Holiday Miscellany

I'm finally beginning to feel better after spending most of Monday at the doctor's office. The health care system in this country is completely dysfunctional. No where else but in the medical field would a two hour delay in keeping appointments be tolerated by the public. In fact, I think I'll test this theory by arriving several hours late for all of my students' lessons from now on. If anyone complains, I'll just tell them they'll be taught their lessons when I'm good and ready. Fortunately the ENT specialist I saw, unlike my regular physician, isn't stingy when it comes to dispensing the prescriptions.

In an attempt to de-stress, I've been listening to Britten's A Ceremony of Carols. This Hyperion recording from the late '80s features the Choir of the Westminster Cathedral (the formidable red brick one just down from Westminster Abbey). I'm not a choral music enthusiast generally, but this CD somehow finds its way into my Jetta's stereo system each December. The title work sets various medieval and 14th century texts to a harp accompaniment, mostly sung in Middle English, which I find fascinating ("Wolcum alle another yere"). Several of Britten's other vocal works are included as well. Coincidentally, the Gloria of the Missa Brevis opens with a solo by my good friend, the cellist Benedict Rogerson (he was still a soprano back then!).

I just read that the actor Peter Boyle has passed away. I was never a fan of "Everybody Loves Raymond" but who could forget his performance in Young Frankenstein? And wasn't he in the original version of The Producers as well? I recently watched Taxi Driver for the first time. I'm intrigued by films set in New York circa the late '70s, they make the city seem like such a perilous and menacing place. I hardly recognize it.