Saturday, September 08, 2007

Dies Irae

Well, yesterday they ripped up the kitchen. The stove and dishwasher are in the dining room. The refrigerator is in the porch, which gives the house a certain trailer park je ne sais quoi.

I'm sure my neighbors are enchanted.

After school I drove the kids to our place downtown, having only had to pack and unpack and repack the van once or twice in order to fit in all the food I rescued from the kitchen before it was ripped up.

And of course, it was as hot as a crotch while all this was going on. Wouldn't you just know it? Chicago felt like a big, wet, smelly sponge sauna after all of that.

And that was just the beginning of my fun-filled weekend!

We had a double choir rehearsal today, which involved sight-reading a cubic ass-load of new music, including a lot by Mozart.

I differ from the average Classical music aficionado in not giving a rat's ass about Mozart most of the time, and finding him a big fat pain in the ass during very long bouts with him, such as the recent bicentennial of his birth, where it was All Mozart All the Time to a degree that could induce bruxism in the most stoic. Another time Mozart gives me the pip is when I have to spend hours sight reading his choral music, such as today's adventure in learning the soundtrack to Amadeus, otherwise known as Mozart's Requiem.

One advantage to being in the city is that tomorrow, after my second day of sight reading long swathes of the Requiem, I'll be able to stroll back to the condo and collapse. I won't have to pack the car and the kids and drive to the suburbs on Sunday evening.

Instead, I'll be doing it first thing in the morning on Monday.

6 comments:

  1. I'm a classical music professional and I don't give a rat's ass about Mozart most of the time either. But shh. Don't tell my students.

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  2. Well, I hope the sides of your stove weren't as disgusting as the sides of ours was when we pulled it out to redo the kitchen floor. I almost puked, just seeing it (mine, that is, not yours - I didn't see yours).

    Personally, I like that trailer park look - we had our old kitchen sink out on the back deck for a week, so I hope our neighbors like that look too.

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  3. Harriet: I like earlier (in fact, Early)--and later music (Romantic, Impressionist, Stravinsky, Vaughan Williams, Rorem, etc) but truly Classical music doesn't do a lot for me. Respect, yes; love, no pretty much sums it up.

    SurburbanC: OMG, the only thing worse than the sides of the stove was the side of the refrigerator. There was water leaking under there because the refrigerator wasn't level. So there was ... mold.
    I know--gross, right? There goes my readership. You won't read my blog because who can read the blog of someone with MOLD ON THE SIDE OF HER REFRIGERATOR? EWWWWWW!

    Actually, knowing the internet, my numbers will probably skyrocket.

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  4. A fridge on the porch? Pfft. That's amateur stuff. We have actually had a toilet by our front door, shining in its porcelain glory for all the neighbors to see.

    I'm not wild about the Requiem myself -- I'm more of a Bach woman. The men's choral group I work for will be performing the "Magnificat" with a women's chorus this year, and I'm already anticipating that with great pleasure. BTW, the conductor of the Chicago (University) Men's A Capella used to conduct my group several years ago. He's bringing his guys to Virginia in February to collaborate with my guys and I think it's going to be AMAZING.

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  5. But think of how rested you'll be on Monday morning.

    -J.

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  6. Does energetic singing give you extra points?

    I am most pleased you used the word enchanted. Expect to see me overuse it from here on in.

    I did not know you sung/sing in a choir and this knowledge has only served to make me more besotted with you that I already was.

    Onward.

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Gentle Readers:

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xxx, Poppy.