a blab by idle

So yesterday, the topic of Trevor Horn came up. It turns out that he has a new double album coming out on Monday, a compilation of 25 years of his producing efforts. The mistake I made was going to the ZTT website, where I found out that Trevor remixed Daft in 5.1. Oh, my. Well, there's £19 that I wasn't planning on spending.

Moreover, that means I'll finally need to buy a SACD player. That's another $500+….

Sigh.

Since the 80s, I have loved all the Art of Noise albums except for one: "In No Sense? Nonsense!" I had always felt that it was a complete walk-away from everything artful and good that they had ever done.

So why is it that I suddenly hear it as a completely different album, and can't seem to get enough of it? That I find "Opus For Four" actually the richest, most textured of that entire series of works?

One might ask if I also had a dislike of "The Seduction of Claude Debussy" the first time I heard it. Yet, no; I emphatically loved that album and was mesmerized from the first spin. Still, no love lost back then for Nonsense.

Until now.

Funny how that happens sometimes.

I have asked people in email, asked people in the office, asked people giving me rides. I've posted on notesfiles. I've even posted on craigslist!

It would, however, seem that I cannot give away a ticket — free of charge — to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to hear a performance of perhaps the finest piece of music ever written (IMNSHO): Brahms' 4th.

It's even a good seat, at that.

I don't know why this irks me so, but it does.

I'd forgotten how much I absolutely love the soundtrack from Chess.

The lyrics are pretty dense with cold war politics, which is little more than a quaint historical perspective at this point, but also the intricacies of betrayal in relationships and wicked webs that we weave… themes altogether too appropriate in my life.