(forgot I didn’t post this a few days ago… I’m still in LJ)

I am back at CG drinking a Mexican High Grown something bled. It’s smooth texture and nutty after-tones are just what I need after not much sleep. I miss Tempe, because back in Tempe the majority of our social gatherings/parties are held at my house. That means if I get tired, I can march to my room and go to bed. Visiting with friends last night was quite the opposite.

Anyway, I came here to talk about my current lack of driving music. I began the journey to Dallas from Houston with the Fireworks Ensemble Rite of Spring CD and three “Classics YOU should know!” type CDs. You know, the usual classical music selections of Four Seasons, Jupiter and Mars of The Planets, Waltz of the Flowers from the Nutcracker Suite, New World Symphony and the like. There was only one piece that was new to me, a classical guitar concerto by Joaquín Rodrigo. Rodrigo passed away a decade ago as of the 6th of this month. I’ve really taken a liking to it. The first movement is very playful and joyous. Here is a YouTube video for the first movement alone- it’s the best one I could find. Regardless of this fun new find, I had exhausted my musical options by the time I reached Dallas. While I was in Dallas, I stopped by a Half Price Books and picked up a Polyphonic Spree album, a Les Nubians album (heard them in Stern Grove in San Francisco) and a new Medeski, Martin and Wood CD (really, I thought I had them all). Beginning Stages of… is a great album, you might be familiar with the tune Light & Day.

(now moving to June 28th in Lake Jackson)

The new additions proved to be of even more help when my sister and I drove home from seeing Pirates in Houston. I made sure I had a Radiohead CD with me, and hid the only other CD in the car… an ABBA compilation. I kid you not. I read to MG the lyrics for Subterranean Homesick Alien and she gave me weird looks. And since we were listening to My Iron Lung, it only heightened my desire to arrange Creep for mezzo-soprano and piano. I started sining and toying with some ideas the first time I heard it coming from my car stereo and not from a game of Rock Band.

Anyway, so right now I am uploading all the great Christmas albums I could find in the house. I found my Diana Krall album, a Stan Kenton Christmas, some English madrigals, and this compilation choral CD that I have been listening to since who knows when. Probably forever. It’s the Roger Wagner Chorale and they have some of the best (the best!) arrangements of classic Christmas songs you will ever hear. For example, after almost two decades, I am still not tired of the Wassail Song and Sing we Now of Christmas.

I also found The Boy from Oz album starring Hugh Jackman. Not at all Christmas themed, but I always assumed it was a Broadway play and not a musical. I mean, I’ve seen Hough Jackman host the Tonys, but it still didn’t click that Oz was a musical. I have it in my iTunes now, but I am going to wait and listen to it in the car on my way to Austin in the next few days.

Keep Listening,

-e