Category: Blogroll

An email exchange with The English Guy riffing off the “Seven Songs” meme pool game led me to recall one of my very favorite voices—not that it took much. heh. Anyway, Rich, The English Guy, reminded me of his preference for Mozart over Beethoven, which popped this into my mind’s ear:

Mozart: Die Zauberflöte [The Magic Flute]

Now, I’m not a huge opera fan, although arias and chorus pieces and instrumental preludes, interludes & etc., all find their way to my listening from various operas pretty regularly. But of all the operas I’ve been exposed to or associated with in the past, Die Zauberflöte is one I could sit through very gladly. Mozart at his light-hearted best, IMO. And listening to a recording directed by Karl Böhm with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau singing the Papageno role? Ah, I could listen to that for hours. Just the single finest lyric baritone voice ever recorded, IMO. Even in the very brief excerpt linked (no, not posted here) below, the wonderful quality of his voice shines. *sigh*

And when Fischer-Dieskau sings lieder, ya get a chance to hear what Schubert or Schumann must really have been hearing in their own minds’ ears.

Just awesomely good stuff.

And reading Romeocat’s songlist (see below), reminded me of this, which, although it’s at too slow a tempo for regular use and I dislike some of the vowell choices, is nevertheless a beautiful and moving performance of “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” (NETTLETON)… and reminds me yet again what a culturally subliterate society we’ve become.

What? Yep. The second verse of the song starts, “Here I raise mine Ebenezer/Hither by Thy help I’m come… ” which many churches are removing or modifying because… well, almost nobody has the foggiest idea what that means.

*sigh* For the darker side, Continue reading “I just love this stuff”

Bou tagged me with another so-called meme (yeh, the link’s to a real definition of the term. So sue me. :-)). Now, I know some folks don’t like to play these blogosphere meme pool “marco polo” games, and many claim to not like playing them (they lie, but just like to grumble), but not this boy. I figure it this way: folks who really don’t wanna play are probably just taking themselves too seriously. (Besides, in this case, well, anyone who knows Bou knows only a really gnarly curmudgeon would turn her down, right?)

Hey, y’all! Lighten up.

Here’s the deal she tagged me with:

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

Now, that’s not really all that easy. Have to cull the herd a bit, as it were… Besides, songs I am “into” right now are as likely to be things I’m listening to in my mind’s ear or whistling or singing or (when no one else is around to be tortured) playing as listening by means of some mechanical playback device…

So, in no particular order, although one will be pretty obvious from the sticky post at the head of twc, here are seven songs that are speaking to me a lot recently:

Shall We Dance? From The King and I, as sung by Marni Dixon (dubbed in for Debra Kerr in the 1956 movie version ). The reason for this one’s obvious. heh

All My Life’s a Circle, Harry Chapin. The lyrics are a little pseudo-profound-sophomorically silly, but the thing’s just so well-crafted musically that it’s almost hypnotic. I have sometimes, recently, had it simply looping in the background while I blogged or played a lil “Zen Freecell” (score currently stands at 7981/0–don’t ask me how, cos I dunno) to relax a bit.

There’s a piano piece by Rachmaninoff on a theme by Paganini that isn’t a song, but I can’t get the darned thing outa my head at times, recently… So it’s not a song. Whadda ya gonna do? Sue? Blood from a rock, friends. 🙂

“Lord Have Mercy” sung by David Proffitt, a setting of Psalm 136 (Thanks Romeocat for introducing me to this song.) Melodically, it’s very repetitive, but it works well for the piece, and the lush instrumental and vocal arrangement lends texture. A powerful bridge/release and an interesting turnaround/tag add a great deal of musical interest to the off-repeated hook: “Lord, have mercy.”

The “an die freude” section of Beethoven’s 9th in particular (since it’s the “choral” section), the last movement more generally and the entire Ninth as a whole. I’m not going to develop comments on this, cos if I did, the whole rst of the post would be eaten up with them. Just do yourself a favor and spend some time learning Beethoven’s musical language. Buy copies of all his symphonies, a few of his piano and other works and just listen. And again. Until you get it. It’ll change your mental musical ears forever.

(Oh, I could say the same of some other composers, but Beethoven’s a good place to start, IMO. Or Sibelius, perhaps.)

