A muse

Two posts in one day! You can tell I'm really procrastinating =).

Yesterday, to treat myself for finishing that dratted annotated bibliography, I went to the used cd store. I was on a quest for more classical cds. They're good to have around when writing a paper =). Specifically, I wanted Mozart. I want to see if it'll make me smarter. Most people scoff at my plan. They say that only works when your brain is still developing. Well, I don't know about them, but I certainly hope that I still have mental development going on. I mean, there hardly seems to be any point to grad school if I don't. Though I suppose mental development and brain development aren't strictly the same thing...

So I put old Mozart to the test today. Didn't help that paper get written at all. In fact, I didn't even start writing the paper during his tenure in my cdrom. Though he did inspire me to do some reading for another class instead. Reading I wasn't planning on doing for a very long time. Not until after I finished the paper. So I guess Mozart wasn't a total wash.

I don't know what all the hype about classical music is. I mean, with regards to intelligence, not in general. Personally, I seem to be much more inspired when I play music from the romantic period (that's right. It isn't all "classical"). I had quite a nice streak of efficient paper writing going on to the accompaniment of Tchaikovsky for a while (though that was years ago. Not this paper...). Maybe it has to do with that whole brain development thing. Romantic music was later than classical music, so perhaps it helps to listen to it later in life. For mental development, rather than brain development. In this vein, maybe fetuses should focus on baroque music. I don't know about that... I'm not a huge fan of baroque music. Too many trilling flutes and harpsichords. I'm not sure if I want that when I'm pregnant and moody... (Though in all fairness, that's only a subset of baroque music.)

*Note. The opinions stated here are in no way endorsed by any neurologists or psychiatrists (that I know of).