Homework
Further to my previous comment that "this might be the year that I finally 'get' choral music"... I gave GIUSEPPE VERDI's highly acclaimed "REQUIEM" a go last night, and it wasn't at all what I expected it to sound like! I can't say for sure whether it was a 'GOOD' performance (Ryan Wigglesworth conducting the BBC Scottish lot) but it certainly drew me along in a most agreeable fashion. Quite spooky really... Joe Green, himself being agnostic, had approached the 'mass' form in a very refreshing way...
Week from Monday 25th March 2024 - I've got three separate trips to the HORSE-PICKLE this week. As well as my regular Wednesday 'chemo' visit for tabs'n'jabs, I'll be getting some long-overdue DENTAL attention from the "MAXFAC" unit (Maxillofacial), completing a task that SHOULD have been done in the spring of 2020, but we all know what happened to put the kybosh on that...
Let's see what was happening in this here bloggydiarywotsit BACK THEN, exactly #TenYearsAgo...
On Tuesday, following my morning visit to the printers, I've devoted some time to those FREE DOWNLOADS which the postcards handed to me in the Shepherds Bush Empire foyer entitled me. (Actually, I didn't download them for FREE - I voluntarily put a couple of euros in the Iapetus kitty. Not a lot, but it seemed only fair.) It comes as no surprise to find that a few of the tracks I already have on other releases, this being what I'd call a "CRIMSON RELATED" record label. Inevitably too, as with all complilation albums, there are going to be one or two tunes I don't like much. So the solution is to do a single disc 'COMPILATION OF COMPILATIONS', sequencing the best tracks all in one place. Mighty fine listening! One of the two new (new to me, anyway!) tracks by THIS FRAGILE MOMENT, a collaboration between Markus Reuter, Toyah Willcox and some of their Estonian chums, would make it onto any "Damn! I wish I'D done this!" list...
On Wednesday, I finally get to accept that "INVITATION" for a FREE NHS HEALTH CHECK which, after two blood tests, several visits to the Health Centre and countless phone calls spent listening to synthetic Mozart, has certainly occupied a LOT more of MY time than the "should take about twenty minutes" promised in the initial letter from all those months ago. Today's appointment is at the disruptively inconvenient time of 5.30 in the afternoon. I'm told I have high blood pressure. Big whoop! I already knew that. But they're clearly more concerned about it than I am, so on Thursday I get to meet a REAL DOCTOR instead of all the ancilliary staff I've dealt with up until now. Some sort of a 'RESULT': I've probably had high blood pressure since the mid-'eighties, but only now have I found a doctor who thinks it is worthwhile actually TREATING it. One of the perks of getting older, I suppose. The NHS considers its main remit is to cheat nature.
The BEEB has been running a season of ALFRED HITCHCOCK movies at the weekends, many of them in freshly restored 'prints' - "Vertigo"... "Rope"... "Spellbound"... "Notorious"... Now THAT'S what I call cinema! A most agreeable way to spend Saturday afternoon.
I just GASHED MY THUMB trying to break open a bottle of Nivea, to get the last few drops out. Life is sending me mixed messages.
Uncle Willy is taking part in a WEBINAR over in Paris, so I've gone online to see if everything looks okeydokey from here. It all seems to be working within its chosen parameters, but I'd probably take issue with les Françaises' choice of webcasting software, as it appears to be a WINDOZE-ONLY affair (No support for Linux or any of the plastic lunch trays favoured by today's hip young browser). The video is a bit laggy and the ASPECT RATIO is all wrong, making Willy look a lot skinnier than real life!
I also have another DENTAL APPOINTMENT. I'm having a very old filling drilled out and a new one put in. True, that doesn't sound much like a bundle of larfs on paper, but I have a nice lady dentist with a goodly supply of novacaine and a friendly disposition. If only she also fixed lacerated thumbs...
Cock-up... My Wednesday afternoon chemo session came and went, BUT I DIDN'T, because the Patient Transport never arrived! Anyway, orf up the HORSE-PICKLE again today (this time PUBLIC transport!), for my ORAL SURGERY. I expect a world of facepain over the E-STIR BANG COLLAR DAY weekend, but at least that'll distract my neurotransmitters from any other aches and twinges I might have been having.
There was some FRANK ZAPPA music on Radio Three last night. Ilan Volkov conducted the City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in an all-American programme (Gershwin, Ives a.o.) and they included FZ's "Bob In Dacron And Sad Jane". Not a bad performance, although the combination of the (otherwise excellent) Symphony Hall acoustics and the choices made by the BBC sound engineers probably didn't suit the material - Frank's music needs closer miking to get all the detail... Another 'All-American programme' was broadcast the following evening (lots of Gershwin, Roy Harris, John Adams), this time with SIR SIMON RATTLE conducting the LSO at the Barbican. I confess that I was so knackered from the day's outings that I managed to doze off during the Gershwin Piano Concerto!
GOOD Friday... As the Scissor Sisters once sang, "I have become comfortably numb". I'm experiencing very little pain at all, not even the expected face-ache (yet?!?). I think all that lovely Novacaine must have filtered through with all my other meds. Might as well enjoy a nice day staying in bed, because I know it won't last! It being Easter, Radio Three are doing BACH's "S'in'j'n's Passion" this afternoon...
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