Normally, my office has the ‘easy-listening’ rock station piped in. It’s OK, nice and mindless, and keeps my office from getting too quiet while I toil away at computer code.
So, yesterday they decide to play some kind of symphonic christmas music instead. Complete orchestral arrangements of songs like ‘jingle bells’ or ‘white christmas’. Most of them are executed in a slow, ponderous and heavy style. It was all I could do to keep my lids open all day. So, I hint to my boss that the music may actually qualify for a form of torture under the Geneva conventions.
Today, things are different. Today it’s been Baroque style music played on recorder all day. Arrgh! I tried sticking my letter opener in the wall socket to put myself out of my misery, but I merely succeeded in blowing a fuse.
::patting Wandering Whistler’s shoulder:: There, there now… just think about raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens…everything will be better soon. The sun will come out tomorrow!!
The work day’s almost over, and soon you will be reunited with your beloved whistles-- you can soothe your soul with some good music, to make up for all the torture you’ve been subjected to today!!
I don’t know what gets into people (business owners, etc?) around the holidays! Yesterday I went shopping for some winter shoes and I got SO annoyed by the 20-minutes long redition of Feliz Navidad by freakin’ Celine Dion!
sigh I know that I can only take so much christmas music played in malls by incompetent musicians which make you wonder how in the world they even got the opportunity to record a CD…
There, there now… just think about raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens…everything will be better soon. The sun will come out tomorrow!! >
Yes! These are a few of my favorite things!
Will you feel better, WW, if I play a ‘haunting’ Celtic melody for you? I’ve been thinking of making a special Clips page for ‘haunting’ tunes. Go watch the Titanic. You’ll feel better. (Actually, Baroque recorder sounds kind of cool to me. Around here, if the radio goes on, it’s pop/hip hop. Where’s the Tums?)
Tony
My boss, who knows I love Irish music, gave me a wonderful little Christmas treat (?) - a two-CD set of “A Celtic Christmas.” She wanted to see if I liked it, so we put it in her CD player in her office. It’s hours and hours of computer-generated or some-such-thing “music.” Absolutely horrible. Nothing Irish or even “Celtic” about it (except that the photos on the CD covers may be of someplace in Ireland). Just Christmas songs played unbelievably slowly by some machine. She kept exclaiming, “That’s a whistle, isn’t it?!?” I’d smile and say, “Gosh, I think it could be…” It was such a kind thing for her to do. Thankfully I could bring the CDs home where they’ll never see the inside of my CD player.
Susan
I’ve been asked to play low-whistle at our christmas party this year. Several of the folks on the organizing committee e-mailed me and said nice things about it being a highlight of last years party. The warm fuzzies are intoxicating.
BTW, just a suggestion, if you take a celtic or irish christmas CD into you employer, they might play it as a change of pace. Just be prepared for the guy across the office who brings in Rapper-Dapper Xmas CD or Hip-Hop Bob’s Jingle time CD* to have his time on the air too.
*These are fictional examples and any resemblance to real music, cd’s, musicians, or productions is coinsidental
May the true spirit of the season rise above the Muzak.
Play a little on your next break, taking time to …
Enjoy Your Music,
Lee Marsh
[ This Message was edited by: LeeMarsh on 2002-12-13 15:00 ]
Oh, have you hit on one of my pet peeves! Two days ago the analyst in the chair next to me decided that because I liked classical music, I wouldn’t mind her playing classical Christmas music, and did she get her nose bent when I asked her to put on her headset, just like I do when I want to listen to my music.
No one has a right to make me listen to their music while I’m trying to work. If it was piped in, I’d ask for. . .demand. . .the best sound deadening headsets available. Either they want me to work, or they want me to listen to music.
Shopping may be a different thing, I don’t know. I have one stunning memory of standing in a store and hearing for the first time O Holy Night, and thinking it was the most beautiful tune ever written. But JessieK’s experience could make me a perma-Grinch. Glad I’m done with the whole shopping thing!
I learned to hate Baroque recorder music from working in a small shopping center in Berkeley many xmases past. I had liked it, but I swear, I began to hear subliminal messages after a while.
Come to think of it, maybe it was a voice whispering: “Buy more cappucinos, don’t steal, buy more Indonesian artifacts and natural fiber clothing.” (For those in the know, it was at Groovy Walnut Square back when Judge Ito used to buy coffee at Peets.)
My latest Yule music woe: toy stores. I’ve been basted over thoroughly by songs such as “My Favorite Things” which wouldn’t bother some, I guess, but bugs me. Worse than that, they seem to play over and over songs that sound like they came from Rankin-Bass clay-mation specials… one has the line “I am old Kris Kringle, I’m the King of jing-l-ing,” or something like that. Ugh. Motherhood.
I generally despise Christmas music, although some times you get to hear an occasional gem. One of my favorites is Robin Ford playing a blusey instrumental Little Drummer Boy, smokin’
Take care, Johnz
WW, now that’s torture!!