ABC Classic 100: 5 out of eight predictions correct, 7/10 if you count the "other things by those composers". Cool. Suite Bergamasque (ie. Clair de Lune) juuuust missed it at no. 11, Massenet and Delibes at 14 and 15 respectively.

Spotify: Spotify is horrible and seems to pick the worst things you've listened to to put in your top artists/tracks. The Pitchfork disciples therefore have theirs hidden, but I can still see using Swarm.fm. You can't win. Amusingly, the flamboyant Nicki Minaj fan is now listening to Bon Iver. That's what uni does to you, I guess.

CDs: Counted my CDs and marked them as owned on RYM. There's a few I haven't marked, but I don't know what they are! I also felt a bit sad looking at Pixies and Talking Heads albums, because I doubt that I'll want to touch them again for a while.

Festivals: My white, upper-middle class, Triple J listener friends always complain of drunk bogans at festivals. Looking at photos though, they could easily be mistaken for drunken bogans. I bet the people they complain about are just other middle-class kids.

Identity: I have learnt from conversations in my chemistry lab that people actually do use the term "Triple J" to describe their music taste. A lot of information conveyed in one word and one letter. I am not ignorant enough to say "everything", so I guess I'll go with "elitist", like one guy in this article.

Kyle Quarles - Indictment of the designation of classical music as “relaxing”
"It’s because when we use the word relaxing, we’re describing the effect of listening to non-sensical syntax." THISTHISTHIS. It applies to other kinds of music as well, of course. I used to fall asleep to Kid A because it sounded like nonsense to me. I know people who can't sleep with any music at all because they absolutely must analyze it.

James Rhodes - At last: the Classic Brit Awards exposed as a sickening crime against classical music 
Interesting to see that awards shows are crap for all kinds of music. I tried listening to some of that popera stuff, and it made me realize that I've been too harsh on everything else. I'm sorry, ARIAs. You're all right. (And apparently my dislike of Einaudi is not unreasonable.)

ABC Classic 100 - Music of France
This is happening this week. I think I've missed all the good stuff that normally hangs around the lower end of these countdowns.

I don't have many feelings about classical music, but I'll post my prediction for the top ten, based on past polls.

• Ravel - Boléro
• Faure - Requiem
• Massenet - Meditation from Thaïs
• Saint-Saëns - Symphony 3 
• Satie - Gymnopédies
• Debussy - Clair de Lune
• Bizet - Carmen
• Delibes - Flower Duet
• and two other things by one of the aforementioned composers, probably Debussy.

These sorts of things always end in a mess. According to Wikipedia, Chopsticks was actually no. 7 in the piano countdown. Surprisingly, Fur Elise was no. 15. 4'33" was no. 40, despite not really being for piano. It didn't even place in the 20th Century countdown. What.