Sunday Music: Angel of the Morning, Merrilee Rush

Album Title: Angel of the Morning, Merrilee Rush

Why I Bought It: For the title track.

What I Like (Defiant): "Angel of the Morning". I've loved this song since the first time I heard it, some forty years ago. The world-view is maybe a little of a downer, at least in the context of the rest of the album - "Life's crap, let's grab what pleasure we can and leave tomorrow to tomorrow" - but it has heart. Also, I really like the hornwork, especially just before and during the chorus.

What I Like (Dream On): "San Francisco". It was never real, never even close to real, but it was a nice dream. Rush's version is a little softer than the original.

What I Like (Sad): "Working Girl". A monologue of a woman trying to survive; the verse in which she's harassed by her boss (we hear only her side of the conversation) is especially stark.

What I Like (Wishing): "What the World Needs Now". A lot of covers of this one have a staccato quality that I don't much like; Rush, for the most part, avoids that.

What I Like (Genderflip): "Your Loving Eyes Are Blind". Kind of a mirror version of "It Ain't Me" (or any of the other commitment-phobic songs of that ilk), but more compassionate: think, wait, be sure you know what you're doing.

Overall: Rush was pretty much a one-hit wonder, although that one hit was a Grammy nominee. There's nothing here that really stands out as "she shoulda been a contender", but there's a lot of nice stuff. "Robin McCarver" is a cheery song (although there's a "be glad you're a kid, kid" tone to it); "Observation from Flight 285" is a nice visual song, as the singer's plane approaches the airport; and I rather like "Angel on My Shoulder" and her cover of "Hush" as well. A good album.

Update

Weatherwise, the last week and a half have been a rollercoaster. Thursday the 12th was cold and damp, culminating in a couple of inches of snow that night and the next day. On the weekend, the temperature boomeranged back into the 60s F, melting most of the snow. At the beginning of the next week, it turned chilly again, this time with rain to wash away the last of the snow. Midweek was cold again, turning frigid on Thursday and Friday, culminating in freezing rain Friday night. Today wasn't too bad, although very wet - Gracie's been bouncing in and out, all muddy-pawed. The highs are supposed to hang in the mid-40s F for most of the coming week, after a round of thunderstorms tonight. At least the forecast is for clear weather starting tomorrow.

I more-or-less finished (no intro or bibliography yet) the first draft of my current paper last week, and immediately (as usual) decided it wasn't well-organized. Two of the sections I'd divided it into proved unexpectedly short; I'm going to chop one of them up and parcel it out to the two surrounding sections, and I think I see how to flesh out the other one. It's a short paper - I estimate maybe twelve pages when it's finished - but it's the right length for the online journal I'm going to submit it to. I've got two other papers out, but I'm still waiting to hear whether they've been accepted. Once I finish this one, I'll start thinking about how to write up my current research. (I doubt I'll actually write it until sometime next year; it's still kind of formless at the moment.)

My two Master's students are both making good progress. One is writing up her thesis, and hopes to present by mid-February. Her co-adviser and I are a little nervous about this one; it's the first thesis under the new Mathematics Education program, and we're not sure what the parameters for acceptance are going to be. As for the other, I suggested he shift his focus to a narrower range of the problem, and he surprised me by coming up with a complete answer to that subproblem. He then suggested which direction to go in next, and it looks both doable and interesting. I look forward to seeing what he comes up with.

What else? 1493 was interesting, but not as much of an eye-opener as 1491. I'm reading another volume in the Ring of Fire series, and have realized that I've pretty much lost track of who's doing what to whom; with such a large stable of authors and an enormous cast of characters, closer attention needs to be paid, but I'm not sure the series really merits it. My current bus book is a biography of Hugo Black; I was concerned by the hagiographic tone of the introduction, but the author isn't hiding Black's blemishes.

"Sinfest" is still on fire; Fuchsia's dilemma is getting more intense, since the appearance of the Storytime Zombie.

I'm not sure whether to be amused or horrified by the spectacle of the race for the GOP presidential nomination.

I don't really care about the football playoffs, at this point, but I'm looking forward to the baseball season. The Padres' farm system has started cranking out prospects, and they just began arriving at the end of last season. The next two seasons should be exciting. (Not that I expect the Friars to break .500 this year....)

Heigh-ho. I really should get back to my bookkeeping.