My Sloggy Soggy Bog MostlyMemorial Blog

Selling Off My Sellout Albums

mike252 — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:49:17 GMT

That does it! I'm auctioning off all my Pelosi-Hoyer duet albums to the lowest bidder -- including songs like "We're Taking It Off the Table" and "We'll Keep A-Fundin' It If You Keep A-Fightin' It, and their latest hit, "Let's Throw FISA Down A Fissure" featuring Obama's 18 1/2 minute filibustering solo (sorry, this section was wiped out somehow). But I'm saving my prized "Senator Sam At Home" - Sam Ervin album, back from an day when an oath to the Constitution was more than brief rush of words.

Germaine Tillion 1907-2008

mike252 — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 21:37:41 GMT

Another hero of integrity and justice dies. The obits are readily out there outlining her life but here's a post from last year that illustrates her spirit: http://www.champs-elyseesblog.com/archives/theatre/ A concentration camp operetta June 6, 2007 An uplifting experience last weekend: seeing the world premier of an operetta written in the Ravensbruck concentration camp. Adding to the poignancy: the fact that the author, Germaine Tillion, is still alive and indeed has just celebrated her 100th birthday. The story is hard to beat. Germaine Tillion was a resistance member betrayed in '42 and sent to Ravensbruck a year later. In October 44, concealed by her comrades in a packing crate, she composed the operetta-revue which she called "Le Verfugbar aux Enfers". It means "The camp-worker goes to hell" -- Verfugbar being the German term for "available" workers, i.e. ones not assigned to major projects. The piece is certainly odd. It begins with a character called The Naturalist, who conducts a quasi-scientific analysis of the life-form that is the "Verfugbar". Behind him are a chorus of female slave-workers (Ravensbruck was almost exclusively for women) led by professional singers who break periodically into song. Tillion was no musician, so she resorted to snatches of popular tunes from pre-war days: operetta, chanson, even advertising jingles. To these she put words that mix burlesque with a very black humour. "Once we were known for our sex-appeal, now our batteries are well and truly dry," two inmates sing to the tune of Au Clair de la Lune. The operetta was never performed of course: it would have triggered a terrible punishment. But in the evenings Tillion would read out sections of her script to raise morale. It became a survival mechanism. In 1945 Tillion learned that her mother -- who was also at Ravensbruck -- had been killed in the camp gas-chamber. She herself managed to leave shortly before the end of the war. For years the script of "Verfugbar" lay hidden in a drawer. Tillion, who became a well-known ethnologist, feared that it would be misconstrued. How could she have written something "humorous" in a concentration camp? But now that it has been resurrected, it stands simply and movingly as a testament to the human spirit of endurance. Sadly Tillion was too frail to attend the performance at the Theatre du Chatelet, but the cast sang for her at her home in Paris. It must have been an extraordinary moment.

J.S. Bach Was An Alien !!

