Music -- some good, some, not so much.

A couple of good posts over at Reflections in D-minor (well, they're all good posts over there). First, she has a couple of Rachmaninov clips available (but only for a day or two). I adore Rachmaninov, and strongly recommend the recordings of his symphonies with the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. If you can only get one of the symphonies, get the #2 in E-minor, which for my money is one of the greatest symphonic works of all time. Andre Previn's recordings of the symphonies are also pretty good. For the piano concertos, I'd go with Previn's recordings -- with Ashkenazy playing the piano. And look for the tone poems, such as Isle of the Dead and The Bells.

(It'll also help in listening to Rachmaninov if you familiarize yourself with the Dies Irae chant, which fascinated him. He quotes it in many of his works.)

Also, if you have any interest in the music of Antonio Vivaldi, Lynn has a few ideas there, too. I confess that I simply can't stand Vivaldi -- The Four Seasons drives me mad, and there was some Mass or something I had to play in college that I likewise detested. But then, the whole Baroque thing does very little for me; even Bach is a struggle most of the time.