intertext

One of the questions I asked my new LJ friend lidocafe in the interview meme was who would compose the soundtrack of her life. She couldn't come up with any one composer; instead, she rather brilliantly listed a whole complilation CD. That, of course, got me thinking about my own list, and here it is:

Peter, Paul and Mary: "Leaving on a Jet Plane"
Joni Mitchell: "Both Sides Now" and "Case of You"
Simon & Garfunkel: "Scarborough Fair" and "America"
Carly Simon: "Anticipation"
Bach Violin and Oboe Concerto in A minor, slow movement
Bruce Springsteen: "The River" and "Dancing in the Dark" (and almost everything else)
Mark Knopfler: "Theme to Local Hero"
Dire Straits: "Brothers in Arms" (the single)
John Wesley Harding: "I'm Wrong About Everything"
Otis Redding: "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay"
Van Morrison: "Into the Mystic"
Prokofief: "The Montagues and the Capulets" from Romeo and Juliet
Albinoni's Adagio
Schostakovich: 2nd piano concerto, slow movement
Brahms 2nd piano concerto
Stan Rogers: "Northwest Passage"
Arlo Guthrie: "City of New Orleans"
Ricky Lee Jones: "Chuck E's in Love"
Waylon Jennings: "Amanda" (don't ask - I was in love with a country & western fan)
Ralph Vaughn Williams: "Rhapsody on a Theme by Thomas Tallis"

And probably the Star Wars theme.

This time last year, determinedly cheerful but stretched filament thin caring for my mother who was dying of the illness that took her life in January this year, I made a list of things I was grateful for that included good gin and swiffer dusters. I think I can do better than that this year, though I am in a curiously suspended state between grief, a quite unforced cheeriness, and a practical "lets get on with things" normality.

( Read more... )