mike252 — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 06:21:02 GMT

Yes, finally after so much time keeping it under wraps, I present this theory to you. And I ask: why do so many people waste good time chasing reports of sightings at Area 51 and such, when there's perfectly good evidence readily available in the CD bins at Barnes and Noble or downloadable from itunes, of an unearthly being having lived among us ? True, I have no facts, but what are facts really, except close-ended linear thinking, what is logic but arguments lined up in a narrow straight tunnel, pointing to one another? Besides, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, when it comes to us conceiving of life beyond our planet, to assume that there's any way of conclusively thinking out that which we can scarcely imagine. Yes, "proof by example" is wholly unacceptable by scientific measure; nevertheless I argue by example here, since for this topic that is all that anyone ever does. I first got this idea, um, received this information about Bach many years ago when listening to the Mass in B-minor. There's no way a human could write that. Just listen to a few minutes of the opening Kyrie -- here's a link to a rendition by Jeffrey Thomas and American Bach Soloists: http://www.magnatune.com/artists/albums/abs-bachmasscd1/hifi_play C'mon, that supposed to have been composed by a human? No f**king way! And that whole bit about Bach driven by religious fervor? That's reverse logic in that it already presumes he was human. More likely, I think, that he was using the Christian canopy for cover -- after all, it wasn't exactly safe back then for a brother from another planet to be flat out of the closet. For my second argument, I submit Bach's Magnificat. Listen to a couple of minutes of this version by the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra led by Ton Koopman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo1x-62WmrI Now, aside from the possibly mind-blowing experience of seeing so many open-mouthed Dutch people at once, here again Bach is resplendent, demonstrating musical powers far beyond the reach of any earthling. Note the comments at that youtube post - one person states that Bach is a demonstration of existence of God. Now this is silly. Why complicate matters by bringing in both the immense question of God's nature and existence, and some murky notion of Bach as some sort of angel or messenger? Let's apply Occam's Razor here -- the simpliest solution is the best. Agreed: The music is so sublime, it is unworldly. Mathematical probablities favor the existence of life elsewhere in the universe. Ergo, Bach must have come from outer space. There's a plethora of other examples (Bach wrote over a thousand works while fathering twenty children), but I believe this next and most powerful piece of evidence is all that is necessary. Here is a selection of Goldberg Variations performed by Glenn Gould, who quite possibly was an alien or at least demi-alien himself, to be able to express Bach's music as he did: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rtt1msnwlZQ Convinced? You should be. But if not, I'll just leave you with this one last item to contemplate. Why, you might ask, would Bach, if an alien, choose to write such amazing music; indeed why did he compose at all? Well, really, how should I know? But maybe, just maybe, he was propagating, via a language known to extraterrestrial beings, the energy needed to traverse galaxies. And if that sounds ridiculous, compare our clumsy manner of space travel with the sheer levitational power of a Bach prelude, as illustrated here by number 30 of the "32 Short Films about Glenn Gould": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlRorJVDsYE

"Everyone, real or invented, deserves the open destiny of life."

mike252 — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 05:36:29 GMT

...Grace Paley, author, activist, vibrant inquisitive wholehearted considerate human being, died yesterday. one day we were selling them so much killing hardware their governmental teeth were eroding with the metallic grind but their appetites increased... — Grace Paley, excerpt, "Leaflet" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From the dedication of Grace Paley's "Collected Stories": “It seems right to dedicate this collection to my friend Sybil Claiborne, my colleague in the Writing and Mother Trade… we talked and talked for nearly forty years. Then she died. Three days before that, she said slowly, with the delicacy of an unsatisfied person with only a dozen words left, Grace, the real question is – how are we to live our lives?” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anti-Love Poem — by Grace Paley Sometimes you don't want to love the person you love you turn your face away from that face whose eyes lips might make you give up anger forget insult steal sadness of not wanting to love turn away then turn away at breakfast in the evening don't lift your eyes from the paper to see that face in all its seriousness a sweetness of concentration he holds his book in his hand the hard-knuckled winter wood- scarred fingers turn away that's all you can do old as you are to save yourself from love

Antonioni - Deserto Rosso (1964)

mike252 — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 07:33:33 GMT

I haven't had the time yet to write a decent few words of homage. So much critical appreciation have been written by others over this last week, particularly about Bergman; perhaps I have little to add but I've just begun to contemplate anew the corpora of these two penetrating and immensely influential directors.

Antonioni - L'Avventura (1960)

mike252 — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 07:25:32 GMT

Antonioni - Il Grido (1957)

mike252 — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 07:24:21 GMT

Michelangelo Antonioni

mike252 — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 07:19:06 GMT

Bergman - Fanny & Alexander (1982)

mike252 — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 07:16:34 GMT

Bergman - Persona (1966)

mike252 — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 06:39:43 GMT

Bergman - Wild Strawberries (1957)

mike252 — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 06:18:45 GMT

Ingmar Bergman

mike252 — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 06:08:38 GMT

Here's to Hank

mike252 — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 13:54:48 GMT

26 or more home runs every year from 1955 through 1973 30 or more home runs in a season 15 times 20 consecutive seasons with 20 or more home runs 17 seasons with 150 or more hits 1957 NL MVP 1959: .355 with 39 home runs and 46 doubles Lifetime BA: .305 Post-Season BA: .362 (in 62 AB) 3771 lifetime hits and 755 home runs. I hope Hank is enjoying these last few days as the all-time home run record holder. It has held up for 33 years -- it's been a long run.

