By the way, on this Tax Day 2009 a bunch of folks went about tea-bagging in protest of just about all things Barack Obama. I hope all these protesters are rich whiners who are making $250,000 per year or more since if you make less than that you are actually getting a tax cut from this administration (though apparently when your only source of ‘news’ is that disgusting cable tv channel by the name of FOX, then you can be fooled into believing in any wacky things like ‘Obama is a Marxist’ or ‘Obama is a non-American Kenyan’ or ‘Obama is imposing more tax on you’ or ‘Obama is a communist’, etc, etc, etc... Even when it is demonstrably NOT true).
To tell the truth, had I been presented with the choice between Obama and Hillary Clinton on Election Day last November I would have chosen the latter... And that would have been the wrong choice. Like him or not, the dude has proven impressively cool-headed and sure-handed... even when the economy was crumbling all around him while the sore-losers GOP were (and are still) stuck in the ‘you can listen to us all you want but we’ll pretend that you haven’t even tried to hear us anyway’ vote-no-on-everything mode.
If I have to classify myself into a political party it’ll still be libertarian - though I’ll never go for anarchy. Not wanting the government to interfere with personal freedom is one thing. Getting rid of it altogether is quite another. And if you’re gonna keep a government around to provide the infrastructure and stability, then you’ve gotta pay for its service via tax! And just what the hell is this idiotic cry for a spending freeze right in the middle of a big recession anyhow? If the rich folks stop spending their money on their boats, what will happen to the marine carpenters and mechanics? To the ship builders and people who work in the marinas where the yachts are kept and maintained? To the restaurants and other businesses that draw their business from the boaters? If people stop going to concerts and to see performance arts, then what will happen to the skilled artists? Theater staff? Recording companies? Artist agents? Businesses and restaurants around the concert halls and museums? No spending means no customers to the small businesses. No customer means no money and that only leads to laying off jobs and no hiring... which, of course, leads to more unemployed people on the street and fewer people who can afford to spend the money that'll keep businesses going! People who have money to spare need to keep spending it NOW and not the other way around. Else, we’ll never get out of this vicious cycle that turned the 1929 recession into the Great Depression that lasted a whole decade! Did you right wing fundamentalists not pay attention in that Econ 101 class in college or what!?!
There used to be a time when I had more respect for the republican party than I did the democrat. Now they suck like a stuck vacuum!
I resisted music from the Baroque period for the longest time mostly because; 1. I wasn't familiar with it since none of the instruments I play existed back then 2. I had pretty boring experience with Baroque operas before... Pretty arias one after another to the point where, by the end of the hour I couldn't tell one song from another... They all sounded the same!
But then... they weren't performed by singers like Vesselina Kasarova or Vivica Genaux or Juliette Galstian or Dorothea Röschmann back then. Now that I've heard these gals rock up the old tunes, my built-in stereo is playing arias from that period almost as often as it does the bel canto stuff now.
“Ombra fedele anch'io... As a faithful shadow I’ll be, sul margine di lette.... and even to the bank of the Lethe seguir vo' l'idol mio che tanto addoro... I’ll follow you, my adored idol.
Che bella pace e questa che a consolar.. What serene peace consoles me se resta il mio martoro.... and eases my torment.”
From the 1730 opera Idaspe by Riccardo Broschi, this aria of Dario is written for the composer's famous soprano castrato brother, Carlo Broschi, also known as Farinelli. It is a simple song of longing (the Lethe is a mythical river of forgetfulness in Hades. Supposedly those who wade/drink in it would experience permanent and complete amnesia) that follows the classic Baroque A-B-A' da capo form (you hear theme A, then theme B, then a return to theme A with increasingly complex ornamentation)...
Not all that emotionally explorative, I think (at least nothing in the caliber of what Handel would have done musically), but still very catchy and beautiful, isn't it? I'm willing to bet that you can take the A section and turn it into a big pop music hit today (providing a good English adaptation of the lyrics).
Really, people who think that classical music is for the dull and the aged really don't know what the heck they're missing. I wonder how many recognize the good use of classical music they hear everyday without noticing. Just in the past week I've heard Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries (in the GoToMyPC.com ads), Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's 4th Symphony 'Italian' (tv ads for the series Harper's Island), and the famous flower duet from Delibes' Lakmé (through out ABC's Nightline show about the Vineyard housing/golf course development in Las Vegas, NV) while watching my television at night. Keep an ear out for classical music when you watch the tv or are at the cinema. You might be surprised where the thing would pop up at you!
"Frondi tenere e belle..... Tender and beautiful fronds Del mio Platano amato,... of my beloved plane tree, Per voi risplenda il Fato... let fate smile upon you. Tuoni, Lampi, e Procelle... May thunder, lightning, and storms Non vi oltraggino mai la cara pace,.. disturb not your peace, Ne giunga a profanarvi Austro rapace... nor may the winds profane you. Ombra mai fu......... There never was Di Vegetabile,......... any plant that lives Care ed amabile..... as dear and loving Soave piu................ or more gently than you."
I don't celebrate Easter in a religious sense, but it is such a beautiful weekend outside and chocolate bunnies are growing on trees (and popping up from the sand at the beaches)... Spring is in the air and that's a cause for a party all by itself!
