Silver Lining.

Anniversary - "Designated Hitter" Rule
Birthday - Alexander Hamilton (statesman)
Independence Day (Morocco)
National Unity Day (Nepal)

 

Of course, to someone like Josh or myself, who has grown up a mile above sea level in arid mountains, today’s snowfall falls under the category of “Nice try.”  I suppose it’s a step up from “You call this snow?  This is sleet at best!”, though.

 

But.

 

I went walking to class this morning, before it had time to melt, and I was absolutely stunned by the trees.

 

I like trees in winter anyway—something about their sparseness and the lines they trace is lovely.*   And every single bare branch, every line up from the trunk, was perfectly outlined in a fine layer of snow. The dark shape outlined against the grey sky had been lovely enough, but then when the white entered the mixture it was breathtaking.  Every tree on campus had this new glow to it.  It was distracting.

 

I’ve never seen that before.  Maybe I just wasn’t paying attention, or maybe it’s because snow in Salt Lake isn’t sticky enough to form this fine glaze; it’s either a foot of snow bending down the branch, with no in between.  Either way, I was very glad to see it while I could.

 

 

*Hell, I like trees at any time of the year.

It's Not Just Me

This is pretty good. I should look up more by this guy.

 

I’ll see you in hell, Pachelbel.

 

Son of a bitch didn’t know how good he had it. I played the bass. We didn’t even have a part for this damn song, so sometimes they’d give us the cello part, but with a thousand rests.

 

Yes, it’s a running joke that I have a violent animosity for this song.  I have at least two friends, probably more, who might take exception to that on the grounds that they like the Canon.  Which is all well and good. Even I don’t actually mind it as a background to other songs, as pointed out—I could even add a few songs to that list he gives, and I like those. But I love the actual thing rather less. And this video makes me feel better because it shows that it’s not just me! Hell, even among classical musicians, Canon Fatigue is a running gag—just look at the sketch done by classical music satirist* Peter Schickele where a radio host goes insane from Pachelbel Overload. (“Pachelbel didn’t write this, the Marquis de Sade did!”)

 

And you’ve got to admit, it’s pretty funny.

 

 

*No, really, there is such a thing.  And he’s pretty funny, too.