trash day!

Mondays are Miss Kate's favorite - because it's Trash Day! For a dog - there is no better smell-buffet than the morning when everyone puts their trash and recycling out. It turns our usual 20 minute walk into a methodical 35-40 minute affair. She sniffs in a search pattern around each household's stuff - and I search ahead of her to make sure there is nothing a) truly gross she might try and roll in - because nothing says "I'm beautiful!" to a dog than smelling like garbage or b) something edible that she shouldn't be eating. But I'm also mindful that for her - this is like the smorgasbord of smells and shouldn't be rushed.

Occasionally - there are big scores - like a couple of weeks ago someone "missed" the garbage can with a litter box and there was cat poop layed out like a station at Golden Skillet. (blech!) I literally had to pick Miss Kate up and walk past it and she was craning her neck looking back like "how could you do that to me? I mean - LOOK AT IT - it's so delicious!" (doubleblech!) What's best is several weeks later - well after that mess has been cleaned up? she still stops and sniffs, hoping that a single morsel of thekindofawfulthingsdogsliketoeat is still there.

But it is usually like this morning - the "big score" will (unfortunately for Miss Kate) be tucked away inside the trash can - so she can smell it - but can't get it. so she'll stop and sniff intensely at the side of a trash can - and you can almost see her eyes roll back in her head. then we head on to the next household.

She's curled up next to my feet as we write this - almost wearing a satisfied "yeah it's trash day and I OWNED it" smile on her face. :)

short sleeve weather!

I have no meetings requiring ties today! YAY!

It's a gorgeous fall day out - so I decided to rock a short sleeve pattern shirt with tan slacks.

Werther by Massenet

So - this week's opera offering is 'Werther' by Jules Massenet.

Werther is an exercise in dark emotions. It does not try to be even REMOTELY happy.

Poet (Werther) loves girl - girl chooses to marry money and not the man who loves her; only to realize once she is married to money - that she is indeed in love with the Poet. but she sits on the information until Poet shoots himself - and only as he is dying does she profess her love for him.

What makes me want to sit through 2:30 of all this powerful, dark depression? The tenor in SFO's production is the amazing Ramon Vargas.

The tenor's interpretation of the title role has earned Vargas worldwide acclaim. According to Vargas, the Zeitgeist of Werther's times valued intense feeling and emotion (Romanticism) more than balance and rationality. Romanticism was an extreme (and perhaps excessive) reaction to the culture of the preceding century.

"While I can understand Werther's suffering, I cannot personally condone his suicide solution to unrequited love," Vargas said. "I am too well aware of the great fight and hardship some people must face in order to just stay alive."

As a result of a birth injury, Vargas' eldest son, Eduardo, was quadriplegic. Listening to his father sing was one of the child's greatest pleasures before his premature death.

He brings a lot of personal power to the role - and is the rising star of operatic tenors.

Here is a Youtube clip of him singing
Pourquoi me Reveiller from Act III.

repertoire

My piano teacher asked for a repertoire list of songs I would like to try and learn - with a particular eye towards the holidays:

1. THE HEART OF THE MATTER (Don Henley, Indie Arie)
2. CORNER OF THE SKY (from "Pippin")
3. I JUST CAN'T STOP LOVING YOU (Michael Jackson)
4. MY GROWN UP CHRISTMAS LIST (Buble Jazz Arrangement)
5. JESU O MANS DESIRING (BACH)
6. THE CHRISTMAS SONG (jazz, instrumental Mancini arrangement)
7. SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME (Jazz)