Thursday, January 27, 2022
Perfect Day for Making Soup - Split Pea with healthy veggies
Monday, January 24, 2022
The Dark Ages had no portraits of Jesus 1878 - 1911
No one knew what Jesus looked like.
The Shroud of Turin was a fake, says our guy Janacek
whose name I can't remember. For starters, though, he was pretty. An Apollo like figure. With both male and female qualities and the suggestion of breasts.
And if you are wondering WHY my Aqua bill was so high, it's because I had a silent leak in my upstairs toilet.
Leslie of Illinois told me about it.
Ah, said I, the Land of Lincoln.
If you ask me, he had the grief of Christ, though I doubt if he was a believer.
Carl Sandburg wrote a multi volume bio about Lincoln.
Sandburg's Lincoln
 As a young boy growing up in Galesburg, Illinois, Carl Sandburg often listened to stories of old-timers who had known Abraham Lincoln. He would regularly take a shortcut through nearby Knox College in Galesburg where, on October 7, 1858, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas had met for the fifth joint debate in the famous Senatorial contest. Sandburg served in the 6th Illinois, Volunteers in Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War where he was assigned to General Nelson A. Miles who was a brigadier general in some of the bloodiest battles of the Army of the Potomac in 1864. These experiences and the Lincoln lore that was prevalent during Sandburg’s formative years sparked his curiosity and interest in the person of Abraham Lincoln. His first writing on Lincoln appeared in the Milwaukee Daily News in 1909 while working as a reporter on the Daily News staff. He wrote a short piece describing the use of Lincoln’s face on pennies. In it, he articulated Lincoln’s belief in the common man and stated it was appropriate that the face of “Honest Abe” appear on the common coin. “The common, homely face of “Honest Abe” will look good on the penny, the coin of the common folk from whom he came and to whom he belongs.” – Carl Sandburg, Milwaukee Daily News 1909 Sandburg often felt that he was fortunate to grow up in such a rich Lincoln area and that perhaps he would write a biography of Abraham Lincoln for young people that would give American children an opportunity to learn of Lincoln as he did. However, this book for young people had changed. Starting in 1923 and published in 1925, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years had grown into a two-volume 344,000 word study which covered Lincoln’s life up to his move from Springfield to Washington to become the President of the United States. Sandburg had planned to stop writing about Lincoln after the publication of The Prairie Years. The rest of Lincoln’s four years before his assassination would be covered in the Preface to The Prairie Years. However, Sandburg was so caught up in the stories of Lincoln that he found it difficult to stop. Sandburg became engaged in Lincoln’s life and for the next thirteen years he researched and wrote about the President’s last four years. His research was extensive. He met with historians, collectors, librarians, and sons and daughters of those who played a part in the Civil War times. He spent time in the White House researching Lincoln. He read newspapers from the North and the South from that period. He read more than 1,000 books in his first year of research alone. Finally, in 1939 Carl Sandburg published the four-volume Pulitzer-Prize winning biography Abraham Lincoln: The War Years. In these writings, the stories of Lincoln and the people and their times are told. In a Time magazine article upon the completion of The War Years it was written, in part, “This four-volume biography… is a work whose meaning will not soon be exhausted, whose greatness will not soon be estimated. It can be said that no U.S. biography surpasses it in wealth of documentation and fidelity to fact, that none, not even Douglas Southall Freeman’s monumental Robert E. Lee, can compare with it in strength, scope and beauty…” Sandburg, however, did not end his relationship with Lincoln at the publishing of The War Years. He continued to work with Lincoln even after he moved to North Carolina in 1945,and in 1954 Sandburg published an abridged (or “distilled” as Sandburg referred to it) one-volume edition of Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and The War Years. Due to the amount of information in the six volumes, Sandburg said the series was “harder to un-write, than to write.” The complete publication led Sandburg to become an authority on Lincoln. He built a reputation traveling across the nation lecturing to colleges and universities on the Lincoln that he knew so well. In 1959, Sandburg was asked to speak to a joint session of Congress on the 150th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, making him one of the very few private citizens to ever hold such an honor. Click here to view Sandburg’s address to the Joint Session of Congress. Carl Sandburg |
New CD of Ethan Iverson will be out on February 11, 2022
Every Note is True comes out on February 11.
Two record release concerts
February 7 at Jordan Hall, Boston. Tix are free but must be ordered in advance. Link.
February 11 at Roulette in Brooklyn. Tix are $20 in advance, $25 at door. Link.
First set:
Ritornello, Sinfonias, and Cadenzas
“Ritornello” means “return,” a recurring fanfare in the baroque style. “Sinfonia” is a diminutive symphony, in this case three diverse sonata forms. For “Cadenzas,” soloists will rhapsodize against the ensemble.
