The Flatland Chronicles

Soundtracks of My Life: "Che Fiero Costume"

2008-08-05T17:22:12-04:00

I always loved this impassioned complaint--by Giovanni Legrenzi---back when I was studying music. It's a rebuke to Cupid for the pain and unhappiness he causes---though he's just a baby still on his...

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Soundtracks of My Life: "Intorno All'Idol Mio"

2008-08-05T17:09:36-04:00

This song by baroque composer Antonio Cesti (from Orontea) is performed here by the extremely lovely Cecilia Bartoli. I used to perform it back when I was studying music (though it goes without...

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Ricky Gervais & Gordon Ramsay

2008-08-02T00:54:25-04:00

Ricky Gervais shares marketing tips for a candy bar called 'Plopp,' a 'cock-flavoured bouillon,' and a vodka called 'Spunk.' '

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Soundtracks of My Life: The Doll Song & Related Weirdness from 'The Tales of Hoffman'

2008-04-03T14:43:12-04:00

I love Tales of Hoffman---one of the few operas I've actually performed (or participated in as a member of the chorus)---and so I've already posted about it twice: the first time, about the...

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Starving Elephant Artisans (Elephants that Can---and Do---Paint)

2008-03-29T21:30:38-04:00

Here is a wonderful and very touching video of elephants painting. Yes, painting. Apparently they like to. The organization that posted the video writes: Can your elephant paint? Watch this elephant,...

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Soundtracks of My Life: Operatic Gender-Benders: Nicklausse & Prince Orlofsky!

2008-03-29T19:08:21-04:00

Some of the best rolls for mezzos and contraltos involve playing snide young men. Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, for example; Nicklausse in Hoffman. As a 16-18 year old, I naturally imagined...

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Soundtracks of My Death: From Mendelssohn's Elijah: "Then Shall the Righteous..."

2008-03-29T16:13:37-04:00

This has always been one of my favorite arias from Mendelssohn's Elijah. As a young aspiring singer some thirty years ago, I wanted to sing it myself and I often used to try. Alas, I was a rather...

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The Soundtracks of My Life---Mozart Requiem: "Domine Jesu"; The Messiah: "And He Shall Purify"; Elijah: "Lord, Bow Thine Ear to Our Prayer"

2008-03-29T00:01:00-04:00

Back in my younger days, I performed both these oratorios---not as a principal of course; I didn't have that sort of talent. But I did love singing in the chorus, even though my music reading skills...

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Pictures from the Earth: Judy Malley--Nova Scotia | Used by Permission

2008-03-28T21:48:42-04:00

I've never visited Nova Scotia, but it's one of the places I aspire to see before I die. Photographer Judy Malley has provided me with such a comprehensive glimpse of its many beauties. All her Nova...

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Soundtracks of My Life: "Helas, mon coeur s'egare encore' (Les Contes d'Hoffman)

2008-03-28T19:56:00-04:00

During my operatic phase (when I was in my mid to late teens), I attended a six-week opera workshop where we performed Hoffman. It's an opera guaranteed to have tremendous appeal to any neurotic...

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Soundtracks of My Life: Melanie Safka

2008-03-28T15:54:34-04:00

When I was in college, Melanie was my favorite singer. Later, the Grateful Dead and Jethro Tull edged her out, but in college---when I was studying to be a singer myself---I liked songs I could sing...

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A Depressed Canadian Duck by Judy Malley

2008-03-16T17:24:20-04:00

"I dunno, it just doesn't seem worth the effort of coming back here every summer. I look forward to it all winter and it never lives up to expectation, you know? No, it never does. Every day, it's...

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Cat Chat

2008-03-16T17:12:15-04:00

Who says cats don't talk? TRANSLATION TRANSLATION 2 There are others....

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Tortoise with Orange: The Movie

2008-03-16T01:43:51-04:00

You can see his little tongue!:

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Soundtracks of My Life: "What Will We Do with a Drunken Sailor?"

2008-03-16T01:31:16-04:00

My previous, and late, husband Don, who spent years and years in the British Merchant Marines, used to sing this traditional folk song song---generally with substitute words made up for the occasion....

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Sir Ian McKellen in Extras: Acting Secrets of One of the World's Greatest!

2008-03-14T06:20:19-04:00

This is my favorite scene, bar none, from Extras. It's Ricky Gervais (as Andy Millman) and Sir Ian McKellern as himself! Learn the secrets of the great Sir Ian McKellen's greatness! Hear him speak...

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T13 #14 | Pictures from the Earth: Broken Hearts for Every Situation (13)

2008-03-12T17:48:10-04:00

Not only love can break one. Losing a friend, losing a pet, losing a job, or losing hope can do it too. As Paul Simon so rightly said: "Losing love is like a window in your heart/Everybody sees...

