Dona Nobis Pacem

Another musical note

I really shouldn’t have, but I bought and downloaded a new album from iTunes the other day. I have bills to catch up on, and all kinds of stuff like that, but it’s been over two years since I’ve bought anything fun for myself, and besides, it’s the newest release from Trans-Siberian Orchestra in about 5 years or so.

Night Castle

As I said, I downloaded the album, so I can only guess, but I’d think that coming in at 26 tracks, it would have to be a double CD in the stores. This is their fifth album, and their second album that is not a Christmas story.

I’ve only managed to listen to it twice so far, but I like what I’ve heard. As usual, the entire album is one long story told in rock opera form. I haven’t spent enough time reading the digital booklet so I really have no idea what the story itself is about, but the music is all good stuff.

There are a few cover songs on this release, one of which is Nut Rocker, originally done in the 1960s by B. Bumble and the Stingers. It’s a rock & roll version of Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite.” TSO takes it to all new levels; it’s almost a metal version here. Looking back to the first time I saw TSO in concert back in 2003, I remember them playing this song that night. At the time, they alluded that it was part of their upcoming but not yet released third Christmas album, The Lost Christmas Eve. I bought this album on its day of release in 2004 and was surprised that Nut Rocker wasn’t on it.

What I like about the rest of the cover songs on Night Castle is that they are covers of songs originally done by a metal band called Savatage. What’s unique about this is that the core members of TSO used to be Savatage, so they are actually covering themselves. “Mozart and Memories” is an instrumental lifted from Savatage’s “Dead Winter Dead” album, where it was titled “Mozart and Madness.” For those of you familiar with TSO’s Christmas works, the song “Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24” from the “Christmas Eve and Other Stories” album is also a direct lift from “Dead Winter Dead,” so this move is not unprecedented. “Believe” from “Night Castle” is taken and redone from the Savatage album “Streets: A Rock Opera.”

“The Mountain” is a rock/metal re-do of the classic piece “Hall of the Mountain King” and will be recognizable musically if not in title.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra spent several years working on this album, and it shows in the results. Awesomely mastered recordings of great music. They take classical pieces, write in their own stuff, and mix it all into a story. Classical music played with rock instruments; it just doesn’t get any better.

To sum up, if you’re a fan of TSO, go ahead and get the new album. You won’t be disappointed. If you’re not a fan of TSO, go buy ALL their albums and become a fan.

Heavy hearted day

Gerald Charles Tomson 6-16-06 - 11-1-01. Gone 8 years and always missed. Continue to RIP, Grandpa.

A change of pace

Looking back at my last few entries, I’ve noticed that they’ve been a bit gloomy and doomy if not outright depressing. Well, maybe they’re not THAT bad, but they still give the impression that I’m not a happy camper. Hopefully that will change with this little piece. So, while Bella sleeps at my feet and waits for me to go to bed, I’ll relate a little anecdote about my high school days . . .


Attack of the Pizza Monster

As you all know and remember well, high school is divided into cliques. The ‘cool’ people. The burnouts. The nerds. And so forth. Nowhere was this more evident in the hallowed halls of C-I than at lunchtime. Each clique had its own specific table to separate itself from the rest of the great unwashed. I sat at one such table during my sophomore and junior years, and it was at this table that the great ritual started. (By the way, I am not the "Pizza Monster" mentioned in the title, although anybody who remembers me from those days knows that my complexion at the time begged to differ.)

Once every one to two weeks, the school lunch staff would serve up what they called “pizza,” and what I laughingly referred to as “not pizza.” See, even back before writing became an interest, I still exhibited my razor-sharp cleverness. What this amounted to was a semi-soft crust topped by (I want to say hamburger?) well, some kind of meat; what smelled in my recollection like sloppy joe sauce, and then cheese. The entire thing was colored orange, which would make you assume that either the cheese was cheddar, or something had gone horribly wrong with the recipe and was never corrected. Once cooked, it smelled like the custodians were experimenting with a new brand of floor wax in the cafeteria. It was then cut into rectangular slices, roughly 6 inches by 4 inches, and served.

I never ate lunch on pizza day. I either did without, or brought my own. Most people I sat with during this two-year span chose to partake of the pizza, and it was at this table that the aforementioned great ritual started.

The ritual was simple: we would watch one person in particular eat his pizza. I’m not going to name any names here, even though this person has no idea that this blog exists. I hadn’t seen him since graduation until our 20 year reunion in 2005, and haven’t seen or heard from him since then. I’ll just refer to him as the Pizza Monster of the title.

I honestly don’t remember who noticed it first, although I have a pretty good idea. Pizza Monster would take his fork and spoon (I don’t remember us ever being issued knives for any reason) and cut his rectangular slice exactly in half. I swear, if you took a ruler and measured each half, they would have been exactly the same size. He would then use his fork to fold one half-slice over on itself, and shove the entire half into his mouth. While he chewed on that half, he busied himself by folding over the second half, which would be shoved into his mouth about a nanosecond before he swallowed the first half. The second half would be chewed and swallowed, and only then would he bother to look and see what else might be on his lunch tray. The entire process took about seven seconds. How we never ended up giving him the Heimlich maneuver continues to astound me even today.

I also can’t understand quite how the Pizza Monster never once noticed that we all sat there at our circular table, eyes focused on him for the duration of each pizza slice. It’s even less believable when you consider that some of us were stifling laughter, while others of us weren’t even bothering, and just laughing outright.

This was a ritual every Pizza Day for two years. By the time Senior Year rolled around, I was sitting at a different table with entirely different people, so I have no idea if it continued.

As I think back to watching him eat his pizza, I consider what would have happened if we’d had access at the time to the Internet and cell phones with the built-in video recorders. I just know that he would have been filmed, posted on YouTube, and become a bigger Net celebrity than that Numa Numa guy from a few years back.

Ah, memories.

Morpheus, you are hard to deal with

I really wish I knew what my problem is as far as sleep is concerned.

Maybe I’m too worried about it?

I managed to nap a bit on Sunday, but not much. Sunday night was completely sleepless again, until sometime late Monday morning. I ended up blowing all of Monday by sleeping until it was time to go to work at 1700. Now my circadian rhythms are all off-beat; I got home last night about 2345, and haven’t slept yet. I just lay in bed for 4-4 ½ hours until I gave up again, and here I sit. I have a feeling that today is gonna be another day spent sleeping until work time.

Maybe it’s that simple. Maybe I’m just worrying too much about it. If that’s the case, I don’t know how I’m going to cure the problem, because I’m not worrying about it on any conscious level.

Suggestions? Sleeping pills? A large hammer to knock me out? Anything, please.