Sunday, April 29, 2007

Slow day Sunday

The day has started well: up before sunrise at six a.m., breakfasted, read a few chapters of Terry Pratchett's "Thud" (in German, with apologies to the Lioness), now listening to Beethoven's Violin Concerto while blogging. This is a 1993 recording of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, soloist Gidon Kremer. I don't like it very much: Kremer changed the Cadenzas in the first and third movements (and credits himself as co-composer for it, such conceit).

The morning chorus of birdsong was nearly deafening, very rich and complex with many different species taking part. I would have loved to record it for posting on Senduit, but have no iPod for the next few days. Apple offers an exchange program when the battery wears down*, as mine has done after over two years of near-daily use: you give them your old iPod and 70 Euros, and they give you a reconditioned iPod (the same model! it's not an upgrade) with a brand-new battery. The downside is that the "new" iPod has a new hard disk: all your music, podcasts, contacts etc. are lost. This is an annoyance but it need not be a problem: you can re-load the new iPod from iTunes (unless you've deleted the music files from your computer, in which case you need a utility like Senuti to copy music from the original iPod to iTunes before you give it to Apple).

And now, for a walk down to the river. The weather continues fine: blue skies in abundance, bright sunshine, temperatures in the mid-twenties. It's been a very long time, possibly two months, since it last rained here; the ground is baking hard and dry.


* It is possible to replace the battery by oneself, there are kits available on the Internets. I read the instructions and a few user-experience pieces, and decided that learning to replace iPod batteries is a poor use of my limited time.

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9 Comments:

Blogger SavtaDotty said...

What a coincidence! Last Monday night I heard Gidon Kremer in concert at Carnegie Hall, with his chamber orchestra "Kremerata somethingorother." You are right: modesty is not his strong suit, but his violin arrangement of Piazzola's "The Seasons" was most enjoyable.

April 29, 2007 at 10:15:00 a.m. GMT+2  
Blogger Zhoen said...

Hope you enjoy Thud as much as I did.

April 29, 2007 at 2:19:00 p.m. GMT+2  
Blogger mark drago said...

there's a bird in my neighborhood that sings the same song in the evening as in the morning, which I thought very curious.

April 30, 2007 at 2:45:00 p.m. GMT+2  
Blogger Pacian said...

A Sunday so slow, it was still happening on Wednesday...

May 2, 2007 at 3:07:00 p.m. GMT+2  
Blogger Udge said...

Savtadotty: Kremer is very good as long as he keeps his mouth shut. He came to my notice through Arvo Pärt, his Kremerata plays on several Pärt recordings.

Zhoen: yes indeed, a marvellously dark story well told.

Mark: perhaps it's confused by global warming? :-)

Pacian: :-P

May 2, 2007 at 7:49:00 p.m. GMT+2  
Blogger Lioness said...

You fiend! That was the last time I sent you 20 books per email.

*SULKS*

May 3, 2007 at 10:14:00 p.m. GMT+2  
Blogger Udge said...

Be fair: Thud was not among them.

May 3, 2007 at 11:35:00 p.m. GMT+2  
Blogger Lioness said...

Oh.

[So why apologise?]

May 5, 2007 at 11:21:00 a.m. GMT+2  
Blogger Lioness said...

Oh right. In German. In German. How could you!!!

Funny thing is, I first read Douglas Adams in German. I was talking to this German bloke and asked him something and he said "42". When I looked blank he explained abt 42 being THE answer and then I had to read the book. I just opened it wherever and the hero was being subjected to Vogon poetry. Even in German I could see this was going to be a relationship

Eh - you know what is even sillier than reading Thud in German? (Maybe I should just email you? Oh I'll just go on here, berate me at length for it you-know-when. ) I fell in love w the Neverending Story in Portuguese, and during my exchange year I dove for it as soon as I could master enough German. the book I got from the library was the one whose cover emulates an old book, in brown, and then i wanted to buy it but couldn't find that very edition (I was formatted by Michal Ende at an early age w the Jim Knopff books and when I bought them here they had to be the exact same edition, of course. Same goes for Paddington, Peggy Fortnum only! FInally found them on Ebay.)(Hate me now??) ANYWAY, I finally found it in the summer of 94 when I went back to Germany for yet another holiday but didn't buy it bcs I only had enough money left for one book - so what did I buy instead? A book abt Nefertiti which I never even read.I was going through a bit of an Egyptian phase but still - demented.

My point is - for there is one - who am I really to admonish you for ruining Thud by reading it not in English. Ruin away! (Off to ebay now to hunt down Michael Ende! Tnx for lending me your blog!)

May 6, 2007 at 11:29:00 p.m. GMT+2  

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