Composer: Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Recorded 1994 by the Kirov Opera & Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg
sung in Russian
Conducted by the inimitable and ravishingly handsome Valery Gergiev of the roguish smile


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In order to not be stuck on the banks of the Styx for all eternity, one must pay the ferryman.   Thus, the dead are laid to rest with pennies upon their eyes.   How the pennies leave the mortal remains to travel with the spirit into the immortal afterlife is never explained.  Perhaps burying kills pennies as well, so that you are paying with spirit ( Read more... )

I have been told that I am fickle because I am a Scorpio.  I rather resent this.  If I am fickle, it is because I am fickle, not because of when I happened to be born ( Read more... )

It is the mind

That is the mind

Confusing the mind.

Do not leave the mind,

O mind,

To the mind.

~Yagyu Munenori, Family Traditions on the Art of War


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In old sci-fi movies, the processing power of the super computer can be calculated as a function of the number of blinking lights the computer possesses.  Never mind that in reality this is a waste of electricity and output time, we accept on faith that the computer in Alien would not have worked nearly so well without the possibility of inducing ( Read more... )

The minute we're born, we start dying. 
We die a little more every day.
~South Park


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Please be advised, before committing any more of your valuable leisure time into the perusal of this discourse, that I do not have perfect skin, my hair is not fabulous, I do not have ample cleavage, my voice is not soothing, and my personality is not warm.  If therefore, you should choose to dismiss my words as irrelevant and my person as ( Read more... )

I was going out to the Shakespeare Tavern this evening to see a play with a dear friend (hi yourself, former roommate of Shakespearean Wisdom!) and along the way, small shirtless boys were standing by the roadside sticking their thumbs out.   I drove by without acknowledging them.  There is nothing more to this story.  In fact, it is a pointless ( Read more... )

I saw Prince Caspian recently.  It's rather pretty, the CG was fun, and Reepacheep was marvelous, but other than that, it was bad.  Not simply because of the bad acting, the nonsensical moralizing (why can't they have their problems solved by their God-figure the easy way?  Because things never happen the same way twice.  We know this because it is ( Read more... )

The next good joy that Mary had,
It was the joy of six
To see the blessed Jesus Christ
Upon the Crucifix.

Upon the Crucifix, Good Lord;
And blessed may we be.
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
To all eternity.
~old Christmas Carol

Leaving aside the dubious joys of seeing one's progeny executed in a nasty way, Crucifixes are weird and slightly creepy.  Why ( Read more... )