Rufus Wainwright sings Serge Gainsbourg, “Je suis venu te dire que je m’en vais.” And everything beyond the event horizon of this black hole of genius fades into irrelevancy.
Rufus sings Serge
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Monday music XX
“People Get Ready” (recorded 1964) by Curtis Mayfield. Performed by The Impressions featuring Curtis Mayfield.
I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors, when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.
— President Barack Obama
Sagesse XX
Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Ho sempre pensato, come qualsiasi persona normale, che dietro a chi scrive ci debba essere necessità di scrivere, libertà, autenticità, rischio. Pensare che ci debba essere qualcosa di sociale e di ufficiale che «fissi» l’autorevolezza di qualcuno, è un pensiero, appunto aberrante, dovuto evidentemente alla deformazione di chi non sappia più concepire verità al di fuori dell’autorità.
— Pier Paolo Pasolini
mlr elsewhere
Mondo Lux, a documentary about Werner Schroeter.
- For Capital New York, I wrote an advance on the Museum of Modern Art’s Werner Schroeter retrospective.
- There were some new posts at Re-visioning Callas and Verdi Duecento. I am slowly getting back into the swing of blogging after treating every last writing assignment as a dissertation!
- Shabbat Shalom and bon week-end à tous !
Monday music XIX
The Beatles, “You know my name (Look up the number),” recorded 1967–69. Background here.
Sagesse XIX
Rumi stamp.
Come, come, whoever you are.
Wanderer, idolator, worshipper of fire,
come even though you have broken your vows a thousand times,
Come, and come yet again.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
— Rumi
WWIII
“WWIII” by Rufus Wainwright. I believe that it is an iTunes-only bonus track, and I like it better (much better) than most of the songs on Out of the Game.
Monday music XVIII
You losers wish you were .01% as cool as he.
Serge Gainsbourg, “Chatterton” (1967). This may be a mixage alternatif first published in 1996.
Sagesse XVIII
If mass communications blend together harmoniously, and often unnoticeably, art, politics, religion, and philosophy with commercials, they bring these realms of culture to their common denominator—the commodity form.
— Herbert Marcuse
mlr elsewhere
- For Capital New York, I wrote an advance on Juilliard’s production of Don Giovanni and Manhattan School of Music’s staging of Ghosts of Versailles.
- Otherwise, it was a very quiet week for me.
- Shabbat Shalom and bon week-end à tous !
Why are writers expected to work for free?
From The Guardian:
In the modern world, media companies, the new kings of information, have exercised enormous power, slowly but surely seizing away the rights to authors’ works via horrific contracts, then imposing poverty-inducing conditions on anyone who wants to produce creative works. I understand why people feel forced to write for free—creators exist to have their work seen and consumed by others. It’s fear, not freedom, that drives creators to succumb.Working for free, however, is not something we should accept as a norm that media companies can exploit. If you flip through corporate reports or media stories you may note that, magically, billions of dollars are flowing into their coffers and top media executives are making millions of dollars in pay and benefits. When those executives donate their work, perhaps, creators will reconsider their own demands for compensation.
Monday music XVII
“Forse qualcuno domani,” another cut from Gianmaria Testa’s masterpiece, Da questa parte del mare (2006).
Sagesse XVII
Senza parole.
For me, the real joy of vegetarianism is knowing that my meals are not at the expense of any living creature. “All creatures love life,” the Buddha says. “All creatures fear death. Therefore do not kill, or cause another to kill.”
— Eknath Easwaran
mlr elsewhere
Image from Naked Motel.
- For The Classical Review, I reported on New York City Opera’s 2012–2013 season announcement.
- I also managed to post at Verdi Duecento and Re-visioning Callas.
- Shabbat Shalom and bon week-end à tous ! And why not listen to Abbey Road?
Sagesse XVI
My sister Fred.
Every word immediately becomes a concept, inasmuch as it is not intended to serve as a reminder of the unique and wholly individualized original experience to which it owes its birth, but must at the same time fit innumerable, more or less similar cases—which means, strictly speaking, never equal—in other words, a lot of unequal cases. Every concept originates through our equating what is unequal.
— My sister Fred Nietzsche, “Über Wahrheit und Lüge im außermoralischen Sinn”
Monday music XVI
25 June 1967.
mlr elsewhere
- For Time Out New York, I reviewed Klaus Florian Vogt’s Helden (Sony Classical).
- For Capital New York, I wrote about Manzoni and Verdi and why there is no such thing as “the Verdi Requiem.”
- Otherwise, I am on a mini digital sabbatical and not blogging. To my many Orthodox friends, Χριστός ἀνέστη!
Monday music XV
Gianmaria Testa, “Ritals.” From the 2006 album Da questa parte del mare, far and away the most beautiful and important recording of the twenty-first century so far.