terribilità

Mozart

2012-01-28T00:11:00.000-05:00

Remember Bayard Rustin

2012-01-07T14:42:00.000-05:00

Tragic that this man of tremendous courage was pushed to the back of the bus, so to speak, of the movement. He was a hero of my parents.He was also a fine singer with a beautiful tenor voice, but I can't find a clip of that at the moment.

It's Better with a Union Band

2012-01-04T11:47:00.001-05:00

Behold the awesomeness of the Pulaski High School marching band of Wisconsin, who played this labor anthem on national TV at the Rose Bowl Parade.

January 1, 2012

2012-01-01T08:41:00.001-05:00

49 days to pitchers and catchers. Not that I know WHO I'M ROOTING FOR THIS YEAR.

O that we were there

2011-12-26T04:00:00.000-05:00

Christmas 2011

2011-12-24T11:23:00.001-05:00

Happy Repeal Day

2011-12-05T15:17:00.001-05:00

MORE Beethoven

2011-11-21T13:10:00.001-05:00

More Beethoven

2011-11-02T15:49:00.002-04:00

November is Beethoven Awareness Month

2011-11-01T13:31:00.001-04:00

Not that I need an excuse.

Ohhh, my eyes!

2011-10-23T21:27:00.000-04:00

I am fooling around with the site design (obviously) so you may see some egregious things here in the next few days while I try to get it right. The Cranach girl will probably stay up top there. Of course, there's a good chance I'll just get frustrated and revert to the old design.

This

2011-10-23T13:55:00.000-04:00

Via Alexis Madrigal in The Atlantic Monthly

2011-10-16T20:11:00.000-04:00

Sir Total Awesomeness has been appointed Chancellor of Durham University!

2011-10-16T17:12:00.001-04:00

2011-09-22T17:14:00.001-04:00

2011-09-21T13:03:00.001-04:00

September 19 is Talk Like a Pirate Day

2011-09-19T11:39:00.000-04:00

It's also my brother's birthday, but the hell with that. :P (Happy Birthday, Ed)

2011-09-12T14:18:00.000-04:00

But the attacks were supposed to have made us a better and stronger country, not merely a more sentimental one whose most endearing qualities are a penchant for self-pity and a hunger for revenge. And about the worst thing we can do right now is focus too intensely on an event that, let's be honest now, not only killed 3,000 Americans, but that directly or indirectly inspired a pathology of disastrous and very expensive decisions. Patrick Smith, Slate.com

Ten Years

2011-09-11T00:06:00.000-04:00

I can't believe it. And everything I now think about it is probably heretical. There is a piece in the Times today headed "Separating the Moment from What Came After," and that's exactly what I can't do anymore.

20 Reasons to Thank Labor Unions

2011-09-05T18:03:00.000-04:00

(Hat tip to Stephen D. Foster of Addicting Info)
1. Minimum Wage: Without federally mandated minimum wage, we’d still be working for pennies.

2. Child Labor Laws: Without these laws, children would be hired as cheap labor.

3. Paid Vacations: Did you go on a cruise this year? Perhaps to the Grand Canyon or another? Thank a union.

4. Employer Health Care, Dental, and Vision Insurance: If you have a medical, dental, or vision care plan through your employer, your a lucky person. All because of organized labor.

5. Pensions: If you were able to retire at 65 and get pension checks in the mail, congratulations, you’re living proof that unions work.

6. Safety Conditions: Do you work at a potentially hazardous job but have safety regulations in place to protect you? If so, unions are responsible for your continued safety.

7. Collective Bargaining: Just having the right to negotiate with your employer is a benefit guaranteed by a union.

8. Weekends: If you have weekends off to spend with your families, a labor union is responsible for giving you that time off.

9. Sick Leave: Did you get to use a work provided sick day to get well? Unions fought for that too.

10. Overtime: Are you able to work overtime and get paid even more for it? Thank a union.

11. 8 Hour Work Day: Without unions, we’d all be working non-stop 24/7. Because of unions you’re able to go home and spend some time at home with family and friends before you catch 6-8 hours of sleep.

12. 40 Hour Work Week: Just like number 11, without unions, we’d never have a day off and work would encompass our entire life.

13. Unemployment Benefits: Are you unemployed but receive unemployment benefits to care for your family until you find another job? One word. Unions.

14. Wrongful Termination Laws: Because of unions, you can’t be fired for stupid reasons, like the color of your skin or because you make too much money.

15. Pay Raises: Unions are responsible for your ability to ask for and receive pay raises.

16. Holiday Pay: Do you at least get some holidays off? If so, thank a union.

17. Pregnancy and Parental Leave: In some countries, women give birth on the job and have to go back to work the next day. Corporations would make women do the same thing here if not for the determination of a union.

18. The Right To Strike: We have the right to organize and protest against the government. A union fought for your right to organize and strike against your employer.

