Mom and Dad and their 50-year-old on his very happy birthday

#HowToTurn50

I just sang “All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth”

in authentic soccer gear with my teeth blacked out at the stunning Paramount Theatre with the magnificent Orchestra Iowa behind me. Plus I get to do it again tonight. And then again tomorrow. Bliss.

Hopelessly shattered by Saturday night

A Little Night Music > "A Weekend in the Country" > the French horn obbligato at 6:06 > everything you ever need to know about Sondheim

Sunday Sibelius

The first ebbing, flowing, stalwart strains of the opening movement of Sibelius' Symphony No. 2 are all you need to underscore a perfect fall day. And the final rolling crashes of brass are all you need to sustain you through winter. Sibelius is the master of redefining the emotions and lush tonal visuals of Romanticism for the 20th century. Bliss.

Just because

The tree was supposed to come down today but it got a last-minute stay of execution due to a complex legal technicality I'll try to sum up as succinctly and understandably as possible by saying that everyone in the house was exhausted and took a lot of naps. But I'm a sucker for dark houses lit by tiny lights on cold winter nights, so even though it's staggeringly past my bedtime I'm still sitting here in the post-midnight silence under the constellation of tiny tree lights just because I have one more chance to do it and it makes me happy.