So as I mentioned, I'm on vacation (really a stay-cation) and being such I get awfully conflicted about sleep patterns to the point that I basically don't have one. The days have been absolutely gorgeous here in Central Florida this past week and like today the skies are sunshiny and clear and the temperature is in the mid-seventies. So it lures me on to a day-timer sleep pattern. But then I just want to do the shit I always do, watch Exodus or Netflix and either surf the internet or play games on the computer. Perfect night-timer shit. So the last post at around 1:30 in the morning was really yesterday for me since I'm tending to sleep in chunks rather than a full eight. So like today so far I went to bed around 2:30 am and woke up at 7:30 am. Five hours. Hmm. But maybe that explains the experience I had soon after waking.
First of all, let me tell you, I had (and have had the past few days) a really weird dream. In it it seems I'm sleeping with someone...no, not having sex just sleeping fully-clothed in bed beside someone. Gender of this person: I don't remember. Whoever it was I felt very uncomfortable. It felt like they chose to sleep beside me without my permission and perhaps in spite of me. IDK, it was a jumble of awkwardness and shame and discomfort and revulsion and rage all rolled into one. But this isn't the weird part. I then realized I was in a dream, so I said to myself, well just wake out of it. And I tried, but instead I sprung out of my dream bed right back into another dream bed! And I kept trying, and it kept happening! This is some Inception shit going down here! I can't say I was really freaked out though and as my fifth or sixth try finally succeeded I kinda smirked and shrugged, "Well that was different." chuckled and got out of my REAL bed and started my REAL day.
And what a day it's been so far.
I got up and as per my usual routine I went to my computer. No fucking phone for me. It's there and I checked it for messages but that's the extent of its usefulness. Call me a dinosaur but I like desktop computers. I doubt I'll ever change. In the year 2033 when everyone else has long gone to inter-ocular implants I'll still be with my fellow ol' timers typing away at a clickity keyboard sitting at an old fashioned piece of furniture called a desk. Ah, who'm I kiddin'? I'll long be dead by then.
But seriously, I checked out the front page of reddit and there was a post about tonight's upcoming episode of Westworld. It was postulating what the significance might be of the title of the episode: Well Tempered Clavier. Of course my fellow geeks were all ablaze with their replies imagining all sorts of ways that could be pertinent to the show. I swear these guys pick apart every freakin' piece of the show and analyze it for clues to the larger arc of the show's premise. They're fucking obsessed.
But anyway, it got me fondly remembering the set of pieces this title was named for, harpsichord "preludes and fugues" by the great Johann Sebastian Bach. Back in the early eighties I had a subscription to Time-Life's Classical Favorites collection of cassette tapes. The commonly played pieces of the most famous composers covering the whole "Classical" genre including Renaissance, Baroque, Classical and Romantic categories. By the way and for the record, I'm pretty sure that technically the term "Classical" only applies to the Classical period in this timeline but you know how the public is...like Trump voters they fuck everything up.
Well this series, which by the way was really, really good, got me into "Classical" music big time. When my peers were listening to Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince and even Flock of Seagulls...so was I...I loved them, but the deepest part of my heart went to Classical. Of course, as I've mentioned before, my favorite movie of all time "Amadeus" which debuted during these same years was only the wholehearted vindication I needed to continue my "different drummer" path and more-closely embrace the genre.
So I scoured the music stores (Yes, back then there were many little corner music stores that sold...well, music. On physical things like 8-track tape, cassette tapes or vinyl records.) and picked up many. many more cassettes to add to my collection. And since "Classical" was decidedly out of vogue, they were marked down. Yeah. Oh, if you're thinking why I didn't buy vinyl records instead of cassettes since the quality is so different. Well, frankly, cassettes were cheaper, you could play them in your car and average stereos of the day were not the audiophile art pieces of today when it came to playing vinyl. Back then, records sounded the same as cassettes and being as they were more expensive, required a turntable and were prone to scratches or cracks, yeah, cassettes were the bomb.
