A couple of days with less work. Emma is home for the weekend to attend the 21st birthday party of her ex-boyfriend and to discuss weighty matters with each of us. With Linda this means the situation with respect to the guy she'd like to develop as her new boyfriend. With me, it means discussing an economics project she has to do this term, and getting me to help her with some homework related to yield curves - a subject I excel in! So not so much work for me - instead lots of cooking and driving.
Current music is the odd combination of Boris and Bach. I have acquired a 160 cd box set of Bach and I am planning to listen to one cd a day until May. But I am aware that many of the cantatas are extremely similar to one another and so I might not make it through them all. Similarly, 17 cds of organ works might be too much. It is also the 100th anniversary of the first performance of one of Schoenberg's string quartets and I have been listening to this for the past few days. I can't say I am entirely enjoying this
But Boris remain a key part of each day's music. Current main listening is their "dark-ambient" 2002 cd "Flood" and a live recording from the 2008 tour playing tracks from "Smile". And in a similar vein, I have also re-found some cds of Isis.
And last night, while on the way to get Emma from her party, I listened to a live broadcast of something by Stockhausen on radio 3 - among the most painfully unpleasant musical experiences of recent years
In respect of non-MSc-related books, I am mainly reading Martines' Scourge and Fire: Savonarola and Renaissance Italy. Savonarola was responsible for the "bonfire of the vanities" in Florence, and was executed around 1500. I suppose there is a sense that reading history is not that divorced from my MSc work, but this isn't that close to my subjects. The author is Italian, but writing in English rather than through a translation. This does result in the writing having a rather odd tone, which no doubt reflects the Italian language influence on his English - something I see in Vicenzo and Leonardo at LSE
I am also reading Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love, which definitely can't be taken as having any relation to my MSc. This is a "post-divorce, travel book" and has sold over 5m copies apparently. I have read the first-third - mostly while in the bath - and have quite enjoyed it.
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