Wow and also wow

Monday:
Johannes Moser, West German Radio Symphony Orchestra, Britten: Symphony for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 68
Polish Radio Symphony, 20th Century Classics: Penderecki (I came for The Dream of Jacob and Emanations for Two String Orchestras but stayed for Partia for Harpsichord and Chamber Orchestra)
Mount Eerie, Clear Moon ( via NPR Music)
Xiu Xiu, Always

Tuesday:
Chappo, Moonwater
Harlem Shakes, Technicolor Health
The Dø, A Mouthful


Seriously, if you are at all inclined toward the ecstatic and exploratory, Penderecki's Partia for Harpsichord and Chamber Orchestra is worth a listen. like noise rock scored for The Grand European Tradition, played with the determination of army ants trying to dismantle a helicopter and drag it down to their lair. Or something. Wow.



Also wow:

Incredible the animal that first dreamed of another animal. Monstrous the first vertebrate that succeeded in standing on two feet and thus spread terror among the beasts still normally and happily crawling close to the ground through the slime of creation. Astounding the first telephone call, the first boiling water, the first song, the first loincloth.

The opening passage of Terra Nostra by Carlos Fuentes, who passed away today. My buddy Terry passed away two years and two days ago and I don't say this to get all up in a death, but he's been on my mind. When I was all astir about Roberto Bolaño like everybody was, Terry read The Savage Detectives and went, "Eh. But have you read Terra Nostra? Now that's a great Mexican novel." and he was right.

And then when I heard that the Kodak plant in downtown Rochester was discovered to have had a nuclear reactor in its basement, I wanted nothing more than the old coot to be perched up at the coffee shop so I could tell him about it, if only so he'd tell me about something better. I'd play super obtuse music like the Penderecki thing above for Terry on my phone as we sat outside and swatted mosquitos and talked about Mexican novels and weapons-grade uranium and so on. Anyway, wow some more, and to the living business of busy living in our world.