Isorhythm

I've been listening to a lot of Joni Mitchell lately, adopting my partner's old habit of immersing himself in a different artist week by week. Today it was Blue (1971) and For the Roses (1972), albums with which I have a sentimental connection. A friend sent them to me when I was a few weeks into graduate school. Having just moved to a new state, the only places I was confident I could get to without getting lost were the university and the grocery store, and I hadn't been around quite long enough to make friends. She, having gone through the same steps several states away, mailed me a couple burned CDs to help me get through the long afternoons. I still have them, names penned in Sharpie and scratched from much playing. Listening to these albums now feels appropriate. The new year has crept in quietly, lacking the excitement and momentum of 2016. And, to be honest, I don't have the energy I had last January. I'm glad, a little, for the stillness. [spotify id=...

Tatiana's letter-writing aria, «Пускай погибну я, но прежде…», from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin . Performed by Anna Netrebko with the Metropolitan Opera, 2013-14 season.

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 (...

The Met is broadcasting  so close to my house I could walk there! I've never lived in a city with a participating theater, so I'm tempted to indulge in as many productions as I can. It's definitely worth the $24. I'm especially excited about Eugene Onegin , Prince Igor , and Rusalka .

The new National album is everything I wanted it to be. The National | This Is The Last Time from Pedro on Vimeo .

They say the _____ you grew up with often becomes the rule by which you judge all subsequent _____s. Fill in the blank with anything you like, and the premise remains pretty much the same. Think of all those adult complaints that end with "these days," "used to be," and "anymore"? In a way the hopeful lens through which we viewed childhood taints our critical eyes. Music is no exception. For my dad the proverbial bar will always be set at Journey, Led Zeppelin, and Fleetwood Mac. "It's poetry ," he once described Journey's "Wheel in the Sky." "No one writes songs like that anymore." And while I could think of half a dozen songwriters whose lyrical metaphors could rival Steve Perry's output, arguing is not really the point. Nostalgia is a tough negotiator. I can think of plenty of music that shaped my young adolescence -- the Spice Girls, R.E.M., indie folk, Smashmouth -- but the music that threads my growing up...

I've listened to this maybe a dozen times today. Such an interesting musical commentary on adolescence, isolation, and Britain in the 1980s.

I spent the last six years in school for classical music, following orchestra schedules, hunting down rare texts in foreign languages, and sifting through scores on staff paper. But lately all I've wanted to read is rock criticism, pop biographies, and studies on anything post-1960s counterculture. It's this whole world of untapped scholarship waiting to be crafted. I remembered the brilliance of WorldCat recently and will be interlibrary loaning more than one Jeff Buckley book.

"Carolina Performing Arts and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Paris premiere of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring through a season of work that re-imagines, re-interprets and explores the lasting impact of this piece. We are presenting 11 new works, nine world premieres, and two U.S. premieres by artists who take inspiration from Stravinsky's original work." The Rite of Spring at 100 . Carolina Performing Arts.

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...

Convincing Christopher to figure the synth part for harmonica.