May Day in France

mike252 — Wed, 02 May 2007 01:20:36 GMT

French Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal speaks during a meeting at the Charlety stadium in Paris, Tuesday May 1, 2007

The pure crystalline notes ...dropping at my feet like leaves from the trees.

mike252 — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 08:17:51 GMT

... said Virgil Thompson of a Mozart concerto. It was a conversation we were having about Mozart that caused me to dig out those string quartets stored away in the garage -- that blue-colored box set of vinyl still looking the same as I remembered back when I would pull them from my bedroom shelf and play them regularly years ago. And strangely wonderful it is sometimes, to return to a piece of music you haven't heard in a decade or so, like revisiting a friend you knew so well, gone so long, yet to find you still anticipate that little note, that funny gesture -- to find that you still know them well. Victor Borge: "In my dreams of heaven, I always see the great Masters gathered in a huge hall in which they all reside. Only Mozart has his own suite."

Our shame and sorrow

mike252 — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 09:28:38 GMT

We have broken Iraq. Whether we supported this ass of a President or not, we as American citizens, willfully or not, have participated with our tax payments in bringing countless sorrows and hardships on the Iraqi people. Yes, before the invasion, before the sanctions, Saddam caused sorrow for many Iraqis. But now, in these past three years, so many more - truly horrific numbers - have been killed and maimed, and those living are trapped in a chaos with no end in sight. Yes, some who have been killed were bad men, but the overwhelming majority were just people like you and I, trying to live their lives as happily and peacefully as they could. Let's not forget that 40% of Iraqis are 14 years old or younger. Yes, when Yugoslavia broke apart after Tito died, it became a mess on its own, and the case can be argued that similar potential always existed in Iraq, were not for the brutal restaint of a strongman leader of a thuggish Baath party. Nevertheless, we came and we meddled with devastating destructive force, and thus we directly brought about the current state of affairs. Just as the first line of a doctor's call is "do no harm," so should it be for any nation that characterizes itself as loving democracy and justice. America has failed to do so -- will we forever continue to waste our own humanity by denying and burying the shame and sorrow we collectively feel for what our failures have wrought for the Iraqi people? Jeff Dorchen put it well a few days ago in the Huffington Post: "What's perverted and annoying and sickening is the bypassing of the evidence and just reading garbage by people whose opinions you already hold. Look what just happened in our country and Iraq because some people wanted to forget that invading Vietnam was a horrible disaster, and instead reiterated to themselves that it was the hippies' fault and all that was needed was enough resolve. Our national interpretation of the Vietnam War should never have veered away from collective shame and self-examination. It was a horrific, arrogant enterprise pursued by racists and greedy opportunists for whom massive numbers of American and Southeast Asian dead were just part of their way of doing business." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-dorchen/holocaust-shmolocaust-_b_36881.html It was Reagan who told the nation that it was okay to lie to ourselves about Vietnam. We have never stopped running and hiding from it, just as we have unceasingly hid from Nagasaki, the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow, the Trail of Tears and countless other broken treaties. How much more self-respect and morality must we lose before we stop hiding and instead face up to our failures? America, America -- for once, let us cease to pamper ourselves, hiding behind our dwindling wealth and power. Let us hear the discouraging words and learn from them, let us bear the dark clouds. Such potential, such utter waste.

Cry, My Beloved Country

mike252 — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 06:44:06 GMT

"As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality." -- George Washington (1790) Ezra Pound - from Ode Pour L'election De Son Sepulchre (1920) (From Hugh Selwyn Mauberley) IV. These fought, in any case, and some believing, pro domo, in any case .. Some quick to arm, some for adventure, some from fear of weakness, some from fear of censure, some for love of slaughter, in imagination, learning later ... some in fear, learning love of slaughter; Died some pro patria, non dulce non et decor" .. walked eye-deep in hell believing in old men's lies, then unbelieving came home, home to a lie, home to many deceits, home to old lies and new infamy; usury age-old and age-thick and liars in public places. Daring as never before, wastage as never before. Young blood and high blood, Fair cheeks, and fine bodies; fortitude as never before frankness as never before, disillusions as never told in the old days, hysterias, trench confessions, laughter out of dead bellies. V. There died a myriad, And of the best, among them, For an old bitch gone in the teeth, For a botched civilization. Charm, smiling at the good mouth, Quick eyes gone under earth's lid, For two gross of broken statues, For a few thousand battered books.

