A great aside from Bill Eddins, who I now really want to come conduct here in Portland, if only to have drinks with him after a concert.
This leads to another rant – I hate Christmas. I have two reasons for this: I particularly dislike the rampant materialism that is now part of this holiday. I’m sick of BUY! BUY! BUY! There’s another reason though – I can’t stand the incessant Christmas music. I only have to hear the first 3 notes of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer to have that damn song stuck in my head for hours on end, and this is only one of a thousand Christmas songs that one cannot avoid hearing during this month. Malls, radio, whatever – you simply cannot avoid them. It’s this time of year that I keep threatening to move to a predominantly Muslim country. Of course, that has it’s own issues.