2012 — 8 December: Saturday
Alas! When Junior rang less than 12 hours ago to suggest a brief visit today1 I had to tell him I'd already arranged a walk, and I certainly feel the need for a burst of fresh air. Still — weather permitting — we should manage to rendezvous in Birmingham with my cousins at the end of the week for a day or so. GWATCDR, as Carol says.
So the countdown timer is ticking on both breakfast and a packed lunch to be prepped in the next couple of hours. No problemo. I even remembered to take some bread out of the freezer last night. Such a domestic god.
It's been...
... quite some time since I last ran my eyes over this very useful list of Open Source software for Windows. I'd better take a closer look at this, methinks. When (if) I ever get time. Sounds good! :-)
I see our fragrant Furrin Secretary is waffling about "intelligence evidence" of potential chemical weaponry in Syria. Isn't this a wearisome path we've been down before? Besides, we probably sold or leaked the technology. I still recall the horrific story by Edmund Cooper in his (long since culled) 1963 SF collection "Tomorrow Came" describing a bio-weapon attack. Ghastly. Such a viciously stupidly aggressive species. Makes you (un)proud to be a primate.
Right! Time for the "off". It's 10:04, sunny, but devilish cold out there. I've just been advised that Fritz Reiner's analogue version (I assume, with the Chicago Symphony) of Bartok's delectable "Concerto for Orchestra" is the best of the bunch, but haven't time to hear more...
After 7 miles and...
... lunch munched not quite on the hoof in the middle of a cold but gloriously sunny day, plus a nice hot bath2 back at Technology Towers, I can now settle down and listen to what Rob Cowan actually made his top recommendation here:
Which was relatively easy to find, buy, and download (while my next cuppa prepared itself for eager ingestion)...
... once I'd started searching for "Bartok Kossuth" rather than anything fancier, say, with "Concerto" in the search string. There are CDs available of this recording, but "cheap" would most definitely not be my description of them. "Kossuth" is not a piece I know anything about, so that's a welcome bonus. As for the Concerto itself, I think that's now my one Desert Island choice, though I don't yet know how this performance stacks up against the superb Solti from 1979 or thereabouts.
Predictably...
... if I'm honest, I've just re-installed the free version of WinAmp, taking care to untick practically every option offered during the process. This marks the first salvo in the war of attrition between that and iTunes. WinAmp is certainly quicker on its feet, as it were. But now it's mysteriously become time for sleep. G'nite.