19. Equal Pay For Women: Women finally get equal pay for equal work. Thank a union.

20. Laws Ending Sweatshops: Because of unions, sweatshops, which employ cheap labor with harsh conditions, are illegal.

Every right that a worker has in the workplace is all because a union fought hard to get it. As Republicans continue to wipe out unions and weaken them, they also weaken us and our ability to fight back against unfair business practices. We are at risk of losing all the things that unions fought long and hard to secure. Even our jobs are at risk. Because of unions, many of the jobs Americans still hold, have not been outsourced overseas. Unions protect jobs in America and where there are unions, there are jobs. Because the private sector has largely wiped out unions, big corporations are able to lay off American workers and give those jobs to cheap labor overseas. If you want a job, or want to keep yours, organize or join a union and fight for your right to work. Unions fight for the American worker, therefore they fight for us. Anyone who says that unions are un-American only wants to get rid of the above list so that they can make ridiculous profits off the backs off a cheap labor workforce. If you support American workers, American jobs, and the continued prosperity of the American people, support labor unions.

Labor Day

2011-09-05T12:34:00.002-04:00

Keep José!

2011-06-29T01:04:00.000-04:00

Never gets old

2011-06-17T15:19:00.002-04:00

This cartoon became an instant classic when I first saw it in mid-90s; it used to be a regular greeting between me and my brother. It still gives me a giggle. And there's even a recipe somewhere for Fusilli alla Crazy Bastard.

New Yorker Cartoon by Charles Barsotti.

Banning Rainbows?

2011-06-07T21:09:00.004-04:00

Via Jezebel, these kids at Saint Joseph's Catholic Secondary School in Ontario, want to have a Gay-Straight Alliance. The school has banned them from:

-Distributing booklets discussing gender identity, harassment in sports, AIDS awareness, or safe sex.
-Donating the money from their bake sale to an LGBT charity — the school made them donate to a Catholic homeless charity instead.
-Mentioning their school's name at a Pride Parade.

They can't even display literature or other material with rainbows on them. Banning rainbows? Are they for real?

Anyway, the kids are raising money for buttons to get their message out. How great would it be if they could know that people from everywhere support them?

Richard Scarry (1919-94)

2011-06-05T12:55:00.003-04:00

I love Richard Scarry's books. I have all my life. One of the perks of being an aunt has been getting back in touch with Scarry's art, and seeing how much it tickled the kids. Of course, late in life, and posthumously, Scarry has become a huge "thing," thanks to the Nickelodeon BusyTown animated series. I'm strictly a Scarry print fan-- and thanks to my bro's and sister-in-law's TV policy, so are Evan and Fiona.

What i think I love most about Scarry, who was mind-bogglingly prolific (300+ books), was the exuberance and whimsicality of his imagination, and how he was always sneakily (and not-so-sneakily) bringing elements of chaos into his own BusyTown. BusyTown itself was incredibly detailed, with immaculately precise renderings of oddly European half-timber architecture (he lived part of his life in Switzerland), and Scarry seemed to take pleasure in setting up an orderly environment, and gleefully subverting it. BusyTown was populated by an impossible mix of lovingly depicted cats, rabbits, pigs, foxes, bears and hippos, living amicably, if not quietly. All his structures eventually seemed like the framework for his imagination to go wild, drawing plethorae of his wide-eyed anthropomorphic animals in motion in all manner of crazy, fanciful vehicles (e.g. the immortal pickle car), almost inevitably leading to a monstrous pileup of cars, trucks, helicopters, biplanes, pickle, apple and banana cars, with rivers of spilled watermelons, surrounded by frantic bunnies and pigs, and presided over by the harassed Officer Flossie-- and of course, nobody was ever hurt.

A Guest Appearance from Slate.com

2011-05-28T01:45:00.000-04:00

Eliza-Boxer

2011-05-10T14:50:00.000-04:00

On the Mets' Winning Streak

2011-04-28T11:12:00.001-04:00

April 28 is Workers Memorial Day

2011-04-26T17:43:00.000-04:00

The Best Thing on the Internet

2011-04-26T15:45:00.000-04:00

I know I'm little behind on this, but so what. It did my heart good.

Lazy Mary

2011-04-24T15:23:00.001-04:00

Preceded, as usual, by Take Me Out to the Ballgame. I can't tell you how happy this makes me-- especially when the Mets are winning.

Ce'na luna mezz'u mare
Mamma mia m'a maritare
Figlia mia a cu te dare
Mamma mia pensace tu
Se te piglio lu pesciaiole
Isse vai isse vene
Sempe lu pesce mane tene
Se ce 'ncappa la fantasia
Te pesculia figghiuzza mia
Là lariulà pesce fritt'e baccalà
Uei cumpà no calamare c'eggi'accattà

C' 'na luna mezz'u mare
Mamma mia m'a maritare
Figlia mia a cu te dare
Mamma mia pensace tu
Se te piglio lu pulezia
Isse vai isse vene
Semp'a scuppetta mane tene
Se ce 'ncappa la fantasia
Te scuppettea figghiuzza mia
Là lariulà pesce fritt'e baccalà
Uei cumpà 'na scuppetta c'eggi'accattà

(etc.)

