Some interesting background on the history of Brexit: It was at 6:22 a.m. on June 24, 2016 — 59 minutes before the official tally was unveiled — that the European Council sent its first “lines to take” to the national … Continue reading →
Of all the marvelous songs in the marvelous “West Side Story,” perhaps the most famous is “Maria.” Although it’s a great great song, it’s not my absolute favorite from the show, although I’d be hard-pressed to name my favorite because … Continue reading →
My great-grandfather holding my grandmother: My great-grandfather holding my mother: He died just a couple of years before I was born.
Continue reading →I’ve written about the great poet Yeats before, and in this post I dealt at length with his attitude towards aging and sexuality. In it, I mentioned that he had a lifelong love for and fascination—you might say “obsession”—with the … Continue reading →
I really knew next to nothing about hula as an art form. But here’s a video that taught me a bit. Enjoy!:
Continue reading →In this recent thread, there was an interesting discussion regarding popular music about finding your soulmate (or thinking you’ve found your soulmate). But no one mentioned the song that immediately came to my mind: “I’ll Know” from “Guys and Dolls.” … Continue reading →
I’ve already confessed that I watch the TV show “The Bachelor.” Some of you—all of you?—may ridicule me for this, but for me the show has a great combination of factors. It entertainingly takes my mind off heavier things. It’s … Continue reading →
Kids can sometimes demonstrate incredible technical facility at playing a musical instrument at a very young age. I bring you Exhibit A, Evan Le, playing the piano at four after reportedly only studying it for a number of months (try … Continue reading →
Or the old guy playing the drums, for that matter? First, we have some of the guys (Brian May on lead guitar and Roger Taylor on drums; they are featured starting around minute 2:00) when young: Now for the old … Continue reading →
I just couldn’t bring myself to watch the Oscars this year, even for the fashions. I’ve only seen one of the movies this year that was nominated, “Bohemian Rhapsody.” It was fun (despite the historical inaccuracy typical of the genre), … Continue reading →
I saw the movie “Bohemian Rhapsody” recently—more about that in another post—which started me thinking about the phenomenon of rock songs that start one way and then go off in a very different direction. I don’t just mean a traditional … Continue reading →
Here’s an interesting question from commenter Geoffrey Britain: What is the practical difference between an entrenched ‘confirmation bias’, that is immune to contrary fact, logic, reason and common sense…and ideological fanaticism? How does a person who stops “all such meanderings … Continue reading →