Musings & Thoughts for Saturday, April 8, 2023, or: Weekend Update, Part the First

Well, it’s early afternoon on Saturday, April 8, 2023, one of my two days off from working on Project X. I’ve been up since 7 AM, but I’m only now “clearing the cobwebs” from my brain and tap-tap-tapping at my desk while I listen to music from Cinema Serenade, a 1997 Sony Classical album featuring 13 themes from the movies as performed by Itzhak Perlman, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and conductor John Williams.

I’ve owned Cinema Serenade and its sequel, Cinema Serenade 2I: The Golden Age on CD since the late 1990s, but I’m listening to its digital edition on my Amazon Music app. It’s one of my go-to albums to listen to when I want to just relax and not think about work, politics, or the situation in the world (especially the war in Ukraine).

I’m not sure if I’ve reviewed it on A Certain Point of View, Too – I am certain that I reviewed it on its “older sibling” blog in Google’s Blogger, though – but in case you’re interested, here’s the track listing from Cinema Serenade, which includes three themes composed by Maestro Williams for the movies Schindler’s List, Sabrina, and Far and Away.

Tracklist

1                             The Color Purple: Main Title         4:29

2                             Scent of a Woman: Tango (Por Una Cabeza)          3:51

3                             Yentl: Papa, Can You Hear Me?   4:59

4                             Il Postino: Theme              3:44

5                             The Age of Innocence: Theme     4:10

6                             Far and Away: Theme     5:34

7                             The Umbrellas of Cherbourg: I Will Wait for You  3:43

8                             Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Theme             3:40

9                             Sabrina: Theme 4:58

10                           Out of Africa: Main Title 3:19

11                           Black Orpheus: Manha De Carnaval          4:13

12                           Schindler’s List: Theme   3:33

13                           Cinema Paradiso: Love Theme    3:18

As for my plans for today: I don’t expect to do any work on Project X today or tomorrow. Yes, I only have some 400 words in its associated .docx file on Word, but I need to step away from “serious, I am going to publish this or die trying” writing on weekends. It’s not good for my health (physical or mental), and as I said yesterday, writing is incredibly difficult, especially at the beginning of a project that you want to work on.

(Of course, I can’t rule out the possibility that an interesting idea will occur to me during my downtime or I will get restless and want to write, but my plan for this Saturday is to relax and read for a while before gaming – I haven’t played Regiments in a while, for instance – or watch Devotion all the way through.[1])

I don’t have anything else to share; as I said earlier, I want to forget about politics (especially U.S. politics), world events (I don’t have a daily newspaper here anyway, and reading news online is simply not my thing; I miss my Miami Herald subscription, dammit.), or the war in Ukraine and just enjoy this warm, mostly sunny Saturday in the Tampa Bay area.

So, until next time, Dear Reader, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.

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[1] This, of course, entails watching the movie on my least favorite TV, but it can’t be helped.