Easter Wings

2011-04-24T12:43:00.000-04:00

Another "Greatest Hit" from that long-ago 17th-century poetry class.

Easter Wings
George Herbert

Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store,
Though foolishly he lost the same,
Decaying more and more,
Till he became
Most poore:
With thee
Oh let me rise
As larks, harmoniously,
And sing this day thy victories:
Then shall the fall further the flight in me.

My tender age in sorrow did beginne:
And still with sicknesses and shame
Thou didst so punish sinne,
That I became
Most thinne.
With thee
Let me combine
And feel this day thy victorie:
For, if I imp my wing on thine
Affliction shall advance the flight in me.

The Riot Act

2011-04-24T12:36:00.002-04:00

I always wanted to read someone The Riot Act. The Riot Act is (or was) a real thing, not just a funny saying. But the opportunity never seems to present itself to me, so here is the text of The Riot Act of 1714:

Our sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the act made in the first year of King George, for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God save the King.

Zounds!

2011-04-24T11:51:00.002-04:00

I missed Shakespeare's birthday! It's also my mother's birthday. And it's Easter weekend, busy time. But it is Poetry Month! So, belatedly . . . So here is Sir Awesome (one of them, anyway).

Also, another Sir Awesome (is he knighted? If not, why not?)

And here, because I need no excuse, is my primary Sir Awesome, doing something he doesn't usually do, and doing it rather well.

Le Tombeau des Naïades

2011-04-19T15:51:00.000-04:00

My favorite of Debussy's Chansons de Bilitis, sung by one of my favorite singers,

Le Tombeau des Naïades
Pierre Louÿs

Le long du bois couvert de givre, je marchais;
Mes cheveux devant ma bouche
Se fleurissaient de petits glaçons,
Et mes sandales étaient lourdes
De neige fangeuse et tassée.

Il me dit: "Que cherches-tu?"
Je suis la trace du satyre.
Ses petits pas fourchus alternent
Comme des trous dans un manteau blanc.
Il me dit: "Les satyres sont morts.

"Les satyres et les nymphes aussi.
Depuis trente ans, il n'a pas fait un hiver aussi terrible.
La trace que tu vois est celle d'un bouc.
Mais restons ici, où est leur tombeau."

Et avec le fer de sa houe il cassa la glace
De la source ou jadis riaient les naïades.
Il prenait de grands morceaux froids,
Et les soulevant vers le ciel pâle,
Il regardait au travers.

I was walking along in the frost-covered woods;
in front of my mouth
my hair blossomed in tiny icicles,
and my sandals were heavy
with muddy caked snow.

He asked: "What are you looking for?"
"I'm following the tracks of the satyr -
his little cloven hoofprints alternate
like holes in a white cloak."
He said: "The satyrs are dead.

"The satyrs are dead, and the nymphs too.
In thirty years there has not been such a terrible winter.
That's the trail of a he-goat.
But let's pause here, where their tomb is."

With his hoe he broke the ice
of the spring where the water-nymphs used to laugh.
There he was, picking up large cold slabs of ice,
lifting them toward the pale sky,
and peering through them.

John Oliver on tyranny for Tax Day

2011-04-17T12:37:00.001-04:00

Last year on the Daily Show, John Oliver tries to explain actual tyranny to the Tea Partiers.

The Daily Show - Tempest in a Tea Party - Tea Bag Tyranny
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Mad Poetry

2011-04-17T10:45:00.000-04:00

From Mad Magazine, sometime in the 50s or 60s, with no apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Re: the illustration. Don Martin's astonishingly inventive onomatapoeic sound effects have always tickled me, and I think they're poetry of a sort. My favorite is "SHTOINK!"

IRVING KAHN
by Samuel Tailor Coolman

In Levittown did Irving Kahn
A lovely Cape Cod house decree:
Where Alf, the Sacred Neuman dwelt,
And Nick Fazool and Olaf Svelt.
And even Sean McGee.

There, fifty feet of crabgrass ground
With picket fence were girdled round.
A place for little Milt to play,
A port for Irving's Chevrolet.

But just one thing is not the very best,
you can't tell Irving's place from all the rest!

Heart, We Will Forget Him

2011-04-16T15:41:00.001-04:00

Sung by the dear, wonderful Robert Tear.

Heart, We Will Forget Him
Emily Dickinson

Heart, we will forget him
You and I, tonight.
You may forget the warmth he gave,
I will forget the light.

When you have done, pray tell me,
That I my thoughts may dim;
Haste! lest while you're lagging,
I may remember him!

Leap Before You Look

2011-04-15T19:58:00.000-04:00

W.H. Auden, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Robert Frost on the Colbert Report.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Poet

2011-04-12T15:01:00.001-04:00

Sonnetto XVI
Michelangelo Buonarroti

Sì come nella penna e nell'inchiostro
È l'alto e 'l basso e 'l mediocre stile,
E ne' marmi l'immagin ricca e vile,
Secondo che 'l sa trar l'ingegno nostro;
Così, signor mie car, nel petto vostro,
Quante l'orgoglio, è forse ogni atto umile:
Ma io sol quel c'a me proprio è e simile
Ne traggo, come fuor nel viso mostro.
Chi semina sospir, lacrime e doglie,
(L'umor dal ciel terreste, schietto e solo,
A vari semi vario si converte),
Però pianto e dolor ne miete e coglie;
Chi mira alta beltà con sì gran duolo,
Dubbie speranze, e pene acerbe e certe.

