Earth: Bringer of Lunch

July 23, 2009 in Fun, Life, music | 9 comments

The kid goes to bed every night lately while treating himself to a classical piece on his bedroom stereo. Tonight, our last (a bonus, thanks to a plane that didn’t fly) in Santa Barbara before returning to Boston tomorrow, he played one of his favorites: The Planets, by Gustav Holst. Noting that Holst only set music to seven of the planets…

  1. Mars, the Bringer of War
  2. Venus, the Bringer of Peace
  3. Mercury, the Winged Messenger
  4. Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity
  5. Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age
  6. Uranus, the Magician
  7. Neptune, the Mystic

… he wondered what ours might be called. “Earth, the Bringer of __ ?”

“Lunch,” I suggested.

A debate followed, at the end of which we agreed that 8. Earth, the Bringer of Lunch was clearly the winner.

A bit of levity. Now sleep. Then another school year back in Cambridge. See ya there.

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9 comments

  1. Shava Nerad’s avatar

    Shava Nerad on July 23, 2009 at 2:46 am

    Oddly, here at 2:45am, I read this and immediately jumped to this:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLrTPrp-fW8

    I have an odd set of associations…

  2. Tim Jarrett’s avatar

    Tim Jarrett on July 23, 2009 at 9:27 am

    Doc–if your son likes classical music, he might want to check out the recordings that the BSO has started self-publishing. I’m on three out of four with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus so I’m a little biased, but well worth the listen.

    Alternately, come out to a concert at Tanglewood. I can’t think of any better place for a budding classical music listener.

  3. Doc Searls’s avatar

    Doc Searls on July 23, 2009 at 10:11 am

    Thanks, Tim. Good advice.

    I’m also flying back today after 1.5 months in Santa Barbara. So let’s finally have that coffee or lunch we’ve been talking about. 🙂

  4. Chip’s avatar

    Chip on July 24, 2009 at 5:53 am

    Doc
    Good stuff

    When younger, mine was more Beethoven, forget what my daughters got (a lot from our collection)
    4yr old grandson – got him DVD – Horowitz in Moscow to go with his keyboard (yeah, grandpas pushin it)

    “Can you say Scriabin?” to which I got perfect repeat

    http://www.amazon.com/Horowitz-Moscow-Vladimir/dp/6305755175

  5. dave taht’s avatar

    dave taht on July 24, 2009 at 11:39 am

    This magnificent 2006 EMI recording of The Planets also included new pieces that attempted to capture more of the solar system, and our efforts to explore it.

    The additional movements were: “Pluto, the Renewer”
    “Asteroid 4179: Toutatis” (my favorite asteroid), “Towards Osiris”, and a piece about the death of astronaut Vladimir Komarov, “Komarov’s Fall”.

    Well worth it…

  6. Brian Benz’s avatar

    Brian Benz on July 25, 2009 at 1:44 am

    Love it!
    Reminds me of a quote by the late Douglas Clark Kenney –
    “Nice guys finish lunch”

  7. Doc Searls’s avatar

    Doc Searls on July 25, 2009 at 4:07 pm

    Ah, Doug Kenney. What a brilliant, funny guy. Still miss him.

  8. Tim Jarrett’s avatar

    Tim Jarrett on July 29, 2009 at 8:58 pm

    Doc–I tried to send you email but I think I used an old address. If you want to grab coffee, ping me.

  9. Bill Kinnon’s avatar

    Bill Kinnon on August 18, 2009 at 2:10 pm

    Doc,
    Proving the tangential nature of the web (or at least attempting to), might I recommend Planet Narnia by Dr. Michael Ward – an unpacking of the “Narnia Code” behind C.S. Lewis Narnia series of books. Ward connects Lewis the Medieval English Literature scholar with Lewis the writer of children’s books – suggesting that the medieval understanding of the personalities of the Planets properly unpacks Lewis’ Narnia.

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