like winnie i've been listening to wagner, or trying to rather. as i've said before, i find quite a lot of opera to be rather boring. the first act of die walkure, though, is more boring than most. the entire first act consists of only three characters and there is little to no action, although there arias where they sing -about- things happening, like a battle. this is more or less my first major foray into wagner, and i've never really been a great fan of german opera in general (although strauss is on my list of things to listen to. i've heard arabella and der rosenkavalier, but i need to listen to them again.) in this act, anyway, wagner's music tends to be either very conversational and unmemorable or really overdone and wet. i mean, how many times do we have to hear the siegmund lietmotif in scene three which is 25 minutes long? so far there are only a few arias i more or less liked in act one, all of which siegmund sing, but the act definitely gained momentum as it went along. and is it just me or is the fact the major love duet is incestuous a major turnoff? hopefully winnie's having better luck with das rheingold. well, i think i'll take a break from wagner for now and maybe pick up this ariadne auf naxos cd i've had for a while. or maybe go back to some rossini. i started watching that barber of seville DVD winnie. it's pretty cool and pretty catchy. i'm looking forward to watching the rest of it. in other music news i've sustained my pj harvey kick, and now i have all her cds and a bootleg video which i paid too much for on ebay. i like her music a lot, but it's not really something you can listen to over and over again b/c there's not quite enough depth. but she's still cool. been using andy's indian cookbook (by madhur jaffrey) over the past year or so. i've made cauliflower, potato, and okra dishes with moderate success. i think i'm going to tackle something harder like a malai kofta-esque dish next. heh heh heh. p.s. andy and i are leaving for PUERTO RICO tomorrow until sunday. the plane's at 7 AM!!!!!!