November | 2018 | Richibi's Weblog

November 26, 2018

on the third day of C***mas

“Les musiciens“ (1952)

Nicolas de Staël

___________

on the third day of C*mas, I needed to**

ready myself for the onslaught, I was

hosting, yikes, for someone from out

of town

I thought I’d had it all figured out, but

obstacles occurred, of course, to my,

nearly cowed, consternation

I needed help

I’d anticipated more violin concertos

to get me going, but, among my

several bookmarks, King Crimson

came up, a group I’d admired

tremendously in my formative years,

the 70s, when freedom of expression

prevailed, in all of its innocent

expectations

they are tremendous, if you like that

sort of thing, entirely progressive

rock

you’ll think me eccentric if I relate

them to Classical considerations, not

only are they rigorous about tempo,

tonality, and repetition, essential

Classical components, but reach

further into even tribal configurations,

their minimalism – later formalized by,

incidentally, Beethoven – of infinitely

repeated rhythms, like thumping,

intoxicating, essentially, thrusts,

heartbeats meeting heartbeats, very,

in other words, primitive, primeval

add to that, later, their superimposed

atonal riffs – Jimi Hendrix meets the

jungle – a direct reference to

Schoenberg‘s breakdown of the

orthodoxy of the musical scale, and

cadence, and reiteration, you’re left

with a history of our culture’s sonic

aspirations in a single incandescent

concert, despite a couple of egregious

commercial interruptions in the

download, a 21st-Century, it seems,

corporate roadblock

watch, enjoy

R ! chard

November 11, 2018

“A Delicate Balance” – Edward Albee

“Theatre Drama“

Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin

___________

there are only a very few 20th-Century

American playwrights who’ve weathered

the rigours of time, two with several

successes, Eugene O’Neill, and

Tennessee Williams, but only one to

tower above those two with only one

work to outmatch them, Edward Albee,

his “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?“

is every inch a king

this is not an impossible feat, Margaret

Mitchell wrote her only book, “Gone

with the Wind“, a contemporary “Iliad“,

which will find its rightful place again

in world literature, note, when our own

too reverberant still times cede to the

concerns of another, less pertinently

fraught era, like reading “War and

Peace“, for instance, now that

Napoleon is long gone

“Gone with the Wind“, quick, name

another 20th-Century novel to top it,

seconds are too long, “Gone with

the Wind” is in our bloodstream,

like Walt Disney or Marilyn Monroe,

even if you’ve never read it, which

you should

but Edward Albee wrote another play

which deserves some attention, and

with redoubtable performances from

both the consummate ever Katharine

Hepburn, and from our own Canadian

tower of unutterable talent, Kate Reid,

abetted by masterful presentations

from no less than the revered Paul

Scofield and the iconic Joseph Cotten

when their supporting numbers come

up, here is a show to watch for, if

nothing else, those individual stellar

contributions

**but “A Delicate Balance“, also an**

incontestable masterpiece, is about

friendship, and tells a lesson you’ll

not soon forget, friendship is more

than, for better or for worse, just

knowing each other, it says, an

idiosyncratic, indeed recurrent,

Albee theme

cinematography, note, is, here,

dreadful, though actually in that

manner conceived, however

improbably, by an otherwise

noteworthy director, you’ll even

think they’ve shrunk his frame

but visual style shouldn’t let you

forego the play’s profound substance,

nor the triumphant work of its illustrious

cast, at the very top, mostly, of their

considerable, even defining, powers

watch

R ! chard

November 7, 2018

happy birthday, Joni Mitchell

***“Nuages“* / *“Clouds“***

Fernand Léger

_________

for Lajla, and, of course, Joni

in my German class in Dresden, I

was asked, since I was from

Canada, to translate into German

a Canadian song, my teacher

suggested something of Joni

Mitchell, someone she profoundly,

she said, admired, was I the one

to choose **“Both Sides Now“, or**

was she, I can’t remember, but

that was the song I translated

“Rows and floes of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I’ve looked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It’s cloud illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all

Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As every fairy tale comes real
I’ve looked at love that way

But now it’s just another show
You leave ’em laughing when you go
And if you care, don’t let them know
Don’t give yourself away

I’ve looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
It’s love’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know love at all

Tears and fears and feeling proud
To say “I love you” right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
I’ve looked at life that way

But now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, they say I’ve changed
Well something’s lost, but something’s gained
In living every day

I’ve looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It’s life’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know life at all

I’ve looked at life from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It’s life’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know life at all”

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30

	Tonyia on November / Month of the Sonata…
	how to listen to mus… on how to listen to music if you…
	how to listen to mus… on how to listen to music if you…
	how to listen to mus… on how to listen to music if you…
	richibi on “Metamorphoses” (The Giants…

Month: November, 2018

“Les musiciens“ (1952)

___________

on the third day of C***mas, I needed to

ready myself for the onslaught, I was

hosting, yikes, for someone from out

of town

I thought I’d had it all figured out, but

obstacles occurred, of course, to my,

nearly cowed, consternation

I needed help

I’d anticipated more violin concertos

to get me going, but, among my

several bookmarks, King Crimson

came up, a group I’d admired

tremendously in my formative years,

the 70s, when freedom of expression

prevailed, in all of its innocent

expectations

they are tremendous, if you like that

sort of thing, entirely progressive

rock

you’ll think me eccentric if I relate

them to Classical considerations, not

only are they rigorous about tempo,

tonality, and repetition, essential

Classical components, but reach

further into even tribal configurations,

their minimalism – later formalized by,

incidentally, Beethoven – of infinitely

repeated rhythms, like thumping,

intoxicating, essentially, thrusts,

heartbeats meeting heartbeats, very,

in other words, primitive, primeval

add to that, later, their superimposed

atonal riffs – Jimi Hendrix meets the

jungle – a direct reference to

Schoenberg‘s breakdown of the

orthodoxy of the musical scale, and

cadence, and reiteration, you’re left

with a history of our culture’s sonic

aspirations in a single incandescent

concert, despite a couple of egregious

commercial interruptions in the

download, a 21st-Century, it seems,

corporate roadblock

watch, enjoy

R ! chard

“Theatre Drama“

there are only a very few 20th-Century

American playwrights who’ve weathered

the rigours of time, two with several

successes, Eugene O’Neill, and

Tennessee Williams, but only one to

tower above those two with only one

work to outmatch them, Edward Albee,

his “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?“

is every inch a king

this is not an impossible feat, Margaret

Mitchell wrote her only book, “Gone

with the Wind“, a contemporary “Iliad“,

which will find its rightful place again

in world literature, note, when our own

too reverberant still times cede to the

concerns of another, less pertinently

fraught era, like reading “War and

Peace“, for instance, now that

Napoleon is long gone

“Gone with the Wind“, quick, name

another 20th-Century novel to top it,

seconds are too long, “Gone with

the Wind” is in our bloodstream,

like Walt Disney or Marilyn Monroe,

even if you’ve never read it, which

you should

but Edward Albee wrote another play

which deserves some attention, and

with redoubtable performances from

both the consummate ever Katharine

Hepburn, and from our own Canadian

on the third day of C*mas, I needed to**

**but “A Delicate Balance“, also an**

***“Nuages“* / *“Clouds“***