As pen and ink alike serve him who sings
In high or low or intermediate style;
As the same stone hath shapes both rich and vile
To match the fancies that each master brings;
So, my dear lord, within thy bosom springs
Pride mixed with meekness and kind thoughts that smile:
Whence I draw nought, my sad self to beguile,
But what my face shows--dark imaginings.
He who for seed sows sorrow, tears, and sighs,
(The dews that fall from heaven, though pure and clear,
From different germs take divers qualities)
Must needs reap grief and garner weeping eyes;
And he who looks on beauty with sad cheer,
Gains doubtful hope and certain miseries.

Batter My Heart

2011-04-11T12:05:00.001-04:00

One of the great advantages of having been an English major was reading Donne's Holy Sonnets, along with works of George Herbert, and Milton's Paradise Lost, in 17th-Century Poetry class.

Batter My Heart, Three Person'd God
John Donne

Batter my heart, three person'd God; for you
As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow mee, and bend
Your force, to breake, blowe, burn and make me new.
I, like an usurpt towne, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but Oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in mee, mee should defend,
But is captiv'd, and proves weake or untrue.
Yet dearely I love you, and would be loved faine,
But am betroth'd unto your enemie:
Divorce mee, untie, or breake that knot againe;
Take mee to you, imprison mee, for I
Except you enthrall mee, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish mee.

So is This

2011-04-10T15:43:00.002-04:00

Snooky-Ookums
Irving Berlin

All night long he calls her snooky-ookums, snooky-ookums.
All they do is talk like babies.
She's his jelly elly roll.
He's her sugey ugar bowl.
Hear the way they bill and coo, poodgywoo,poodgywoo, poodgywoo?
All night long he calls her snookey ookums, snookey ookums.
All night long the neighbors shout "Cut it out! Cut it out! Cut it out!"
They cry, "For goodness sake
don't keep us all awake
With your snooky-ookey-ooky baby talk!"

This is sort of a poem

2011-04-09T21:42:00.002-04:00

Well, I think it is. One of the greatest ever New Yorker cartoons, the sublime "Ip gissa gul" by my favorite, George Booth (double click on the picture).

More Poetry

2011-04-08T16:28:00.001-04:00

Am leuchtende Sommermorgen
Heinrich Heine

Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen
Geh' ich im Garten herum.
Es flüstern und sprechen die Blumen,
Ich aber, ich wandle stumm.

Es flüstern und sprechen die Blumen,
Und schaun mitleidig mich an:
Sei unserer Schwester nicht böse,
Du trauriger blasser Mann.

On a shining summer morning
I wander around my garden.
The flowers are whispering and speaking;
I, however, wander silently.

The flowers are whispering and speaking
And look at me sympathetically.
"Do not be angry with our sister,
You sad, pale man."

Two for One

2011-04-07T14:11:00.000-04:00

Henry Purcell
Gerard Manley Hopkins

The poet wishes well to the divine genius of Purcell and praises him that, whereas other musicians have given utterance to the moods of man’s mind, he has, beyond that, uttered in notes the very make and species of man as created both in him and in all men generally.

HAVE, fair fallen, O fair, fair have fallen, so dear
To me, so arch-especial a spirit as heaves in Henry Purcell,
An age is now since passed, since parted; with the reversal
Of the outward sentence low lays him, listed to a heresy, here.

Not mood in him nor meaning, proud fire or sacred fear,
Or love or pity or all that sweet notes not his might nursle:
It is the forgèd feature finds me; it is the rehearsal
Of own, of abrupt self there so thrusts on, so throngs the ear.

Let him Oh! with his air of angels then lift me, lay me! only I’ll
Have an eye to the sakes of him, quaint moonmarks, to his pelted plumage under
Wings: so some great stormfowl, whenever he has walked his while

The thunder-purple seabeach plumèd purple-of-thunder,
If a wuthering of his palmy snow-pinions scatter a colossal smile
Off him, but meaning motion fans fresh our wits with wonder.

Actually, the verse by Nicholas Brady set here by Purcell (Ode to St. Cecilia) is noteworthy, if only for evoking Purcell's amazing response:

Tis Natures's Voice; thro' all the moving Wood
Of Creatures understood:
The Universal Tongue to none
Of all her num'rous Race unknown!
From her it learnt the mighty Art
To court the Ear or strike the Heart:
At once the Passions to express and move;
We hear, and straight we grieve or hate, rejoice or love:
In unseen Chains it does the Fancy bind;
At once it charms the Sense and captivates the Mind

Another Another Poem

2011-04-06T10:16:00.002-04:00

Zefiro torna, e 'l bel tempo rimena
Francesco Petrarca

Zefiro torna, e 'l bel tempo rimena,
e i fiori e l'erbe, sua dolce famiglia,
et garrir Progne et pianger Filomena,
e primavera candida e vermiglia.

