Friday, July 31, 2009

Luceat Eis



Iz nise warmi sopt, OK?

A Charm of Finches and Away

The best and easiest way to fall in love with a person is to talk to them. You could also end up hating their fucking guts, but at least for a little while you will see that which is inside them deserving your love. Even if it isn't really there.

Red Molly loved James for more than just his '52 Vincent Black Lightning. She mistook danger for freedom. You see, that is how it is done.

As a nurse, there have been a few times when I have been with someone during the moment they died. One was a thirty-something young man who had already suffered an anoxic event that had destroyed his brain. His eyes were empty. Until he died. Then, as he took his final deep chest-filling breath, his eyes were full of all the people he had loved in his life.

I saw them, just as real as the words you see now. Then he exhaled and I saw them all swirl away deep down into his eyes, which then went dead again. For him I shut his eyelids. For them, too.

Dancing must be exhausting, because young energetic couples invariably begin by moving about quickly, then they gradually slow down, coming to a near-stop eventually. Then they wander off and sit by themselves or among others. That may be a critical difference.

What's the deal?

My spouse calls it insomnia. It's a satanic and discomforting affliction. Yet, it affords privacy.

Climb the church tower and hammer, hammer, hammer away at the bells. You will not break them.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Three For the Festival

Catrin Finch


She's just released a recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations which she plays on the concert harp. It's an amazing transcription, but that's not the half of it. It's a great performance.

Julia Fischer


Recent recordings of Mozart and Bach concertos, among other things, are attracting a lot of attention to this violinist.

Muriel Anderson


Fingerpicker extraordinaire, harp guitar player, and also simply a great classical guitarist; this woman should be a household name.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Les Oiseaux Formidables



Nick Lane has written this wonderful book about ten iconic developments that occurred as life evolved on our planet of flux. P.Z. Myers has a review here.

I'm also working on Bach's Partita in A Minor for solo flute, transcribed by guitarist Denis Azabagic.



It's thinly textured, which seems to make it easy on the fingers compared to the thorny fugues found in Bach's solo lute and violin works. But therein lies the musical difficulty.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Cheek to Cheek



Moira rarely shares space, which may account for her pickled expression. PorkPie rarely doesn't.

Saturday, July 04, 2009

La Deploration Sur la Mort de Ockeghem



Hat tip to AndyG. Story in the StarTribune here.

"Fireworks called Run Hadji Run were pulled off the shelves of a Wisconsin store after Minnesota Muslims complained that they were racist.

The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) said that both the name and the packaging are demeaning. One side of the package has a drawing of Uncle Sam yanking the long beard of a man in traditional Muslim attire, while the other shows a Stealth bomber flying over a group of Arabs riding camels."


It's some little girl's birthday today.

Be safe, people, and stay the fuck out of the hospital.

A Party of Jays

Psychoanalysis takes a long time. Truth is elusive. The self is a chimera. People need to make a living.

We can only really speak meaningfully of things that exist. Perhaps we should put aside all discussion of promises.

We can devise a word or words for each thing that is discovered in our reality. Unfortunately, we can also devise words for things that have never existed and never will exist. This creates problems in language. These problems spread and evolve virally, becoming pandemic.

Once I knew a man named Lou. He'd had a stroke that destroyed his ability to speak, meaning that the Broca's area of his brain had suffered while the Wernicke's area was relatively intact. He could sing though. Bye bye blackbird.

I become deeply agitated upon seeing homes or buildings with complex roof lines. I absolutely could not live in such a place. No dormers nor gables for me, please. Please.

There are about five thousand breeds of dogs. Their innate ability and desire to interact with people subjected dogs to selective pressures to evolve in many different ways. Not so for cats. They only have about a dozen genes that are selectively manipulated by cat breeders for color, body style, etc. Cuteness, maybe.

Headphones on. Lights off. Feet up.