I have really great holiday music.  In addition to the Time-Life Treasuries (who doesn’t have them!?), I have “Best Carols 100” which has some awesome choral work on it; “Broadway’s Carols for a Cure Vol. 12” from 2010 (one day, I shall get them all!), The “Christmas Revels: In Celebration of the Winter Solstice” (which a co-worker gave me and I love!), and “Karolju: Christmas Music” (probably my favorite holiday CD), which includes composers Christopher Rouse, Witold Lutoslawski and Joaquin Rodrigo. I also have albums by various singers, such as Josh Groban, Amy Grant, Sarah Brightman, Celtic Women, and Jingle Dogs (Dot’s favorite)! Then there is all the instrumental music, such as The Nutcracker, brass groups, jazz groups, and a really pretty album “A Christmas In The King’s Court” which features Celtic harp and pan flute. Throw in some Vince Guaraldi and Peanuts gang, and that is one incredible holiday mix of music!

• The Shepherd on the Rock (Der Hirt auf dem Felsen)
• Romanze (from Die Verschworenen)
• Erstes Offertorium, Totus in corde lanqueo

The Totus is a nifty piece for C clarinet, and since I have a brand new C clarinet, I can’t wait to play it!

In addition to these pieces, I am playing a solo piece for clarinet and piano:

• Norbert Burgmuller: Duo for Clarinet and Piano

This is a wonderful and rare piece written in 1834. Burgmuller was only 26 when he tragically died; he left behind some great music, but think of all the music he never wrote.  Of course, Franz Schubert was only 31 when he died. (Both lived less than Mozart.)

If you have the afternoon available, please come to hear the music!

I wonder if William Shatner would still have made this if he knew YouTube was coming…

The album has 4 more unique sounding pieces like this one.  I bought the last one at Amazon, but more are available from CD Universe.

But here’s one of the reasons why my kids are so fantastic: they know just what to get me for Mother’s Day. Being the Aspie that I am, I tend to shun “commercial” holidays like Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, etc. To me, they exist just for people to make money. But my kids can cut right through that by giving me presents that they know will not “just make someone money”. Kerri got me these beautiful treble clef earrings (this is the photo from the store website):

And Katie painted her gift to me! Since I expect that most of you can’t read music, it’s the melody from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story song “Somewhere“. Not that the words especially mean anything to me (although they’re sweet, and Stephen Sondheim wrote them), but the melody is one of my favorites, and of course WSS is my favorite show, and it’s inside the entire ballet/dream sequence, which is my absolute favorite part of the show (on any instrument), and when done right, gives me chills.

Where in the world did this kid get her talent from? Certainly not me! I can’t even take the photo without it being blurry. I really hope Katie gets into doing more painting. As much as I’d love to see her actually sell something, I wouldn’t mind if she gave everything to me!

• Aida
• Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
• Feeling Electric (the workshop of Next to Normal)
• The Last 5 Years
• The Little Mermaid
• Tommy

I’ll be driving down to CT for my grandmother’s birthday (91!), and it will be nice to have my iPod and iTrip all set up with great music. And I love Sherie René Scott! She has the prettiest voice, and is such a wonderful actor.

I got my week off, alright.  I hurt my back two weeks ago, and it got better day by day.  By last weekend, I was getting cocky, and pretended I hadn’t hurt it at all.  Big mistake. Monday morning I was in even worse pain, and it hurt to even take a step.  I went to the doctor Tuesday, and ended up being told to stay home the rest of the week! What a waste of time. I found out that I  do not work very well when I’m in pain. For all the extra “work” I got done, I might as well have had a full week!

And just some random things I also discovered. One is that I am never in my car a 1:11, am or pm. Monday through Friday I am at work, so that makes sense. Most Saturdays I have a music lesson, and I’m usually home by then. If I go out on Sundays, it’s for a matinee, and I’d be anywhere I need to be well before 1:11. And of course, I’m asleep at 1:11 am.  But I got to see the 1:11 Tuesday on my way to the doctor. (See, this is why I don’t have a digital watch; I’d spend most of the day trying to “capture” times like 12:34:56 or 2:52:52.)

I have also discovered Robyn Hitchcock. How can I have lived on this planet for 46 years without ever hearing of him before? He is my-kind-of-music. I have also been listening to Ralph Vaughn Williams Flos Campi over and over again; it is so beautiful. Last month I discovered George Butterworth (1885 – 1916), a student of Vaughn Williams who tragically died at age 30 in WWI. Oh, the beautiful music we lost when he died. I could listen to Two English Idylls (1911), A Shropshire Lad (1912), and The Banks of Green Willow (1913) over and over again. Actually, I do listen to them over and over again! The people at work must think I’m crazy.

But perhaps the most random thing I discovered was that Diamond carries stuffed animals in her mouth when she yowls at night!  She is a weird cat.  Old too, but she was weird when she was young as well.  She’s a tabby cat, and they are supposed to be “feisty” animals.  That she is.  Pixel is also tabby, but she was never feisty.  That is, not until we got her hernia removed, poor kitten.  Now she’s feisty, and even a bit bossy!  One night when Diamond was downstairs yowling, we brought her up to stay on the bed with us for the night. Well, Pixel didn’t like that! Not only does Pixel consider herself our “baby”, it’s her bed. She (Pixel) growled, howled, yowled, scowled, meowed, and pouted until Diamond left the room. Guess she told her.

He ROCKS on those drums! Get a load of him in this video, keeping an incredible beat.

How do I know it’s a great show? Because I saw it! Smashing, just absolultely smashing! My only complaint was that I couldn’t hear the reed player hardly at all, and there were some pretty awesome bari sax parts (at least, on the CD).

Not one disappointing performance in the group.  I was most excited to see Sasha Allen, who was in the movie Camp.  Another outstanding singer and actor was Bryce Ryness. Ker and I got his CD Ryness, and it is incredible (maybe I’m a bit biased, but Miss Jennifer is my favorite song on that CD).  After the show, the audience could go up on stage and dance with the cast.  Naturally, Kerri went. She also got a chance to talk with her favorite tribe member Lauren Elder.

• Never give Schrödie flea medicine while wearing a decent shirt; she still has back claws.

• There is a limit as to how much milk one can ingest in the span of three minutes.

• High school kids that play in pit bands are really cool.

• The Comfort Inn is not that comfortable.

• It can take 50 minutes to drive 5 miles when there is night construction on I-95.

• Always make a backup of a database table before you do anything to it.

• Agatha Christie is still a good read.

• Some vampire cable shows should never have been made.