as many directions as possible, finally reaching for books I said I'd read just not now and digging into new authors I'd never considered (and on more than one occasion, running out the door for the bus and yelling, "I'm running late! Christopher, toss me something to read quick !"). My only real guidelines, though were 1) books I'd never read before, 2) no two books by the same author within the year, and 3) make an effort to try authors/genres/styles I'd never tried. And the results were all over the place but really satisfying. (My only real regret is not writing down my reactions as I went. As such, the reviews get more detailed the further down the list.) So here, in chronological order, is part 1: Crime and Punishment , Fyodor Dostoyevsky I actually read most of this in autumn 2011 a...

New year, new list. I think this time I'll comment as I go instead of trying to remember my reactions at the end. Grace , Daphne A. Brooks The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion, and Rock 'n' Roll , Simon Reynolds and Joy Press A Pure Drop: The Life of Jeff Buckley , Jeff Apter A Wished-for Song , Merri Cyr Anne of Green Gables , Lucy Maud Montgomery Jeff Buckley: Mystery White Boy Blues , Anthony Reynolds Picnic at Hanging Rock , Joan W. Lindsay Ideas and Styles in the Western Musical Tradition , Douglass Seaton Anne of Avonlea , Lucy Maud Montgomery Anne of the Island , Lucy Maud Montgomery Leaves of Grass , Walt Whitman Heartland of the Imagination: Conservative Values in American Literature from Poe to O'Connor to Haruf , Jeffrey J. Folks Racechanges: White Skin, Black Face in American Culture , Susan Gubar All the King's Men , Robert Penn Warren The Turn of the Screw , Henry James Margaret Fuller: A New American Life , Megan Marshall The Forsyte S...

Oh my brothers, this is the point of junction, of those who think and of those who suffer; this barricade is not made of paving-stones, nor of joists, nor of bits of iron; it is made of two heaps, a heap of ideas, and a heap of woes. Here misery meets the ideal. The day embraces the night and says to it: "I am about to die, and thou shalt be born again with me." From the embrace of all desolations faith leaps forth. Sufferings bring hither their agony and ideas their immortality. This agony and this immortality are about to join and constitute our death. Brothers, he who dies here dies in the radiance of the future, and we are entering a tomb all flooded with the dawn. Les Misérables . Victor Hugo.

What more was needed by this old man, who divided the leisure of his life, where there was so little leisure, between gardening in the daytime and contemplation at night? Was not this narrow enclosure, with the heavens for a ceiling, sufficient to enable him to adore God in his most divine works, in turn? Does not this comprehend all, in fact? and what is there left to desire beyond it? A little garden in which to walk, and immensity in which to dream. At one's feet that which can be cultivated and plucked; over head that which one can study and meditate upon: some flowers on earth, and all the stars in the sky. Les Misérables . Victor Hugo.

I decided to forgo a doctorate for the time being and give myself a much needed exhale. And I think for the most part is was a good, if not always exciting or intellectually fulfilling, decision. And while I think that periodic departures from any field or path are important, it is equally important not to drift too far. The fall and winter were rough, but I'm finally returning to a place where I can approach and absorb music again. Now seems a good time to read all those books and articles I wished I'd had time to read during school. This list is ongoing and nowhere near complete. Text Books A History of Music in Western Culture ; Mark Evan Bonds Ideas and Styles in the Western Musical Tradition ; Douglass Seaton The Oxford History of Western Music ; Richard Taruskin Biographies The New Grove Twentieth-century French Masters ; Jean-Michel Nectoux et al. Claude Debussy ; David J. Code Claude Debussy ; Paul Roberts The Life of Debussy ; Roger Nichols Le Six: The Fre...

It feels so satisfying to select a volume from one of our four bookcases without having to consider syllabi or thesis research. My selections so far this year demonstrate the thrill of this freedom to wander: Crime and Punishment , Fyodor Dostoyevsky The Magic Mountain , Thomas Mann Kafka on the Shore , Haruki Murakami Ender's Game , Orson Scott Card A Confederacy of Dunces , John Kennedy Toole The Call of the Wild , Jack London Travels in Siberia , Ian Frazier We Were the Mulvaneys , Joyce Carol Oates Kettle Bottom , Diane Gilliam Fisher Into Thin Air , Jon Krakauer The Scarlet Letter , Nathaniel Hawthorne One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich , Alexander Solzhenitsyn Bluefield Breakdown , Rick Mulkey Dubliners , James Joyce Les Misérables , Victor Hugo Musicophilia , Oliver Sacks

With the aurora borealis flaming coldly overhead, or the stars leaping in the frost dance, and the land numb and frozen under its pall of snow, this song of the huskies might have been the defiance of life, only it was pitched in minor key, with long-drawn wailings and half-sobs, and was more the pleading of life, the articulate travail of existence. It was an old song, old as the breed itself -- one of the first songs of the younger world in a day when songs were sad. It was invested with the woe of unnumbered generations, this plaint by which Buck was so strangely stirred. When he moaned and sobbed, it was with the pain of living that was of old the pain of his wild fathers, and the fear and mystery of the cold and dark that was to them fear and mystery. And that he should be stirred by it marked the completeness with which he harked back through the ages of fire and roof to the raw beginnings of life in the howling ages. The Call of the Wild . Jack London.