Category: Uncategorized

Promoting the Concert

In general, how many days ahead of time do you plan attending an event? How has it changed with life circumstances?

There was a nice article in the [Albany, NY] Times Union newspaper on Saturday, November 5 about a concert of Mozart music taking place at First Presbyterian Church in Albany on Sunday, November 13; I will be participating. This led to some discussion about how people decide to go to events.

One parishioner thought that, while it was a great piece, it was too bad that it did not appear the day before the concert. Apparently, some people see an article on the Saturday religion page in the TU and are primed to go the next day.

Whereas I almost never see an event on that page that I have the means to attend a day or two out. Likewise, even in my single days, it was rare that I saw something that I first learned about in the TU Preview section or in Metroland on a Thursday and was able to attend within 48 hours of reading about it. An article might provide additional info beyond what I knew, but it would not be the initial inspiration for a night out.

Besides, the article published a week earlier allowed one to tweet and Facebook about it, and blog about it, especially to those who DON’T READ THE NEWSPAPER. Then other people might retweet and reFacebook (is that a word?) about it as well.

My question then: in general, how many days ahead of time do you plan to attend an event? How has it changed with life circumstances?

Anyway, it’ll be a busy weekend for me, with a dress rehearsal on Saturday and the concert on Sunday. If I’m slow approving your comments or visiting your blogs, you’ll know why.

Willard Asylum Suitcase Documentation

Jon is awed by the support from the Kickstarter community, with over 560 backers, from points as far away as Italy.

Photo: (C) Jon Crispin

I have this peculiar fascination with old suitcases. Well, not just any old suitcases, but suitcases that once held the worldly possessions of the people residing at the Willard Asylum in Ovid, NY in Seneca County. I remember a large article in Metroland about the New York State Museum’s 2004 exhibit “Lost Cases, Recovered Lives: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic”, curated by Darby Penney and Peter Stastny.

Then recently, I was looking at my weekly Kickstarter e-mail, and I noted the highlighted Willard Asylum Suitcase Documentation: a photography project in Albany, NY by Jon Crispin. So I e-mailed him, and he called me back.

Jon Crispin, born in 1951, has had the opportunity to take pictures of various projects involving the State Museum over a number of years. For instance, he took some photos, well after the Attica prison uprising, that had been saved.

Jon recalls growing up in Meadville, PA, where the great entertainment was to go to the railroad station to see the daily train departure. Then, at one point, as is true in many small towns, the train stopped coming. He felt the need to make a photographic record of it.

The youngest of three, Jon seems to be following his sister’s path, of a sort, as a preservationist. He seems to be particularly drawn to things left behind, seeing their beauty. The Willard Project most assuredly falls into that category. Both he and I are fascinated by the letter, unmailed, in the photo above, and imagine what the story of it might be.

The photographer wanted to note the assistance he’s gotten from Craig Williams of the State Museum, who has been a champion of his for a number of years. He appreciates the work that others have done in this arena before him. He is awed by the support from the Kickstarter community, with over 560 backers, from points as far away as Italy. Most of all, he is grateful for the fact that his wife has had a steady job with health benefits, which had allowed him to stay home with their son, who is now at college, while he worked on his photography.

Jon mentioned that he read about Willard in a New York Times article. While looking for it, I found an even more intriguing piece: an April 1872 Times article about Willard, which informs how people of the time saw the facility in a positive light. I also recommend an article from the blog Joy of Caking.

I suppose that another element of my interest in Willard involves the fact that there was a state hospital in Binghamton, where I grew up, and my father went there periodically to entertain the patients. I went with him only once or twice; I found it rather foreboding. In retrospect, I wonder if the patients there, and the other “asylums” felt the same?

Q is for…

In other words, expecting rationality in the development of English is…irrational!

The last time ABC Wednesday was on the letter Q, someone asked, “Why does U usually follow Q in English-language words?” And the answer was simple to find but mighty difficult to explain.

As is noted here, it’s because modern English evolved from the Phoenicians to the Greeks to the Etruscans to the Romans.

Like the Greeks, Latin had only the one k sound. As a result, over time kappa was dropped, koppa evolved into q, and gamma into c (these changes explain why Greek words spelled with k have their Latin equivalents spelled with c). The Romans used q only before u, though the combination was actually written as qv, since v was a vowel in classical Latin, to represent the kw sound that was so common in the language.

If we move on about a thousand years, we find that Old English had the same sound, but represented it by cw, since q had been left out of their version of the alphabet (so queen in Old English was spelled cwen, for example). French, however, continued the Latin qv, though by now written as qu. After the Norman Conquest, French spelling gradually took over in England, eventually replacing the Old English cw by Latinate qu, though this change took about 300 years to complete.

In other words, it’s because English is an evolving, bastardized language. Or, blame the French.

I like the answer here as well: “As for why q is always written with a u in Latin itself… The ‘u’ part is actually the easiest to understand, as its pronunciation approximates the glide sound that ‘w’ represents in the ‘kw’ cluster. What’s harder to understand is why Latin chose to have 2 separate symbols for the ‘k’ sound (the other is c; they never used ‘k’). It’s also amusing that English adopted all 3 symbols (q, c, and k). One of those accidents of history, I guess.”

Helping the Daughter with her spelling reminded me that, linguistically, the letter C has no function that isn’t being rendered by the K or the S.

In other words, expecting rationality in the development of the English language is…totally irrational!