Ridono i prati, e 'l ciel si rasserena;
Giove s'allegra di mirar sua figlia;
l'aria e l'acqua e la terra è d'amor piena;
ogni animal d'amar si riconsiglia.

Ma per me, lasso, tornano i più gravi
sospiri, che del cor profondo tragge
quella ch'al ciel se ne portò le chiavi;
e cantar augelletti, e fiorir piagge,
e 'n belle donne oneste atti soavi
sono un deserto, e fere aspre e selvagge.

Another Poem

2011-04-05T18:09:00.001-04:00

A Noiseless Patient Spider
Walt Whitman

A noiseless, patient spider,
I mark'd, where, on a little promontory, it stood, isolated;
Mark'd how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding,
It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself;
Ever unreeling them--ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you, O my Soul, where you stand,
Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,--seeking the spheres, to
connect them;
Till the bridge you will need, be form'd--till the ductile anchor
hold;
Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul.

Picture: Argiope

April is Poetry Month

2011-04-04T15:02:00.002-04:00

So here's a poem, one I learned long ago, in junior high. Did not understand it much then, surprise, surprise. I saw the painting years later, though, and the poem shot through my mind. So trying to teach it to me wasn't a total waste. :P

Musée des Beaux Arts
W. H. Auden

About suffering they were never wrong,
The old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position: how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

Robert Tear, RIP

2011-03-29T10:54:00.002-04:00

From the Fire

2011-03-25T12:10:00.000-04:00

The following words are not mine-- I could never dream of improving on them. They are Rose Schneiderman's, who originated the phrase "bread and roses." She spoke at a mass meeting at the Metropolitan Opera (of all places, that Gilded Age shrine of plutocracy) after the Triangle fire.

I would be a traitor to these poor burned bodies if I came here to talk good fellowship. We have tried you good people of the public and we have found you wanting. The old Inquisition had its rack and its thumbscrews and its instruments of torture with iron teeth. We know what these things are today; the iron teeth are our necessities, the thumbscrews are the high-powered and swift machinery close to which we must work, and the rack is here in the firetrap structures that will destroy us the minute they catch on fire.

This is not the first time girls have been burned alive in the city. Every week I must learn of the untimely death of one of my sister workers. Every year thousands of us are maimed. The life of men and women is so cheap and property is so sacred. There are so many of us for one job it matters little if 146 of us are burned to death.

We have tried you citizens; we are trying you now, and you have a couple of dollars for the sorrowing mothers, brothers and sisters by way of a charity gift. But every time the workers come out in the only way they know to protest against conditions which are unbearable the strong hand of the law is allowed to press down heavily upon us.

Public officials have only words of warning to us – warning that we must be intensely peaceable, and they have the workhouse just back of all their warnings. The strong hand of the law beats us back, when we rise, into the conditions that make life unbearable.

I can't talk fellowship to you who are gathered here. Too much blood has been spilled. I know from my experience it is up to the working people to save themselves. The only way they can save themselves is by a strong working-class movement.

It Could Happen Again Here, Now

2011-03-24T21:57:00.001-04:00

March 25 is the 100th anniversary of the terrible Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. I used to pass the site (now in the middle of NYU) every day.

I thought if everybody knew about this, it would make a difference, but I am not so sure. I think enough people just don't care. And I think it's the people that it happened to. Then, it was Irish, Jewish and Italian girls, immigrants-- not "real" Americans. And we are getting back to the mindset that workers aren't humans, they are animals or chattel, or a necessary evil. We are headed straight back to this, only this time the victims will be Latino and Asian girls, and girls from the former Soviet bloc.

This is why you need unions, people. This is why they are necessary. Unions are the only power you have against decks that have been deliberately stacked so high against you, it's difficult even to conceptualize (which is part of the problem). Get your heads out of your asses before there's another Triangle Fire, and before nobody even cares if there's one or not anymore.

McCormack, "Il mio tesoro"

2011-03-24T16:14:00.003-04:00

So here it is, that "Il mio tesoro." It's really the only thing poor Don Ottavio has going for him. :P

I always wonder why people seem to think that singing Mozart is a day at the beach. This aria is monstrous. McCormack's breath control and phrasing are way beyond anything I have heard from contemporary singers, except maybe Kraus (whose voice quality I prefer). I don't know if he ever recorded "Fuor del mar" and he almost certainly never recorded "Frisch zum Kampfe," but would have been interesting to hear what he could do with them.

PS: Note the appoggiatura in the phrase "Ditele che i suoi torti." Does anyone do that anymore?

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T12:57:00.000-04:00

A pretty good Mozart singer, too. Best "Il mio tesoro" I ever heard.

