Free classical music! (if you’re in school…)
If you are in one of those fine institutes of learning known as “a university” then you might already have access to bazillions of online classical music recordings. Naturally I only worked this out in the last half-year (please please please oh god) of my PhD. You can check it out by going to your library website and finding the database section. Have a nose around in there for classical music related stuff. I found out we have the entire Naxos music library!
(W)Here I’ve Been
10 states, 6 days, ~2000 miles of driving:
Biggest surprise: The landscape in South Dakota is like a cross between Yorkshire and Scotland, not jagged and full of fear like I imagined it to be.
Biggest disappointment: Phoenix; hot and gross and pockmarked with interstate.
ADHD+Opera
In our modern age, everything is available in snack form. The internet has drained our attention spans. Any wall of text longer than a couple of paragraphs is a challenge that needs to be planned, and packed, and mapped out well in advance. We’ve moved from writing letters, to phonecalls, to emails, to instant messenging. The quicker and less the investment of time, the better. The most recent methods of communicating don’t even leave the briefness up to us, text messaging and Twitter both have abbreviation built in, and we love it. The lack of freedom is a feature.
Not that that’s a bad thing. When I was a kid we’d sometimes get to go into work with our parents. In the morning, before we all packed into the little VW Polo (that’s one size down from the Golf, for the US readers) my sister and I would raid the big box of Legos that lived under the bed. We’d each put together a 10 or 20 piece model and take it in with us. Then we’d spend the whole day taking apart and rebuilding them, trying to make as many different things out of those handful of pieces as possible. In a way it was more exciting to be limited to just those pieces, than to have the run of the huge box at home. That’s when I first understood the adage “necessity is the mother of invention”.
Now here’s your chance to be a mother…. of invention… of Opera… on Twitter. The idea is to describe the entire plot of an opera in 160 characters. The outcome is you can win fabulous prizes. Examples from last year:
- @leboyfriend – There was a young lady called Fricka Who . . . who . . . *snore* ‘Wake up — it’s over.’ It’s good, I just wish it were quicka. [The Ring]
- @wordsmusic – Here’s my castle. Are you afraid? No, I’m going to open all those damn doors! Are you afraid? No, let me in! Who’s that? Oh shit. [Bluebeard]
- @musicbizkid – Let me get this straight: unfathomable treasure if I betroth my loopy daughter to a ghost? Deal. She’ll meet you by the fjord. [The Flying Dutchman]
- @DrGeoduck – Who wants to live forever? Me! No, wait, i changed my mind. *dies* [The Makropolus Case]
- @voxdixit – Monk: Repent, courtesan! (Meditation) Courtesan: Okay! Monk: Wait, there is no God after all! Courtesan: Too late, I’m dead! [Thais]
Interest piqued? Full details on Miss. M’s site, here.
Temper Tantrum
Does arguing the finer points of tuning systems get you in a bit of a bother? Do perfect fifths make you need to loosen up your collar? If so, I recommend a cold shower, and a trip to Slate to read this article on temperament, though possibly not in that order.
