I was raised on The Weavers, the folk-singing singing group of which Seeger was an important member – that, plus Tom Lehrer, Flanders and Swann, Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Mikado” and “HMS Pinafore”, and every Broadway musical from the mid-1940s to … Continue reading →
Who’s Myrtha, you ask? It’s a role in the famous Romantic ballet “Giselle,” one of the earliest ballets in existence and still performed today. Myrtha is the head honcho of the Wilis, those spirits of dead girls jilted by lovers, … Continue reading →
Let’s take a break from all the heavy politics, and talk about music. Have you ever noticed that certain songs dealing with the very same themes are very different? Love of course is one of the main topics of songs … Continue reading →
Since the Uvalde shooting, I’ve been reading statement after statement, as though it’s a proven fact, that school shooters and other mass murdering shooters are usually fatherless, disproportionately so. The people saying this don’t usually feel they have to prove … Continue reading →
I found these two videos in an old post of mine. They both feature the same well-known pas de deux from the second act of “Swan Lake.” The first video is of Natalia Makarova and Ivan Nagy in 1976, a … Continue reading →
This music was fun in 1961: He was still having fun in 2018 at the age 79, and I hear he’s about to go on tour now at 82: Some background:
Continue reading →Senator Stabenow of Michigan bragged about her electric car: “I just have to say just on the issue of that at gas prices; after waiting for a long time to have enough chips in this country to finally get my … Continue reading →
I was going to write the next installment of my eye story. But after disgorging this enormous post just now, I don’t have it in me at the moment and will postpone it to some future but not-too-distant date. I’d … Continue reading →
I’ve posted this song before, but I think it bears repeating, especially on Memorial Day. It’s Tim McGraw’s extraordinarily moving song “If You’re Reading This“: If you’re readin’ this My momma’s sittin’ there Looks like I only got a one … Continue reading →
First they came for the statues. Now they’ve come for the sonnets: The University of Salford, a public university in Greater Manchester, England, removed sonnets and other “pre-established literary forms” from a creative writing course assessment, The Telegraph reported. …A … Continue reading →
…not with a bang but a whimper: The smaller number of marching units, the absence of the “Z” sloganeering, any air units, and the elite of the Russian Army all gave the parade a more subdued air. It was not … Continue reading →