Ritornello I
Sinfonia I, “Police Woman”
Ritornello II
Sinfonia II, “Trumpet Canon”
Ritornello III
Sinfonia III, “Forgive Me”
Cadenzas
Ritornello and Coda
The instrumentation is modeled on Stravinsky’s Octet (with saxophones in for the bassoons) plus jazz rhythm section. The work was commissioned by the Umbria Jazz Festival and premiered in Perugia in July 2021.
Members of the NEC Jazz Orchestra conducted by Ken Schaphorst
WIll Fredendall, flute
Chris Ferrari, clarinet
Mike Cameron, alto saxophone
Shota Renwick, tenor saxophone
Mike Brem and Zoe Murphy, trumpets
Joey Dies, trombone
Weza Jamison-Neto, bass trombone
Ben Freidland, bass
Nadav Friedman, drums
Ethan Iverson, piano
Second Set:
Trio with Larry Grenadier and Nasheet Waits
Selections to be announced from the stage, celebrating the release of Every Note is True on Blue Note records. The drummer on Every Note is True, Jack DeJohnette. gracefully declined to tour…but DeJohnette suggested Nasheet Waits in his place, which was perfect as Iverson and Waits have a long history together.
Pianist, composer, and writer Ethan Iverson was a founding member of The Bad Plus, a game-changing collective with Reid Anderson and David King. The New York Times called TBP “Better than anyone at melding the sensibilities of post-60’s jazz and indie rock.” During his 17-year tenure, TBP performed in venues as diverse as the Village Vanguard, Carnegie Hall, and Bonnaroo; collaborated with Joshua Redman, Bill Frisell, and the Mark Morris Dance Group; and created a faithful arrangement of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and a radical reinvention of Ornette Coleman’s Science Fiction.
Since leaving TBP, Iverson has kept busy. 2017: Co-curated a major centennial celebration of Thelonious Monk at Duke University and premiered the evening-length Pepperland with the Mark Morris Dance Group. 2018: premiered an original piano concerto with the American Composers Orchestra and released a duo album of new compositions with Mark Turner on ECM. 2019: Common Practice with Tom Harrell (ECM), standards tracked live at the Village Vanguard. 2021: Big band work Bud Powell in the 21st Century featured on the March cover of DownBeat. 2022: The current release is Every Note is True on Blue Note records, an album of original music with Larry Grenadier and Jack DeJohnette.
Iverson also has been in the critically-acclaimed Billy Hart quartet alongside Ben Street and Mark Turner for well over a decade and occasionally performs with elder statesmen like Albert “Tootie” Heath or Ron Carter or collaborates with noted classical musicians like Miranda Cuckson and Mark Padmore. For almost 20 years, Iverson’s website Do the Math has been a repository of musician-to-musician interviews and analysis. Time Out New York selected Iverson as one of 25 essential New York jazz icons: “Perhaps NYC’s most thoughtful and passionate student of jazz tradition—the most admirable sort of artist-scholar.” Iverson has also published articles about music in the New Yorker, NPR, The Nation, and JazzTimes.
Friday, January 21, 2022
TRAVELS WITH TRICIA
TRAVELS WITH TRICIA
Well, I declare. This is one of the BEST BLOGS I have ever come across.
View it here.
She left Prague as Hitler was coming into power.
No need to leave, her friends would tell her. But she and her husband knew better.
They have traveled all over the world bringing their spirited conversations along with them.
She is a pianist, a tennis player, and calls herself a minimalist in her home interiors. She has a lovely wooden metronome, which reminded me of mine, when I took piano lessons from Mrs Anne Kultti, a Christian Scientist.
Monday, January 17, 2022
Poetry - Walking Part Two Walking Part Three
WALKING PART TWO
Rows and rows of Christmas lights just up the street so close
closing my eyes I stride through the window
the Pella window with the bars held in place
A whiskey for you
A beer for me
Hamms please
made from real Colorado waterfalls
ain't many left
the bison roll over when they die
of thirst
lonesome as violet eyed Liz
when her man hiccuped hisself to death.
....
WALKING PART THREE
Is this for real or is it a dream
Behind the tapestry from Peru
Ed Quispe waited too long
I stood there by the picture window
staring at films of an earlier era
Garbo in Nonotchka
sauerkraut between her teeth
dancing the hora.
NEW POEM - things to remember - Lesley Stahl on 60 mins - folks over 90 - Mom was 97 when she passed
WALKING
In the blinding darkness last night
I arose from my bed
walked down the carpeted hallway
arms swinging
with purpose and determination
never have I felt so tall
and knew I would last
until the saints called my name
Sunday, January 16, 2022
Spencer Iverson delights in the visit of brother Ethan in Duluth, Minnesota
Spencer Iverson, Ethan's brother, looking cool in his colorful tye-dyed shirt in Duluth MN.
