Water Music

So I was thinking wouldn't it be great if this was one of those real blogs where people could come and read the tragic, first-person accounts the great New Year's floods of aught 5 happening in Northern California right now. You know, the stories the newspapers missed, the stories that only the people who've suffered the blows and lived through the hardships can know. The kind of first-person accounts that have made the whole blogging revolution happen.

God, that would be great but, unfortunately, this isn't one of those blogs. Truth is, I've been watching the floods on TV just like everybody else. Not that we haven't had any rain down here in San Jose, mind you, but other than some slickness on the roadways and some wind blowing through the trees it's been pretty uneventful. Of course you'd never know that from the news reports, but what did you expect? In the news business I think they call it "man bites dog" . You know, people don't want to know what's really happening, they just want the drama. They want to see the handful of people trapped behind the floodwaters or the mudslides and washed-out roads. They want misery and the pain and that sort of thing and don't really care about the other 99.99% of the population that's watching it on TV just like everybody else.

Which is the driving force behind the phenomenon that scientists call the Media Distortion Field, or MDF. If you live long enough you're almost certain to go through an MDF at least once in your life. I've been through quite a few and it's always so frustrating because you're watching all these dramatic events on TV and you keep waiting for your turn to come around, and it never comes. Like this time, I was watching all these floodwaters on TV and waiting for it to start raining here where I'm at, but when I looked outside it just looked the same. Couple of cars going past, and maybe the neighbor taking out his garbage, but not a mudslide, falling tree or torrential downpour in sight.

Oh well, it's probably better that way.

So anyways, as you probably heard they had some floods up north which produced some alarmingly high MDE's (Media Distortion Effects), and I'd just like to say a few things about that. First of all, most of the pictures I've seen on TV have come from a little town up north called Guerneville, which sits on the banks of the Russian River and has got to be the most flooded out town on the entire North American Continent. And they like it that way. In fact, Guernevillians don't really consider it a winter unless they've spent at least a few days cleaning the mud out their kitchens. Don't ask me why. But just the same, the river has flooded many times in the past, it will flood many times in the future, the people who live there seem to like it that way, and none of it is really news.

But it is dramatic.

Of course the Napa River also flooded and, once again, this is nothing new. Unlike Guerneville, though, the residents of Napa (Napians?) aren't nearly so enthusiastic about mud in their kitchens and so they've been busily spending dollars over the years trying to shore up their river defenses. Unfortunately, this year their efforts weren't quite enough. Still, it's happened before and it always creates an enormous MDE and it's certainly a pain in the butt for people who live and work in downtown Napa.

But most people in Northern California don't live in downtown Napa.

Which me brings me to the point of this blog, which is...?

I don't know.

Just be aware of the MDF, I guess, and don't believe everything you read in the paper or see on TV. The great cataclysms they describe are overdrawn and disproportionate to the actual deeds. Of course it's easy to say that when you're on the outside looking in, but then most of us are on the outside and it's a gross overstatement to say that the entire state is underwater.

Not that there isn't some important news to come out of all of this. Breeches in some of the Sacramento River levees certainly point to a potential disaster somewhere down the road. However, this only adds to the long list of problems that need fixing in this state which our government seems totally incapable of fixing. Perhaps when the floodwaters invade the capitol itself and senators and assemblymen find themselves being washed out to sea (a prospect that many voters would not find entirely disagreeable) they will finally quit their squabbling about who's up and who's down and start working on actual state business.

Ah...it's a nice fantasy anyways.

But that's not what I want to blog about. Actually, I was planning on doing one of those "Best of 2005" kind of blogs, but shucks, it's too late now. That's another drawback of living in a MDF - it just seems to dominate everything else. Oh well, I guess I can work in a couple of items off my list. Sure, why not. Without further adieu let me present my (abbreviated) "Best Things of 2005 that no one cares about" list .

Best Opera DVD: Lulu, by Alban Berg. Ok, this actually came out in 1996 but I didn't see it until this year, so I'm putting it on the list. Great DVD, though, with an excellent cast. I didn't think I'd like a Berg opera much, but this one has great singing, great acting, great (albeit 'modern') score, and most of all, great drama. If you're not familiar with the piece it's a story about a seductive young beauty who rises from the gutter, becomes rich, kills her husband, escapes from jail, falls back into poverty and prostitution, and is finally killed by Jack the Ripper. All in all just great entertainment for the entire family. Not recommended as your first opera, but definitely a keeper. Now I've got to go out and buy Wozzeck.

Best CD: Samuel Barber - Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Essays for Orchestra Nos. 2 and 3 (Karina Gauvin, Thomas Trotter, Marin Alsop, RSNO) Ok, this actually came out in 2004, but it was the best CD I bought this year so it's on the list too. When most people think of Barber they think of the Adagio for Strings or the Violin Concerto. Knoxville: Summer of 1915 based on a poem by James Agee needs to be added to that list. I bought it last summer and I don't think a week has gone by when I haven't listened to it at least once. The poem it is based on was written after the Second World War by a wistful James Agee reflecting back on the days of his youth, and America's youth, in the years before the entire world went crazy and any pretenses of American innocence were shattered forever. A pre-nuclear, pre-superpower age. Barber's score is wistful at first, and then begins to stir anxiously and become unsettled, until finally the past seems forever beyond our grasp. The soprano Karina Gauvin sings it with incredible subtelty and grace, and I've got to believe that this is one of the great overlooked masterpieces of American music. There are also a couple of symphonic essays and a toccata on the CD, but Knoxville: Summer of 1915 is the highlight of the disc and certainly worth the $7.00 I paid for it.

And that is my "Best Things of 2005 that no one cares about" list. Who says that blogging is just a big ego-tripping waste of time.