Class Warfare

2011-03-14T16:19:00.000-04:00

This is what it looks like. Various sources, including Feministe.com:

Firth does Pinter

2011-02-28T03:39:00.003-05:00

2011-02-22T18:24:00.001-05:00

Bread and Roses and Bagpipes

2011-02-18T20:24:00.000-05:00

Wisconsin, F*** Yeah!!!

2011-02-18T11:40:00.002-05:00

Thank you, brave people of Wisconsin, for fighting the fight for all of us.

Only Wednesday, reached my seriousness limit for week

2011-02-16T19:05:00.000-05:00

2011-02-06T13:48:00.002-05:00

Sigh

2011-02-02T17:03:00.000-05:00

Pepperoni pizza at Otto. Picture from NY Times.

Best Egypt Protest Sign

2011-02-01T13:45:00.001-05:00

From Buzzfeed.com .

Hang in there, peeps. Just don't loot your own museums, please.

Margaret Price (1941-2011)

2011-01-29T12:52:00.000-05:00

Cymru am byth.

When Will This End?

2011-01-28T14:30:00.003-05:00

He's Back

2011-01-26T13:31:00.002-05:00

We're Neither Pure nor Wise nor Good

2011-01-22T00:09:00.006-05:00

The only problem I have with this is I really wish they had let that last chord settle awhile. So beautiful.

Nine years

2010-09-11T19:10:00.000-04:00

Unbelievable, nine years.

People, please start getting smarter, not stupider.

Happy Birthday

2010-09-10T21:40:00.002-04:00

Still Waiting

2010-09-06T13:09:00.003-04:00

"Bread and Roses" strike, Lawrence, Massacussetts, 1912

Labor Day

2010-09-03T14:58:00.002-04:00

Disappointingly Non-Evil

2010-08-29T01:38:00.000-04:00

The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to the First Level of Hell - Limbo!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very High
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Very Low
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	High
Level 7 (Violent)	Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

Contrarianism

2010-08-28T15:22:00.000-04:00

From Sense and Sensibility, that inexhaustible font of wisdom, for me, at least. I have what seems to be to be an inborn tendency to run in the direction opposite of where I see crowds going. But I have to watch myself that I don't flatter myself that it is a virtue in itself.

"You must not enquire too far, Marianne—remember I have no knowledge in the picturesque, and I shall offend you by my ignorance and want of taste if we come to particulars. I shall call hills steep, which ought to be bold; surfaces strange and uncouth, which ought to be irregular and rugged; and distant objects out of sight, which ought only to be indistinct through the soft medium of a hazy atmosphere. You must be satisfied with such admiration as I can honestly give. I call it a very fine country—the hills are steep, the woods seem full of fine timber, and the valley looks comfortable and snug—with rich meadows and several neat farm houses scattered here and there. It exactly answers my idea of a fine country, because it unites beauty with utility—and I dare say it is a picturesque one too, because you admire it; I can easily believe it to be full of rocks and promontories, grey moss and brush wood, but these are all lost on me. I know nothing of the picturesque."

"I am afraid it is but too true," said Marianne; "but why should you boast of it?"

"I suspect," said Elinor, "that to avoid one kind of affectation, Edward here falls into another. Because he believes many people pretend to more admiration of the beauties of nature than they really feel, and is disgusted with such pretensions, he affects greater indifference and less discrimination in viewing them himself than he possesses. He is fastidious and will have an affectation of his own."

Look Dad! It's our Ken!

2010-08-12T21:55:00.000-04:00

There's nowt wrong wi' gala luncheons, lad! I've had more gala luncheons than you've had hot dinners.

RIP Tony Judt

2010-08-07T21:52:00.001-04:00

This blog seems to be (unintentionally, I promise) degenerating into a series of obituaries. But there has been yet another passing that I want to note, and another tribute I want to make. This was a brilliant and courageous man.

And hairier all the time

2010-08-07T21:35:00.000-04:00

Anthony Rolfe Johnson (1940-2010)

2010-07-21T14:43:00.000-04:00

Rest in peace, Tony.

Mansplanation

2010-07-17T00:04:00.000-04:00

The God of Awesomeness Speaks for Libraries

2010-07-15T16:14:00.003-04:00

The newest addition to my stable of extra-dimensional husbands speaks for all that is good and true. So of course, he gives big ups for libraries.

2010-06-24T12:48:00.000-04:00

Don't mess with me!

2010-06-16T01:12:00.001-04:00

And just to show I don't single out the young:

Counting in the Rain

2010-05-10T00:08:00.005-04:00

Liam Neeson = awesomeness

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-09T13:32:00.004-04:00

OK, OK, try this!

Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit,
aber ich will euch wieder sehen
und euer Herz soll sich freuen
und eure Freude soll niemand von euch nehmen.

Sehet mich an:
Ich habe eine kleine Zeit Mühe und Arbeit gehabt
und habe großen Trost funden.

Ich will euch trösten,
wie Einen seine Mutter tröstet.

Thanks, Mom, I love you.

Happy Cinco de Mayo

2010-05-05T22:51:00.001-04:00

Tom Lehrer: "Smut"

2010-04-25T12:10:00.000-04:00

Some conservative library blogger (yes, there is such a thing) wrote without irony or any sense of humor that this should be the "unofficial anthem of the American Library Association." I say why unofficial? Let's go for it!!

