(no subject)
Here's a clip of Pearl, in the proverbial Kitchen With Dinah.
Now, some of you may be interested to know, or alretty know, that the composer of the song Mack The Knife is Kurt Weill, who composed the music for many songs, including the musical version of Cry the Beloved Country, which is called Abasalom Absalom. Or maybe the book is called Absalom Abasalom and the play is Cry The Beloved Country. Cant remember which is which. I do remember seeing it eight or nine years ago on campus, because Rachel's dad, HWT, a fine labbie in his own right, did a great job of portraying The Judge in the play.
The UW vocal students and others were very well-directed in that production by another labbie, who I think is named Linda Johnson but there might be a hyphenated other last name before or after the johnson. I didn't know her very well but she was a lot of fun to work with and such a nice lady. I remember on the way there I visited my friend Deb who gave me directions to the humanities building, thinking that by "it's gonna be in the music hall" i meant it was gonna be across the street from the music hall. Well-intentioned deb was, but her turfing almost made me late. But i got there before it started, to a packed hall, and the director was standing alone, apparently waiting to greet folks in the lobby, all decked out in this flashy, colorful, african-looking outfit. I'd been staggering around the neighborhood between the lab and the music hall for a long time by then, and I wanted to just go slip into a seat and relax by myself, but it seemed sort of awkward that she was in the lobby all resplendent and people were just milling around ignoring her, at least at that moment that I came in. So I trotted over to say hi and told her I was looking forward to the show. Even though she barely knew me she was hanging on to my hand real hard, profusely thanking me for coming. Part of the charm of labbies is that they are all very different from each other but are all quite enthusiastic in their graciousness. I think that might have been the last time I saw her in person. I can't remember if she worked at the lab the rest of that season or not. Like a lot of labbies she doubtless had another gig and lots of other projects going on in her life, and got too busy to come interview with us that year. Not long after that play, there was a feature in the Isthmus or maybe the Sunday WSJ, which included her and her mom and their neighbors, talking about their fine old madison neighborhood. I don't remember the name of that neighborhood but I do remember enjoying the article and how many unusually nice folks I met during the three years I was at the lab. On the way to see the musical that Linda directed and Hollis acted in, I had run into another labbie on the sidewalk. It was the always-delightful Merija, and I had the pleasure of meeting her adorable twin sons. After wandering stupidly around the humanities building basement, which was a mildly nostalgic experience because of how the big instrument lockers and practice rooms are so much like Krannert, where I played in the Illini Symphony, I did actually find the old music hall in time for the show. Unlike humanities, which is one of those hulking modern buildings that crudely imitates earthtones, Music Hall, I was pleased to discover, was one of those vine-covered red brick buildings that looks like the kind of buildings they always show when a scene in a film is set on a campus. Quaintly familiar, intriguing roofline, dark woodwork, real tile, pleasant echoes, enchanting staircases. It may have not been a very big hall, so maybe any amount of people would have seemed like a big crowd in that space, but it seemed like a huge turnout, or maybe I just wanted to have a stunning view of the performance because I was way up in the steep part of the balcony, and so were lots of other people. Until then, I was unfamiliar with the play, which is set in South Africa a long time ago. Obviously I've recalled nearly everything I can about that night in free-associative form. Amazing that I hadn't thought about that fun evening in years until hearing Pearlie and Dinah sing a Weill song this morning.
In a few months it'll be twenty years since I moved into my state street apartment in the hometown, and I remember me and Carol and Julia making fun of some weird animated or puppet crescent silvery moon singing Mack the Knife in a McDonald's tv ad. We loved to hate that ad, or just I loved to hate it and they were momentarily amused by my love/hate relationship with pop culture. Good times. Probably the first time I learned anything about Kurt Weill was, as with so many composers and musicians, learned from hanging out with Bucky, and I still have a tape he made me with Weill's music on it. Still sounds hip and fresh after all these decades, that music. Weill was, as so many Kurts are, a quirky guy.
