More personal soundtrack stuff

Yes, I realize that all this would be a lot more useful if I could figure out how to upload MP3s so you could actually hear all this music, but what can I say - I'm a quasi-Luddite.

So back to musical influences....

Those who know me know that I'm a singer first, and a not-very-good- piano player second. Although I've been playing piano for what seems like forever, I came to singing relatively late - didn't join a choir until grade ten, and then only because I'd decided I wanted to be an opera singer. Why opera?

EMBARASSING CONFESSION TIME: in grade nine, I got a little obsessed with Phantom of the Opera. Like, really obsessed. I played it incessantly. Sang along. Got yelled at by my Mom for singing too loud in the basement. I actually think Phantom formed the basis of most of my romantic fantasies around that time. Yup. I'm embarrassed now.

Fortunately, I also joined the Ontario Youth Choir, then the Toronto Mendelssohn Youth Choir, then I went to university and discovered church music, and the rest is better-taste history. I did go through an insufferably snobby time when I wouldn't listen to anything but classical music, and derided anyone who listened otherwise. Sorry.

So thank you to Chris for introducing me to the Eagles, and Cliff for Billie Holiday (she's like beer - an acquired taste) and Ella Fitzgerald. When I think of university, I think of ABBA (their second-time-around being popular, I should point out) and October Project (excellent, melancholy break-up music).

(Too many parenthetical asides - I have to break this habit.)

And I should add, that although I'm writing about music, my dear husband introduced me to the wonder of talking books. I never would have gotten through Bill Clinton's autobiography if I'd had to read it, but listening to it was cool, especially since Bill read it himself. We spend many long car trips listening to books on CD.

I urge everyone to listen to Mason Jennings! He's like a cross between Neil Young and John Lennon, kind of.