Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

Thanks to the prompting of one of my co-workers, I've managed to score myself a new mug:


It's a nice little number with a dragonfly on the other side and sides happily in the cupboard alongside a rather fine bone china mug from the T3E days, a handful of specimens from NEC, and a lone IBM model complete with their service desk number stencilled on the side.

Today's bargins from Virgin's April sale? The CD Review recommended recording of Frank Martin's Mass for Double Choir and a copy of Kaija Saariaho's Private Gardens.

Just in case anyone's interested, Virgin have a pretty good classical sale on at the moment: they've got a whole bunch of stuff available for a mere 3.99 each. It's a bit of a mixed bag, but I picked up copies of Lindberg's Feria and Knussen's Horn Concerto. I'm impressed I was able to limit myself to two CDs — I spent ten whole minutes battling the temptation to buy the entire rack...

After searching for it for months, I've finally managed to locate a copy of Magnus Lindberg's Clarinet Concerto and I now understand why it was so hard to find: it's utterly amazing. It's definitely one of the best CDs of 2005.

I suspect that it's been tough to track down because it's been flying, insofar as any CD of modern classic music can ever be said to fly, off the shelves while the record stores have only been buying in copies one at a time cuz everyone knows that no-one really likes classic music, let alone all that nasty, difficult, modern stuff, right?

My bundle of books and CDs turned up today, the Blue Dinosaur almost died after a CGI script went all Sorcerer's Apprentice on it's rust iron ass, my breakfast espresso was extra tasty and my SWIG stuff is going well. I am pleased to report that this means that today can be officially recognised as having been A Good Day.

Proof positive that tomorrow is going to suck.