Monday, December 14, 2015

And Something to Listen To

Here is a sampling of a very pleasant CD entitled Cello Suite Number 2 in D Minor and Other Selections, "Other Selections" being bits from other of Bach's cello suites. Including The One, to my great satisfaction. The twist--they aren't played on cello here, but on mandola, the mandolin's more robust brother. Such picked instruments have a natural inclination to sound a bit abrupt in contrast to bowed instruments so I was quite impressed with the resonant quality of the playing here that is so well suited to the subject matter.

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Something to Look At

Those pictures of a brilliant night sky set in contrast to a landscape get me every time. But this was the first one I'd seen that featured a peculiarly Tehachapian twist to the landscape. I've heard the grass in the foreground called "wild rye." I don't know how accurate that is, but where it has taken over, it grows with a quite pleasing generosity, and rolls like surf when the wind blows across it. The oak, for them as takes note of such things, is probably Quercus lobata.