perpetuity
So I’m an extremely consistant person. I have very specific tastes and I stick to ‘em like white fuzz sticks to black pants. Not that I can’t be flexible, but when it comes to what I like and don’t like I’m just extremely consistant.
For example (starting with the negatives to end on the positives):
Dislikes
- Modern literature
- Humidity
- Carpeting
- Genericalness
- Crowds
- Photorealism (just take a photo, geez)
Likes
- Strong black tea with milk, no sugar, no lemon, no honey, no whatever else
- Ice cream, slightly melted around the edges (don’t give me freezing-cold-rock-solid-ice-cream, yo!)
- Cereal ever so slightly soggy (yes, it’s true)
- Cardigans (the clothing item…not to be confused with the musical group)
- T.S. Eliot
- Solitude
My consistancy almost borders on predictably boring. When my friend Maggie was first dating her boyfriend Nick and he lived in Baltimore and she in Boston, she asked me where she should take him in Harvard Square for his first visit to the area. I, naturally, suggested Burdick for an afternoon chocolate repast, and on the Saturday afternoon of his weekend visit to Boston/Cambridge that’s how I met Maggie’s Nick – I happened to bump into them at Burdicks as I was leaving and they were arriving. Why? Well, duh. I stopped by there every Saturday and I only recommend things I really like, and I’m consistant with what I really like…uh, you get the point.
Okay, so musically one thing I am utterly obsessed with is 3/4 time. I made it my goal during my undergraduate education to only compose pieces in 3/4 time and for the most part I made it work (I think there was one piece that absolutely required itself to not be somehow in 3). I have been consumed by anything waltz-like since childhood. I had a dog that as an only child was a kind of replacement sibling for me, and I used to dress her up, scoop her into my arms, put on any waltz recordings I could find and suddenly the living room would turn into a grand ballroom. I have been trying to figure out why I have loved waltzes so much for so many years and still have never quit figured it out. I guess they always seemed romantic to me, and what artsy young lady doesn’t like romance?
Another explanation might be that I always wanted to be a ballet dancer. I took ballet as a kid (I’ve told you this before, right?) up until I switched teachers to this old school CCCP lady who terrified me with her rigid, militant, teaching style. She was way harsh. That was the end of that and the start of my musical career. But, to this day I have retained my childhood adoration of the discipline and Mikhail Baryshnikov (girls, I was into him waaaaaaay before Carrie Bradshaw ever was…and Kirkland was better for him, anyway).
So, I’m on my vacation within a vacation, as you know, and the other day I was playing through some Granados and I remembered this American Ballet Theatre (yet another long time love, and can you believe they are the one group in NYC I have not seen live yet?! note to self…fix that) special I saw on PBS back in the day. 3/4 time signatures abounding, the ABT, and Granados. Consistancy pays off.
Pt 1
Pt 2