On the library front, I've been listening to Joan Borysenko's Mending The Body, Healing The Mind, or Mending Mind, Healing Body, or Ancient Cassettes Where Every Time The Spool Is Two Thirds Of The Way Around A Nice Lady Tells You To Fucking Chill Out And The Resta The Tape is Garbled, or whatever the hell it's called. For those of you alretty familiar with such topics it will seem very remedial now, and not really new concept in its day, but still... Good basics for those who have not really much experience with relaxation response or mind/body medicine. Even though this type of material has been around in some form forever, Joan is one of the big names in the last 20 years, in the personal growth/ get-over-yourself kind of field.
She more recently did some stuff in the vein of Don Campbell's Mozart Effect where she specially selected some orchestral music for you to enjoy while you meditate, relax, be energized, and whatever else you do. Joan's picks for reparative music are more impressionistic and romantic selections than the Mozart Effect stuff that don did. Where hers seems to be more about just introducing something less jangly to your environment than the radio/tv-news/sitcoms/internal-critic, he's more into how listening to and even vocalizing various tones will "unravel" any "stuff" that might be messing up your health and happiness. She just, I don't know, if they both got some stuff that's public domain and released it with their recommendations, to have something to sell besides their books, or if they worked out a deal with specific instrumentalists and producers to distribute those recordings in a sort of new way, with their recommendations about that particular selection's benefits as a marketing tool. Surely it must be the latter. Anyway I dig those kinds of products. Don has released several different volumes of the Mozart Effect, for various activities, and I have to say he chose well on each volume, although ya can't really go wrong with any ol' Mozart pieces, any ol' time.
Speaking of the famous, as oft we do here at the insta-tool, you know that Lohan kid totally has enough money to take a damn taxi home from the party? I know she can afford to keep getting new cars and paying court costs or whatever, but she's gonna hurt someone if she keeps getting behind the wheel. Hey I've got a good slogan for the taxi companies to get more rich clientele in the cities where just about everyone drives their own car. Rehab, Rehab. REhab, Schmee-hab, why not just take a taxicab?!
Quiet out there you birds...
...it's time for crazy Betty to snooze!
Click to viewNow, some of you may be interested to know, or alretty know, that the composer of the song Mack The Knife is Kurt Weill, who composed the music for many songs, including the musical version of Cry the Beloved Country, which is called Abasalom Absalom. Or maybe the book is called Absalom Abasalom and the play is Cry The Beloved Country. Cant remember which is which. I do remember seeing it eight or nine years ago on campus, because Rachel's dad, HWT, a fine labbie in his own right, did a great job of portraying The Judge in the play.
The UW vocal students and others were very well-directed in that production by another labbie, who I think is named Linda Johnson but there might be a hyphenated other last name before or after the johnson. I didn't know her very well but she was a lot of fun to work with and such a nice lady. I remember on the way there I visited my friend Deb who gave me directions to the humanities building, thinking that by "it's gonna be in the music hall" i meant it was gonna be across the street from the music hall. Well-intentioned deb was, but her turfing almost made me late. But i got there before it started, to a packed hall, and the director was standing alone, apparently waiting to greet folks in the lobby, all decked out in this flashy, colorful, african-looking outfit. I'd been staggering around the neighborhood between the lab and the music hall for a long time by then, and I wanted to just go slip into a seat and relax by myself, but it seemed sort of awkward that she was in the lobby all resplendent and people were just milling around ignoring her, at least at that moment that I came in. So I trotted over to say hi and told her I was looking forward to the show. Even though she barely knew me she was hanging on to my hand real hard, profusely thanking me for coming. Part of the charm of labbies is that they are all very different from each other but are all quite enthusiastic in their graciousness. I think that might have been the last time I saw her in person. I can't remember if she worked at the lab the rest of that season or not. Like a lot of labbies she doubtless had another gig and lots of other projects going on in her life, and got too busy to come interview with us that year. Not long after that play, there was a feature in the Isthmus or maybe the Sunday WSJ, which included her and her mom and their neighbors, talking about their