<h2>Music's been on my mind ... </h2>

Music has been a big "go to" for me lately. I've been listening a lot to a series of mostly New Age compositions I amassed in the 1990s and early this decade, tunes that over the years I've turned to for comfort, or simply when I've needed or wanted to relax. For years, on weekend nights as I lay down to sleep, I would play these on one of my computer media players.

Rarely did I need to do that when I drove, however; when I drive, I usually look for a CD that will help pump the blood and get my groove going. But in this "funk" (as I call it) of mine that I'm in, I've also been listening to my New Age mix whenever I drive. And I'm liking it.

Eight years back, I went into what probably was my longest such music "funk." I went looking for, exploring, listening to and appreciating everything I could get my hands on that was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. I did that for nine months -- listened to nothing but Mozart. And I mean nothing else. And I liked it.

I still like my Mozart fix from time to time. His piano concertos are my favorite and almost always remind me of my childhood days of taking piano lessons. They can affect me in very powerful ways, too. Take Piano Concerto No. 5 in D Major, for example. At the 3-minute, 20-second point of the andante un poco adagio movement (second) as performed by Derek Han and the Philharmonia Orchestra, my eyes well up, or at the very least, I swallow hard, but I always close my eyes because I know what's coming. I'm sure the orchestral build-up has a lot to do with it, a series of Han frolics and trills, and some fortissimo string segments that climax for a nano-second pause at 3:20. That's when soft, dramatic strings and Han's delicate, tuneful and plaintive notes take over for the next few bars. I feel something so overwhelming. I can't tell you what exactly it is; just that I do. I'm feeling it right now as I try to put it into words here. And I'm liking it.

A little more than a week ago, all of us at work went through an excruciatingly painful day watching 17 of our colleagues being shown the door. This was the fourth layoff our company has implemented in less than a year, and the second in which a large number of colleagues were let go. Early last December, we said goodbye to 20 staffers, four of whom worked directly for me. That one hurt a lot. And even though my staff escaped unscathed in the latest round of layoffs -- the one last week -- this one hurt even more, I think.

One of the departing staffers, John Hawn, started at The Star at about the same time as me. He is a very fine man and a very good editor. Until the layoffs, he and I supervised separate copy desks. He got the ax; I didn't. And then afterward, I learned that The Star planned to merge our two copy desks and put me in charge of it. I couldn't help but feel immediate survivor guilt. And that's when I turned to my New Age friends.

If you troll the Internet searching for JL Kato, John's literary pseudonym, you'll learn a bit more about him. Or click on the link in the previous sentence. He is a poet and poetry enthusiast. I didn't really learn about the extent of his interest in poetry until after he was laid off and he dropped me an email letting me know he'd come across my photo blog because it was mentioned at a third-party blog.

If you're at all curious about what's on my New Age listening list, here a running start:

My Mother's Voice / Triona di Dhomhnaill
Thumbellina / Mark Isham
Einini / William Coulter
Carolan's Ramble to Cashel / Northern Lights
The Swans at Coole / Maire Breatnach
Amy's Song / Peggy Stein
Children's Song / Oystein Sevag
In Moonlight Blue / Eric Tingstad
Night in That Land / Nightnose
Along the Salmon / Bob Leon
Pittsburgh 1901: Theme from "Mrs. Soffel" / Mark Isham
Satie -- Gymnopedie #3 / Branford Marsalis
Cast Your Fate to the Wind / George Winston
The Sad Balconies of Heaven / Mark Darnell
Sentimental Walk / Philip Aaberg
Wind and Willow / Wayne Gratz
Sunday Morning Coffee / Chip Davis
On the Night Ride / Chris Botti
Chopin's Prelude No. 15 in D flat (Raindrop)
Through the Wind / Danny Wright
For the Asking / John R. Burr
October - Stars / George Winston
A Sense of Place / Eric Tingstad
The Man From Caesaria / Friedemann
Shadow Dancer / Spencer Brewer, Nancy Rumbel, Eric Tingstad
A Different Shore / Nightnoise
Night, Part III - Minstrels / George Winston
Cast Your Fate to the Wind / Vince Guaraldi Trio
Rio Amazons / Oystein Sevag and Lakki Patey
Sun, Moon & Stars / Jim Brickman
Montana Half Life / Philip Aaberg
Meadows / Wayne Gratz
As For Us / Fernando Oretga
Evening / Michael Jones
The 19-A / Nightnoise
Magnolia / Eric Tingstad
Endings / Michael Jones
Pas de Deux / Scott Cossu
The Calling / Stein & Walder
Of the Father's Love Begotten / Tim Story
Close Cover / Wim Mertens
A Friend's Farewell / Wind Machine
Lullaby / Dave Brubeck
Woman at the Well / Tim Story