tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4051826042602269061.post3612068385059143391..comments2024-03-25T09:01:20.997-07:00Comments on Diary of an Autodidact: The Graveyard Book by Neil GaimanDiary of an Autodidacthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11849157548643091986noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4051826042602269061.post-90793912538824111502016-02-12T10:59:53.594-08:002016-02-12T10:59:53.594-08:00We are playing Ives' Symphony #2 this April. S...We are playing Ives' Symphony #2 this April. Should be fun! I also had the opportunity a decade and a half ago (darn, I'm old) to play Ives' Fourth of July. I love the bit at the end where he imitates a firework shell going up, exploding, and the glowing fragments drift down. (The violins get little bits that just wander aimlessly and finally end randomly...) <br /><br />Never read any Lemony Snicket. My wife has, and wasn't impressed with the writing. I don't think my kids have read him either. Diary of an Autodidacthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11849157548643091986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4051826042602269061.post-40479041188891175522016-02-12T09:33:57.272-08:002016-02-12T09:33:57.272-08:00You make one more on the tiny list of, like, two t...You make one more on the tiny list of, like, two to three people I've ever met in my life who fulfill the criteria of both 1) knowing who Charles Ives is and 2) appreciating his music in any way at all. :-)<br /><br />My former organ teacher has played an arrangement of Danse Macabre every year at his Halloween concert, ever since his instrument got what's called an organ harp installed. It's the first kind listed in this article (the "percussion" kind), basically a marimba/celesta playable from the console. IIRC his is one of only two organ harps in CT. Also works great when he plays Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.<br /><br />http://www.organstops.org/h/Harp.html<br /><br />Have you ever read A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket (real name Daniel Handler)? It's dark and macabre too, though in a different way than this book, and deals a lot with the kid main characters waking up to the existence of moral ambiguity. Also has a lot of puns and wordplay due to the fact that one of the protagonists is a baby who needs all her speech translated.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com