Treasure in a field of trash

mike252 — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 12:31:50 GMT

There are always a few gems amidst the backwash of Christmas music, new and re-released, where most of the time, famous singers have either prostituted themselves to make some quick cash or actually loved the tunes so much that they could think of nothing better than inserting their voices into cheesy arrangements of the same old, tired formats. Granted, it's hard to breathe new life into a Christmas song, but so many -- well, let's just say their fresh idea is adding a latin beat to Jingle Bells. Why bother? But thanks to the prodigious supply of songs offered online, sorting through all that rubble, though it does take a whole lot of time, can yield results. Here's a beautiful one, the best I found this year, right from the website of a young Swedish singer, Bobby Baby. She changed the melody and made "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" listenable again (at least for this year). http://www.bobbybaby.net/mp3/Bobby_Baby_-_Santa_Claus_Is_Coming_To_Town.mp3 You should be able to right-click on the link and save target to download or click it and it'll load and play in a minute or so.

Love is not concerned

mike252 — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 03:45:26 GMT

Love is not concerned with whom you pray or where you slept the night you ran away from home. Love is concerned that the beating of your heart should kill no one. - Alice Walker

Nobody doesn't like ...

mike252 — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 03:45:31 GMT

... everything about Mr. Pound. Still, such poetry as Auden might append that "time that with this strange excuse" has too pardoned Pound for writing well. A Girl - Ezra Pound (1912) -------------------------------------- The tree has entered my hands, The sap has ascended my arms, The tree has grown in my breast- Downward, The branches grow out of me, like arms. Tree you are, Moss you are, You are violets with wind above them. A child - so high - you are, And all this is folly to the world. Further Instructions (1916) ---------------------------------------- Come, my songs, let us express our baser passions. Let us express our envy for the man with a steady job and no worry about the future. You are very idle, my songs, I fear you will come to a bad end. You stand about the streets, You loiter at the corners and bus-stops, You do next to nothing at all. You do not even express our inner nobilitys, You will come to a very bad end. And I? I have gone half-cracked. I have talked to you so much that I almost see you about me, Insolent little beasts! Shameless! Devoid of clothing! But you, newest song of the lot, You are not old enough to have done much mischief. I will get you a green coat out of China With dragons worked upon it. I will get you the scarlet silk trousers From the statue of the infant Christ at Santa Maria Novella; Lest they say we are lacking in taste, Or that there is no caste in this family. In the Old Age of the Soul (1920) ----------------------------------------------- I do not choose to dream; there cometh on me Some strange old lust for deeds. As to the nerveless hand of some old warrior The sword-hilt or the war-worn wonted helmet Brings momentary life and long-fled cunning, So to my soul grown old - Grown old with many a jousting, many a foray, Grown old with namy a hither-coming and hence-going - Till now they send him dreams and no more deed; So doth he flame again with might for action, Forgetful of the council of elders, Forgetful that who rules doth no more battle, Forgetful that such might no more cleaves to him So doth he flame again toward valiant doing.

"You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake. "

mike252 — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 06:01:39 GMT

-- Jeannette Rankin, Congresswoman, Montana (1880 - 1973) 90 years ago, on Nov. 7, 1916, Jeannette Rankin of Montana was the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. A social worker and tireless advocate of women's rights, she worked as a seamstress to learn about working conditions within the garment industry. She pressed for labor reforms for women and children, women's right to citzenship independent of their husband, and reforms in child welfare and maternal and infact healthcare. An avowed pacifist, she opposed US entry into WWI amidst intense pressure by her suffrage colleagues. She was the founding Vice-President of the American Civil Liberties Union and a founding member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. In 1941, she was the only member of Congress not to support the US declaration of war against Japan, remaining true to her pacifist views but also because she believed Roosevelt had provoked Japan into attacking the US. In her eighties, she campaigned against the Vietnam War. "There can be no compromise with war; it cannot be reformed or controlled; cannot be disciplined into decency or codified into common sense; for war is the slaughter of human beings, temporarily regarded as enemies, on as large a scale as possible." — Jeannette Rankin (1929)

Thank you, Montana !!

mike252 — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 04:56:07 GMT

Never thought I'd be poring over details of votes cast in various counties of Montana in the wee hours of post-election day. I have to admit, from my upstate NY home two years ago, Montana looked like just one big splotch of the big red parch running across the Great Plain states. Yeah, Missoula is full of progressives but as for the state overall, well, I thought that the environmentalists there were at best a besieged lot, that big mining and timber companies had everyone else convinced that their interests were the people's interests, that embattled farmers' distrust of big city America had gotten the best of them, that the days of the IWW were long forgotten and that rugged individualism had degraded to resentment toward any who doesn't shut up and suffer. Well, maybe some of that was my own projection, and some of it still exists. But the lock-hold is over with. Maybe Kansas is still stuck in Reaganmind but Montana is happily back in play as a place where progressive ideas can compete, even sometimes overlap, with conservative ones, where honesty is a central issue, and where openmindedness can trump over reaction and fear.

