Back from E3 and Brian's wedding in SoCal... it's just been good to decompress and get my life back, after having it been absent for the last two weeks or so.
I decided to drive down to SoCal in lieu of flying, simply because I wanted to visit various friends, and having a car (my company wouldn't spring for a rental car, since I wasn't "officially working" at E3, just attending it, so renting for 5 days during a major convention would have been expensive) was just infinitely more convenient that way. Of course, you deal with the infuriatingly perpetual LA traffic jams, but the advantages outweigh it for me.
There are some things I do love about driving in SoCal though, and by far, the best is listening to their classical music station, KUSC. While I love the Bay Area in many respects, and am not immune to letting my SoCal friends know that, I have to admit, our own offering, KDFC pales in comparison.
KUSC seem to play a much more eclectic and known repretoire of works than KDFC does. While the latter seems to be heavy on relatively unknown composers from the Baroque eras, KUSC seems to distribute their playing equally amongst five centuries of music. KDFC plays mostly chamber music, but KUSC plays everything from opera to solo works.
Most of this is most likely stemming from the fact that KDFC is a commercial station, and is dictated by the business necessity of frequent commercial breaks. While pop music comes in nice bite-sized chunks for this, classical works run the gamut from one minute inventions to multi-hour long operas. Playing Beethoven's 9th Symphony from start to end thrills the listeners, but just doesn't cut it for the advertisers.
Of course, KUSC "makes up" for it by having several hour pledge drives where, although the music is playing, announcers will butt in between movements or even during quiet passages WHILE the work is playing, asking for your donations. But still, give me insipiring romantic or 20th century works on a consistent basis, rather than some 17th century incidental music (which by its nature, was designed to just be background music while the nobility were schmoozing and partying... a baroque Muzak, if you will).
Which is not to say KDFC isn't bad -- it's definitely soothing while you're driving, and in fact, this is how they advertise themselves. But for real cultural enrichment and learning, KUSC comes out on top here, with their well-learned, yet witty announcers and their intruiguing commentary on composers, works, and performers.
So, in any case, I'm really looking for a source for some good classical music to listen to while I'm driving at home. Finding classical works on P2P is hit or miss -- I guess music pirates don't really like that stuff. iTunes has an OK selection, but like most B&M stores, classical is still an afterthought for them. I wonder if satellite radio services like XM or Sirius are any better...
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