This Is Where The Door Squeaks Ominously

Wow, I left a light burning. Look at my electric bill! Time to do a little spring cleaning, get the old soapbox spruced up a bit.

More Gold And Silver, All Good Coins And True

So the Catholic Church has started up with the indulgences again. Warning: New York Tightwads Times link. But apparently they're not selling them; oh no, that would be crass and cheapen the whole idea of salvation! No, you can earn one through charitable donations:

You cannot buy one — the church outlawed the sale of indulgences in 1567 — but charitable contributions, combined with other acts, can help you earn one. There is a limit of one plenary indulgence per sinner per day.

Step right up! Everyone's a winner! Bargains galore!

Oak Ridge Community Orchestra, March 3, 2012

1. Norwegian Dances, Edvard Grieg, Op. 35

Allegro Marcato:


Watch at YouTube.

Dance No. 2:


Watch at YouTube.

Dance No. 3:


Watch at YouTube.

... and I can't find No. 4 on YouTube.

2. Swedish Dances, Max Bruch, Op. 63, Nos. 8-14, which I can't find on YouTube.

3. Finlandia, Jean Sebilius. Taste the nationalism!


Watch at YouTube.

4. Edvard Grieg, Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46

Morgenstimmung


Watch at YouTube.

Aase's Death


Watch at YouTube.

Anitra's Dance


Watch at YouTube.

Dance in the Hall of the Mountain King


Watch at YouTube.

Oak Ridge Community Orchestra, May 2011 Concert

These recordings aren't by ORCO, although the ORCO concert is being recorded.

Gabriel Faure, Pelleas et Melisande. Like Peer Gynt, this music was composed to accompany a play.

I.

Watch at YouTube.

II.

Watch at YouTube.

III.

Watch at YouTube.

IV.

Watch at YouTube.

Jacques Offenbach, Orfee dans l'enfer, an overture arranged at a later date than the first performance in 1858. Get out your clutching pearls -- someone's not taking French opera seriously!

Watch at YouTube.

Ravel, Pavane pour un enfant defunt. There is only a hypothetical, conceptual dead infant involved, as Ravel composed this as a conjectural piece, something that might have been performed in the Spanish court.

Watch at YouTube.

Claude Achille Debussy, Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune

Watch at YouTube. Dancing by Rudolf Nureyev.

Georges Bizet, Carmen Suite No. 1. And now, excerpts from one of the most famous operas ever.

I. Prelude

Watch at YouTube.

Ia. Aragonaise

Watch at YouTube.

II. Intermezzo

Watch at YouTube.

III. Seguedille

Watch at YouTube. Up tripods!

IV. Les dragons d'Alcalla

Watch at YouTube.

V. Les Toreadors

Watch at YouTube.

One Year Shy of a Century

And it doesn't seem that much has changed.

No one wanted to pay life insurance on the band members aboard the Titanic.

White Star said they were private passengers, because they were contracted out through the talent agency C.W. & F.N. Black, which had a monopoly on entertainment the British Atlantic steamships at the time. Although each band member was given a 2nd-class ticket, they were housed in crew's quarters.

The Blacks routinely took out insurance policies on their talent, and told the families to contact their insurance agent.

The insurance agent refused to pay out, and got a judgment in its favor. The families were finally beneficiaries of a public charity -- The Titanic Relief Fund.

This is a runaround all too familiar today. One is tempted to draw reference to dead peasants' insurance, the practice of large companies to pay life insurance policies on their employees with the companies as beneficiaries, except it seems that the Black talent agency didn't get a payout, either.

WHAT IS THIS I DON'T EVEN

Behold!

I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people.

(Image copyright (c) 2010 Tom Williams)

Ahh, Suburbia

Watch at YouTube.

Vanity Plate

Lovely to LOL at, perhaps not so much to own.

It's a Little Dimmer Today

Leslie Nielsen has passed away.

I hadn't really thought about it very much, but I think his Commander Adams in Forbidden Planet is as much an influence on a certain, much more popular starship captain from a decade later as anything else from the science fiction of the previous eras.

Of course, later in life Nielsen turned into a lovable goof.

But he was always an entertainer. He shall be missed.

Edit: Mr. C. has closed his restaurant.

And also Irving Kershner, who directed The Empire Strikes Back and Never Shay Never Again, one of the rare non-Broccolli James Bond movies, has passed away.