Debussy

Yesterday my masseuse put two bones back where they belonged in my spine, and shortened my left leg. I was all, no, just lengthen the other one, but that was not an option.

This morning, Debussy’s only piece for string quartet came on the radio when I was parking in front of the office.

Actually, it came on a little earlier, while I was driving to work, the last bit of my commute, and was still on when I parked, come to think of it. My first thought was, this is some sad music. My first reaction to it, before thinking, was to get all sad, see.

How full of sadness, and yet how beautiful.

It was the recording by the Jerusalem Quartet.

In case you’re interested.

I sat there listening. The DJ said after that the audience considered it decadent the first time it was performed. All that death and beauty rolled up into a maki.

100 things

Brian published one of those lists of 100 things one ought to visit or do before one dies on his blog. Although I don’t plan to die on Brian’s blog, I will publish my slightly-altered (to make myself look more accomplished) version of the list here because it is easier than making up new content when you are tired, as I currently am after a weekend in Brno:

1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars

3. Play in a band orchestra
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sung a solo (not  likely)
11. Bungee jumped Parasailed with  Beta when she was 12
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched lightening at sea
14. Taught myself an art from scratch (Abstract painting!!!1!)
15. Adopted a child Taken ballroom dancing lessons
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
Beacon Rock
18. Grown my own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb grown sheep, which was once a lamb, yet heavier, and smellier
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a marathon few miles
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice, late at night
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run (Wii counts, right?)
32. Been on a cruise boat
33. Seen Niagara Multnomah Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community two Amish guys talking to hookers in Las Vegas
36. Taught myself a new language Invented a new literary genre (nude poetry)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing Taken a nude drawing class
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke (allegedly Johnny B. Goode in Kyoto, but I have no memory of this)
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger child a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa Had a tooth filled without novocaine
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in Pulled over to let an ambulance pass
47. Had my portrait toenails painted by my daughters, while sleeping
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China Got root canal
57. Started Wisely not started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen Crack windshield repeatedly
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies Invent revolutionary scientific formula (chaos coefficient C= (f+p)f ) (where f=family members living in your home, and p=pets)
62. Gone whale watching Watched whales while waiting to be towed from the Olympic Peninsula after your alternator burned out on a trip after getting the alternator rebuilt at excessive expense prior to the trip to avoid any problems because you wanted to impress your foreign girlfriend and Swiss hitchhikers you gave a ride to you laugh at your misfortune and you think, cool, whales.
63. Got flowers for no the usual reason
64. Donated Fainted at the sight of blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving parasailing with your fearless 12 year old daughter, despite your acrophobia
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp Transylvania with Nazis
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter an airplane
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades Realize you look like a dork in a bowler hat
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem Saw a lady just standing there in her window one evening, naked as a jaybird.
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited Seen the White House from a distance.
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined Scam a book club Columbia House

93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person Gotten hopelessly lost in the west of Ireland.
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake across the Danube
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Ridden an elephant