Flight of the Valkyries

I've been known for my sometimes eccentric musical taste. It's a title I bear with pride and plumes, although it sometimes has gotten me into a little trouble. At college, I received a few noise complaints, not for the quality of the music (Miles Davis' "Bitch's Brew") or even the loudness quotient, but for the unsightly repetition. After taking it home, I must have played that album a week straight, with no breathers, except when I went to class. My fellow dorm neighbors were incensed. I can't really blame them, but I didn't do it out of mischief, repetition is how I get into the middle of the music. This is how I understand it, this is how it eventually lives in my ear for life. It's important for me to know every nook and cranny of the song, the aria, the piece, the movement.

First, the walk-man, CD-man, and now the I-pod have all indulged my wayward fancies of unilateral obsession with the music du jour, they encourage my habit, and their machinery indulges my walk-about-town set to a soundtrack. Lately, I have been listening to a lot of Wagner. I always have, but more recently I've been paying special attention to that gob-smack of sweeping and swelling orchestration - "The Ride of the Valkyries." I have several different versions played by several different orchestras. I like to hear the nuances of the music, and a particular orchestra's take on it. In other words, it has been on repeat. But only in my ear. The "Valkyries" afford me some time out, some perspective, strength, and infuse me with tough-girl appeal, I become a Valkyrie when I listen to this. I am the chooser of the slain. I will decide who will die in battle. It ain't going to be me. No matter how hard the day, no matter how many rejections, or non-answers I get, I am whole when I listen to the ride of my sisterhood. I will preside over Valhalla, it will not preside over me. Over the last two years, I've learned to handle and persevere. "The Ride of the Valkyries" is my battle-cry. A word to the wise: don't get on my black-list. Wagner's on repeat.