(no subject)

[shadowkat]

1. Television shows watched lately...

The Good Place

This is actually funnier this year than last. We basically watched Michael attempt to make things work and fail miserably.

It was a wonderful satire of organizational and management failure. Or directorial failure.

If you like absurd humor mixed with light satire...this is worth a shot.

Mozart in the Jungle -- which was adapted from Mozart in the Jungle- Sex Drugs and Classical Music.

In the tradition of Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential and Gelsey Kirkland’s Dancing on My Grave, Mozart in the Jungle delves into the lives of the musicians and conductors who inhabit the insular world of classical music. In a book that inspired the Amazon Original series starring Gael García Bernal and Malcolm McDowell, oboist Blair Tindall recounts her decades-long professional career as a classical musician—from the recitals and Broadway orchestra performances to the secret life of musicians who survive hand to mouth in the backbiting New York classical music scene, where musicians trade sexual favors for plum jobs and assignments in orchestras across the city. Tindall and her fellow journeymen musicians often play drunk, high, or hopelessly hungover, live in decrepit apartments, and perform in hazardous conditions— working-class musicians who schlep across the city between low-paying gigs, without health-care benefits or retirement plans, a stark contrast to the rarefied experiences of overpaid classical musician superstars. An incisive, no-holds-barred account, Mozart in the Jungle is the first true, behind-the-scenes look at what goes on backstage and in the Broadway pit.

The television series follows the conductors more than just the oboist.

I'm tempted to get the book, I love books like this.

Loving the series...has great characters, lovely music, and is happy. It's comforting. Like a nice blanket on a winters day.

2. New A/C not yet installed, hardly surprising. This is the Super's Day off. So surviving with old A/C fan and fan. Which brings things to 75 degrees. Hopefully will sleep tonight. Was up at 6:20 AM
in order to get delivery, which ended up arriving at 8 AM. So made it to church, saw MD off. MD was quite kind. I'll miss her.

Church was better this week...the sermon was about the evil addiction of the iphone. Apparently teens have stopped having sex, going to parties, and exercising since the advent of the iphone, suicides and isolation has increased. One teen commented that she didn't leave her bedroom and just was on her phone and social media all day.

So on October 8, she's going to challenge people to check in their phones, or put them in a basket and do without for a day. Unless you have to have it for some reason or have a good relationship with your phone.

This lecture sermon was lost on me. I have no relationship with the phone. It's off 90% of the time. I tend to use it mainly as a camera and to check the time. At work, I'll check the news or FB, if I'm bored. I don't like phones. They irritate me. I bought a cell -- kicking and screaming, along with the iphone. I barely use it.

I'd be just as happy without it.

But hey, I got a basket to put my backpack and purse in. Also got rid of dusty sofa. And got armchair. Now trying to decide whether to buy second arm chair or a love seat two seater couch.
On the fence. Also need new coffee table, small desk (to draw on and eat on), and more storage capability. Bit by bit. By the time I'm done, I'll probably want to move again.

3. Music tastes...watching Mozart in the Jungle reminds me how much I love classical music. I just don't see it in person, because it tends to put me to sleep. I prefer to listen over watching people playing. Odd. But there it is.

Ranking?
1. Classical
2. Jazz
3. Folk/Singer-Songwriter
4. Indie/Alternative
5. Rock (British and otherwise)
6. Country/Easy Listening
7. Broadway Show Tune
8. Dance
9. Blues/R&B
10. Heavy Metal (ie. Nine Inch Nails)
11. Electronica
12. Opera/Hip Hop
13. Rap

Comments

[ex_peasant441]

I love classical music. I just don't see it in person, because it tends to put me to sleep. I prefer to listen over watching people playing. Odd. But there it is.

Not odd at all! Very common in fact. I find it enormously difficult to concentrate for an entire concert. I also hate watching because you see the movement before hearing the sound, which is like constant bad lip synch. So I always shut my eyes.

I am intrigued that in your ranking you put classical so high but opera so low.

Also, by classical I assume you mean all Western art music, not just the classical period itself (approx 1750-1820), in which case which periods do you favour?

[shadowkat]

Also, by classical I assume you mean all Western art music, not just the classical period itself (approx 1750-1820), in which case which periods do you favour? To clarify? I prefer instrumental classical to vocal, with few exceptions. Not a fan of the high soprano or high pitched music. Although some works for me.

Periods? Most periods, excepting the Baroque (sp?). Not crazy about the Medieval period. More post Renaissance.

A lot of Protestant Classical doesn't work -- sounds like a funeral.

I do like post 19th Century or 20th Century classical quite a bit -- with John Williams, Leonard Bernstein., Gershwin..and various American Composers - can't remember the name of the one who did the composition entitled Billy the Kid. Although Philip Glass gives me a headache and is too showy. Actually Gershwin's Porgy and Bess is among the few Operas that I enjoy.

Mozart - yes, Beethoven - yes, Bach - yes, Tschavasiky (sp?) - yes, not so much Wagner who is a bit heavy handed. Chopin? Yes.

Also enjoy Eastern, Middle Eastern, and Indian classical music - again depends on the composition.

I'm less period specific and more composer specific or composition specific. Mainly because I have no memory for numbers and dates. So forget when a composition was created. No idea, for example, when Mozart was -- just that it was pre 20th Century.

Opera?

Love light Operas - Gilbert & Sullivan (seen all of them on tape). Opera? Feels a bit heavy handed, do like the music sung on its own though. But depends on the singer and how it is performed.

Rock Opera? I prefer Rock Opera to Classical, weirdly, and mostly because I can follow it and figure out what is happening and can relate better to it.

I'm more of a post-modernist than a classicist in thinking. Which explains my preference for science fiction over historical fiction. Or 20th Century Composers over 1700s. Although again depends on the mood. I admittedly have mostly composers from before the 20th Century - Mozart, Bach, Beethoven...with a bit of Gershwin (20th Century) and John Williams thrown in.