NP: Aphex Twin

I've been on an Aphex Twin kick lately. Amusing fact: Gandalf the cat (I'm babysitting her for a friend in case any of you are out of the ellipse) seems highly vulnerable to this particular album (Selected Ambient Works Vol. II Disc One). Whenever I play it, she always sees fit to curl up under my drums and take a nap.

I discovered today how difficult it is to locate any critics bold enough to take shots at Rodgers and Hammerstein, the writers behind such classics as The Sound of Music, Oklahoma, and The King and I. Everything I found online worshipped them as trailblazers of a new era in the American musical. I had to dig through the CSU library's basement to find a few books in which critics actually dismantled the "musical soap operas" these two men produced in the latter halves of their careers.

I've been so eagerly anticipating the semester's end that I almost always fail to remember my 20th birthday is the Saturday after my last class. As cliche as it is to wonder about aging, I can't help but ask Ronnie Martin's question: is there life after the end of youth? Not to say my youth will end with my teenage years, but it's something to think about. As if I didn't have enough already.