A Friendly Musical Visit Every Day

My partner put in an offer on a condo in his hometown. Housing prices there are way cheaper than we're used to, but it means you're living in... well, I won't say where, but it wouldn't be my first choice. Anyway, a big part of the reason he wanted to move back to his hometown was so that he could spend more time with a friend he's known since they were babies. This friend is seriously ill. Moments after my partner put in the purchase offer, he got an email from the friend's wife. The friend has stopped eating and taking vital medications. He is likely to die in the coming days. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff ...

Yesterday we listened to Stranger in Paradaise, today we listen to its precursor. I keep thinking of it as "Dance of the Killer Maidens," which is not at all what it's called, but that would be a great name, wouldn't it?  If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . I also recommend subscribing to my newsletter. I generally e-mail subscribers with a weekly update, and I would LOVE to have you on the list.  Click here to sign up:  http://eepurl.com/R4b11 See you soon! Giselle

I remember singing this piece by Canadian choral composer Ruth Watson-Henderson when I was in choir in the early 90s. At the time I either didn't realize or it didn't register that it was brand new music. We sang so many Ruth Watson-Henderson pieces that I assumed she was some lady from the 1800s who wrote a bunch of choral works and then ceased to be. I was way off.  According to the internet, she's still alive today.  If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . I also recommend subscribing to my newsletter. I generally e-mail subscribers with a weekly update, and I ...

You know I've got a soft spot for madrigals, but this is one I wasn't familiar with until I heard it on an old episode of Midsomer Murders. By the way, this madrigal is called "Fair Phyllis I Saw Sitting All Alone" and it's composed by John Farmer. It's not a song called "Fair Phyllis I Saw Sitting All Alone by John Farmer." If she were sitting by John Farmer, she wouldn't be alone, now, would she? If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . I also recommend subscribing to my newsletter. I generally e-mail subscribers with a weekly update, and I would LOVE to have you ...

 I heard this piece on the radio the other night and it absolutely captured me. I'd never heard it before and I didn't know what it was. Then the radio host came on and referred to the piece in English as "I Want to Die" and I laughed on the inside. No wonder I like it so much. I think a lot of people with chronic illness (and chronic depression) probably get the drift. Pain is hard. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . I also recommend subscribing to my newsletter. I generally e-mail subscribers with a weekly update, and I would LOVE to have you on the list.  ...

I've been re-watching the British TV show Rosemary and Thyme again, even though I re-watched every episode a month ago. There are only three seasons, but I like repetition.  I always say the appeal of this show is the fantasy of having a friend and doing gardening and solving murders, but I re-watched the first episode last night (I don't usually watch the first episode--not sure why), and I realized that the biggest appeal of this show, for me, is probably the fantasy of making a new friend later in life.  The idea that I could meet someone new and form an instant bond and we could be besties and run a business together... it actually seems beyond impossible when I say it out loud. I find it so, so hard to make friends. But maybe that's why so many of us love this little show? I don't know. There's a lot to love about it. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for ...

This theme was playing on the radio while my partner and I were eating dinner. I hadn't heard the radio host introduce the piece, and I said to my partner, "This is so familiar. What is it?"  Apparently he said something. We'll come back to that.  I kept eating and then asked him, "It's movie music, right?"  He gave me this flat look and then said, "James Bond. It's John Barry music."  That's when I realized he had already told me exactly that information and I hadn't heard what he'd said, and instead of asking him to repeat himself, I'd merely nodded. I did all this without realizing it, in the moment. It didn't click that I hadn't heard him. It didn't click that I nodded instead of acknowleding that I hadn't heard him. None of this was conscious. So I guess I'd better book an appointment at the hearing clinic, because the hearing's even worse than the vision, and the vision is pretty bad. I've ...

I do still own this CD. I bought it when it first came out (in 1999? Wow...) and I remember being so proud of it. When I had my best friend over for dinner at my first apartment, I played this album and she was like, "Ugh, turn it off! I HATE baroque music!" heh It came to mind the other week when I was isolating my diseased self at my apartment and my partner was three hours away at his house. He wrote me an email one evening to tell me the classical radio station we listen to had just played Karina Gauvin singing Where'er You Walk, and it brought him to tears. We've listened to Where'er You Walk here on more than one occasion, because it's a song that holds meaning for my partner. You can read why in this previous post: https://friendlymusicvisitor.blogspot.com/2020/05/songoftheday-whereer-you-walk-from.html If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for a...

Covid made me want nothing more than to rewatch old cozy mysteries I've already seen a thousand times. That's probably because I couldn't make it through an entire episode of anything without falling asleep. So I rewatched Rosemary and Thyme, which I never tire of, despite having watched the entire series too many times to count.  Pam Ferris's character sings this song at the end of one episode. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . I also recommend subscribing to my newsletter. I generally e-mail subscribers with a weekly update, and I would LOVE to have you on the li...

This year, I've been reviewing old contracts. Specifically, I've been reviewing short story contracts with publishers who placed my work in anthologies. Terms vary, but often publishers asked for an exclusivity period of 1, 3, or 5 years before rights then reverted to me and I could republish those pieces of fiction. Time goes by fast. That's what I've learned. Some of the pieces with the 5-year exclusivity period, I basically forgot about. Five years felt like forever, when I signed those contracts.  Turns out five years goes by in a snap, and I could have published a lot of these stories ages ago. Well, I'm playing catch-up now. I've just come across three novelettes I can now republish. I barely remember writing them. I used to be incredibly productive. I wrote an unfathomable amount of content. So I'm reading through this one little romance story about a woman falling in love with her piano teacher, and the song she's practicing is our song of th...

