Poem      
to James Schuyler
 
There I could never be a boy,
though I rode like a god when the horse reared.
At a cry from mother I fell to my knees!
there I fell, clumsy and sick and good,
though I bloomed on the back of a frightened black mare
who had leaped windily at the start of a leaf
and she never threw me.
   
I had a quick heart
and my thighs clutched her back.
I loved her fright, which was against me
into the air! and the diamond white of her forelock
which seemed to smart with thoughts as my heart smarted with life!
and she'd toss her head with the pain
and paw the air and champ the bit, as if I were Endymion
and she, moon-like, hated to love me.
 
All things are tragic
when a mother watches! and she wishes upon herself
the random fears of a scarlet soul, as it breathes in and out
and nothing chokes, or breaks from triumph to triumph!
 
I knew her but I could not be a boy,
for in the billowing air I was fleet and green
riding blackly through the ethereal night
towards men's words which I gracefully understood,
 
and it was given to me
as the soul is given the hands
to hold the ribbons of life!
as miles streak by beneath the moon's sharp hooves
and I have mastered the speed and strength which is the armor of the world.
            Frank O'Hara
mlr: (lookup)
CDs I purchased, played repeatedly, and enjoyed in the past few months: D.J. Sprinkles, Takemitsu film scores, Cole Porter sung by everyone who was anyone in 1991 & Boulez (handily there, all in one box, with the resplendent early recording of marteau).
card15


Christmas card. Some years I steal a few hours from work and create one of these with Lilypond. I don't mail them out or anything - just pass them out by hand.
Ecclesiastes
   
The trick is that you’re willing to help them.
The rule is to sound like you’re doing them a favor.
   
The rule is to create a commission system.
The trick is to get their number.
   
The trick is to make it personal:
No one in the world suffers like you.
   
The trick is that you’re providing a service.
The rule is to keep the conversation going.
   
The rule is their parents were foolish,
their children are greedy or insane.
   
The rule is to make them feel they’ve come too late.
The trick is that you’re willing to make exceptions.
   
The rule is to assume their parents abused them.
The trick is to sound like the one teacher they loved.
   
And when they say “too much,"
give them a plan.
   
And when they say “anger” or “rage” or “love,"
say “give me an example.”
   
The rule is everyone is a gypsy now.
Everyone is searching for his tribe.
   
The rule is you don’t care if they ever find it.
The trick is that they feel they can.
    Khaled Mattawa, b. 1964
recent trip to Spain (and some days in Paris)
my amz wish list.

do you have one?
surprising-photos-bullies
Children beating a gay rights activist protesting in Russia, following the proposal of a new law that would effectively prohibit gay rights rallies. http://all-that-is-interesting.com/60-surprising-photos-2013/3/#IXeoAbrRLKXWtLda.21
bb
Ennis & Jack Twist. Once more, and again. But this time in 12-tone harmony.

Wish I could see it.
12013093844_e0e9c1c422_c11976166866_47f9c452e2_c11975330705_80fb1e9c98_c11894089064_872857855a_c
As I left work each night last week, the sky was so beautiful.

Sunday Morning

Teal blue and grey, and
several shades of orange -
a history of ties.
Half Windsor or full?
The fingers will know.

Earlier they stepped
through several keys - tunes
by Lowell Mason.
A quick text to Zorn:
We'll have a descant,

so bring your horn today.


virgin-review-8-620x413
Israel's niece is getting married in the California wine country in February. We both wanted to go if we could travel inexpensively. Nothing was quite low enough the few times I checked. But last night when Virgin suddenly had $132 one-ways from DFW to SFO, I pounced: $550 for two roundtrips from DFW to SFO with $24 of travel insurance thrown in. I'm using frequent flyer miles for my commute flights to Dallas, so .5K is the total for 6 flights. Not too bad.
11894471616_0d2986620c_z
I was off work from Christmas Day to January 5th. I had been plagued with a skin disorder for a little over two months. A dermatologist put me on Prednisone three days before Christmas Eve, and it was a relief! to get back to normal. I spent Christmas day and most of the weekend in Fort Worth, then flew back home to quickly play a service, then packed & flew to San Francisco for a week of just walking around. I implored Israel to come with me but he was determined to use the time (re)photographing New Mexico. My guess is that I walked about 12 - 15 miles a day. I only used the rental car on two days. I used the transit system intermittently. I tried to see a movie every day. Lots of art. Good food. Nice drafts all over town in San Francisco. I even managed to have a little fun.

