Album of the Week

Some random notes before I put a nail into the foot of the ever-elusive topic.

English is a dumb language. If you disagree, look up "phonetic." Case closed.
How are CTA trains late? Bad traffic? Getting lost? I could see if it were a brand new line, testing for efficiency. But the Blue Line has been running for decades. Where's the gray area in running a train on the same route for forty years?
And is the ride bumpy enough? I've ridden in golf carts on abandoned horse trails that didn't rattle me so badly as the Blue Line. I like my martini shaken, not my spleen.
I want to thank Big Al for his recent emails of encouragement. Great guy! He dragged the following sentence out of me, concerning last week's entries; "Sometimes it's better to learn your weaknesses than the limits of your strengths." As friends and readers will know, I am immensely proud when I spout pseudo-philosophical pap like that!

So, the Album of the Week is something I would like to start doing as of now. I used to participate in an Album of the Month posting, but seeing as I have twenty days of music on my iPod, I think I can step it up to an album a week.
This week it is the score from Batman Begins, by Hans Zimmer. Talk about creating a mood! The music is dark and majestic and intimate, often all at once. Zimmer did an outstanding job with the Black Hawk Down score (I would expect that to be an AotW one of these weeks), but shifts gears by going with a traditional scoring orchestra, with a bare minimum of odd sound effects. The stuff I love is classical and romantic orchestration with some modern instrumentation thrown into the mix, and Zimmer does that very well, although at a very low level with BB. I can't pick a favorite track from this one. It is very, very good.

I made a fool of myself in 489. J's got to think I am a HUGE sycophantic nutball. You try to come off all nonchalant, then open your mouth, mumble some inane compliment, then talk about nothing she finds interesting for a good five minutes. Why can I challenge a guy to a fight in the middle of Randolph and State, but just be a total coward in the wake of a woman? Because bruises heal.