Kelly Sedinger Archives - Page 10 of 17

Sept. rambling: First Internet Interaction

Pharoah Sanders

What is a mental health screening?

Stephen Colbert and Anderson Cooper shared personal experiences of coping with grief

The Contagion on Social Media

The relief of missing out: Anticipated anxiety is a big reason why more people are avoiding the news

How the Trump Grift Works

Declassifying by just thinking about it

Trump got the special master he wanted, but he’s finding that Judge Dearie isn’t what he expected

Hotter days lead to more harassment and hate speech

Making sense of reactionary victim culture

Warnings Mount Over Right-Wing Plot to Rewrite US Constitution

The Court’s problems run deeper than Roe

Book-Banning Attempts in the US Have Reached Unprecedented Level, Libraries Report

A brazen scheme: 47 charged with siphoning $250M from COVID-19 child meal program

Ken Starr’s Pious Misogyny

Iran unrest: Women burn headscarves at anti-hijab protests

John Oliver Criticizes Law and Order and Dick Wolf for Unrealistic, Highly Favorable Portrayal of Police

Why Younger People are Getting Shingles

Canada to Drop COVID Vaccine and ArriveCan App Requirement October 1

The Increasing Importance of a Best Friend at Work

The cheating scandal roiling the chess world has a new wrinkle

When Experts Play It Too Safe: Innovation Lessons from a NASA Experiment

Louise Fletcher, the Cruel Nurse Ratched in ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,’ Dies at 88

Biden Surprises Elton John With National Humanities Medal

YouTube Launches Revenue-Sharing Programs for Shorts, Music Licensing

Albert Pujols lets emotions flow after joining 700 Home Run Club

Mark Evanier: Tales From High School, featuring Hawaiian Punch

Saturday Morning with Captain Kangaroo

The people making millions off Listerine royalties

NOW I KNOW

Is This Upscale Fast Food?

The Problem With Outsourcing Your Crimes

The Olympic Champion Who Never Knew It

Flying the Hungry Skies

The Real Movie That Created Fake Students

MUSIC

Pharoah Sanders Dies at 81. The legendary saxophonist was a key figure in the spiritual jazz movement. Harvest Time and The Creator Has A Master Plan

Spiegel im spiegel (The mirror in the mirror) by Arvo Part

Coverville 1414: The Fiona Apple Cover Story

Jolly Robbers overture by Franz von Suppe.

TV theme songs from kids’ shows – the Ashatones

Soundtrack Suite from Shadowlands by George Fenton

After intermission at Carnegie Hall

Clarinet choir?

After intermission at Carnegie Hall on June 13, 2022, at a concert attended by my daughter and me, the Columbus [OH] International Children’s Choir performed. CICC is “an inclusive program that aims to empower children of all ages, races, and religions.” About a third of the participants appeared to be eastern Asian.

“CICC was formed by Tatiana Kats in 1998 as a small international ensemble consisting mostly of children of immigrants… The National Music Certificate Program recognized Tatiana as a ‘Founding Teacher… instrumental in establishing a national standard for developing musicians'” in the US. Before the intermission, this group was part of the mass choir singing the Mozart Requiem.

Tebe Poem by Aleksandr Dmitrievič Kastal’skij (1856-1926), spelled in the program Alexander Kastalsky. This version is by Calicantus Children’s Choir, 2020.

Ev’ry Time I Feel The Spirit, arranged by William L. Dawson. I have sung this version of this song since high school choir. Here’s the Colorado State University Choirs, 2019.

Northern Lights by Ola Gjeilo. This performance is by the National Youth Choir of Australia, 2017.

Why We Sing by Greg Gilpin. Sung here by a combined choir from Chandler High School, 2014.

Next up, the Trinity University Chamber Singers of San Antonio, TX, a well-regarded group under the direction of Gary Seighman. They also sang the Mozart Requiem beforehand.

Luminescence by Andrea Ramsey. Performed here by The University of Wisconsin Eau Claire Concert Choir in 2018.

If ye love me by Thomas Tallis. I’ve sung this perhaps a dozen times, maybe more often. This is the Cambridge singers, 2014.