Museums: Hopper in Dallas, the new Piano Pavilion @ the Kimbell, the vapid Mexican show @ the Modern in Fort Worth, the charming Lobel show @ the Contemporary Jewish Museum, Anders Zorn and Matisse @ the Legion of Honor, and most spectacularly - the Hockney and Bulgari shows @ the de Young. If you have a chance to see them, you should not pass it up!

Movies:
Dallas: American Hustle, Inside Llewyn Davis. Fort Worth: The Wolf of Wall Street. San Francisco: Reaching for the Moon, Her, Breakfast at Tiffany's (@ the Castro), The Past, Raising Arizona (@ the Castro), Blue is the warmest color.

A flickr set.



These are the CDs I acquired in 2013 that I liked the best and listened to the most: Morton Feldman's Triadic Memories and For Samuel Beckett,
Nick Edwards - Plekzationz, Lusine's A Certain Distance, and Wolfgang Rihm's Jagden und Formen.

Morton Feldman was a composer that I'm afraid I used to dismiss. How foolish was that.

The Nick Edwards CD is obscure. I picked it up at Wall of Sound in Seattle.

I discovered Lusine using Shazam, since then I've downloaded or bought most of his CDs. A Certain Distance is my favorite. There is very little pop/techno/electronica I can listen to more than once or twice. Lusine has become a large exception to that.

I wish I had more time! to explore electronic music for myself.
10831513845_fbb8809482_z

...the road was denied me by a curse that made me stray...
Doch ach! den Weg des Heiles nie zu finden, in pfadlosen Irren trieb ein wilder Fluch mich umher.

Last May, [livejournal.com profile] muckefuck surprised me with a text message enquiring if I was coming to Bear Pride. I had flight reservations but wasn't sure my annual trip was possible this year. I did express a desire to visit Chicago sometime during the Lyric Opera's season, inspired partly by his regular opera reviews. Later this fall, it was slim pickings when I was scrambling at the last minute to find some remnant of the Wagner bicentennial. Only two events left - both new productions of Parsifal, one in London, one in Chicago. So I opted for Chicago and made some reservations.

And surprisingly it all came about and we went to the opera together. It was a pleasure to be in [livejournal.com profile] muckefuck's affable company, to be in his civilized home, to meet the warm & thoughtful people in his life, and to ramble around on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

About the Parsifal production, I can only say how much it moved me. The staging was a little too eclectic for my taste, but it played its part to set afloat the Medieval tale with its most sublime music.

A flickr set from the weekend.
An update to an older post: Kira's movie "Prisoners" opens today in US. In this coming week also in London,Paris,Zurich,Berlin,San Sebastian.



Haven't done this in a while! Of the many CDs I acquired last year, these are some of my favorites:

Paul Lewis' Schubert is without peer. The sonatas themselves are transcendental.

Pierre Hantaï's Well-tempered Clavier on the harpsichord is the best recording I've ever heard of the piece.

Alexandre Tharaud's Scarlatti is charming, lively, & thoroughly Gallic.

I bought the re-release of Elliott Carter's early Nonesuch albums when he died last year to revisit these pieces & their original performances.
god i'm sick today, but nevermind that. you should watch this video before Youtube takes it down:

Profile

mlr

April 2017

S M T W T F S
      1
234 5678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30      

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 3rd, 2025 03:06 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios