CDs listened to today:

• Various Artists: As Seen On TV
• Sarah Harmer: You Were Here
• Igor Stravinsky: Symphony Of Psalms
  

CDs listened to today:

• Spice Girls: Spice
• Jennifer Higdon: City Scape
• Gunther Schuller: Eine Kleine Posaunenmusik
  

CDs listened to today:

• Oasis: Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants
• Dmitri Shostakovich: Piano Quintet
• Olivier Messiaen: Catalogue d'Oiseaux, Books 1-3 (Peter Hill, piano)
  
• Queens Of The Stone Age: Rated R
• Louis XIV: The Best Little Secrets Are Kept
• Sergei Prokofiev: Sonatas for Piano Nos. 9 & 10
  

CDs listened to today:

• The Hives: Tyrannosaurus Hives
• Claude Debussy: La Boite a Joujoux
• Donald Erb: Ritual Observances
• Material: Memory Serves
• Garbage: Bleed Like Me
• Fall Out Boy: Under The Cork Tree
  
• Charles Ives: Symphony No. 4 (conducted by Seiji Ozawa)
  

I see today that the president has condemned the New York Times and various other news organizations for reporting on the administration's efforts to monitor financial transactions. As I understand this, they are using a loophole in financial privacy laws involving an ancient electronic system called SWIFT. It may be legal.

Legal surveillance? That, of course, would be a change for the administration.

Of course, the administration is using their usual tactic of shifting the argument to an irrelevant topic. In this case, it's about blaming the media for revealing the program rather than a debate about the merits of this practice or a discussion of what appears to be a continuing erosion of our privacy under the Bush presidency. Once again, this discussion has all the substance of a toothpaste commercial and the media eats it up. Why, why, why?

CDs listened to today:

• Luciano Berio: Notturno
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 7
• DJ Shadow: Endtroducing...
• Nine Inch Nails: With Teeth
• Henry Brant: Angels and Devils
• Fall Out Boy: Under the Cork Tree

I'm headed for France this week! I depart Thursday for a two-week bicycle tour in the Pyrenees, followed by a week in Paris. You can view the bike tour itinerary here. I've been frustrated with minor injuries and illness all spring, leaving me concerned that such an imposing schedule is more than I'm ready for. I'm sure the second week will be better than the first as I ride into shape!

CDs listened to today:

• David Maslanka: A Child's Garden of Dreams
• Johann Sebastian Bach: The Art Of The Fugue
• Beck: Sea Change
  

CDs listened to today:

• Dave Holland: The Razor's Edge

CDs listened to today:

• Igor Stravinsky: Le Sacre du Printemps
• Various Artists: Sounds of the Seventies: 1978
• Sarah Harmer: You Were Here
• Wolfgang Rihm: Jagden und Formen
• Sam Phillips: Fan Dance
• David Maslanka: A Child's Garden of Dreams
• Gyorgy Ligeti: Three Pieces for Two Pianos
• Fall Out Boy: Under the Cork Tree
  

CDs listened to today:

• Britney Spears: ...Baby One More Time
• Louis XIV: The Best Little Secrets Are Kept
• Arnold Schoenberg: Verklarte Nacht (Orpheus Chamber Orchestra)
• Various Artists: The Antidote
• Jennifer Higdon: City Scape
• David Maslanka: A Child's Garden of Dreams
  

CDs listened to today:

• Garbage: Bleed Like Me
• Olivier Messiaen: Catalogue d'Oiseaux, disk 3 (Hakan Austbo, piano)
• Pulp: Different Class
• Dmitri Shostakovich: Piano Quintet
• Sergei Prokofiev: Sonata for Piano Nos. 6-8
• David Maslanka: A Child's Garden of Dreams
  

CDs listened to today:

• Donald Erb: Concerto for Violin
• Mary's Danish: American Standard
• Claude Debussy: La Boite a Joujoux
• Charles Ives: Symphony No. 3 (Micheal Tilson-Thomas conducting)
• Oasis: Be Here Now
• David Maslanka: A Child's Garden of Dreams
  

CDs listened to today:

• Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy: Hypocrisy Is the Greatest Luxury
• Luciano Berio: Notturno
• Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 4
• Robyn Hitchcock and The Egyptians: Perspex Island
• Nine Inch Nails: With Teeth
• Dave Holland: The Razor's Edge

CDs listened to today:

• Gyorgy Ligeti: Three Pieces for Two Pianos
• Jan Bach: Laudes
• Beck: Odelay
• Kaiser Chiefs: Employment
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonatas for Violin and Piano, disk 4

CDs listened to today:

• Sarah Harmer: You Were Here
  

CDs listened to today:

• Louis XIV: The Best Little Secrets Are Kept
• Igor Stravinsky: Le Rossignol
• Various Artists: The Sounds of the Seventies: 1977
• Jennifer Higdon: City Scape
• Benedict Mason: String Quartet No. 1
• Dave Holland: The Razor's Edge
• Dizzee Rascal: Boy In Da Corner
  

CDs listened to today:

