Frustrating. Chrome has decided to upgrade its bookmarking system making it more visual and less  hierarchical.

I wanted to bookmark a blog I found this morning and put it under my sub folder of blogs in my music folder.

ArtsJournal: Daily arts news | Terry Teachout on the arts in New York Cit

I was unable to do so. Nice. I know that I am an eccentric user of tech, but I still find it defeating when changes are made that I can’t easily use.

I think part of the problem is that I have folders inside of folders.

Oh well. I’ll figure it out when I have more patience. Or more likely completely change the way I bookmark stuff to suit the overlords at Google.

Thursdays seem to be the day for me to discover just how I exhausted I am even with a bit lighter schedule.  I finished rehearsing with my cellist (my violinist canceled) and found that I was weak with exhaustion. I went home.

I ended up in bed watching and listening to YouTube videos. I do like Alabama  Shakes.

I began reading a bit in Terry Teachout’s bio of Duke Ellington this morning.

The introduction describes Ellington’s Carnegie Hall appearance for which he had decided to write a new lengthy work (Black, Tan and Beige).

I tend to think of Ellington as a great composer. But reading and thinking about him this morning I realized that i do so on my own terms. Ellington got mixed reviews for the premiere of his length work including reviews by academic composers which were very critical of his work.

In 2015, the classical musicians reviewing Ellington seem to be unaware of their own irrelevance. Popular music drowns out historical music in our time. But still the music in our ears somehow helps us be more human.

As I lay in bed yesterday listening to bands on YouTube I realized that I am drawn much more to music like Alabama Shakes than most music I listen to, study and perform that is being written today under the guise of “classical music.”

This includes silly songs like FourFIveSeconds:

Maybe it’s that all the training and the skill one can obtain won’t beat your own aesthetic out of you. Composers are encouraged to “find their voice,” performers to make the music their own and play with conviction.

Maybe my voice and conviction is that of a naive 17 year old listening to Zappa, Miles Davis and the Beatles in his bedroom in 1968.

In the meantime there’s always the Alabama Shakes.