At some flea market I stumbled across a green-colored bound collection of cassettes in pristine condition. It was the Well Tempered Clavier complete set. Books One and Two. I don't remember how many cassettes but maybe about a dozen. Hours and hours of music.
I've since found out today or, in reddit parlance, TIL, that the whole series is designed to show off the advantages of a "tempered" tuning system when maintaining harpsichords and clavichords as to the older system. Um, whatever. It's interesting, but it's not the basis of my post.
I played an excellent rendition of the whole first Book on YouTube and, frankly, I was crying like a baby...tears streaming down my cheeks.
At first when hearing it I thought, "Wow, this is a really famous piece because I've heard it so many times." But then I realized...it's not THAT famous. I mean, do you hear Bach played everywhere? Ever? Occasionally in a movie but not played anywhere to the extent one would think "famous." (Other than Toccata and Fugue in D minor...that shit is famous in every classic scary movie including Phantom of the Opera..you know...Check it out on YouTube.)
What I realized is that it seemed so familiar to me because I had heard it hundreds of times. I listened to those tapes practically every day back then. And yes, occasionally while or after smoking weed. And it was awesome.
Even without drugs, this set of music is what I came to perceive as the closest to perfection as Man could come. This was it, guys. Go ahead...try to follow this.
Oh, as you know, Mozart (who if you didn't know came after Bach) did really, really well himself. But if you ask me, it was JS Bach that reached for and achieved the pinnacle of human musical achievement in all of history.
But here's the sad part. Sometime in the late eighties, I stopped listening. The collection was stored away and I think it eventually ended up either being tossed away or left with Chiafalo. I hope it's with him. I know he'll preserve them.
I don't remember why. Why did I abandon this music? Why?
All I can think of is that listening to this music made me feel special. Like the world was my oyster. I was intellectual and strong. I would succeed beyond my wildest dreams.
And, well, then I didn't.
So fast-forward, thirty years to today, listening to these pieces of music probably for the first time in those many years, and I remembered. I remembered the dreams. I remembered the youthful optimism. I remembered the power and majesty that this music imparted to me.
And now I sit, with a twelve pack of IPA and mistily think back to those heady times...when I was going to conquer the world!
And soon I'll sleep. My sleep pattern is wonked off trail. This may all be a dream. Does not compute. Re-booting in process.
Maybe then, I'll awake in my REAL existence.
First of all, let me tell you, I had (and have had the past few days) a really weird dream. In it it seems I'm sleeping with someone...no, not having sex just sleeping fully-clothed in bed beside someone. Gender of this person: I don't remember. Whoever it was I felt very uncomfortable. It felt like they chose to sleep beside me without my permission and perhaps in spite of me. IDK, it was a jumble of awkwardness and shame and discomfort and revulsion and rage all rolled into one. But this isn't the weird part. I then realized I was in a dream, so I said to myself, well just wake out of it. And I tried, but instead I sprung out of my dream bed right back into another dream bed! And I kept trying, and it kept happening! This is some Inception shit going down here! I can't say I was really freaked out though and as my fifth or sixth try finally succeeded I kinda smirked and shrugged, "Well that was different." chuckled and got out of my REAL bed and started my REAL day.
And what a day it's been so far.
I got up and as per my usual routine I went to my computer. No fucking phone for me. It's there and I checked it for messages but that's the extent of its usefulness. Call me a dinosaur but I like desktop computers. I doubt I'll ever change. In the year 2033 when everyone else has long gone to inter-ocular implants I'll still be with my fellow ol' timers typing away at a clickity keyboard sitting at an old fashioned piece of furniture called a desk. Ah, who'm I kiddin'? I'll long be dead by then.
But seriously, I checked out the front page of reddit and there was a post about tonight's upcoming episode of Westworld. It was postulating what the significance might be of the title of the episode: Well Tempered Clavier. Of course my fellow geeks were all ablaze with their replies imagining all sorts of ways that could be pertinent to the show. I swear these guys pick apart every freakin' piece of the show and analyze it for clues to the larger arc of the show's premise. They're fucking obsessed.