All books can be indecent books
Though recent books are bolder,
For filth (I'm glad to say) is in
the mind of the beholder.
When correctly viewed,
Everything is lewd.
(I could tell you things about Peter Pan,
And the Wizard of Oz, there's a dirty old man!)

I think I dig your problem; it's rubber and it quacks

2010-04-24T02:40:00.004-04:00

Who do I love most here? Well, obviously Keith and Mookie. But there's a five-way tie for second between Edith Prickley, Itzhak Perlman, PeeWee Herman, Madeline Kahn,and Jeremy Irons doing the Charleston. And look how skinny Wynton Marsalis was!

2010-04-24T00:46:00.003-04:00

Here we go . . .

2010-03-29T19:51:00.001-04:00

I am a baseball fan, a Mets fan to be precise. I have been, and am a fan of other things. And I'm not always comfortable with being a fan. And the Internet and the culture has transformed fan-ness, or fandom, in many ways, into something that's even more uncomfortable for me.

What is being a fan, anyway?

For some reason, I suspect it has something to do with my parents, I seem to be very sensitive to power differentials between people-- I have to try to keep myself from constantly monitoring it between myself and others. Just one of my many neuroses. Status, too. My insecurity. I'm important, too, you know. :P My mom was always telling me that nobody was better than I am.:P I'm not sure if I believed her or not, or if I still believe it or not, but buddy, you'd better not get any ideas that you're better than me. Something I seem to share with many insecure, class-conscious Americans, although we aren't supposed to have class here. If we don't exactly have class, we have replaced it with some complex of measurements peculiar to us, and if I can't exactly put my finger on it, I feel it. Why I spent so many years trying to wield my facile knowledge as a preemptive weapon. That was my status marker.

And being a fan, an admirer, worse, a passionate admirer of an entity I don't know personally, makes me feel, to start with, one down. First of all, I'm supposed to be too smart to be carried away with anything like that.

Then there's the male-female thing, which it seems related to, or some kind of extension of. I have a little rule not to love anything/one that doesn't love me. A baseball team can't possibly love me. In lieu of love, I accept wins. ;) If the team has seasons like the last, oh I don't know, THREE, that relationship becomes problematic for me.

Oh well. Play Ball!

Way to go, Jason

2010-03-28T13:55:00.003-04:00

This is the kind of thing that restores my hope, just a leetle bit.

Siegmund, so nenn ich dich

2010-03-26T05:59:00.007-04:00

What did I learn from Siegmund Levarie?

I learned to sing Gregorian chant. You sing it loud and fast. ;) And organum and conductus, and Bach chorales. You sing them all loud and fast. ;)

I learned about isorhythms.

There was always a two-week paper topic on the audibility of isorhythms. Nobody ever took it. That was one of Siegmund's. He was a devil.

I can still sing Pange lingua, and the head motive of Josquin's Pange lingua Mass.

I learned about Pythagoras and acoustics. I learned about Plato and Boethius.
I learned about fin de siècle Vienna, Debussy and Mahler.
I learned about Popes and patrons.
I learned about caccias and madrigals.
I learned about lais, virelais and rondeaux.
I learned about Mozart and Bach.
I learned about Brahms, and Strauss (Johann) and Strauss (Richard)
I learned to listen for and relish false relations, minor subdominants and hemiolas.
I learned to look for bar forms and bow forms.
I learned that Bach cantatas were psychodramas.
I learned that the melody of “Dove sono” was simply an ornament, a turn.
I learned about the Magic Flute and The Creation.
I learned that Mozart used sonata form in his operas.
I learned about the German Passion from Lassus to Bach. I learned about Heinrich Schütz, Praetorius, Hassler, Schein, Scheidt, Telemann, Buxtehude. I learned about Hamburg operas.
I learned about the cantus firmus mass.
I learned about the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation.

I learned about Tristan and Parsifal. I learned that Wagnerian heroes “are all very stupid, aren't they?” One day in the Tristan class, he asked "Why don't Tristan and Isolde just run away together in Act I, get married and live happily ever after?" Silence.
"Because he's stupid."

Life and Wagner are complicated enough-- no point in making it more so. ;)

Other things he said:
“How should I know, I wasn't there.”
“The typing is very good.”
“The elevator was broken. I immediately felt at home.”
“Look!”
“We used to see her (Alma Mahler) in her box at the opera. She was very beautiful. She was a terrible woman.”

I learned that music isn't all about what it made me feel. I learned it wasn't all about me.

It's entirely possible that I learned more from him than anyone else I've known. He was certainly the most deeply and broadly knowledgeable person I've ever known, and the most extravagantly generous with that knowledge. The knowledge and wisdom with which he packed my brain represented only the tiniest fraction of his.

I can never forget him, he gave me abundant riches, and yet I knew only the barest scrap of him. Yet I know that world was better with him in it.

