in grade school, it was about this time of year we’d get a mimeographed copy of the dreaded summer reading list, which i always thought was total effin’ bullshit [mary, my apologies]. yo teach, it’s called summer vacation, not summer study hall!, i felt like yelling out (but of course never did). oddly enough, the beave is starting to rack up an unsolicited summer homework list from oso musicians and fans as well… thank the good lord nobody’s (yet) instructed me to read the first dozen chapters of the adventures of tom sawyer. and so far, no shoebox diorama is required.
robert taylor (trombonist extraordinaire with the band) practically made me pinky swear in nyc to listen this summer to schubert’s schwanengesang song cycle – and only the album featuring the voice of dietrich fischer-dieskau, no less. he seemed pretty adamant about it, claiming it was a sort of rosetta stone for every piece of music created thereafter. and then earlier this week…
jonathan greeney (timpanist extraordinaire with the band) challenged my assertion that the king’s speech has the best use of Beethoven in a motion picture. his top choice? the original die hard with bruce willis, which mr. greeney claims to watch every year at christmas. and then just yesterday…
jeff (high ranking official in the beaver army) sent an email imploring me to check out a blog called *my big gay ears, which focuses on the intersection of classical music and queer society. not sure why he thought i’d be interested, but whatevs.
the classical beaver 
Ooh, I might have to agree with Jonathan Greeney about Die Hard’s use of the “Ode to Joy” theme from Beethoven’s 9th. And now to reveal my inner 80s geek: I know that the string quartet plays it during the pre-terrorist party (Alan Rickman dum-tee-dums it in the elevator, cuz he’s German, you know), but the quartet also plays the first movement of Bach’s Brandenburg #3. Later, when they open the vault, there’s a Hollywood-ized version of “Ode”, almost making us cheer for the bad guys! And the original is used in the end credits.
However, the slow movement from B’s 7th is pretty stirring and the perfect fit to Colin Firth’s delivery…
Just reserved DH at the Library… BW better get naked.