If you’re in New York next weekend (March 26-27), you have a chance (well, two chances) to see me, Matt, and the rest of the Gay Gotham Chorus perform Carmina Burana with the Brooklyn College Chorale, a couple of other choruses, and a huge orchestra. Apparently there will be a couple of dancers, too. You’ve heard the main theme of Carmina Burana before — it’s been used in lots of movies. (Here are some MIDI files of the whole thing.) It’s a raucous, rambunctious, and just fun piece of music, perfect for the beginning of spring. Come see us.

I woke up this morning with a song in my head. I wrote it in my sleep. I’m not even a songwriter.

I was dreaming about the last episode of “Frasier,” which is odd, because I don’t even watch “Frasier.” I’ve seen it maybe five times in my life. But the show is ending this spring, and I was dreaming about the final episode. Ted Danson, Sam of “Cheers,” was the special guest star. Frasier and Sam were walking up a stairwell wearing beige trenchcoats. At the top of the stairwell, they opened a door and entered a corridor. They walked along the corridor, opened a door and walked into a room. Then they disappeared from the dream and the room became the main focus.

A group of college-age students was in the room singing a song. The final episode of “Frasier” was supposed to be a musical episode or something. I don’t think the song had words; I heard three distinct vocal parts complementing each other, as in an a cappella group. After a while, the song ended, and people clapped and wanted another song. I eagerly wanted to hear another song, but I must have been so excited that I woke up.

It was only 6:30, about an hour before I usually wake up, and I just lay there with this random song in my head. It was really just a few measures vamping over and over, and I liked it so much — it was poppish and upbeat, some combination of “Rent” and the New Radicals and Christian rock. (I’m Jewish, but I’ll sheepishly admit to liking the treacly, sugary, optimistic melodies of Christian rock songs.) I was afraid I’d forget it, so I hopped up out of bed and pulled out a sheet of paper and a pencil. I don’t have any staff paper, so I just used a regular sheet of paper and some approximation of musical notation to get the three parts down.

My brain wrote me a song in my sleep. How cool and creepy and wondrous.

Thanks, brain!

So I’ve decided to get a TiVo.

Viral marketing really works. When Matt and I watch TV, it’s usually at his place, and Matt is basically Mr. TiVo. I’d previously decided I didn’t need something like this, because I don’t watch that much TV, but I’ve become so used to it at Matt’s place that now I need one.

The last straw happened this weekend. Matt was at my place on Saturday night, and we decided to stay in and watch some junk-food TV. I opened my copy of the weekly New York Times television schedule, which is printed on paper. We decided to watch a rerun of the Facts of Life Reunion movie, followed by another made-for-TV movie called I Want to Marry Ryan Banks, starring Jason Priestley, Emma Caulfield and Bradley Cooper. I had never seen Bradley Cooper before, but Matt turned me on to his delectableness. The movie itself, a parody of a reality TV show, was entertaining enough. But the movie ended at midnight, and “Saturday Night Live” started at 11:30, so I had to turn on the VCR and tape the last half-hour of “Ryan Banks.” If I’d had TiVo, we could have just watched the rest of the movie and then started watching SNL from the beginning.

On top of that, when I watch TV at home now, it just feels so primitive after Matt’s TiVo. TiVo’s just too damn cool not to have. I checked out a comparison chart of TiVo and ReplayTV, and I’ve still decided I want TiVo.

Unfortunately, my apartment has only one working telephone jack, which TiVo needs to use in order to download information every night. So yesterday Matt and I tried to fix one of the broken jacks. We went to Radio Shack and got a new one. Later, by myself, I tried to get it working, but I couldn’t. So my choices are:

1) Wait for Matt to come over and try to fix it.
2) Get a wireless phone jack, about fifty bucks.
3) Get a really long phone cord and run it from my bedroom to my living room, up and around walls, etc.

I’m not sure which option I’ll choose (perhaps option 3 until Matt comes over to implement option 1), but either way I’m really excited.

The viral marketing has infected me, and I’m buying a TiVo.