July 17th

mike252 — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 05:16:36 GMT

"A boy's will is the wind's will, And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." - from "My Lost Youth" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Today is July 17th. 7/17. Seventeen is the seventh prime. July 17th is Yellow Pigs Day, a holiday celebrated by some mathematicians since the 1960s in recognition of the special properties of the number 17. One such property of 17 is this: A wallpaper group is a way to classify repetitive designs on two-dimensional surfaces, such as walls, based on the symmetries in the pattern. Such patterns occur frequently in architecture and decorative art. The mathematical study of such patterns reveals that exactly 17 different types of patterns can occur. Another one is this: 16 and 18 unit squares can each be formed into rectangles with perimeter equal to the area; and they are the only solutions. The Platonists regarded this as a sign of their peculiar propriety; and Plutarch explains that 17 is therefore an unlucky number. A few other aspects of 17: In English, it is the smallest number with nine letters when spelled out. In Swedish, it is a mild swear word, roughly be translated to "Darn!". The origin is debated, and is commonly used as "sjutton också!" ("seventeen, too!"). The number of syllables in a haiku. The number of trees Dostoevsky could see out of the window of his cell while he was in prison. "The most random number" according to hackers' lore because supposedly in a study where respondents were asked to choose a random number from 1 to 20, most commonly chose 17. July 17th is less noteworthy for famous people's birthdays than for those who died. The great baseball pitcher Dizzy Dean wore the number 17 on his jersey and died on July 17th Another baseball great, Ty Cobb, also died on July 17th, as did jazz giants John Coltrane and Billie Holiday, and economist Adam Smith, mathematician Henri Poincare, and maverick reformer Dorothea Dix. July 17th was the day that a conspiracy of right-wing generals rebelled against the recently-elected Popular Front government of Spain, starting the Spanish Civil War. Joe DiMaggio's baseball hitting streak ended at 56 games on July 17th. Today, July 17th, is also my birthday -- I was born left-handed, fifty (!!) years ago today. The Yankees won, the Dodgers lost that day. A pretty quiet day for news, though things were heating up in Hungary and the Middle East. Some UFO photos were supposedly taken in South Africa (http://www.ufoevidence.org/photographs/section/africa/photo36.htm ). My childhood seems both a long time and just a short while ago.

Help for our addled minds

mike252 — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 04:17:31 GMT

For those of us whose minds are too muddled from electronica music to grok what wisdom Senator Ted Stevens was espousing, Gavin from 13tongimp.com has produced an elucidating video (which taps Paul Holcomb's audio track). "A Series of Tubes" Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtOoQFa5ug8 A few days ago, Jon Stewart attempted unsuccessfully to make sense of the Stevens presentation -- I guess he hadn't at that point gotten a chance to see Gavin's video. Daily Show commentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiZ-TqvVdGM

Freedom Cries

mike252 — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 04:39:39 GMT

Bastille Day - Messidor 26th Well okay, looking back at it, there's not that much to celebrate -- all in all, that revolution really didn't go very well. Some highly worthy ideas, some wacky ones, eventually a truly bloody mess descending into mob rule -- something best avoided even when major upheaval is necessary. But let's not let the idiots in Washington currently pissing on the US Constitution forget that the one that happened here only succeeded because of the French Navy, French francs, Lafayette and other French (and Polish) generals and the French support that our man Franklin was able to garner by satisfying as many women in Louis' court as wanted him. King Louis lost a lot of money on the deal and his subsequent steep tax increases inflicted too much pain on the already desperate peasants and eventually severed his and his wife's neck (and the cartloads of those belonging to monarchists, girondists, and jacobins too). Vive la France - Principal Sponsor of the American Revolution!