For the first time, asking Alexa to “Play
Classical Music!” I have been provided with something other than blatantly recognizable
Bach. Though I have to admit that what I
am listening to, although being played on a modern piano, would benefit by
being plucked on a harpsichord. The more
I listen to it, the more it sounds like a modern pastiche of the style of
something much older. The great thing,
of course, is that I will not find out what the actual piece of music is and so
I am safe in what I have written.
As an experiment, I have just asked Alexa
what piece of music had just been played.
She answered in a single gnomic word that I didn’t understand, so I asked,
“Alexa explain more.” And I got a neat
little explanation of the grammatical uses of the word and a little historical
note about Sir Thomas Moore. Perhaps I
should just allow ignorance to lie low!
As the Alexa terminal is hidden behind the
computer I usually forget that she is lurking there, unless someone demands
something from one of the other terminals scattered around the house and my
Alexa jumps to vocalization. And
incidentally, while I have been typing this we have gone from Carmine Burana to
Beethoven - it puts me in mind of the worst excesses of Classic FM!
I once listened to whole a day’s worth of
Classic FM when I was in a friend’s caravan in Devon where I had sequestered
myself because I had to get a piece of written work finished and I needed to be
far away from domestic distractions.
The great thing about Classic FM is that it
makes all the music it plays sound like sonic wallpaper. No matter how great the actual music is, the
smooth and slightly condescending delivery of the announcers and the sometimes-shocking
juxtapositioning of the individual snatches of music means that it all flows
together in an unbroken stream of comforting soundliness!
If that sounds dismissive, it isn’t meant
to be, as I got the work done and the music obviously did what I wanted it to!
I must admit that I do not listen to as
much music as I once did. Yes, I play
(religiously) through the box sets of CDs that I (still) buy for use in the
car. Though my purchases are obviously
atavistic: our local computer and electrical store no longer holds CD
book-holders, which just emphasises how out of touch I am in still continuing to
buy CDs rather than give in and subscribe to Spotify!
I only listen to Radio 3 once in a blue
moon, I even forgot to listen to the first night of the Proms and that had a
performance of The Glagolitic Mass, I first heard that on an old Supraphon
recording that I had in college. And no,
that is not going to be an opportunity taken to vaunt the superiority of the
audio on disc rather than the rather more cramped CD.
I find that I am reading more than I am
listening to music. And the reading I am
doing is mostly connected to current events, especially in the UK, and
specifically political events. You see
how far I am prepared to go before I have to mention the dreaded “B” word.
And I have made an executive decision that
I will never refer to the congenital liar who appears to be making his
inexorable way to Number 10 Downing Street by his first name (which is of
course Alex, and not the one that he has chosen to be referred to as) as I feel
not an iota of familiarity or fellow feeling for the odious person that he
obviously is.
Next week, I will start the process of
applying for Spanish citizenship, as I have no desire to be associated with a
country that can allow a character, described by the Guardian’s John Crace as “Priapic
Mr Blobby”, to be its Prime Minister.
Though, there again, will The Country
actually allow this lying chancer to take the post? The Conservatives have a working majority of
3, with the August by-election in Brecon that might well be down to 2 - so all
it would take is one principled Conservative (sic!) to change sides for the
majority to be wiped out, to say nothing of the machinations of the
Neanderthals in the DUP whose bought loyalty to the Conservatives is
problematic.
So, can May (you remember, she used to be
that vicious Home Secretary and useless Prime Minister) in all conscience (I
used the word lightly in terms of the ethics of the present day Conservatives) recommend
the kipper-waving liar to Brenda, the unelected (so they will have something in
common) nonagenarian Germanic dwarf?
I can hardly wait for the next exciting
episode of the tediously unimaginative soap opera that political life has
become nowadays.
Meanwhile I continue with my writing and
preparing books for publication, which in the circumstances has more in common
with Madame Defarge’s knitting than any cultural activity!
Though, alas, without the end result of
execution!
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