Music, Basketball, and Veggies

62 this morning, clear and beautiful after a stormy, cloudy Sunday. I picked this beauty before the storms, afraid it would get ruined by the heavy rains.

Do you listen to classical music? I have liked it since childhood, when my sisters and I would play albums on my parents' big Admiral record player. The records and the player most likely came from my father's parents, who broke up housekeeping when Grandpa retired from the Coast Guard, and moved to New Orleans to live with their youngest son, who at the time was single. Many things in our house were the result of that move, actually, something I did not realize until many years later. 

But the music! Big thick 78rpm records, scratchy but still playable, 33rpm discs of musicals, even 45's, all stuffed into the record cabinet beneath the record player. I think we played them all, often dancing around the dining room, playing records at full volume. Where was our mother, I wonder? Probably up in her room, door closed, reading or napping and most probably pregnant, as she was in that condition quite often in those days. 

Of all the music, though, I secretly liked the classical albums the best. Not that I knew that was what the music was, back then. I loved the swelling of the violins, the smooth, almost dreamy flow of the music. Later in high school I took a brief 6 week course in music appreciation, and enjoyed delving into Porgy and Bess, and Smetana's The Moldau, both still favorites to this day. In college i again took music appreciation and explored even more deeply into the various genres, but always coming back to classical.

Today I listen to Performance Today on public radio, always enjoying but seldom solving the weekly Piano Puzzler. Because enjoying the music as a passive listener and being a student of it are quite different, aren't they. Here in West Virginia we are fortunate to have Matt Jackford, a composer, as host of a two-hour program of classical music. His commentary is always enjoyable, and often I learn something new.

One thing I have learned is that I don't like most modern compositions. It seems to me that they are often dissonant and jarring. I have wondered if the music reflects the composers' environments? The sounds often seem to echo the noise of the urban environment, a regular cacophony of sounds with little relation to each other. Older compositions are often trying to emulate the sounds of nature--running water, birds,  the wind--or to put into music a pastoral scene--meadows, mountains,  etc. Sometimes a composer tried to capture the drama of a storm, or other natural phenomenon.  But current composers seem, to my ears anyway, to be putting the sound of traffic, sirens, and machinery in their work. Or, the work has the feel of the tension and stress of our moden world. Is it just me that feels this way?

And speaking of public radio, this weekend there was a news story about, of all things, a granny basketball league. These are women over 50, playing basketball. What an idea! And yet, as I listened, I was taken aback by the tone of the report. It seemed to me to be mildly condescending, like latting the women on the head for what they were doing. The one lady player's comment that she was over 55 and old now so why not wear the goofy uniform just jarred my nerves. Really??? 55 is old? So they have to wear uniforms that cover almost their entire body because no one wants to look at older women's bodies? Maybe I am over-sensitive, but at 55 many of us are still going strong. The theme "off our rockers " is funny but how many retired women do you know who just sit in their rockers? Ah well. Rant over. I admire the teams and wish them well, but I also wish that report wasn't quite so cute.

This has turned into a long post! 

As I was painting a china cabinet today, Larry came in with another bucket of squash. I only put out 3 yellow and 2 zucchini plants but they are sure producing. If you wonder what we do with all these vegetables we produce, today's dinner is an example. In the salad were tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes and lettuce. In the chicken Alfredo  I had sliced zucchini very thin and added it to the noodles as they cooked.  The soup, a Portuguese recipe for purslane soup, contained potatoes, onions, carrots, and the purslane. So 10 veggies in all, or 11 if you count the yellow squash in the lemon squash bread we had for dessert, and all from our gardens. Of course we don't eat all of these every day, but often enough. 

I just learned about a way to make faux pineapple from zucchini, so as soon as I go to town I will be buying some pineapple juice to give this a try. One more weapon in the arsenal to conquer the seemingly endless supply of zucchini!

Now, instead of heading to my rocker, this granny better get back to work on that china cabinet.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.