March 2015 - Page 6 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

The C-word and other things that bother me

I’m not a big fan of Joni Ernst, the recently-elected US Senator from Iowa, who gave the Republican response to President Obama’s 2015 State of the Union address. IMNSHO, she has some wacky ideas, and is a bit of a hypocrite.

Still, I got extremely irritated when I saw her referred to online as a “stupid c@#!”. The “stupid” part, frankly, didn’t bother me all that much, but the reduction of a woman to a body part, using a term not historically used in civil conversation, really got me enraged.

And I see it a lot, when some comment about women whose views they don’t share: former Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin (R-AK), former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D-NY), former Presidential contender Michelle Bachmann (R-MN), House minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), or Holly Hobby Lobby, among others.

It’s not dissimilar to saying of a black person, whose ideas that you disagree with, is a “stupid n@#$%!”, suggesting the stupidity comes from his or her blackness. But the C-word infuriates me more because, while most decent people will call out obvious racism, some (comedian Bill Maher, I’m talking about YOU) seem to justify their sexism because they’re “comedians” or “commentators” or some other BS.

An obituary for COLLEEN McCullough, Australia’s best-selling author, was a piece of work. “Plain of feature, and certainly overweight, she was, nevertheless, a woman of wit and warmth.”

Speaking of condescending: US Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) shushes CNBC reporter Kelly Evans during an interview. If he decides to run for President, his opponents should run this clip repeatedly.

Female veteran finds a nasty note on her car after parking in ‘reserved for veterans’ spot, because only men go to war these days.

Male professors are brilliant, awesome, and knowledgeable. Women are bossy and annoying, and beautiful or ugly.

The best thing about the SONY hack – Exposing the pay gap between male and female stars.

The War On Women 2015 in the US. Of course, it could be worse: No Pardon – Young Woman To Serve 30 Years For Miscarriage in El Salvador. Oh, wait: Indiana Convicts Its First Pregnant Person of ‘Feticide’.

Roger is 62; march on Selma 50th anniversary; Rebecca and Rico’s 10th wedding anniversary

I don’t really blog on my birthday, so I need to steal stuff from other people. Even myself.

How am I going to be able to remember how old I am THIS year, without doing the math?

Ah, the (19)62 World Series, between my two favorite teams at the time, the New York Yankees (Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford) and the San Francisco Giants (Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, Juan Marichal). Great 7-game series.

Also, for some businesses, such as Amtrak, I’m a SENIOR CITIZEN.

Here’s a picture of me with younger sisters Leslie (l) and Marcia, probably from the fall of 1963. Virtually all the family photos come from Marcia scanning them, then posting them to Facebook.

When Arthur turned 56 (whippersnapper!) a month and a half ago, he wrote:

I’ve also become increasingly aware as the years pile up of how important it is to record all sorts of things that mark progress through life. Memory isn’t anywhere near as reliable as many people assume, but it tends to become less reliable as the years pass…

…it was through writing these posts that I realised just how highly I regard my birthday, not merely for the celebration or being the centre of attention… but because birthdays symbolise for me a fresh start, a new beginning, with the promise of unexplored territory ad, sometimes laying just at the horizon or maybe around a bend, but there all the same. Looking back, then, has reminded me how much I value looking forward, and moving ahead.

What he said.

I must note that today is the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the first disastrous attempt for civil rights activists to cross the Pettus Bridge in Selma. I was outraged, not only by the actions of the police, but by the fact that they dare do that ON MY 12TH BIRTHDAY. Talk about narcissism.

Here’s an article about a Japanese American activist heading back to Selma to commemorate the march.

On a cheerier note, this is the 10th wedding anniversary of Rebecca Jade, the eldest niece, to Rico Curtis.

The #1 song on Wednesday, March 7th, 1900 was Ma Tiger Lily by Arthur Collins

The #1 song on Thursday, March 7th, 1901 was Stars and Stripes Forever by Sousa’s Band

The #1 song on Friday, March 7th, 1902 was Tell Me Pretty Maiden by Byron G Harlan, Joe Belmont and the Florodora Girls

The #1 song on Saturday, March 7th, 1903 was In the Good Old Summer Time by Haydn Quartet

The #1 song on Monday, March 7th, 1904 was Bedelia by Haydn Quartet

The #1 song on Tuesday, March 7th, 1905 was Give My Regards to Broadway by Billy Murray

Lenten music Friday: Behold the Lamb of God

John 1:29: “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world.”

I have sung the choruses of Part I of Handel’s Messiah several times over the years. This is the section that is associated with “the prophecy of the Messiah and his virgin birth… rendered in words by Isaiah,” and of course is generally performed in that period before Christmas called Advent.

Part II, which I have performed far less often, except for the last movement, deals with the events leading to the death of Jesus, culminating with the triumphant resurrection.

The first movement of Part II is a chorus piece from the Gospel according to John, chapter 1, verse 29: “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world.”

Here are performances by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus and by the Emek Hefer Chamber Choir.

The score.

An album I own and enjoy is called Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration, with this piece being reinterpreted as a jazz instrumental by a group called the Yellowjackets. I can’t find that online, but I did discover a cover version featuring Rich Christie on bass, Dave Sylvester on sax, Chris Williams on Drums, and Kenneth Reese on keyboards.

