I ran on a weekday morning! Yay. But I was very slow. Boo. 98:51 for seven miles ( Read more... )

I usually don't indulge in the kind of post that was the original motivation for blogs: here's a neat link, looky looky! And I am not a big fan of the Uzbekistan's Got Talent TV format (even if I watched TV). But this audition to Holland's Got Talent caught me right at the heartstring. I've always been a sucker for situations where an ( Read more... )

My father had an aunt, the exact relationship I don't know, who used to like to sing popular songs. She sang them with a strong Yiddish accent, which amused my father no end when he was a boy. When he was grown he could still sing these songs in a (no doubt) loving impression of this aunt's accent. One of them, "I'm Afraid to Come Home in the Dark ( Read more... )

I'm a person who is often uncomfortable expressing esthetic preferences, especially visual ones. Clothes shopping is agony to me; I have been no help whatsoever in picking colors for the new kitchen. So I find my own opinion here rather surprising. Best female rock vocal performance of all time: Grace Slick's White Rabbit, off Jefferson Airplane ( Read more... )

Carl Orff set a selection of medieval goliards' songs to music; his setting is the famous Carmina Burana. The first song is O, Fortuna!, which is pretty rousing, but seriously over-quoted by the entertainment industry.

I have been watching hilarious "misheard lyrics" videos of O, Fortuna! on YouTube. The original lyrics are in Latin and sung by ( Read more... )

While I was walking to the subway station for my homeward commute this evening, I had what I think is a great idea. In fact, it's such a good idea that I suspect somebody else has had it already. So if either of my readers knows of such a thing, I would love to hear about it ( Read more... )

When my father was around seven or eight years old, sometime in 1928 or 1929, his father found himself doing well enough in his profession (as a certified public accountant and investment advisor) that he could afford some luxuries for himself and his family. I hope I am getting this story right, but alas, there's no confirming it anymore. His ( Read more... )

I left one minor injury out of my previous post, and that is the weird sharp pain in my left ring finger I first reported about in stultifying detail here, where I resolved to post follow-up posts every few days. I did follow up once, a day later, here; and then I gave it a brief mention a week after that, but then I stopped ( Read more... )

A week and a day after incurring the weird injury to the pad of my left ring finger, I can still feel it occasionally. My present plan is to wait for the twinges to go away completely and then try tiny practice sessions, starting at five minutes a day, and increasing gradually until either the injury recurs or I'm happy with that amount of music ( Read more... )

I think I've mentioned here that I enjoy playing folk music (mostly traditional dance music) on stringed instruments. I'm a decent amateur fiddle and guitar player, and I dabble in banjo and mandolin ( Read more... )