Quick hits

I think that in my quest to improve at developing ideas, editing myself, etc., I have psyched myself out of blogging. So I’m going to go back to basics, and start posting shorter less-well-thought-out posts for a bit, just to get the juices flowing again.

As far as the car, I went in and talked to the service manager yesterday morning, and told him that I was returning the car. He was naturally taken aback, but after hearing my story, and confirming it with the shop foreman, he’s looking into what his options are for responding to my demands. So far he seems like he’s going to be reasonable, but we’ll see what happens. In related news, thanks to the wonders of Google PageRank, my post is in the top 5 posts when you type in “mercedes sucks” (with quotes) into Google.

I made a couple comments on my friend Lila’s livejournal that I might develop into posts at some point. One comment is on how success is mostly a result of hard work and the confidence necessary to persevere in one’s work, and how there’s no shortcuts. The other comment is on finding one’s center in people, rather than places or things, something I am still striving towards. I will get around to writing an essay centered on that concept for This I Believe. Soon. Maybe in my time off between jobs.

Next week the chorus will be performing Haydn’s Harmoniemesse. The rehearsals for this concert have just been fun. Like the last time we did Haydn, the chorus has such a comfort level with this standard German classical music that we can pretty much sight read our way through it, and immediately start catching the nuances and making music out of it. Even our conductor has been impressed – we’ve gotten out of rehearsal early the last two weeks because it’s in such good shape even after only a few rehearsals (five, to be exact). And the music is so bouncy and happy and optimistic, it’s hard not to sing it with a smile on your face. Good stuff. We’re a little nervous because the conductor is the same one that we did the fastest Messiah ever with, but we’ll manage, even if the tempi are about double what we expect.

Okay, enough journal type stuff. I’m going to toss up another quick post with thoughts about identity in a second.

3 thoughts on “Quick hits

  1. I hate singing Haydn, honestly. But I generally don’t enjoy singing music from between 1750 and 1950, so I’m biased that way.

    (In a lecture I saw by Steve Reich years ago, he said much the same. So I feel like I’m in decent company…)

  2. I wouldn’t want to do Haydn all the time, but as a happy, inoffensive lark in between other pieces, it’s okay. Sort of like a palate cleanser.

    While I’m sympathetic to your biases, I do like a lot of the stuff from the early 1900’s (e.g. Mahler and Stravinsky). The 1800s don’t have a lot going for them, though, it’s true. Beethoven’s 9th is fun (we’re doing 7 performances of the 9th in June – my friend says we should advertise it as 7 of 9). Heh. I can’t think of much else that redeems the 1800s as far as choral singing. Oh, I like Verdi’s Requiem. Anyway.

  3. Fair enough–I do like Stravinsky, and the Brahms Requiem, and the Verdi Requiem. I’ve never sung any Mahler; probably with a really great conductor (which, of course, you have) and a really great orchestra (ditto), that might be exciting.

    I can just imagine Haydn rolling in his grave at being called a palate cleanser. 🙂

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