Carl Nielsen

I was a bit late getting up this morning  even though I was in bed  and asleep according to my set bedtime although that's probably down to the overnight disturbances.
Recently I picked up this box set following an exploration of Scandinavian music

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Carl Nielsen was born on the Danish island of Funen on June 9th 1865, taking up music playing and attending the Royal Danish Academy of Music and is regarded as the pre-eminent composer of that country and died in 1931. His earlier works were inspired by Grieg and Brahms.

He wrote 6 symphonies all of which tended  to be around the half hour length  were written between 1892 and 1925 and have a number of common characteristics such as the prominence of the role of brass instruments  and unusual changes in tonality that have the effect of heightening the dramatic feel.

That's one reason why I wanted the whole set  and this one recorded around the 1990's bot only features the superb playing of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra  but also  an excellent warm sounding recording.

I've transferred these recordings in Lossless full cd quality for my Fiio X3 digital music player

Getting set for Advent

Well, it's not so far off but I've made preparations this year for the start of the great countdown otherwise known as Advent which from childhood always was a magical thing aided by having a calendar.

Way back then, they were card based  with you pulling back a flap to uncover various things and at least in our house, nominally religious in character.

 This is a very nomable which is currently atop of a short floor standing bookcase facing the front room window cos I don't care anymore. 

A little feminine sissy gurl lives in this house and does stuff like this apart from colouring his Frozen colouring in most days!

Just open a door each day, eat some chocolate and see the days before Christmas go before your very eyes.

Before I forget also happy thanksgiving folks!

Personal growth

It's kind funny how it is change and permanency crop in in differing forms when it is we think about aspects of our lives such as what may matter the most or the direction a hobby or interest may take.

Some people may put a great store on things being the same then, now and even in the future living around patterns from the past and equally we can all think of people who never really seem settled, forever swapping and changing things at whim, sometimes to the consternation of those closest to them.

Sometimes you may feel things changing but hear the siren calls of those who just loved you and what you do begging you not to change, that you and what you do is all that you are and to embark on journey be it personal or in developing your skills would lose you your own qualities while others still may wish to take you down routes you might not feel sure over.

To grow and to adapt either as a person or in your interests to me seems on the face of it a healthy thing as that would imply you are learning and exploring more of what interests and fascinates you.

I know and sometimes it feels at certain sites as if I'm forever on about, I am changing, learning  to do and live with greater expectations of doing things to those I'm been familiar with far a long time which hasn't been easy.

It would of been easy to given the matters that came to a head last year to had done nothing, in effect deciding to have stayed in rut which may have been a dead for end for me but a comfortable one but instead pursued on that was and has been painful at times but has ultimately been more benefit to me. Sometimes it's the courage to change that we need.

Halloween edition

For most people Halloween has been and and gone although I'll be off at the weekend so I don't think they'll be an entry here on Friday as I'm gonna be rather busy getting sorted ready for an early morning start.

There weren't so  many little people at the door on Saturday dressed up looking for candy although the weather was more reasonable than last years so I have some spare candy and I believe at least another one of us had the same experience. Around here I know the families of them well.

That kind of leads us into a kind of a theme because of one of things about about that weekend is about re-acquainted  with people you love having fun, the weekend despite some problems with pulled a  leg muscle and badly jarring my neck yesterday also was about that but in a different way as I encountered a few people I hadn't seen for a while.

As well, I've almost finished work on one of the seven micro sd cards for my music player - imagine something the size of a small stamp containing a couple hundred and bit albums - arranged by theme and to which I do have a kinda master list of what's on each.

That work has involved , avoiding getting very technical putting a few shelves worth of cds on to them and at the same time adding any albums I bought as downloads and it was downloads I bought around five and six years ago stored on memory stick I as adding yesterday as strangely enough the store I bought them from had withdrawn them from being either sold or even redownloaded from your folder of purchases.

So I was adding my Gorillaz albums, the Everything and Nothing compilation by David Sylvian of Japan fame (after getting the two cd side to play as two separate sides), Take That's Greatest Hits (no longer available new as they wanted a compilation with recent songs on it too) and Paul Young's From Time To Time.

These were albums I played a lot at the time and two were original bought as MiniDiscs which I loved in the 90's but that technology is now obsolete and in the case of the Paul Young title  that also was a very early pre-recorded mini disc that sounds very raspy too like a wasp chewing your ear!

The download (Mp3 encoded in Lame 3.97 version at 320 kilo bits per second) is much better sounding too!

Unexpectedly a friend at the Halloween event I went to gave me a new thicker pinafore dress which was very kind of them.

Having done all of that I was getting re-acquainted with them playing from my Fiio high quality player before going off to bed on time which is something I've learned to readjust to this year.