Recently, “Deportee”—a Woody Guthrie piece I hear in my mind’s ear sung by Pete Seeger—has been playing pretty regularly. Why? Not sure. It’s a remarkably strong song, structurally, lyrically and emotionally. I have little sympathy for the political viewpoint it espouses, but it’s just so darned strong a song…

“Anywhere the Wind Blows”, as sung by Melora Hardin. The lyrics are nearly babble (oh, they string together in recognizable concepts, but the concepts are mush), but the music is very good and Hardin’s voice is pure honey. She sings it much better than Lauren Christy (who wrote it and does a very creidible rendition), and really sells the song. But mostly, I just love Hardin’s voice.

That’s seven of the pieces I’m currntly listening to/hearing in my head that speak to me for one reason or another.

Now, who to hit with this?

Lyn, of Bloggin’ Outloud (Lyn, I couldn’t even begin to guess your list!)

Rick, of The Real Ugly American. (Rick: please tell me The Marine hymn is one you’re listening to right now :-))

The English Guy (cos I really wanna know!).

Diane, of Diane’s Stuff (I KNOW there’ll be some classic rock and maybe jazz in the mix, right?)

Romeocat, of Cathouse Chat (Hey! I know you’re really busy, R’Cat, and you like to pretend these meme games are a bother, but we know better, don’t we? Hmmm? :-))

Kris, of Anywhere But Here, just to distract you from the art auctions and school stuff.

Mel, of I’m Just a Girl (eclectic, I’ll bet.)

Just link here and trackback when you make your list. Then follow the yellow brick road, as per the instructions handed me by Bou, above. (Oh, and tell the folks you tag to do the same so you can enjoy their posts.)

There, that was perfectly painless for me, at least, although several pieces are twittering at me that they shoulda been picked instead…

Updte: First up with his list is The English Guy, closely followed by Romeocat. Both very interesting lists of music. Check ’em out!

You may have heard through some media source the comment that Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt made this past Wednesday, February 15, 2006. Mark the date. It’s only 22 years later than George Orwell predicted in his classic novel, “1984“. Hurtt has been quoted as saying that he wants surveillance cameras on downtown streets, apartment complexes and shopping malls. When asked whether the need for cameras extends to private homes, he said,

“If they’re putting a burden on the criminal justice system and cheating the other residents of Houston, yes.”

Also:

“If you’re not doing anything wrong, why should you worry about it?”

Well for one thing you ignorant Neanderthal it’s against everything this country was founded on. For another I might not remember there’s some freedom sucking voyeur watching my every move and do something as illegal as getting undressed and giving you or whoever’s supposed to be watching these things the thrill of their lives. When you or they die of a heart attack by being totally overcome with my beauty then I’d end up on Death Row. It would be my fault right?

You know I’ve heard some stupid things in my time, I do after all have three kids and a husband, but this has got to top the list. What in the world makes you think that any one has the right to take my privacy away in a home I’ve paid for with my own hard work and sweat? What makes you think TEXAS citizens would allow this? If you want to catch this girl doing something illegal you damn well better catch me out in public because if you try to come into MY house with a camera to watch me there’s gonna be some discussion.

Give Me A BREAK!

[audio:http://fallcolors.fatcow.com/Stuff/everybreath.mp3]

Crossposted At:

Diane’s Stuff

No. “Weather” is not equivalent to “climate.” But still… one sure thing about both is that they have always changed in the past and will continue to do so.

Take our local weather. I shoulda known. My Wonder Woman has a “long weekend”—Friday through Monday—off work, which we planned to spend mostly at home just “being there” with each others’ company, with a little out n about thrown in. Weather all week had been Spring-like. Thursday, the highs were in the mid-70s.

By Thursday night, 19. (Gee, I bet my lil pot of Anasazi beans I started are glad I didn’t put ’em out “Cos the weather’s so nice” eh? Yeh, anthropomorphizing. So?) And now, our first “real” snow of the season: 4″ on the ground.

Wether changes. Climates change. And there’s just about nothing we can do about it. For a pretty darned sensible take on Global Warming/Climate Shift Chicken Little-ism, see Glacial Thinking, Let’s Create A Crisis There are more scholarly, intellectual treatments of the topic (Go to Jerry Pournelle’s place and search on global warming and climate for a few), but Creechman over at Clear Lake Reflections pretty well sums up some of the fundamental flaws in GW/CC Chicken Littleism. Read it. (Yeh, Yeh, I know I’m not the boss of you. So?)

h.t. Jerry Pournelle

It’s apparently in Danish (don’t ask me; how would I know?), but don’t let that stop you; you’ll get it.