Siegmund Levarie (1914-2010)

2010-03-26T01:05:00.006-04:00

Ruhe, ruhe du Held.

Buck O'Neill

2010-03-22T22:34:00.001-04:00

Bless him. Extraordinary man. Play Ball!!

And Now: An opera singer who isn't Tom Allen

2010-03-19T11:58:00.001-04:00

Unbelievable, right? A stinkin' cute British baritone, too. He's getting great reviews in the Met Hamlet that was put on for Natalie Dessay, who pulled out at a late date. I got on his bandwagon a little over ten years ago, when he was in the spectacular Trisha Brown L'Orfeo.

Sapete, egli è una bestia!

2010-03-18T15:20:00.011-04:00

Behold: the swagger, the “I am God's gift” smirk, the truly awesome jammies and dressing gown, the rushin' hands and roamin' fingers, and the cut-crystal recitative of Tom Allen in his prime. ;) The pint-sized Susanna is Marie McLaughlin; wonderful, shameless Robert Tear is Basilio. At ROH, in front of an audience that seems to appreciate a certain Benny Hill-like tone to the proceedings.

NB: I saw a lot of the Met production a year or two before this one, and it was wonderful, but there was a lot of backstage drama around La Battle. This performance is much looser, and a lot more fun than anything I saw at the Met. In several scenes, you can see the singers on the verge of cracking each other up.

Erin go bragh

2010-03-17T23:18:00.001-04:00

Cho-Puns (Oh Gwenivere!)

2010-03-16T15:07:00.000-04:00

From NPR's Chopin celebration
Bad puns from All Songs Considered
You'll be Chopin-handling in the street if you lose this job.
Don't Chopin-der to such vulgarities.
Chopin-droid
Chopin-amatronics
I'm having Chopin-gs of guilt
Man up and stop being such a Chopin-sy
I hear Bob is having a Chopin-dectomy this week.
I'm having a Chopin-ic attack
Chopin-ic! At The Disco
Chopin-esthetic
Have a glass of Chopin-gne
Chopin your pencil!
I had a Chopin-wich for lunch.
Another great band: Chopin-tha du Prince
Somebody help Stephen -- he's going into Chopin-aphylactic shock!
Last night, we ate dinner at an Italian restaurant and had some Chopin-cetta and Chopin-icotta.
Chopin-taloons
Take a note down on this Chopin-phlet.
A film by Guillermo del Toro: Chopin's Labyrinth.
Chopin-zers: German tanks used in WWII

I especially like the Chopin-cetta.

Gerard Hoffnung

2010-03-16T04:36:00.000-04:00

Philip Langridge (1939-2010)

2010-03-06T20:16:00.005-05:00

Happy Holi, again

2010-03-01T19:24:00.002-05:00

Frédéric François Chopin

2010-02-22T10:27:00.002-05:00

Born 200 years ago today.

Gioventù mia, tu non sei morta . . .

2010-02-21T04:25:00.003-05:00

. . . né di te morto è il sovvenir!
Se tu battessi alla mia porta,
t'andrebbe il mio core ad aprir!

Marcello!

terribilità

Mozart

Remember Bayard Rustin

It's Better with a Union Band

January 1, 2012

O that we were there

Christmas 2011

Happy Repeal Day

MORE Beethoven

More Beethoven

November is Beethoven Awareness Month

Ohhh, my eyes!

This

September 19 is Talk Like a Pirate Day

Ten Years

20 Reasons to Thank Labor Unions

Labor Day

Keep José!

Never gets old

Banning Rainbows?

Richard Scarry (1919-94)

A Guest Appearance from Slate.com

Eliza-Boxer

On the Mets' Winning Streak

April 28 is Workers Memorial Day

The Best Thing on the Internet

Lazy Mary

Easter Wings

The Riot Act

Zounds!

Le Tombeau des Naïades

John Oliver on tyranny for Tax Day

Mad Poetry

Heart, We Will Forget Him

Leap Before You Look

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Poet

Batter My Heart

So is This

This is sort of a poem

More Poetry

Two for One

Another Another Poem

Another Poem

April is Poetry Month

Robert Tear, RIP

From the Fire

It Could Happen Again Here, Now

McCormack, "Il mio tesoro"

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Class Warfare

Firth does Pinter

Bread and Roses and Bagpipes

Wisconsin, F*** Yeah!!!

Only Wednesday, reached my seriousness limit for week

*Sigh*

Best Egypt Protest Sign

Margaret Price (1941-2011)

When Will This End?

He's Back

We're Neither Pure nor Wise nor Good

Nine years

Happy Birthday

Still Waiting

Labor Day

Disappointingly Non-Evil

Contrarianism

Look Dad! It's our Ken!

RIP Tony Judt

And hairier all the time

Anthony Rolfe Johnson (1940-2010)

Mansplanation

The God of Awesomeness Speaks for Libraries

Don't mess with me!

Counting in the Rain

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Cinco de Mayo

Tom Lehrer: "Smut"

I think I dig your problem; it's rubber and it quacks

Here we go . . .

Way to go, Jason

Sigh