Music: Scoured other people's computers for good music with my scotch-taped-together flashdrive. The idea is that I will eventually buy the good albums and delete the bad ones, so it's basically like checking them out from the library. And not returning them for years. So I'm not really stealing. Anyway. Two albums thus dredged up:
In Through The Out Door - it's a late Zeppelin album. I'm not sure how it will stand up to repeat listenings. What makes it interesting on first listen - John Paul Jones on keyboard for every song - may ultimately be what dooms it. Zeppelin isn't really meant for this more synthesized pop sound, I think. The longest piece on the album, "Carouselambra", is basically the same keyboard riff for ten minutes. It is surprisingly enjoyable, but I can't believe that I won't eventually get tired of it. I've come to the conclusion that Led Zeppelin is good at basically two things: grime ("Whole Lotta Love", "Heartbreaker" from II, "When the Levee Breaks" from IV, "In My Time Of Dying" from Physical Graffiti) and really intricate guitar work ("Since I've Been Loving You" from III, "Going to California" from IV, and basically all of Houses of the Holy). Obviously, that's an oversimplification, and there are several songs on many of their albums that are simply just well-done pop songs, but without at least one of those elements, the album seems somehow inadequate. The albums with a good mix of both (II, IV, and Physical Graffiti) are probably their best. Even Houses of the Holy, a superbly crafted album, suffers due to its lack of grit and blues.
Björk's first album, Debut. I originally got this album due to a combination of liking the drum part and vocals for "Human Behavior" and the fact that Björk is all dryadish in the accompanying video. She's joined Tori Amos and Regina Spektor in the Trifecta of Women in Alternative Music Who Are Also Imbedded In Levi's Subconscious. After listening to it a few times, though, I realize that it's a very good album. Which is odd, because 1) it is NOT my usual genre, and 2) is not, except for "Human Behavior", very accessible. What makes it a good album is, first, Björk's exceptional attack and, second, the fact that all the samples and other sonic elements, individually uninteresting, combine to form a coherent whole. For instance: "Like Someone In Love", which is what it sounds like, a love ballad backed by nothing less than a harp, is accompanied by the sound of heavy machinery and trucks shifting. It's very subtle, but an interesting effect. Not enough to carry the song on its own - without Björk's voice, none of the songs would work - but the idiosyncrasies and superb vocals make it an album well worth relistening to. Am also listening to Volta, which is pretty good too.
Don't think I've mentioned Porcupine Tree yet, which is a shame. I've been told I need to listen to their newer stuff, which apparently falls somewhere between prog rock and prog metal, but I've enjoyed On the Sunday of Life... - their first album, full of psychedelia and melodic goodness.
And basically, Allegri's Miserere is one of the best pieces ever. So good, in fact, that the Pope kept it in a vault in the Vatican and forbade its distribution - it was only permitted to be performed on special occasions and was at all other times kept under close wraps (think the Declaration of Independence in National Treasure); that is, until Mozart attended a single performance, went home and wrote the whole thing down from memory. The Pope was so impressed that he didn't excommunicate him. The text is Psalm 51, which basically sums up the Bible (it's good; read it).
Literature: Lolita is the great American novel: American in the sense that it is about America. Reading Lolita while in New Mexico listening to Simon & Garfunkel, or, better yet, The Doors, is about as American as anything. Hopefully, I will get into a course on Lolita next quarter, as well as a course on Faulkner. There was a course on Ulysses available as well, but it would have conflicted with my Humanities course, which, next quarter, should be taught by one Ted Cohen, who writes about aesthetics in philosophy, has published a book on the philosophy of jokes, and is by all accounts an entertaining storyteller. So all of that is exciting.
I haven't really read that much lately, except for required readings and Nabokov. I've started The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco - the story of a man who forgets his past life except for what he's read in books and magazines, seen in films, and absorbed from other cultural debris. I need to finish it. I also need to read The Sound of the Fury, Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing by Kierkegaard, Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, In Search of Lost Time by Proust, and a volume of lectures by Borges. Meaning the webcomics and manga need to stop being priority.
Winter quarter is winding down, which is good since I've lost 2/3 of the buttons on my heavy coat. They're in the pocket, where my hands have to go in order to hold the coat shut, and I keep rolling them around in my hand, but haven't done anything about it yet. It at one point got to -30 here in Chicago, not counting windchill, I'm told. I was inside for most of that. Now I can go around in my hoodie, which is nice.
My girlfriend is in Germany and will remain so for 99 days. That is all. Good night.
