So I am dismayed that I cannot get Daughtry tickets, even though he is playing just around the corner.  I am really a fangirl over his album.  It hits me right where I like my music.  But, in the absence of my alt rock fix,  I went to the Philadelphia Orchestra to see a Beethoven piano concerto and Sheherazade with Barb last Tuesday, and then we went to Carmina Burana for the sleet storm, where we continued our discussion about what is wrong (and sometimes right) with classical music today.  Both were huge works performed in large and elegant halls (Verizon Hall at the Kimmel is shaped like the inside of a cello and the sound is clear and true everywhere.  The Academy of Music, made famous outside the city by the movie "Age of Innocence" is old and elegant and the sound pools at the top.)  On Saturday I went to the Unitarian Church, where Mimi Stillman played all 8 of Bach's flute pieces.

As it happened, all the pieces were mesmerizing.  But lately a lot of it hasn't been, so Barb and I were discussing the absence of passion in the performances of classical


People like music because it talks to them, it makes a connection across a divide that language can't cross.  Audiences will accept a lot of different messages, messages for the heart and also messages for the head, sentimental messages and also bitter and desperate messages, and cool messages.  Even ironic messages.  But if the music is not a communication event, if the performance looks down on the composer's message,  if it does not engage the audience in its message, people will not come to hear it because the reason to show up--a community in dialogue with itself that includes the audience as an active participant--is gone.  And when that is gone, so are you.

So, after considering having an adventure and trying a different building in a slightly different part of town, I have signed a lease for an apartment four flights up in my current building. I'll lose the great southeast light, but I will have a view of the bridge and the building where Sigourney Weaver stood among the gargoyles in Ghostbusters, which just seems so apt, all things considered.

And it is the mirror image of my apartment, with all relevant walls intact, so my furniture will fit exactly as it is now, which is comfortable and familiar at this point. The kitchen is in a bit better shape--certainly the floor is better. I will miss my vertical blinds, which allow in so much light while still affording a lot of privacy. The new apartment has miniblinds, which are not always great at keeping out unwanted light or letting in the light you want. So they'll probably stay open all the time in the living room. The whole wall is windows, so with the blinds up, I should still get good light when we have sun, which isn't often at this season. But I can get the boys to move the boxes and the breakdown furniture, so it should only cost me a hundred dollars or so for the movers. Yeah!

BTW for SPN fans among us. I recommend a cd--Breaking Benjamin's Phobia. It is wonderful, angsty stuff. Though it is good electric guitar rock, I think my favorite song is the one that is NOT on the download at iTunes (thus, paid twice as much at Borders) But the acoustic version of Diary of Jane is just wonderful. The Electric version is also good, but you can really tell if a song has good bones when it is performed without the bells and whistles. And this song has great bones. Rec it highly. Go, buy, make them rich, these boys from Pennsylvania coal country. Great songs and a lead singer who can break your heart with his voice.

What more can you want? The wingfic cover, maybe? Can we say, "yum," boys and girls? I knew we could. But now, back to getting Evan well and truly seduced by the Black Masque. I think this is a good Evanfic soundtrack too.