It WAS the Ninth Symphony

I’m standing in the bakery section when I hear this guy humming the very same thing we’d been trying to figure out.

It’s so embarrassing. I really like classical music, but sometimes I don’t remember what a recording is when I hear it on the radio, though it might be very familiar.

The new car has a feature whereby it identifies the songs on some of the radio stations. Huh, Nick Jonas has a single sans his brothers. Unfortunately, the feature doesn’t seem to work on the classical radio stations.

We’re listening to WMHT-FM, and the Wife and I are trying to identify the composer. It that Beethoven? No, it sounds too Russian, maybe Tchaikovsky. This is driving me crazy.

Since The Wife was baking that night, we needed eggs and a few other items from the Honest Weight Food Co-op. I’m standing in the bakery section when I hear this guy humming the very same thing we’d been trying to figure out.

I say to him excitedly, “What IS that you’re humming?”

“I was humming? Oh, I’m sorry.”

“No, no. WHAT are you humming?”

“Dvorak’s New World Symphony.”

D’oh. I love that thing, own it on CD, but I simply couldn’t place it.

“Were you listening to WMHT too?” I asked, knowing full well the answer was yes.

LISTEN to The Symphony No. 9 in E Minor “From the New World”, Op. 95, B. 178, popularly known as the New World Symphony, composed by Antonín Dvořák in 1893 during his visit to the United States from 1892 to 1895.

Here is another version.

A symphony guide from The Guardian.

Classical Notes.

Dec 16, 1893: Antonin Dvorak’s “New World Symphony” receives its world premiere in New York City.

Jaquandor insists No, John Williams did NOT rip off Dvorak.

Seeing it another way

I didn’t “get” the “what color is this dress” thing.

I read this joke recently. I’d seen it before:

As a man was driving down the freeway, his car phone rang. Answering, he heard his wife’s voice urgently warning him, “Frank, I just heard on the news that there’s a car going the wrong way on the Interstate. Please be careful!”
“It’s not just ONE car,” said Frank. “It’s HUNDREDS of them!”

It doesn’t ALWAYS happen, but I do TRY to see things from other people’s perspectives. Sometimes, I get a compelling narrative that butts up against my own.
***
For whatever reason, I never warmed to the Oscar Best Picture-winning movie Birdman. One of my oldest friends came out of a screening of the film the same day I saw another film, and she had exactly the same reaction as I did.

Yet, in my visit to one of the ABC Wednesday folks, Anita from India, wrote: Five Lessons from Birdman film. Among the observations: not resting on your laurels, and dealing with your inner voice. The piece is a wonderful contemplation, and I liked it much more than the film it touted.
***
I didn’t “get” the “what color is this dress” thing. Fortunately, my colleague sent me this story from Wired, which describes the science.

Another colleague noted, regarding the picture above: “Put your finger in the middle – Both panels are same color. It is the fact that the angle and highlighting make you believe the top is in the light and must be darker and the bottom is in the shadow and must be lighter.”
***
As a result of our conversation at church about white privilege in January, led by two of our members who are, not incidentally, white, one of my white church friends decided to engage his work colleagues about the topic; the result of this is that they looked at him as though he had three heads. Perhaps another reason why our white friends don’t talk about race.
***
The article in Salon with the provocative title Why the right hates American history has some really interesting notations about the change in in the American English language, which were instructive:

Living in the 18th Century, the Founders never would have actually used the word “privacy” out loud or in writing… The reason is simple: “privacy” in 1776 was a code word for toilet functions…
Instead, the word of the day was “security,” and in many ways it meant what we today mean when we say “privacy…”
Similarly, “liberty” was also understood, in one of its dimensions, to mean something close to what today we’d call “privacy.”

***
I’m still not going to read the book, thanks to SamuraiFrog’s painful and detailed review. But Jaquandor applauds EL James’s writing process for 50 Shades of Grey. Here’s a defense of its grammar.
***
As a business librarian, I am somewhat concerned that Tougher ozone standards could snuff out the recovery, businesses warn. Yet as a human being, I’m very concerned that weaker ozone standards could snuff out life as we know it, scientists warn. What to do, what to do?
***
Saturday Night Live had its 40th anniversary special last month. Haven’t watched more than seven minutes of the three-and-a-half-hour program, and I probably won’t. Didn’t watch the weekly show much in the past decade.

Yet I found myself reading several stories ABOUT the special, e.g., ‘Saturday Night Live’: 20 Personal, Funny Tales. Not only is former cast member Gary Kroeger’s observations interesting, so is the rest of his blog; he MAY run for Congress as a Democrat from California.

I enjoyed Norm MacDonald’s tweets; my, he did not fare well in the ranking of all 141 cast members.
***
Dustbury cannot decide whether he’s impressed or depressed by the number of YouTube scenes he recognized.
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A favorite quote of the week, from Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock Taught Us Acceptance Is Highly Logical:
“As a young black man and science fiction fan, I strongly identified with Spock’s struggles to fit in with his human coworkers as I struggled to fit in at mostly-white schools and workplaces. And I wouldn’t be surprised if other fans struggling to fit into their communities for different reasons felt the same bond.”