Friends, Music and Food

Last night was a good time. A group of us went out for Kelli's b-day at Mexican Fiesta where as is required we all ate too many chips and salsa and then dinner came. I only ate the rice and beans and am planning on having one and a half of my three enchiladas for lunch today. I'm trying to cut down my portions. After dinner we went to Starbucks to hang and harass Campbell while he worked. It was a fun time sitting around and just chatting and remembering past adventures. I hadn't been a part of the gun-shooting weekends or the paintball weekends, as I think I was in SF at the time, but it's okay because I have an eternal fear/hatred of guns. And then since there's no hockey to discuss (fuck both Bob Goodenow and Gary Bettman – I blame them both equally and believe the owners should fire Bettman and the players should fire Goodenow and put two sane caring people in charge of the negotiations and then maybe something would get accomplished toward having a hockey season this year), Rick, Davo, Glen and I got involved in a baseball discussion. Glen even had to switch seats with Amy so that Amy could join the girls' talk about clothes or yarn and Glen could join the boys (and me) talking baseball. It was a good discussion with Davo and Rick firmly on the side of letting Pete Rose into the Baseball Hall of Fame, Glen torn about the issue and me thinking no way in hell should he be there. The Tigers' off-season acquisitions (or lack thereof) was also a topic of conversation. All in all, it was quite a fun evening – and helped to make up for the fact that this was the first Thursday (of many) of not going out with Martha since she's in Mexico.

This morning I was thinking about how much I love classical music and how for the most part I like all of it and how I love to hear stuff I've never heard before on 89.9 CBC Radio 2 in Windsor. Unlike the classical station to which I listened in SF, which played 95% baroque music (which is actually quite limiting in the classical music world), CBC plays music from the 1500s as well as the 2000s and everything in between. And they don't just say, "This is the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky," they give you a little background on either the music or the composer or what he was thinking when he composed it or what his contemporaries thought of it. I love knowing more about things!!! I'm always hearing new stuff and finding that I like contemporary classical music quite a lot. But there are two pieces of music that make me want to shoot myself when I hear them which puts them in a category with Sheryl Crow and the Dave Matthews Band. The first one is the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo. It's a guitar concierto and the guitar is not my favorite instrument of all time, so that does not help this piece for me. All the hosts have to say is that we'll be hearing Rodrigo that hour and I tense up and can't wait for it to be played so I can turn it off. I really wish that they would just play it first to get it over with.

Now, I didn't always feel that way about the Aranjuez (say the "z" with a "th" sound as that's how the Castillian Spaniards pronounce it and all classical music types insist on doing it as well), I think I liked it the first 100 times my father played it, but then he just played the every living fucking hell out of it. I swear to God that when our Mexican friends came to visit he felt it appropriate to play it (not bearing in mind that Americans probably don't necessarily want to hear Benjamin Britten when visiting another country, but whatever) CONSTANTLY! And I mean CONSTANTLY!!! I thought I was going to rip my hair out. I even asked him (and got yelled at for my efforts for showing disrespect to the Mexicans) if he was going to play the bloody piece of music the entire time the Mexicans were with us. I was thinking that they were just too polite to object to hearing it for the 374th time that visit, so I spoke up. I still think they were too polite to tell Denis is to play something else, but whatever. Last season the DSO played the Concierto and I made sure I did not have tickets. Meg heard the announcement on the radio or somewhere that they were going to play it and she asked me excitedly if I had tickets. HELL NO, I said, I hate that fucking piece of music. I think I took her aback. LOL!

And for some reason I can't think of the second piece of music which drives me to distraction. I had it this morning in the shower, but no clue right now what it is. Let me think for a second….oh yes, the Polovtsian Dances by Borodin. It's his most famous piece of music, but I think it's because he uses the main theme in "In the Steppes of Central Asia." At any rate, I can not listen to anything by Borodin for fear that the Polovtsian Dances will break out. And I don't think it's Borodin's fault, I think it was used in a popular song in a movie, and for some reason I can not accept it as serious classical music since I knew it first as the song. I just tried to listen to it on the Internet, but unfortunately, my company is so paranoid that I can't download anything at all, including just playing soundbites from amazon.com. Very annoying. So, there you have it the two composers who have been lumped permanently in my mind with Sheryl Crow and the Dave Matthews Band for playing music I hate and despise. Actually Sheryl Crow and DMB's music might be okay, but I can't get past their "singing" voices to see if there's anything worthwhile in the music.

I stole this from Julie: The BBC has come up with a list of 50 things you should eat before you die. Items in CAPS are things I have eaten.

The BBC Top 50

1. FRESH FISH
2. LOBSTER
3. STEAK
4. THAI FOOD
5. CHINESE FOOD
6. ICE CREAM
7. PIZZA
8. CRAB
9. CURRY
10. PRAWNS
11. Moreton Bay Bugs (I don't have a clue what these are, and I'm not sure I want to know)
12. CLAM CHOWDER
13. BARBECUES
14. PANCAKES
15. PASTA
16. MUSSELS
17. CHEESECAKE
18. LAMB
19. Cream tea
20. Alligator
21. OYSTERS
22. Kangaroo
23. CHOCOLATE
24. SANDWICHES
25. GREEK FOOD
26. BURGERS
27. MEXICAN FOOD
28. SQUID (it was nasty but I did try it.)
29. AMERICAN DINER BREAKFAST
30. SALMON
31. Venison
32. Guinea pig
33. Shark
34. SUSHI
35. PAELLA
36. Barramundi
37. Reindeer
38. KEBAB
39. SCALLOPS
40. Australian meat pie
41. MANGO
42. Durian fruit
43. Octopus
44. RIBS
45. ROAST BEEF
46. TAPAS
47. Jerk chicken/pork
48. Haggis
49. CAVIAR
50. Cornish pasty