• Garbage: Bleed Like Me
• Sergei Prokofiev: Sonata for Piano Nos. 1-5
• Soup Dragons: Hotwired
• Dmitri Shostakovich: Piano Quintet
• Arnold Schoenberg: Verklarte Nacht (conducted by Herbert von Karajan)
• Dave Holland: The Razor's Edge
• Various Artists: Amp 2
  

CDs listened to today:

• Charles Ives: Symphony No. 3 (Orpheus Chamber Orchestra)
• Oasis: (What's the Story) Morning Glory
• Claude Debussy: La Boite a Joujoux
• Olivier Messiaen: Catalogue d'Oiseaux, disk 2 (Hakan Austbo, piano)
• Public Enemy: He Got Game
• Dave Holland: The Razor's Edge
  

Today I read with great sadness in the New York Times online that Gyorgy Ligeti died. If you glance at what I've been listening to, or even search under his name in my blog, you'll see that I'm a big admirer of the late Mr. Ligeti. His passing means that I'll make a little extra effort to round out my collection of recordings of his works--especially the Horn Trio mentioned in the obituaries I read (I checked the Los Angeles Times online for a second view).

Like many admirers of Mr. Ligeti, I first heard him on the soundtrack for "2001: A Space Oddysey." As the years have gone by and my interest in the high Modernist movement's composers like Mr. Ligeti, I grew to see him as the most talented and musical amongst his peers (think Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luciano Berio). Where the others had a tendency to be rather doctrinaire, it was clear that Mr. Ligeti felt free to make and break any rule.

A holocaust survivor who later escaped the Stalinists of communist Hungary, Mr. Ligeti expressed a view of rules and orthodoxies that I respond to on a very deep level. Perhaps we all learn different lessons during childhood but for me, I learned that authority and rules are frequently arbitrary and absurd. When I view a biography and life like Mr. Ligeti's, I see that view reflected in its stages and the works he created. I also see a response that I favor, to embrace the absurdity and pick and choose the "rules" created by other composers. That's a kind of real freedom to me.

CDs listened to today:

• Lauryn Hill: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
• Luciano Berio: Notturno
• Antonin Dvorak: Concerto for Cello
• Marvelous3: Hey!Album
• Nine Inch Nails: With Teeth
• Gyorgy Ligeti: Three Pieces for Two Pianos

CDs listened to today:

• H. Owen Reed: La Fiesta Mexicana (Frederick Fennell conducting)
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonatas for Violin and Piano, disk 3
• Dinosaur Jr.: Where You Been
• Kaiser Chiefs: Employment
• Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 3 (conducted by Skrowasczewski)
• Gyorgy Ligeti: Three Pieces for Two Pianos
  

CDs listened to today:

• Bebop Deluxe: Raiding the Divine Archive
  

CDs listened to today:

• Jan Bach: Concert Variations
  

CDs listened to today:

• Louis XIV: The Best Little Secrets Are Kept
• Charles Wuorinen: Genesis
• Ted Leo & The Pharmacists: Shake The Sheets
• Jennifer Higdon: City Scape
• Sarah Harmer: You Were Here
• Gyorgy Ligeti: Three Pieces for Two Pianos
  

CDs listened to today:

• Arnold Schoenberg: Verklarte Nacht (Juilliard Quartet)
• Various Artists: Amp
• Dmitri Shostakovich: Piano Quintet
• Igor Stravinsky: Pulcinella
• Various Artists: Sounds of the Seventies: 1976
• Gyorgy Ligeti: Three Pieces for Two Pianos
  

CDs listened to today:

• Public Enemy: Greatest Misses
• Claude Debussy: La Boite a Joujoux
• John Prescott: Suite for Alto Trombone
• Soundgarden: Superunknown
• Garbage: Bleed Like Me
• Sarah Harmer: You Were Here
  

CDs listened to today:

• Luciano Berio: Notturno
• Charles Ives: Symphony No. 2
• Oasis: Definitely Maybe
• Nine Inch Nails: With Teeth
• Olivier Messiaen: Catalogue d'Oiseaux, disk 1 (Hakan Austbo, piano)
• Sarah Harmer: You Were Here
  

CDs listened to today:

• Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 3 (Adrian Boult conducting)
• Joe Henderson: Big Band
• Kaiser Chiefs: Employment
• Pascal Dusapin: Time Zones (Quartet II)
• Aimee Mann: I'm With Stupid
• Sarah Harmer: You Were Here
  

CDs listened to today:

• Digital Underground: Sex Packets
• H. Owen Reed: La Fiesta Mexicana (conducted by Frederick Fennell)
  

CDs listened to today:

• Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonatas for Violin and Piano, disk 2
  

CDs listened to today:

• Technotronic: Pump Up The Jam
• Jennifer Higdon: City Scape
• Grazyna Bacewicz: Symphony No. 3
• Beats International: Let Them Eat Bingo
• Billie Holiday: The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Volume 8
• Sarah Harmer: You Were Here
  

CDs listened to today:

• Garbage: Bleed Like Me
• Arnold Schoenberg: Suite for Piano
• Various Artists: All Good Vinyl Classic
• Dmitri Shostakovich: Piano Quintet
• Igor Stravinsky: Orpheus
• Various Artists: Sounds of the Seventies: 1975
• Louis XIV: The Best Little Secrets Are Kept
• Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Symphony No. 4