Why the conductor for the Boston Pops Orchestra avoids music during his downtime.
… Reading?
The last book I actually finished was a Paulo Coelho novel, ‘The Zahir.’ It’s an exploration of what it means to find a true-love relationship and then what it means to be able to stay in that. I love the works of Milan Kundera. I’m a huge fan of his writing. I find it, even in translation, to be incredibly poetic and immensely thought provoking.
… Watching?
A friend turned me on to Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel, which I find absolutely fascinating. It’s about people fishing for king crab off the Alaskan coast. It’s riveting – like watching a great drama.
… Listening to?
I listen to so much music for preparation that I rarely listen to music for recreation. What I’m trying to get on top of is our collaborative artists for the Edgefest [a series that unites the orchestra and popular musicians]. So I’m listening to Cowboy Junkies and M Ward and friends, who are two headliner acts for Edgefest. As a result of working with Ben Folds, I picked up a lot of his albums, especially his post-Ben Folds Five CDs. I slowly make up for my occasional lack of immersion in pop culture. (Not Pops culture!)
• The Boston Pops’s July 4th concert on the Esplanade, featuring John Mellencamp, is broadcast live at 10 p.m. (ET) on CBS.
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I just completed reading The Zahir on a trip to Manila. I agree 100% with you about the uniqueness of the journey towards personal discovery. I was in Manila for work, but was this was my first time in that country with absolutely nobody whom I knew there. I went through some of the feelings that the author describes in his book The Zahir. I now know how it feels on an evening to know that I am not on anybody’s radar right now. I have captured some of the feelings that I went through when I read the book on my Blog http://insightsthatexcites.blogspot.com/