CLICK HERE

heh

Here’s a change of pace. This bread recipe has been a hit at my house. I make it in my bread machine, but if you do the knead-rise-punchdown-etc. routine, I imagine it’d work as well for that, too.

Add these ingredients in this order to your bread machine, set it for a 2-pound loaf and the crust you want (I choose “darker” for mine, YMMV) and walk away.

• 1.5 cups warm water (about 115 degrees fahrenheit)
• 0.5-1.0 tsp salt (mostly a matter of taste)
• 2 Tbs oil (I prefer a good, full-flavored olive oil for this)
• 1 egg (added last immediately before the dry ingredients)

Mix the dry ingredients separately and add them all at once:

• 2 cups white flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2.5 tsp active dry yeast
• 0.25 C oat bran
• 0.25 C garbanzo bean flour
• 0.25 C vanilla protein powder (mostly soy)
• 0.25 C corn meal
• 0.25 C sunflower seeds

Hit the start button and let the feast begin!

This is a rather heavy bread, but it bakes up nicely and—most importantly—is delicious. That it is also packed with nutrients is a lil lagniappe.

Scram, beat it, get outa heah…

And CLICK on over to Rick’s transcript of a very interesting “non-debate” on the issue of domestic surveillance of foreign contacts with American residents (citizen or not) at The Real Ugly American.

Very interesting. Executive summary? “If Al-qaeda’s calling you, we wanna know why… and we have the Constitutional authority to find out.”

But don’t trust my summary. See for yourself.

🙂

Veddy, veddy interesting… It’s a loooong post, but worth reading, IMO.

Via Stop the ACLU and Yahoonews:

A Pakistani cleric announced Friday a $1 million bounty for killing a cartoonist who drew Prophet Muhammad, as thousands joined street protests and Denmark temporarily closed its embassy and advised its citizens to leave the country.

Now, if Pat Robertson or some other fun-damn-mentalist falsely claiming a Christian purpose had announced a $1,000,000 bounty on Andres Serrano for having wrought “Piss Christ” do you think we’d ever hear the end of the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth from Mass Media Podpeople, Hollyweirdites, Loony Left Moonbats and their ilk about how oppressive and evil Christianity is?

But where’s the mass outcry when a Muslim “cleric” makes such an outrageous announcement? Nowhere, mon frere, cos such an announcement is well within the mainstream of Muslim theology, and the MMP/LLM/HW meme is that Islam is a “religion of peace,” therefore, inciting to murder by Muslims is a peaceful act, or some other such idiotic line of reasoning…

Oh, and the next time you meet a soi disant “moderate Muslim” do ask him if he repudiates violence in the name of his religion. If he says yes, then ask him if he then repudiates The Butcher of Medina, Mohammed (who rots in hell forever). If he says no, then tell him clearly that his repudiation of violence in the name of his religion is a flat out lie.

[edit: Light day today. Grateful for the guest authors keeping my average posts-per-day up around normal… and raising the level of discourse here at twc at the same time. Thanks, y’all! Wanna game some brains? Try the lil psy-op below… ]

Here in America’s Third World Countyâ„¢, ther’es one thing that travels faster than light: gossip. And sooner or later—think of the “tellephone game”—any gossip about oneself comes around in greatly exaggerated forms.

Soooo, I have recently begun planting juicy tidbits about myself in the ears of some of the most egregious gossips with the injunction “Now, don’t let this get out!” included to assure it gets amplified and passed on.

Try it! It’s fun to hear jiucy bits repeated and then be able to say, “Oh, yeh, that came from XXXxxxx, cos I planted it with him/her to see how fast he/she would spread it.”

Bumfuzzled looks, laughs and more than a few “I’ve gotta try that!”s.

Fun.

Tossing the Little Gray Football over at TMH’s Bacon Bits

This is an open post—all weekend long. Link to this post and trackback. Meanwhile… iHillary has succinctly summed up the real news of Quailgate with a (not-so-) simple graphic:

DO CLICK to read iHillary’s post accompanying the graphic.

And do CLICK on the OTA graphic below or on my left sidebar for more info on the Open Trackback Alliance, ‘K?

Also note the other fine blogs featuring linkfests at

Linkfest Haven.