I'm still absorbing all the classical CDs I got when my dad was here (approaching thirty, and a list that will keep me shopping for years), but my favorite of the bunch is the Saint-Saens (just imagine the appropriate umlaut over the 'e' here). Although, technically, I got the Saint-Saens on my own initiative, but still...

Saint-Saens did some scary things with the violin (including one of my all-time favorites, Danse Macabre), but I was listening to his Symphony No. 3 here, and I'd totally forgotten the organ. An organ in a symphony... Now that takes balls. Between that, "Carnival des Animaux," and "Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso" (scary good violin, there), he's currently my favorite classical composer.

And my dad says he wasn't original. Screw original, I'll take talent any day. Even if it's coming from a cheese-eating surrender monkey.

I'm glad dad came to visit. Even if he did destroy the dishwasher.