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Soundtracks of My Life: The Seguedilla (Carmen)

2008-03-12T05:52:43-04:00

When I was about 15, I spent a summer at a well-known music camp where I participated in a number of operas, one of them Bizet's "Carmen." (I've already written about this here.) And while I...

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Soundtracks of My Life: Classic Songs of the Vietnam Era

2008-03-12T05:26:25-04:00

I posted this at Buck Naked Politics for a Thursday 13. It's so personal to me that I thought I'd cross-post it here. You Tube is such a wonderful thing. This is the sound of war, resistance, and a...

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Soundtracks of My Life: My Dad's Ultimate Party Song

2008-03-11T16:51:00-04:00

When you reach my age and stage of life, you'll have accumulated a certain set of songs that you don't actually like, but that feel like part of you because your parents did. Maybe for you...

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More Soundtracks of My Life: 'Strange Harmony of Contrasts' (Tosca)

2008-03-10T16:29:00-04:00

Here's another song from an opera---Puccini this time----that I fell in love with as a teen-ager. While I was much too much a product of the seventies to see the famous sexual appeal of Mario Lanza...

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Loss, Grief, & Cet.

2008-03-08T03:40:34-05:00

With one parent(-in-law) still ailing in hospital and the other freshly released following a cracked rib, I have been on a bit of an emotional roller coaster. I've also been up to my ears in my work,...

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Boemerang: Laughter Kills the Talk Show Career

2008-02-15T08:37:58-05:00

I admit it: I thought this sketch was real when I watched it on YouTube. Thank God for Wikipedia. Apparently, it's from a Flemish television show called "In De Gloria." According to Wikipedia. "In De...

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A Beetle-Browed Bunny Rebukes the Internets

2008-02-14T06:39:18-05:00

The large, cross bunny whose portrait appears below was featured here at Cute Overload. Normally I would just link to the picture, but this time I had to have the bunny (generously made available to...

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T13 # 13 | Pictures from the Earth: Landscapes & Cityscapes by Patrick Boury

2008-02-13T20:58:34-05:00

Fellow Thirteeners, my spouse and I are not fans of the day, which is either year round or nothing at all. My husband, Nicholas, averred that if there was going to be a list of 13 things I'm fond...

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Magical Glass---The Art of Dale Chihuly | Link of the Day

2008-02-08T16:52:24-05:00

A Florida photographer and blogger whose work I've much admired---and much used---turned me on to Dale Chihuly. How had I not known about Chihuly? You know how I love glass, light, and color, so how?...

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The Mean Kitty Song | "Hey, Little Sparta"

2008-02-08T16:15:27-05:00

This is a work of sheer genius: Be sure to check out the lyrics. The author, Mr. Safety, says: If you have a cat, I'm sure you can relate, lol. I originally wrote the song because I didn't want to...

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T13 #12 | Pictures from the (Virtual) Earth: Thirteen Landscapes

2008-02-06T17:17:48-05:00

Hi, everyone. If you leave a comment on these magnificent virtual landscapes, I will give you a link back to your blog. The people who created them were kind enough to share them and I took a lot of...

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"Whatever Bubbles Bubbles Up....": Greatest Music Video EVER? (Directed by Michel Gondry)

2008-02-03T15:11:00-05:00

I probably haven't mentioned several thousand times, but I am not a fan of music videos---I mean the contrived sort you see on video stations-- in general. In general, as I've said, they tend more...

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Bessie Tucker: Twenties Barrelhouse Blues

2008-02-03T01:17:14-05:00

Courtesy of the indispensable Yazoo Records, I first heard Bessie Tucker sing "Fort Worth and Denver Blues (click here for a sample)." Here voice blew me away. Astonishing.... Who is she, you might...

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One more Species Says Good-bye: Watch It Happen

2008-02-03T00:43:30-05:00

Many people don't realize that we are in the midst of a massive species die-off. The loss of species diversity may ultimately be more of a threat to the eco-net than global warming. In the meantime,...

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Sea Turtle Swimming

2008-02-02T03:28:06-05:00

From Sipadan Island (Malaysia): Just a beautiful and touching sight....and sounds as well: gurgling water and turtle breaths. How lovely.

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DAMN, that's cute (a CO Update) (Link o' the Day!)

2008-01-29T23:19:58-05:00

First of all, you need to check out Cute Overload's "Best of 2007" posting. How did I miss this? It starts with the cutest birdie on the wing shot ever. Latest CO favorites: Red Paaaaandaaaaaaa...