This song is based on an Astor Piazzolla piece called Libertango. If you've read a novel I wrote called ANONYMOUS , you'll know that the music of Astor Piazzolla figures prominently toward the end. There's a scene at the symphony where the main character and her husband and the man they've welcomed into their home and their bed encounter... well, I'd be spoiling the story if I told you. Guess you'll just have to read the book for yourself to find out.  If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . I also recommend subscribing to my newsletter. I generally e-mail subscribers...

If you've ever seen a britcom from the 90s called Waiting for God, you will surely remember this music, which was used as the show's theme song. Okay, full disclosure: I had no idea what piece this was or who it was by. I had to look that up. But the internet knows all, so it isn't hard to figure out classical music trivia, these days. The reason I was thinking about Waiting for God is also trivial, though hopefully amusing? My partner has a friend who lives in a retirement residence. When he was visiting this guy the other week, someone else in the building was getting rid of a pair of bedside tables. Since my partner cannot resist garbage furniture, he grabbed them. They've been sitting in the car ever since. Until today, that is. I suggested we bring them in and stick them in the basement until we get a chance to clean them up. When we got them in the house, I opened the doors to find that there are hidden drawers in the tables. You need to open the doors all the way...

I'm on Day Two of a migraine that won't let up, even with the help of every medication my doctor has prescribed me. Days like this, when I can't stand, can't sit, can't look at a screen (this post will be brief), I tend to have dark thoughts. Weather is my biggest migraine trigger, and travel never helps. Driving into the city during a snow/slush/rainstorm yesterday tipped me over the edge and I have not recovered yet. We listened to the classical radio station as we drove, and this was played during our drive. That's why it's our song of the day. (Starts soft, but doesn't stay soft. There's a joke in there somewhere, but I'm in too much pain to find it.) If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also a...

I asked my partner which Christmas carol first comes to mind, for him, and he said it was this one. His reason for loving it? It's got the best descant. Maybe I've mentioned this in previous years, but my partner loves descants. Not only does he love them, but they make him cry. Every time he hears one, he cries. It's the sweetest thing I've ever seen. I love that this man is moved to tears by music. There was a time, many years (decades) ago, when I could sing this descant. I can't anymore. In fact, I can't in an almost comedic way. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links...

Yesterday was a long hospital day with my partner. Though the news was good (radiation appears to have obliterated his cancer), as soon as his oncologist left the room, my partner and I both burst into tears. It wasn't a sad cry, but it wasn't a happy cry. We couldn't figure out what it was. A shared release of pent-up emotions, I guess.  Maybe it was relief, but relief doesn't usually feel so tentative. One of the many things I never realized about cancer is that the fall-out from treatment goes on and on for months and possibly years. The new thing we were worried about was swelling in my partner's neck and lymph nodes. It looks really bad, but his medical team assured us they expect to see this. It's common, and the degree of his edema is actually not too bad. They see far worse in their clinic.  So that was reassuring, but we also left with a list of 8 types of lymphatic massage to do every day. That's in addition to the new physiotherapy exercises that...

When I was listening to yesterday's song of the day last night, I was sure I could hear the Lark Rise to Candleford theme buried deep inside it. Now I have no idea. But I'm also dizzy and feeling a little dim. What else is new? I was cleaning out the eavestroughs earlier and, handing a bucket of leaf gunk down to my partner, I almost said, "Careful--it's pretty expensive." I meant heavy. The load was pretty heavy. But this is what my brain does, these days. Good thing I'm a writer, eh? If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . I also recommend subscribing to my newsletter....

This song came on the radio the other evening while my partner and I were eating dinner. A wave of nostalgia washed over me, because I remember watching the film from which it came (The Snowman) when I was a child.  My partner had never heard of it, much less seen it.  I told him that this song gave me all the same feels I got from The Last Unicorn . Turns out both those animated films came out in the same year: 1982.  A good year for nostalgia, if you're me. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . I also recommend subscribing to my newsletter. I generally e-...

I could faint from the beauty of this voice. It makes me weak. Opera reminds me of all the big feeling I used to have that I don't seem to have anymore. I don't know if it's menopause, caregiving, or being chronically ill (or all of those things put together), but I often feel that forces that used to drive me (sex, love, jealousy, etc) aren't that relevant anymore. Elements of my emotional life that were so key to my decision-making for years are lost and gone and I don't even care.  I'm not saying I don't love my partner--I love him more than anyone else on the planet. But we spend so much time being ill and caring for one another that I wouldn't say it's that overblown, all-encompassing romance you see at the opera. It used to be, but it's not anymore. Maybe I'm supposed to say I miss being driven by sex and love and jealousy, but I don't think that's true. Those are all still elements of my life and my emotional makeup, but th...

I'm still in terrible pain today, so this won't be much of a post, I'm afraid. Looking at a screen for any length of time just isn't working for me. But I wanted to bring you something beautiful. This piece is how I want to feel: peaceful and playful. Instead, I feel sick and hopeless. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . I also recommend subscribing to my newsletter. I generally e-mail subscribers with a weekly update, and I would LOVE to have you on the list.  Click here to sign up:  http://eepurl.com/R4b11 See you soon! Giselle

This is the piece I mentioned yesterday: if you've ever heard A Groovy Kind of Love, you'll be familiar with this tune. I certainly was, when I took piano lessons, as a kid. This Clementi piece was in my Royal Conservatory of Music book, and, even though I took piano lessons in the 80s, I still considered A Groovy Kind of Love to be a hip pop tune. Not having grown up in a home that listened to classical music, 60s pop was certainly more relevant to me anything else I was assigned to learn.  Although, I did enjoy playing a piece called The Happy Farmer... If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through...