Jholiday's guide to classical music

Many of us enjoy classical music, however, many (most) of us are wholly ignorant to the classical musical vocabulary needed to both express enjoyment of the genre and to move in the social circles of other classical fans. This can actually keep us as closeted classical fans until we're confident enough in our terminology to converse with someone about Bach without fear of embarassment. I think Stuffwhitepeoplelike.com put it best when they said:

If a white person starts talking to you about classical music, it’s essential that you tread very lightly. This is because white people are all petrified that they will be exposed as someone who has only a moderate understanding of classical music. When a white person encounters another white person who actually enjoys classical music (exceptionally rare), it is often considered to be one of the most traumatic experiences they can go through.

“Really? Beethoven’s 5th Symphony….that’s your favorite.”
“um, no, I mean…”
“You sure it’s not Pachebel’s Canon?”
“well, ah, I like that, ah, song”
“sigh, of course you do.”

Stuff White People Like #108 Appearing to Like Classical Music

So I present to you: Julia's Very Basic Primer to All Things Classical

What does the title "classical music" really mean?
Classical music is difficult to define, but it is of European tradition, utilizing orchestral instruments(and voice), and must be distinguished from popular music and jazz. This applies to music created in the last 700 years, and it encompasses many styles.

What do you mean by "many styles?"
Alright, so chronologically you've got:

Medieval-mostly religious chants, no one really listens to this stuff.Pre1400

Renaissance-here we see instrumentation as the new focus, as well as multiple melodies. You probably won't recognize any famous composers from this era, and if you do, you shouldn't be reading this because you probably know more about this than I do. 1400-1600

Baroque-alright, now we're getting somewhere. You probably have a lot of these guys(no girlz yet) in your collection. Recognize the names Bach, Vivaldi and Pachabel? They're my boiiiz and they all fall under the stylistic umbrella of baroque music. Music becomes much more complex and we see the creation of "tonality" as a way to categorize music, for example, a concerto in G minor. This is also the birth period of the opera! 1600-1750

Classical-the namesake period, it's the summit of classical music. Piano is now the dominant instrument, and we have the beginning of the SYMPHONY. Big, big, deal. Basically, they tightened up everything from the baroque era and made it BIGGER. Mozart really overshadows all other composers from this epoch.1750-1820

Romantic-If the Classical Period is the parent, then Romantic is the unruly teenager. These guys broke all the rules, then set them on fire. We see flamboyant orchestration and wild experimentation that really departs from the strict rules of the Classical period. Think: Tchaikovsky, Strauss. Beethoven was instrumental(pun intended) in the transition to this period.1820-1900

YES!! Love this

I found a little video that humorously shows a slight flaw in the reasoning of those who oppose gay marriage. If gay Californians aren't allowed to degrade the sanctity of marriage, why should strait couples be allowed to divorce? Isn't that much worse? The 2010 California Marriage Protection Act is currently collecting signatures to be included on the ballot. Ha!



My favorite bit from this clip is "If we allow anyone to get divorced, before you know it people will be divorcing their dogs."




Learn more at RescueMarriage.org

The Poultry Chronicles

Julia's home life has been a bit tumultuous lately. In July my sister broke her arm and subsequently moved out of our shared apartment and home to Chico, leaving me with her two adorable pets (whom I described in an earlier post). The trade off of the lost company of my sister for the constant company of a duck and a chicken took some getting used to. Then I started to like coming home to my new life companions. I even put diapers on them and made them my house pets.

Fernanda:
She had a custom made duck diaper with a coordinating neck bow.


Ms. B:
She was too small for the custom diapers that are sold online, so I made a makeshift diaper out of a plastic grocery bag. How embarrassing, hee hee!

Two weeks ago Laura swooped into town to finish moving out of her room and took my two remaining roommates with her. Left fowl-less, despondent, and alone, I turned to the only venue that I knew would ease my loneliness. Craigslist. I logged on with the sole intention of trolling for poultry. What I found changed my life forever. Behold Chickenbaby.


This is Chickenbaby showing off on the first day that I got her.

Here she is stealing my breakfast this morning. I put my plate on the ground (thoughtlessly) to answer the phone, and when I turned around the plate was empty! So I had to recreate it for a photo shoot. She got to keep the cinnamon roll in the end, in case you were wondering.

Santa Barbara bound

I wouldn't want to classify myself as a Neil Gaiman fan, but I've read more than a smattering of his books. I was a big huge fan of Coraline in 3-D, and Preludes and Nocturnes has forever been on my reading to do list, but his titles take up a lowly shelf in my library so that my collection of Victorian literature can be on better display, if you know what I mean.

This is why I'm telling you (shhh, it's a secret) that I just bought tickets to see him speak at UCSB this February and I am beside myself with glee! Lately, I've been relishing his latest, The Graveyard Book, on audiobook. It's based on The Jungle Book, except in this version the "Mowgli" is raised by ghosts instead of jungle aminals. It just won the Newbery Medal and Neil will be talking about this marvelous work as well as others in a few short months! Check out I, Cthulhu on his website. It's funny.

Two new whimsies

I've spent the last part of my week gardening, a pursuit that I never thought I would take up. This isn't because I don't love plants, or the (tamed) outdoors, but simply because I possess a black thumb. Every unfortunate houseplant that finds itself in my grasp quickly gives up its stake on life due to my overabundant bestowment of water and plant love. Perhaps plants of the outdoor variety will fare better? Time will tell, and I promise to post pictures of an impossibly lush garden (if there is one to be had).

Also, I've become hopelessly addicted to etsy.com. This replaces my previous preoccupation with ebay. This is a picture of my latest acquisition.

A chick and a duck!!!

Laura (my sister) brought home a chick and a duck last week. They're really entertaining! The duck is shockingly intelligent, and the chicken? Shockingly vapid. In a cute way. Hopefully we can get duck/chicken diapers (yes, they exist), so that they can be house pets!

Boxes in the Attic

One of my favorite pastimes is to study interesting subjects online. Some topics have been found merely by hitting the random button on Wikipedia. For instance, the other day I studied blood, and found that blood types are not the only differences between people's blood. Someone could be unable to accept a donor's blood of the same type because of an Rh factor! Fascinating! So O- really isn't the universal donor.
Anyway, the point that I'm getting to is that in my quenchless search for knowledge, I am starting to find that I am...running out of room. For instance, the other week I was looking up malapropisms and related devices, and I can't remember what they are anymore. This forgetfulness has never happened to me (I of the elephantine memory). So I wonder, am I running out of room? Have all of the memories and facts of my 25 years started to crowd the hard drive in my brain? Or are my facilities simply aging and am I unable to retain things like I once could?
My favorite literary figure, Sherlock Holmes, would side with my first theory. In the first Sherlock Holmes novel A Study in Scarlet, Watson tells Holmes some commonly held scientific knowledge, along the lines of the Earth revolving around the Sun, to which Holmes responds that he doesn't care! His brain is only filled with things that are useful to him in solving crimes, and everything else is inconsequential. Holmes states that a brain is like an attic, it can only hold so many boxes before it becomes full and you can't find anything anymore, therefore he is a better detective by staying wholly ignorant of everything that is not useful to him.
Is this how our memory works, like Holmes' attic? Or can our minds be infinitely elastic? Most would agree it's not that simple. Memory, in its makings and retrieval, is so interesting. As interesting, I think, as forgetting. Isn't it a mystery how and why we forget things? Or are things never really forgotten, just repressed?