Unclouded Day by Rev. Josiah K. Alwood, arranged by Shawn Kirchner. Listen to Cor Cantiamo, October 2017.

Dupré

Finally, the Tara Winds Clarinet Choir, Dickson Grimes, founder, and director. The group was created in 2011.

Claribel by Roland Cardon. Hear CasinoKoksijde Claribel Clarinet Choir Guido Six Vzw from 2018.

The Commute by Nicole Chamberlain. Here is The Tarawinds Clarinet Choir at the 2019 ClarinetFest at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Two Songs Without Words by Gustav Holst, arranged by John Gibson. The performance is by the Community Clarinet Choir, 2015.

Variations sur un Noël op. 20 Marcel Dupré: I couldn’t find a clarinet version, arranged by Matt Johnston, at all. There are tons of organ iterations, such as this one by Christian Barthen.

But as I’m listening to it, I think, “I KNOW this piece. But much faster!” So naturally, I asked Kelly. He said, “The Dupré piece is based on a French Christmas carol called ‘Noel Nouvelet.’ I know I’ve heard it before, but I don’t recall when! It has a definite ‘Gregorian polyphony’ feel to it.”

I found some versions of the carol, written in the late 15th century or early 16th century.

The King’s Singers

Choir of King’s College, Cambridge

This one has the musical notation

September rambling: perfect Yiddish word

Rebecca Jade interview, Middle Earth debate

An Ode to Oy — the Perfect Yiddish Word

And speaking of which: Rings of Power Cast Slams Racist Threats Against Performers: “Middle-Earth Is Not All White.” This hurts my head. Someone wrote, and I’ve misplaced the attribution, I’m afraid: “When did we stop being able to just sit down and enjoy something that’s been created? Just take all shows and movies as fan fiction of any book that they take it from and enjoy the creators’ stories.”

Sah Quah: More than twenty years after the American Civil War, an enslaved Alaskan walked into a Sitka courtroom and sued for his freedom

The Church Left on the Curb: A chance trash-day encounter reveals a 170-year institutional history

Bernard Shaw, CNN’s First Chief News Anchor, Dies at 82

Anne Garrels, the longtime foreign correspondent for NPR, dies at 71

Culcha

In Memorium Video from this year’s Emmys and going about a decade back

Jazz Pianist & NEA Jazz Master Ramsey Lewis Dies at His Chicago Home, September 12, at the age of 87

“Weird Al” Yankovic on the Long, Hard Road to Bring His Mock Biopic to the Big Screen

Ken Levine ends his blog, but his podcast will continue

At 100, Norman Lear Looks Back (And Ahead)

Whiz! Bang! Boom! Energetic Ads Hold Viewers’ Attention

Real Money, Fake Musicians: Inside a Million-Dollar Instagram Verification Scheme

Quentin Tarantino, Miramax Settle ‘Pulp Fiction’ NFT Legal Battle

Flin Flon: One Book’s Unlikely Survival

Has a computer ever passed the Turing test?

The Twisted Life of Clippy, Microsoft’s annoying paperclip. Its developers never imagined the virtual assistant would become a cultural icon.

Some good advice from John Green

Of Elbows and Tables

Best State Capitals to Live In – 2022 Edition. Albany, NY, is #9.

The Small Town In New York With More Historic Buildings Than Any Other

Can Something Be “Very Unique”? Modifying Absolute Adjectives

Now I Know: What About Bob (dot com)? and The Wisdom of Crowds of Sports Fans? and The Almost-War Over a Bear’s Missing Privates

Polly ticks

President and Mrs. Obama Become a Part of White House History with Reveal of Official Portraits, and Barack Obama just won the Emmy

How deranged anti-Obama conspiracy theories led America to Donald Trump

Fascist is a description, not an insult, and “Semi-Fascism”: The Shoe Fits

Judge Cannon’s Incredibly Flawed Trump Special Master Ruling

The faulty premise of the ‘2,000 mules’ trailer about voting by mail in the 2020 election

How Many Of ‘Her Emails’ Were Classified? Actually, Zero

Thomas, Barrett will further delegitimize SCOTUS when they fail to recuse on key cases

The Battle for Voters’ Imaginations over Abortion. Pete Buttigieg was correct.