fine old madison neighborhood. I don't remember the name of that neighborhood but I do remember enjoying the article and how many unusually nice folks I met during the three years I was at the lab. On the way to see the musical that Linda directed and Hollis acted in, I had run into another labbie on the sidewalk. It was the always-delightful Merija, and I had the pleasure of meeting her adorable twin sons. After wandering stupidly around the humanities building basement, which was a mildly nostalgic experience because of how the big instrument lockers and practice rooms are so much like Krannert, where I played in the Illini Symphony, I did actually find the old music hall in time for the show. Unlike humanities, which is one of those hulking modern buildings that crudely imitates earthtones, Music Hall, I was pleased to discover, was one of those vine-covered red brick buildings that looks like the kind of buildings they always show when a scene in a film is set on a campus. Quaintly familiar, intriguing roofline, dark woodwork, real tile, pleasant echoes, enchanting staircases. It may have not been a very big hall, so maybe any amount of people would have seemed like a big crowd in that space, but it seemed like a huge turnout, or maybe I just wanted to have a stunning view of the performance because I was way up in the steep part of the balcony, and so were lots of other people. Until then, I was unfamiliar with the play, which is set in South Africa a long time ago. Obviously I've recalled nearly everything I can about that night in free-associative form. Amazing that I hadn't thought about that fun evening in years until hearing Pearlie and Dinah sing a Weill song this morning.
In a few months it'll be twenty years since I moved into my state street apartment in the hometown, and I remember me and Carol and Julia making fun of some weird animated or puppet crescent silvery moon singing Mack the Knife in a McDonald's tv ad. We loved to hate that ad, or just I loved to hate it and they were momentarily amused by my love/hate relationship with pop culture. Good times. Probably the first time I learned anything about Kurt Weill was, as with so many composers and musicians, learned from hanging out with Bucky, and I still have a tape he made me with Weill's music on it. Still sounds hip and fresh after all these decades, that music. Weill was, as so many Kurts are, a quirky guy.
On the library front, I've been listening to Joan Borysenko's Mending The Body, Healing The Mind, or Mending Mind, Healing Body, or Ancient Cassettes Where Every Time The Spool Is Two Thirds Of The Way Around A Nice Lady Tells You To Fucking Chill Out And The Resta The Tape is Garbled, or whatever the hell it's called. For those of you alretty familiar with such topics it will seem very remedial now, and not really new concept in its day, but still... Good basics for those who have not really much experience with relaxation response or mind/body medicine. Even though this type of material has been around in some form forever, Joan is one of the big names in the last 20 years, in the personal growth/ get-over-yourself kind of field.
She more recently did some stuff in the vein of Don Campbell's Mozart Effect where she specially selected some orchestral music for you to enjoy while you meditate, relax, be energized, and whatever else you do. Joan's picks for reparative music are more impressionistic and romantic selections than the Mozart Effect stuff that don did. Where hers seems to be more about just introducing something less jangly to your environment than the radio/tv-news/sitcoms/internal-critic, he's more into how listening to and even vocalizing various tones will "unravel" any "stuff" that might be messing up your health and happiness. She just, I don't know, if they both got some stuff that's public domain and released it with their recommendations, to have something to sell besides their books, or if they worked out a deal with specific instrumentalists and producers to distribute those recordings in a sort of new way, with their recommendations about that particular selection's benefits as a marketing tool. Surely it must be the latter. Anyway I dig those kinds of products. Don has released several different volumes of the Mozart Effect, for various activities, and I have to say he chose well on each volume, although ya can't really go wrong with any ol' Mozart pieces, any ol' time.
Speaking of the famous, as oft we do here at the insta-tool, you know that Lohan kid totally has enough money to take a damn taxi home from the party? I know she can afford to keep getting new cars and paying court costs or whatever, but she's gonna hurt someone if she keeps getting behind the wheel. Hey I've got a good slogan for the taxi companies to get more rich clientele in the cities where just about everyone drives their own car. Rehab, Rehab. REhab, Schmee-hab, why not just take a taxicab?!
Quiet out there you birds...
...it's time for crazy Betty to snooze!