Staring the Day with Pavarotti
Yesterday, I started out my day with Pavarotti and it was quite a way to wake up. So today I decided to run some errands and see if I could get more Pavarotti in my diet. It's not that I know much of anything about opera, or particular operas, or Italian; I only know how Pavarotti's voice has always made me feel, a heady mixture of awe, pleasure, and sadness that is more than enough for me. I'd secretly wanted to see him perform for years but never had the means. It doesn't really feel like he's dead. The CDs I picked up at the Brand music library are so wonderfully clear that it's as though he's still singing, in this very room.
I ended up at three libraries in all today. I stopped by Central quickly to drop some books off. I finished The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker swiftly, since it's not that long and the copy I had was in huge type. I loved the first Hellraiser movie and looked forward to the book upon which it was based. While the novella was all right, it didn't have too much more to it than the movie. A few of the details were changed. A few minor things didn't make it into the film, but nothing that really necessitated reading the book.
I remembered a book that Vince suggested to me at my birthday dinner last night but it wasn't at Central, so I headed into the petite Grandview branch for the first time. There really wasn't much there; it seemed like most of the main room was taken up by computers, rather than shelves. As I browsed along what was present, I was curious as to the way that they chose the books for that library. It's across the street from an elementary school, and I noticed a lot of the classics on the shelves (though what Henry James could have to do with elementary school children, outside of Turn of the Screw, I couldn't say). There was a preponderance of paperbacks and DVDs. The whole place seemed to shy away from books, to downplay them in a subtle way. A glass display case in front of the door promised "Santa is Coming" in a stark fashion that struck me as slightly menacing, or maybe messianic.
Last but not least, I stopped at Brand library to find Pavarotti. I felt vaguely embarrassed to ask for help in locating some disks that focused on his performances, rather than entire operas full of folks I don't care about right now. (Maybe later.) But it's not like that stopped me from asking.
I had intended to go to the grocery store but by the time I got done in the library, it was dark and cold outside. There's been a refreshing nip in the air the last few days and it's been pretty cold for this area, and no, I'm not complaining. We need the cold, and the rain, and the snow where we can get it. But as restless as I was, I headed home to eat and listen, and here I am. For now.
I ended up at three libraries in all today. I stopped by Central quickly to drop some books off. I finished The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker swiftly, since it's not that long and the copy I had was in huge type. I loved the first Hellraiser movie and looked forward to the book upon which it was based. While the novella was all right, it didn't have too much more to it than the movie. A few of the details were changed. A few minor things didn't make it into the film, but nothing that really necessitated reading the book.
I remembered a book that Vince suggested to me at my birthday dinner last night but it wasn't at Central, so I headed into the petite Grandview branch for the first time. There really wasn't much there; it seemed like most of the main room was taken up by computers, rather than shelves. As I browsed along what was present, I was curious as to the way that they chose the books for that library. It's across the street from an elementary school, and I noticed a lot of the classics on the shelves (though what Henry James could have to do with elementary school children, outside of Turn of the Screw, I couldn't say). There was a preponderance of paperbacks and DVDs. The whole place seemed to shy away from books, to downplay them in a subtle way. A glass display case in front of the door promised "Santa is Coming" in a stark fashion that struck me as slightly menacing, or maybe messianic.
Last but not least, I stopped at Brand library to find Pavarotti. I felt vaguely embarrassed to ask for help in locating some disks that focused on his performances, rather than entire operas full of folks I don't care about right now. (Maybe later.) But it's not like that stopped me from asking.
I had intended to go to the grocery store but by the time I got done in the library, it was dark and cold outside. There's been a refreshing nip in the air the last few days and it's been pretty cold for this area, and no, I'm not complaining. We need the cold, and the rain, and the snow where we can get it. But as restless as I was, I headed home to eat and listen, and here I am. For now.