There is even debate as to whether, typographically, there should be a qu glyph – i.e., the letters joined as if they were one. I’ve sometimes seen them written as though aligned.

Here’s a video that will enlighten the issue not at all.

ABC Wednesday – Round 9

Rock Hall Noms QUESTIONS

Beastie Boys, GnR, Chili Peppers will win. Who else, I don’t know. Donovan? King? Jett?

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame released its nominations in the last month or two. Here’s the nominating process. “Criteria include the influence and significance of the artists’ contributions to the development and perpetuation of rock and roll.” So there’s some vague line about commercial success, but also “importance”.

Invariably, there are those who kvetch about who’s not on the ballot – if I were so inclined, I’d mention the Moody Blues and Yes.

Who will get in? Who SHOULD get in?

The Beastie Boys – will get in. I have none of their albums.
The Cure – not yet, but eventually. Have a couple of albums.
Donovan – I want to get in, badly; on my ballot. Have a half dozen of his albums.
Eric B. & Rakim – won’t. Have none.
Guns ‘N Roses – mortal lock, tho, like others, there are unnominated artists who started earlier I’d like to see first. Have 2 of their albums.
Heart – eventually, not this year. Have at least one.
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts – maybe; I think Joan’s history with the Runaways raises her cred. I don’t think I have any!
Freddie King – doubt he’ll make it, tho he should, as an early influence, but I admit I have no albums.
Laura Nyro – also nominated last year, doubt she’ll EVER get in as a performer; she OUGHT to get in as a songwriter. She’d be on my ballot. I have at least four of her albums.
Red Hot Chili Peppers – I wish others had gotten in before them. I have one album.
Rufus with Chaka Khan – Chaka should; Rufus, not so much. I have one Rufus’ greatest hits, plus a couple of Chaka albums.
The Small Faces – maybe will get in. I have one or two albums.
The Spinners – I have an irrational affection; they’d be on my ballot, but they probably won’t get in. I have at least two of their albums.
Donna Summer – Nah, though I do have a mostly live double LP that was given to me in the early 1980s.
War – Nah, though I like their greatest hits album that I own.

To recap: I’d vote for Donovan, Jett, King, Nyro, Spinners.
Beastie Boys, GnR, Chili Peppers will win. Who else, I don’t know. Donovan? King? Jett?

Here are some favorites of the nominees I want to win.

Donovan – Barabajagal (Love is Hot)
Donovan – Season of the Witch
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts – I Love Rock ‘n Roll
Laura Nyro – Eli’s Comin’
Spinners – Rubberband Man
Dionne Warwick & the Spinners – Then Came You

“A separate committee, composed primarily of producers, selects the inductees [for] the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Award for Recording Excellence [which] has replaced the Sidemen category.” Whatever. Still want Billy Preston.

Andy Rooney

Rooney has made a number of unfounded comments about government and politics that made me grimace.

There was a time when I used to actually enjoy Andy Rooney, the long-time 60 Minutes commentator who retired in October 2011, and died less than a month later. It was even before I knew who he was. I remember watching a series of CBS News specials called ‘Of Black America’, back in the days when network television would/could broadcast such things, and as it turns out, Rooney wrote two of them. He also penned ‘Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed’, which won him his first Emmy.

Then he did a bunch of quirky shows in the 1970s and early 1980s, such as ‘Andy Rooney Takes Off’, ‘Mr. Rooney Goes to Work’, ‘Mr. Rooney Goes to Dinner’, and the Peabody Award-winning ‘Mr. Rooney Goes to Washington’, which Mark Evanier linked to.

When he got his regular gig on 60 Minutes in 1978, he was seldom profound but often entertaining enough. But even then, he played the part of the crotchety old man. I always remember this segment, pre-Thriller, of who was famous. Paul McCartney was famous; Michael Jackson was not, even though he had led the Jackson 5ive and had a hit album in Off the Wall. He never, in my recollection, gave contemporary music any credence.

Still, his observation about fame has stuck with me. Who IS famous, these days? Media being as diffused as it is, a Real Housewife of Schenectady might be well known in certain circles but totally invisible by lots of others.

His schtick and delivery became so well known that he was often parodied. And lots of quotes were attributed to him, not all of them accurately. He DID say, The French have not earned their right to oppose President Bush’s plans to attack Iraq. What was often left out is the next line: “On the other hand, I have,” referring to his service as a war correspondent during WWII. And he DID suggest that both Pat Robertson and Mel Gibson were “wackos.”

However, he did NOT start a commentary with I like big cars, big boats, big motorcycles, big houses, and big campfires. Nor did he write an essay ‘In Praise of Older Women’ or advocate in favor of prayer or give tips to get rid of telemarketers or the ramblings cited here or here.

In the last decade, Rooney has made a number of unfounded comments about government and politics that made me grimace. A person who read as many newspapers as he purported to peruse would have known some of the things he proudly announced he didn’t know. I kvetched about him in this blogpost here over an ill-informed observation about the Census.

Still, he always was proud of growing up in Albany, and he summered in the county, in Rensselaerville, and I liked that. I’d hoped that he would have had a chance to enjoy his retirement. But, true to his seeming contrarian nature, he didn’t have that chance.
***
My old buddy Steve Webb writes about Andy Rooney, Howard Hunt, Bob Dylan, and Steve Ditko, among others.

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial