Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Feeling better than yesterday but still moving kind of slowly. Trying to get myself moving so I can get done what needs to be done, but in the meantime I filled out the classics meme (which I got from n0ire and a few others):

• Your favorite classical composers: Well, if we count Bach as classical instead of "early" (which I'm not sure is fair, but others have done so), then Bach tops the list, followed by Vivaldi. Otherwise we have to shift to Mahler. (Wow, the more I think about it, the more I realize that as cool as some classical music is, I really don't like that period anywhere near as much as early music, and my interest in it diminished once I discovered early music ... I love Baroque, but that pretty much straddles the two, not properly counting as either, right?) Uh, does Debussy count as classical? I don't know all that much of his work, but I like what I've heard (especially performed by the New Danish Saxophone Quartet). Beethoven is much cooler when I'm sitting next to a real Beethoven fan then when I'm listening on my own (and I like him better on piano than full orchestra). I seem to recall liking some Brahms.
• Your favorite piece of classical music: Hmm... Probably Mahler's "Titan" symphony unless I can count "anything by Bach". :-) And if I Absolutely Must Pick One piece by Bach, it'd be (short as it is) the tocatta from "Tocatta and Fugue in Dm". But there's this one violin concerto that I've been meaning to turn into a heavy-metal guitar piece for years that I need to get around to... <whine>C'mon, can't we do early instead of classical?</whine> (Yeah yeah, start my own meme later...)
• Your favorite painters: I lean heavily towards the French impressionists, but I'd need another walk through the BMA or the Corcoran for a reminder of some others that really grabbed me from other periods.
• Your favorite painting: This month? Uh, I don't know the title or the artist, but it's in the Baltimore Museum of Art, and depicts a storm approaching from the sea. It's a little like the one I've been carrying around in my head for decades but don't have the skill to paint myself, but mine has a huge cliff and doesn't have a town in it. I also really like the cover art for Gossamer Axe (which is much more impressive full-size than on a paperback cover).
• Your favorite poets: Warren Zevon, Tennyson, Marc Drexler, Lennon/McCartney. In no particular order.
• Your favorite poem: Today? Maybe "The Cremation of Sam McGee", or possibly "Me & Dorothy Parker" ... that's a question where my answer varies quite a lot.
• Your favorite play: Uh, "Singing in the Rain"? Or maybe "Rosencranz and Guildenstern are Dead". Or ... dammit, now I remember why I hate "What is your favourite _____?" questions!
• Your favorite playwright: Stoppard. Followed by Shakespeare, I guess, just because he wrote more plays that I know I like than the next few names on the list. After that ... Samuel Becket, Arthur Miller, or Eugene Ionesco, I'm not sure.
• Your favorite museum: The Smithsonian (can I get away with pretending the entire set is one museum?)
• Your favorite sculpture: The brass crocodile letter opener on my desk, because my grandfather made it and it's mine. Second choice is a set of doors from someplace I don't remember, and I don't remember which museum I saw them in. Baroque in style, if not by actual date. I like them despite how "busy" they are.

Hmm. That was both harder and easier than I thought it would be.