In Rotation: June 2007

Here's background on In Rotation if you need it.

After a lengthy absence caused entirely by laziness, In Rotation is back. I'm just going to start with last month, but because of my High Fidelity-like obsessive-compulsive disorder (kindred spirits, you know who you are) I'll still backpost the missing months as time allows. To get things rolling, here are Oct 06, Nov 06, and Dec 06.

As for June, this was the month when I listened to Company and realized, hey, I'm the same age as Bobby! Now, I first heard this show when I was, like, 19 and I remember thinking, these people are old. And sad. And bitter! It must be a terrible thing to be so old, I thought. And yet, look who's here... A matinee, a Pinter play, perhaps a piece of Mahler's? All of a sudden I felt like I had turned into Elaine Stritch, and promptly went home and made myself a Vodka Stinger.

To make things worse, a few days later I stood for Rosenkavalier (with Yankeediva DiDonato), staying downstairs for Acts I & II, and moving up to the balcony to hear the trio. Die Zeit, she ist indeed a sonderbar Ding because I was just standing there, leaning on the rail, enjoying the trio just fine... until the Marschallin turned to leave the room. All at once I realized, I'm also the same age as the Marschallin! And here she was, knowingly abandoning her (our!) youth in front of my eyes, physically leaving youth behind as something that no longer belongs to her, heading home to a house full of mirrors and clocks, which all remind her how she's getting on. Well, It made me sad. (And, truth be told, a little misty.) Time for another Vodka Stinger, I suppose. And one for Mahler.

Wächter, Sutherland, Schwarzkopf Don Giovanni [Highlights]	Deerhoof: Friend Opportunity	Hilliard Ensemble: J.S. Bach Motetten	Laura Veirs: Year of Meteors	Sérgio & Odair Assad Play Piazzolla

Thomas Quasthoff: Watch What Happens - The Jazz Album	Company (2006 Broadway Revival Cast)	The Books: The Lemon of Pink	Robbie Williams: The Ego Has Landed	The Best of the Staple Singers

Schwarzkopf, Stich-Randall, Ludwig/ HvK: Rosenkavalier	Reining, Novotna, Güden/ Szell: Rosenkavalier	Montague, Aler, Allen/ Gardiner: Iphigénie en Tauride	Imogen Heap: Speak for Yourself	Mavis Staples: We'll Never Turn Back

Bernadette Peters: Sondheim, Etc. - Live at Carnegie Hall	the bird & the bee	Tom Waits: Rain Dogs	Mariza: Concerto em Lisboa	Redhooker: The Future According to Yesterday

Daniel Binelli: Borges & Piazzolla - Tangos & Milongas

Comments

[Sr. R-]

Here's this nerd's analysis: the life-expectancy for a newborn male in 1890 was about 40 years, about 44 years for a female. In 1950, it was 66 years. In 1970, it was 67 years. (These are assuming survival to age 5, which is a lot more common today than it was in 1890.)

So, back-of-the-envelope, at 35-ish years old today (born ~1970), you're about the same age as Bobby (~1950), but a whole lot younger than the Marschallin (~1875).