Busy Week / Musical Note

It just seemed so wrong to work on schoolwork over spring break. So I didn't, much. I did write five pages for a 7-page paper that I've sinced finished and turned in. And I read a little. So when I got back, I had to do work more or less continuously until now. What did I do? You're about to find out.
-I decided that after all I'm not going to go to Granada. I guess there are two main things that made me decide it. One is that I really like Grinnell, and I wanted to take all the courses I could here. The other is that I feel like if I'm going to see a country, I'll get a more thorough experience if I'm not trying to take college courses and experience the country at the same time. Hopefully I'll go see another country someday. Such as Spain. Or perhaps I could go see Lake Baikal in Russia, or the Amazon - those would be cool too.
-I finally ran out of time to vacillate, and had to declare my major. So I declared anthropology. I should note that I'm also majoring in indecision, so it's quite possible that I'll change it sometime before I graduate. I am decided on the fact that I'm going to declare a linguistics concentration soon, and stick with that. I'm looking forward to some anthro courses, especially the Archaeology of North America course that I'm taking next semester. And the anthropology-linguistics course, which I think is next spring or so. Some of these are ones that I might not have had time to take if I had gone to Spain. I do know that I would've missed out on the Archaeology of North America course. I'm okay with my decision.
-I started laying out the fantasy book. We have a title now: it's called The Captives' Quest. Layout work is nice and relaxing, because you don't have to think a bunch when you do it.
-I didn't sleep much.

I wrote something on Facebook, and I thought I'd put it here too.

I'm going to collect here the bits of music that always give me an involuntary spasm of being amazed. There aren't many so far, but I'll add to this with comments whenever I find another. [The comments thing is for Facebook. Here I'll just put them in my next entry.]

1. Gustav Holst, The Planets, Mars. The moment is about 6½ minutes in, depending on the performance. All the chaos, built up the whole time by the 5/4, yields into a long, warlike chord held by what sounds like the entire orchestra in fff, and then—here's the part—the strings come in with a low note, and bend it up to their own long chord. That bend does it every time for me. Sadly, few orchestras play it that way—most play it as two separate notes, which just has no magic at all. I don't know what the name of the orchestra is that plays the version I have. I wish I could help you with that.
This uncredited performance has it.

2. Flobots, "Handlebars". The climactic verse where the song's protagonist, who has been becoming steadily more corrupt and perverse for the entire song, shouts out,

And I can end the planet in a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaaaaaaaaaaaust!

And an entire crowd screams in unison behind him. And suddenly we flash back to when he could just ride his bike with no handlebars, and that's the end.
The music video enhances it even more.

3. Jean Sibelius, 2nd Symphony, Movement 2: Andante ma rubato. This entire movement comes close to that breaking point, but the spot is right at the end. The movement leaves room for you to breathe, or hold your breath, while you listen, and is painted with minimalist strokes of bright color. At the end, the orchestra has been getting quieter for a few minutes, and is winding down for the next movement. After a silence, the basses crescendo from nothing. The trumpets join them, and together they slowly go to two or three f's. Then they stop in mid-air, they wait silently for you to move to the edge of your seat, and the trumpets blast their final three notes, falling away to nothing to let the srings quietly end the movement.
The movement is 15 minutes long, so it's in three parts here. You really ought to listen to the whole thing. The conductor, Esa-Pekka Salonen, is feeling the music too. At one point he has tears on his face.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3