I just bought Philip Glass’s Solo Piano, and this is causing me some confusion.

My prior encounters with Philip Glass have been few to none—other than some exposure at organ concerts in Brown’s Sayles Hall, and of course the same exposure everyone gets in movies, I know Philip Glass primarily as a gag. Think Triumph the Insult Comic Dog:

Avril Lavinge, punk queen, now there’s a kidder,
Go back up north, Celine needs a baby-sitter
Philip Glass, atonal ass, you’re not immune
Write a song with a f** tune

So, why did I buy the damn CD? (Nor was it easy to do so—I first attempted to buy it via iTunes, then to download via p2p, neither attempt being successful, then tries Rasputin before breaking down and ordering it from Amazon)

I heard one of the tracks on an episode of Battlestar Galactica, and was subsequently totally unable to get it out of my head¹. At first I just assuaged the audio-itch by watching the episode, but this also requires me to sit through a landing on Kobol and compartment-to-compartment Cylon boarding party action, both of which are enjoyable in themselves, but sort of get in the way of the listening experience².

I’m enjoying it so far, though my capabilities as a listener of classical music (or whatever the hell you call piano music composed in late modernity) somewhat limit my appreciation. Anyway, if I start acting strangely or go catatonic a la Clarke’s “Ultimate Melody” in Tales from the White Hart, feel free to sue Philip Glass on my behalf.

¹ The episode was “Valley of Darkness,” in which Starbuck refers to it as “her dad,” though whether we’re supposed to understand that to be her dad’s music or her dad as musician I don’t know. Crazy-ass plot theory note: We know that all of Starbuck’s fingers were broken by an abusive parent when she was a child. Hmmm.

² Side note: Why the hell do ITMS video files not have bookmarked navigation like enhanced AACs? For that matter, why do they not have motherfracking captions?