Here on Cowbell Road, snow has been steadily falling since 6 pm.
Every half hour or so an enormous SNOWPLOUGH - and I do mean enormous - swings by, lights ablaze - like an alien ship come down on our planet.
What an honor.
Watched a Netflix documentary about GLORIA ALLRED, a human rights advocate who I have never heard of!
Where have I been, I cried out to sister Lynn !!!
And now if you will excuse me....
Thursday, January 13, 2022
First moving day for Sister Ellen into my house
Thank you Lynn for this photo of your lovely kitchen.
The couple is married but not monogamous. Polyamory is the name. But they seek to broaden their relationship and make new friends.
Not a bad drawing of you-know-who. She is back and will give the proceeds to a charity of her choice. Be your Best.
But this “dream figure” who would “always give the future the benefit of the doubt,” as Boulez wrote, chafed at his formidable reputation.
“I am not a modern music specialist,” Rosbaud told a German newspaper in 1956. “In Aix-en-Provence I am characterized as a Mozart expert; in Munich, I am regarded as a specialist of Bruckner. It is dangerous to classify musicians in this manner.”
Particularly so, for Rosbaud’s own fate. His public stature has never approached the private respect in which musicians held him, in part because of his advocacy for music that has never really caught on. Quiet and scholarly, this “grim, Lincolnesque” man, as a writer once described him, seemed to be the antithesis of a celebrity maestro. His major positions were not with big-name symphonies, but less-prominent radio ensembles. He made few commercial records, superb though those few were. He had no interest in fame.
Few conductors, then, have more to gain from an opening of the vaults. More than 700 of Rosbaud’s performances have been languishing in archives, most of them at SWR, the successor to Southwest German Radio in Baden-Baden, his artistic home after 1948.
Ah, company !!! Donna, Ellen, Scott and me
Went on back porch and snapped this photo. Could not believe I actually captured him. Then he flew away as if in a panic.
NOW I have pea soup in the crock pot along with brown rice.
Must not forget about this delicious soup. It's been a long long time since I made it.
A family tradition.
Wednesday, January 12, 2022
What a daredevil I YAM Added photo
Got an email from my library, Upper Moreland, where I wrote down my password on a mirror I found a couple of yrs ago in the trash, that a book is ready for me.
It's by Anthony Doerr and is called CLOUD CUCKOO LAND. We had read his ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE in our Book Club.
Had trouble starting the car, brrrr brrrr brrr, on the way there and also when I left.
Just pressed my foot to the accelerator.
Scott thought maybe there was water in the carburetor.
I must eat large meals so I am not tempted to nosh. Did dat for lunch.
Now it is 4 19 pm.
Can't find those little punc marks on my battered keyboard.
Cuckoo Land is very different. Will I stick with it?
You bettah!
Somehow I had heard of a history book by Dan Jones and am on the Waiting List. So I asked Sue to help me find other Dan Jones history books. Sue had asked how I had heard of it and I said I can't remember.
THE TEMPLARS which Scott knew about THE RISE AND SPECTACULAR FALL OF GOD'S HOLY WARRIORS - Jones was also author of THE PLANTAGENTS, which I watched yrs ago on PBS.
Also THE CRUSADERS.
...
I am recovered from my ordeal of emptying my bowels from my colonoscopy and endoscopy. Drank three plastic bottles of diabetic Lemon Lime Gatorade.
Dr Harvey Guttmann, MD.
When I woke up today I wanted some!
Of course there are some things wrong with my lower intestine which I will find out about.
Shall I simply lie here on Red Couch and read?
Or shall I watch Quincy or Barnaby Jones or Mannix or Frank Cannon, just learned his first name.
YOU ARE NOW ALLOWED TO SNACK.
I am drinking some herbal tea from Ada and Rich. I will heat it up now.
Mostly I read before bed.
Looks like sister Ellen will be moving in with me.
"You can have the whole basement I said." I have a comfortable mattress I bought at Sleepys about five yrs ago. The receipt is in my secretariat. They have a guarantee for 20 to 25 yrs I believe.
Dip a big spoon in there, let the almond butter drip off, and then.... eat !!!!
1266 Gantt Drive
Huntingdon Valley PA 19006
I moved in after I left my former husband Mike Deming in Austin TX.
He meant well, don't they all, but he had no idea how to love.
Godspeed wherever you are.
Tuesday, January 4, 2022
Judi Adler Desk is going to one of the Deming children, probably Grace....
Ate my spaghetti dinner with it, very good, and also stuffed down some watermelon chunks.
How can all that food fit in my belly?
Plus hot PEPPERMINT BARK from Lynn.
Look, here it is right on the edge of my TV tray.
Did I tell you I walked around the block twice today? The last time was with sister Lynn.
Warm clothes for walking, right, REE ROW?