But anyway, it got me fondly remembering the set of pieces this title was named for, harpsichord "preludes and fugues" by the great Johann Sebastian Bach. Back in the early eighties I had a subscription to Time-Life's Classical Favorites collection of cassette tapes. The commonly played pieces of the most famous composers covering the whole "Classical" genre including Renaissance, Baroque, Classical and Romantic categories. By the way and for the record, I'm pretty sure that technically the term "Classical" only applies to the Classical period in this timeline but you know how the public is...like Trump voters they fuck everything up.
Well this series, which by the way was really, really good, got me into "Classical" music big time. When my peers were listening to Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince and even Flock of Seagulls...so was I...I loved them, but the deepest part of my heart went to Classical. Of course, as I've mentioned before, my favorite movie of all time "Amadeus" which debuted during these same years was only the wholehearted vindication I needed to continue my "different drummer" path and more-closely embrace the genre.
So I scoured the music stores (Yes, back then there were many little corner music stores that sold...well, music. On physical things like 8-track tape, cassette tapes or vinyl records.) and picked up many. many more cassettes to add to my collection. And since "Classical" was decidedly out of vogue, they were marked down. Yeah. Oh, if you're thinking why I didn't buy vinyl records instead of cassettes since the quality is so different. Well, frankly, cassettes were cheaper, you could play them in your car and average stereos of the day were not the audiophile art pieces of today when it came to playing vinyl. Back then, records sounded the same as cassettes and being as they were more expensive, required a turntable and were prone to scratches or cracks, yeah, cassettes were the bomb.
At some flea market I stumbled across a green-colored bound collection of cassettes in pristine condition. It was the Well Tempered Clavier complete set. Books One and Two. I don't remember how many cassettes but maybe about a dozen. Hours and hours of music.
I've since found out today or, in reddit parlance, TIL, that the whole series is designed to show off the advantages of a "tempered" tuning system when maintaining harpsichords and clavichords as to the older system. Um, whatever. It's interesting, but it's not the basis of my post.
I played an excellent rendition of the whole first Book on YouTube and, frankly, I was crying like a baby...tears streaming down my cheeks.
At first when hearing it I thought, "Wow, this is a really famous piece because I've heard it so many times." But then I realized...it's not THAT famous. I mean, do you hear Bach played everywhere? Ever? Occasionally in a movie but not played anywhere to the extent one would think "famous." (Other than Toccata and Fugue in D minor...that shit is famous in every classic scary movie including Phantom of the Opera..you know...Check it out on YouTube.)
What I realized is that it seemed so familiar to me because I had heard it hundreds of times. I listened to those tapes practically every day back then. And yes, occasionally while or after smoking weed. And it was awesome.
Even without drugs, this set of music is what I came to perceive as the closest to perfection as Man could come. This was it, guys. Go ahead...try to follow this.
Oh, as you know, Mozart (who if you didn't know came after Bach) did really, really well himself. But if you ask me, it was JS Bach that reached for and achieved the pinnacle of human musical achievement in all of history.
But here's the sad part. Sometime in the late eighties, I stopped listening. The collection was stored away and I think it eventually ended up either being tossed away or left with Chiafalo. I hope it's with him. I know he'll preserve them.
I don't remember why. Why did I abandon this music? Why?
All I can think of is that listening to this music made me feel special. Like the world was my oyster. I was intellectual and strong. I would succeed beyond my wildest dreams.
And, well, then I didn't.
So fast-forward, thirty years to today, listening to these pieces of music probably for the first time in those many years, and I remembered. I remembered the dreams. I remembered the youthful optimism. I remembered the power and majesty that this music imparted to me.
And now I sit, with a twelve pack of IPA and mistily think back to those heady times...when I was going to conquer the world!
And soon I'll sleep. My sleep pattern is wonked off trail. This may all be a dream. Does not compute. Re-booting in process.
Maybe then, I'll awake in my REAL existence.