When We Rose to Fight COVID, We Were Deliberately Turned Against Each Other

The Return of the Bitter Politics of Envy

UN Report Highlights Ongoing Racism in the US

Nebraska HS newspaper and journalism program shut down over student-written commentary on LGBTQ+ issues. The shutdown of the prize-winning student newspaper after 54 years occurred because an edition in June contained student-written commentary on LGBTQ+ issues, the origins of Pride Month, and the history of homophobia, material members of the local school board considered inappropriate.

Demographics

U.S. life expectancy drops sharply, the second consecutive decline

Most and Least Ethnically Diverse Cities in the U.S.

Demographic divide – the key differences in media and entertainment that continue to evolve between younger and older Americans.

New Data Reveal Inequality in Retirement Account Ownership

When and How Often People Marry Changes by Birth Cohort

MUSIC

Behind the Beats article about Rebecca Jade by the Smooth Jazz Network!

The In Crowd – the Ramsey Lewis Trio

The Comedians – Dmitry Kabalevsky. The second section, The Galop, is EXTREMELY familiar to me.

Wade In The Water – Ramsey Lewis

Jonchaies by Iannis Xenakis

Coverville 1412: The Clash Cover Story III and 1413: The Squeeze Cover Story III

Conductor Seiji Ozawa leads the Vienna Philharmonic in Strauss’s overture to Die Fledermaus

Hang On Sloopy – Ramsey Lewis Trio. I still have the Hang On Ramsey album on vinyl

If You Could Read My Mind – Gordon Lightfoot

Happier Now Sunday Stealing

Hembeck, ADD, AmeriNZ, Forgotten Stars

The Happier Now Sunday Stealing questions this week are all over the place.

What flavor Popsicle is the best?

I haven’t had Popsicles in years. But I remember that I favored grape, lime, cherry, and orange, in approximately that order.

Do you have a DVR feature with your cable?

Yes, and increasingly it’s the ONLY way I can watch television. It’s not only much faster – JEOPARDY! in 18 minutes – but I also get to avoid the plethora of advertisements for prescription drugs that are ubiquitous on American television. I’ve been told, and someone can correct me, that the ads are banned everywhere except in the US and New Zealand.

How many drawers does your dresser have?

Five. Or not nearly enough.

Is your closet a mess?

Actually, I have an armoire. After our daughter was born, the room with a large closet became her bedroom for a time. Now it’s my wife’s office. So no.

Have you ever solved a Rubik’s Cube?

No, but I haven’t tried in decades.

Describe your favorite pair of pajama pants:

They’re blue and have moose on them.

What color is your wallet?

The brown color of probably faux leather.

Do you find flea markets and thrift shops enjoyable?

Not really. The cost (of time)/benefit (the find) is too unbalanced. Sorry, Eddie.

AMAZING

Have you met amazing people online?

Yes. I could write a whole blog post on this topic. When I first started blogging in 2005, I followed my friend Fred Hembeck’s now-defunct but still extant blog. I met a slew of great folks there, including Lefty, Gordon, the aforementioned Eddie, and even Greg.

I discovered the late Dustbury, who died in 2019. So I know fillyjonk because I knew Charles Hill.

I stumbled upon Denise Nesbitt’s ABC Wednesday, which I participated in for about a decade. I met Leslie and many other fine folks.

The local newspaper, the Times Union, used to have a blog platform. I still follow folks such as Chuck Miller and J. Eric Smith, the latter of whom is no longer in the area.

Then there are people for whom I have NO idea how I “met” them, such as Arthur and Kelly.

This doesn’t count all of the people I’ve become reacquainted with, including Steve Bissette, Alan David Doane, and a bunch of folks on Facebook.

Between the lines

Would you be happy if I colored a picture for you?

Only if it’s better than I would draw for myself, which is almost certainly going to be true.

What show do you think ‘made’ the 90’s?

Law and Order, The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live, NYPD Blue… I think I’m supposed to say Seinfeld or Friends.

Are you happier now than you were last year?

Yes, because 2021 was too COVIDy. An odd observation, I suppose, since I actually GOT COVID in August 2022. But I’ve gone to a few movies, attended plays, eaten at a few restaurants, and participated in the church choir in 2022.

