This is an experiment, to see whether I can put a blog together, send it out there, and react perhaps to others' reactions. Whether it flies or floats, or crashes and sinks, is in the lap of the cybergods. So let me start off with a wish to whomever reads this that they have a good new year - as the auld Scots sang says -
A guid New Year to ane and aa,
And mony may ye see,
And during aa the year to come
Fou happy may ye be.
My mother told me (several times) that to sing the song at any other time than Midnight on Old Year's Night was dreadfully unlucky. Which is a pity, for it's a pretty good tune. "Auld Lang Syne" on the other hand can be performed with impunity at any hour of any day in any season, and of course is. At least, folk sing what they fondly imagine to be ALS and congratulate themselves, but as many know, the words are garbled, and the pronunciation leaves a lot to be desired.
However, at this cheerful time one shouldn't be churlishly pedantic - I'll leave that to a later blog. For now, enjoy the season. I should perhaps here give a plug for my radio show, "Themes and Variations", broadcast every Sunday at 2 PM local (Pacific) time from our local station at 107.9 MH - and available to the rest of the entire global village via the Internet: CFSI-FM.COM. I've just finished with Christmas music, ranging from Bach to folk carols, and looking forward to another year of the same - which means playing (e.g.) Mozart's variations on "Twinkle Twinkle" as we call it, and/or various sorts of music dealing with a particular theme, like "War" - last year for instance I was pleased to play "Christmas in the Trenches" by John McCutcheon.
That's enough for now. I suppose I click something and the blog miraculously goes forth into cyberspace. Here goes -
Murray.