Anyhow, this eco-friendly aria of Serse from the opera of the same name by Georg Friedrich Händel, is playing in my intracranial stereo quite a bit (the clip embedded here is sung by Olga Borodina and posted on Youtube by MargotLorena). I can't help it.... I love the fresh new leaves that are out-folliaging the older winter leaves this time of year. The formerly leafless branchy trees at the Embarcadero now sport a handsome coat of light green underneath a top layer of red flowers. The flowers are blooming at Zoro Garden in Balboa Park, which is now well patrolled by a troop of monarch and other interestingly patterned butterflies. Spring is a really cool time of year.... even in a rather mild climate like San Diego. No wonder composers keep dedicating songs to it. I've lost count of how many 'im Frühling' there are... Schubert, Brahms, Strauss, etc, etc... Why doesn't anyone ever write songs aboutHerbst? (well, I'll take that back to a degree since there are some French songs about automne... not to mention a few beautifully depressing poems like that one by Paul Verlaine. I guess I'm just happy to be on the brighter side of summer!)
I was waiting for my bus to Sunset Cliffs from Old Town Transit Center when I ran into these two high-schoolers getting very friendly with the local pigeons. The capped one was such a bird-whisperer that he got them to feed off his hand after only 4 minutes or so. When all the seeds were gone, he stood up with this big grin on his face and told me that he'll be a biologist when he grows up. I think I have a lot of pigeons who will agree with me in thinking that he'll be a very good one indeed. Out on the colorful seaside cliffs, though, the seagulls rule... along with a flock of pelicans that I can't seem to get a good photo of. They live out here by the ocean, and yet are still mesmerized by the setting sun - coming out to perch on the crumbling rocks to watch the alluring red ball fade into the sea every evening. A seagull... that's what I want to be when I grow up. :oP
One of the best scenery-viewing spots in downtown San Diego is, of course, from the highest public-friendly observation deck on the west coast, the Top of the Hyatt lounge on the 40th floor of the Manchester-Grand Hyatt Hotel. The lounge is opened daily from 3-10PM and is located in the Harbor Tower (the south one next to the Marriott Hotel). Above photo looks south (you see the round reflection pool of Children's Park. The walk way that parts it and runs along to the top right corner is the Martin Luther King Promenade that goes from Front St in the Marina District to Imperial Station at the end of Gaslamp Quarter. The dark towers are the twin towers of the Marina Club. The mountain range in the background is actually the Sierra Madre in Mexico!). Looking south-west you can see the thin Silver Strand that connects Coronado Island to the mainland, the tall blue San Diego-Coronado Bridge. The little baylet between Silver Strand and Coronado Island is our precious little Glorietta Bay).
A wider look reveals the yacht club & marina of the Marriott Hotel. The park that encloses the marina is the Embarcadero Marina Park South and North. The Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel has two towers with a swimming pool between them. It looks so much bigger from the ground level!
And now a look to the WNW. You can see the little red-roofed curve on the downtown side of the bay that is our bucolicishly boutique Seaport Village (and its pier). Across the bay is the Naval Air Station North Island (at the northern tip of Coronado), with its naval base and air strip. There are two aircraft carriers there, I think, along with many other battleships. The southward jutting peninsula in the distance is Point Loma... Our designated tsunami wave-breaker (hopefully). It has two lighthouses and the Cabrillo National Monument at the tip, along with Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery... one of the oldest military cemeteries in the USA (housing soldiers from the California-Mexico War of 1846 to date). The tall buildings of the Columbia District are also visible from the Top of the Hyatt lounge... I'm afraid 'tall' here is relative since there is a height restriction on buildings here (500 ft/ 152 m maximum) due to the area's proximity to the airport. The slender brown-windowed high rise to the left is Electra, the tallest residential building at 475 ft/145 m. Its first 3 stories are actually the remains of the old San Diego Gas & Electric Station that was built in 1911. They preserved it and top it off with a modern condominium. The screwdriver-top high rise to the right of it is America Plaza, downtown's tallest building at 500 ft/152m.
To tell the truth, had I been presented with the choice between Obama and Hillary Clinton on Election Day last November I would have chosen the latter... And that would have been the wrong choice. Like him or not, the dude has proven impressively cool-headed and sure-handed... even when the economy was crumbling all around him while the sore-losers GOP were (and are still) stuck in the ‘you can listen to us all you want but we’ll pretend that you haven’t even tried to hear us anyway’ vote-no-on-everything mode.
And just what the hell is this idiotic cry for a spending freeze right in the middle of a big recession anyhow? If the rich folks stop spending their money on their boats, what will happen to the marine carpenters and mechanics? To the ship builders and people who work in the marinas where the yachts are kept and maintained? To the restaurants and other businesses that draw their business from the boaters? If people stop going to concerts and to see performance arts, then what will happen to the skilled artists? Theater staff? Recording companies? Artist agents? Businesses and restaurants around the concert halls and museums?
No spending means no customers to the small businesses. No customer means no money and that only leads to laying off jobs and no hiring... which, of course, leads to more unemployed people on the street and fewer people who can afford to spend the money that'll keep businesses going! People who have money to spare need to keep spending it NOW and not the other way around. Else, we’ll never get out of this vicious cycle that turned the 1929 recession into the Great Depression that lasted a whole decade! Did you right wing fundamentalists not pay attention in that Econ 101 class in college or what!?!
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