Monday, January 25, 2016
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Can Music Be Perfect? Vol. 68
On a Sunday afternoon when any red-blooded American male ought to be watching the NFL conference playoffs, this boy is reading through promotion and tenure cases in preparation for Monday morning's meeting. And listening to the Guarneri Quartet's complete Beethoven string quartets. I'm afraid I can't embed the video, but you can click here to see them shedding a few bow hairs on Rasumovsky No. 3. Wow.
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Can Music Be Perfect? Vol. 67
I don't know very much about his evidently sad personal life, but as a lyricist Lorenz Hart could be a cold, cold, bastard, and funny as hell. Ella Fitzgerald, with her cool precision and wit, was the perfect singer for Rodgers and Hart's nastiest songs. And this may be the nastiest of all...
When love congeals,
it soon reveals
the faint aroma of performing seals,
the double-crossing of a pair of heels.
I wish I were in love again!
When love congeals,
it soon reveals
the faint aroma of performing seals,
the double-crossing of a pair of heels.
I wish I were in love again!
Friday, January 8, 2016
Foothills Park after the rain
Every winter I hope to stumble across one of these—Hericium coralloides—on a hike in the foothills; this is the first in several years, thanks to the recent generous rains, I suppose. It is the loveliest of fungi. It does resemble its namesake coral, or to my eye a delicate calcite formation in a cavern. But in fact it is soft and rubbery, and supposedly quite delicious. Identification is pretty foolproof, so I would not hesitate to take one home for the skillet, were it not too beautiful to pick.
You can almost hear the vegetation slurping up the water, which gives the forest and chaparral a kind of radiance, even before many of the plants have leafed out.
You can almost hear the vegetation slurping up the water, which gives the forest and chaparral a kind of radiance, even before many of the plants have leafed out.
Sunday, January 3, 2016
Visit to the de Young
Always something new that catches my eye for the first time. In a special exhibition of prints from the San Francisco Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915: James McNeill Whistler's Weary. Whistler was an extraordinary printmaker.
And in the permanent collection, Elmer Bischoff's Yellow Lampshade (1969). I suppose I've seen it many times, but never really looked at it. A large, beautiful composition that invites you to tell the story.
And in the permanent collection, Elmer Bischoff's Yellow Lampshade (1969). I suppose I've seen it many times, but never really looked at it. A large, beautiful composition that invites you to tell the story.
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