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Fats Waller: "Ain't Misbehavin'"

2008-01-29T15:25:21-05:00

Fats Waller, one of my husband's heroes, just before he died (1943) at the age of 39. He died of pneumonia on a train. Fats Waller plus a lovely singer named Myra Johnson in a mock catfight; what...

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Enigma's Tribute to Callas (and More)

2008-01-27T17:41:48-05:00

Back in the early Nineties, everyone was listening to Michael Cretu's Enigma. I started thinking of them while viewing/listening to all of Callas I could find on You Tube. As so often is the case,...

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A Contemporary Tribute to the Memphis Jug Band

2008-01-27T03:50:34-05:00

Man, I love the Memphis Jug Band. And thanks to the wondrous Yazoo Records I was able to buy a recording of their music. One of my friends who claims to be able to do "past lives" readings says I...

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Soundtracks of My Life: "Rustic Chivalry" (& the World's Most Passionate Love Song)

2008-01-25T19:41:02-05:00

I was fortunate enough to find my favorite version of "The Siciliano" from Macagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana" on YouTube (below). Maybe because the first version I ever heard featured Franco Corelli,...

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Animal People: A Bear Called "Flocke"

2008-01-25T16:22:42-05:00

Apparently this little baby had to be removed from his mother lest she---like another polar bear---eat him. At first, the zoo said they wouldn't intervene (which certain stony-hearted animal "rights"...

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Iconic Carmens: A Study in Variations on a Theme

2008-01-25T02:02:05-05:00

I'm not comparing the technical proficiency of these singers and do not intend to comment. Everyone has an iconic Carmen. These are some different conceptions of her. Back in the day when I hoped to...

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Random Link O' the Day: FilterMusic.com (Internet Radio)

2008-01-24T11:32:00-05:00

I know there are a lot of music resources out there, but this site's really good....See it now. I like listening to jazz as background when I work and this is a great selection....

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Link of the Day: Olga's Online Art Museum (& Some Paintings by Poussin)

2008-01-21T19:25:03-05:00

If you're extremely interested in art, you presumably already know about Olga's Gallery, one of the web's largest and most accessible collections. I've been going there for years whenever I felt the...

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Pictures from the Earth: "Aurora Borealis"

2008-01-21T16:21:05-05:00

I have never been far enough north to see the aurora borealis, but I found some amazing photographs on Flickr (made available, of course, through the generous people who contribute to Creative...

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The Animaniacs Perform "The HMS Yakko"

2008-01-20T11:31:51-05:00

The Animaniacs perform some of Gilbert & Sullivan's Greatest Hits; a new generation learns an updated version of "I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General" (which Aaron Sorkin subsequenty...

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Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Sings Mozart

2008-01-20T10:04:49-05:00

In my younger days, I studied music and specifically capital-V Voice. Yes, my friends, at the age of 15, while other girls dreamed of being rock stars (not too many credible women back in those days...

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Teh Silly: Cats in a Music Store

2008-01-18T22:11:00-05:00

I just wish there were more, like a cat listening to the Grateful Dead or to show tunes or vintage jazz. Check it out. But in case you're a Very Serious Person, I am warning you: it is very silly...

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The Tragedy of the Commons

2008-01-18T09:07:00-05:00

Creative Commons licensing, in case you don't know, is a permission granted by the owner of a work to allow third parties to make restricted use of the work without prior permission. That's basically...

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Blogcombing "A Gentleman's Domain": The Heartbreak of Rodent Rejection

2008-01-17T16:04:10-05:00

If you want to know why I'm depressed, it's because my hamster hates me. Yes; I said it. She HATES me. Nicholas, my husband, explains: We have a hamster..... I didn’t want one, but after ceaseless...

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Pictures from the Earth: "Cascade Mountain Range Volcanoes"

2008-01-14T08:36:23-05:00

I've always been fascinated by the Pacific Northwest, but it's a long, long way away from Gainesville Florida, and when I have money to travel, it's usually got to be eastward to my husband's family...

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"Oh Lady" (Why You Need to Buy The Animaniacs Boxed Set Even Though You're a Grown-Up)

2008-01-11T00:12:00-05:00

CROSS-POSTED TO JUST EAT THE DAMN PEACH. I have said before how I love The Animaniacs (here and here, in fact). Spielberg, is of course, a genius. And speaking of geniuses, here is one of my all-time...

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Pictures from the Earth--"Closed for Winter"

2008-01-09T20:02:15-05:00

My husband suggested the idea behind this photo essay. I asked him to suggest a subject and---it being a grey and melancholy day (we do have them in Florida)---he came up with the theme. I was...

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