What are you currently drinking?

Not alcohol, and that’s about calories, not any other consideration. Arnold Palmer.

Do you trust people easily?

Not especially. I don’t DISTRUST people out of hand, but when they’ve betrayed me, I always remember. I can forgive, but I seldom forget.

What are you looking forward to in the next three months?

My daughter will be home from her first semester of college.

August rambling: personality cult

The 2030 Census

Guns and reproductive system — Original source unknown

“Unite the Right” five years later

Secret Service Held Onto Violent Jan. 6 Threat Against Pelosi

Governing Party vs. Personality Cult

djt: His Alleged Crimes at CRIME-A-LAGO and THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO ALL THE WAYS HE IS LEGALLY SCREWED, and his discarding and hoarding of documents just might be pathological

The FBI Confirms Its Brett Kavanaugh Investigation Was a Total Sham

Let’s Hear From the Women Lis Smith Smeared. The political operative who covered for Cuomo is on a comeback tour, trying to paper over the damage she caused.

Correcting Misinformation About Dr. Fauci

Poll Finds 3 in 4 Voters Want to Expand Social Security by Taxing The Rich

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Afghanistan and Carbon Offsets

Most victims of the global problem of out-of-control militarism don’t get the same attention from the Western press.

Is This The Moment For A Third Political Party?

The 10 Things That All Flat Earthers Say

Mr. Brunelle: quiet quitting and new Florida teachers

Census and more

Census: Post-Enumeration Surveys and Bureau Invites Public Input on Designing 2030 Census, and Bureau Must Ensure the Next Census Deploys the Highest Quality Science

Average Lifespan Of Residents In Each US State,

Federal and State Agencies to Notify of a Name Change

Salem Witch Trial Victim Exonerated After 329 Years

Was King Arthur a Real Person?

Should Christians Listen to Explicit Music?

Frederick Buechner, popular Christian ‘writer’s writer’ and ‘minister’s minister,’ dies at 96

Len Dawson, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback and broadcasting legend, dies at 87

Ken Levine remembers Vin Scully

Cross-Pollinating for the Collective

Kelly’s eclectic linkage

Jodi Balfour on the Importance of Her Coming Out on ‘For All Mankind’

14 Notorious Movies and TV Shows That Have Never Been Released

Academy Apologizes to Sacheen Littlefeather for Her Mistreatment At the 1973 Oscars

Capitol Records Severs Ties With A.I. Rapper FN Meka, Apologizes to Black Community for “Insensitivity”

Steve Martin on His Late Career Surge; he plays well with others

Now I Know: The Musician Whose Big Break Was a Broken Instrument and Münchausen by Internet and Why U-Hauls Pretend to be From Arizona and Why Barber’s Poles Have All Those Stripes and How to Get Supplies to an Underwater Laboratory

Student debt

President Biden’s announcement on student debt cancellation generated a lot of conversation. Some believe the $10,000 forgiveness was far too little, while others bemoaned doing so at all. A Facebook comment by Kelly Sedinger resonated with me.

“Nothing illustrates our society’s abdication of the notion of leaving a better world for our children than we ourselves received than (a) creating an economy where higher education is almost a requirement to succeed at any level of comfort, (b) making said education wildly expensive, to the point that virtually no one can afford it out of pocket, (c) thus requiring a system of financing that applies higher-than-they-should-be interest rates and making that debt unable to be dissolved in bankruptcy, and finally (d) freaking out at forgiving some of that debt.”

Mark Evanier added: “A lot of folks who are fine with your, my and their tax dollars going to very, very rich people sure get upset when that money goes to people who are not very, very rich.

MUSIC

Lock Him Up Yesterday – Randy Rainbow

I Hope So – Katrina Stone

Coverville 1411: The Jethro Tull Cover Story

Javelin by Michael Torke.

Let It Be – Peter Sprague, featuring Rebecca Jade

Apotheosis of this Earth by Karel Husa

Shattered Memories – Michał Łapaj (feat. Mick Moss)

I’ve Just Seen A Face – Peter Sprague, featuring Rebecca Jade

Home Grown – Booker T and The MG’s (stereo)

Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna – Franz Von Suppe’