Proxmire Proxmire

Senator Proxmire died this month. Rebel Democrat, political maverick, crusader of fairness, I only just learned about this titan of goodness today. William Proxmire was one of the truly noble men of Congress. He actually refused campaign contributions! In fact, for the '76 and '82 campaigns he spent more than half of his total campaign funds on the stamps for the envelopes containing the RETURNED CHECKS! He proved -- way back then -- you don't need the war chest. It can be done! You can serve and promote your services through your deeds. I can't help thinking it could be done today even. Dean got something started with his [sorta] grassroots website thing, but he was totally taking contributions. They say it has to be done, but PROXMIRE proved 'em wrong 30 years ago ... Prox also jogged to work. How bout that? He was a known sight in DC for years, my grandfather being one of the many who used to shout, "Good morning Senator!" while driving by. After his Senator days, he had an office at the James Madison Memorial Building where he worked daily on his book projects. But this was after a long warrior-for-the-greater-good career in Washington, even speaking against LBJ as a Freshman Senator! That takes a pair of rocks. He spoke out as the conscience of the Senate, and his ilk is surely missed in this town. Lots and lots more on the man here and here. I'll give Ralph Nader the last eloquent word.

Nabokov's Teaching Days

From his Playboy interview in 1964:

I loved teaching, I loved Cornell, I loved composing and delivering my lectures on Russian writers and European great books. But around 60, and especially in winter, one begins to find hard the physical process of teaching, the getting up at a fixed hour every other morning, the struggle with the snow in the driveway, the march through long corridors to the classroom, the effort of drawing on the blackboard a map of James Joyce's Dublin or the arrangement of the semi-sleeping car of the St. Petersburg-Moscow express in the early 1870s-- without an understanding of which neither Ulysses nor Anna Karenin, respectively, makes sense. For some reason my most vivid memories concern examinations. Big amphitheater in Goldwin Smith. Exam from 8 a.m. to 10:30. About 150 students-- unwashed, unshaven young males and reasonably well-groomed young females. A general sense of tedium and disaster. Half-past eight. Little coughs, the clearing of nervous throats, coming in clusters of sound, rustling of pages. Some of the martyrs plunged in meditation, their arms locked behind their heads. I meet a dull gaze directed at me, seeing in me w^ith hope and hate the source of forbidden knowledge. Girl in glasses comes up to my desk to ask: "Professor Kafka, do you want us to say that . . . ? Or do you want us to answer only the first part of the question?" The great fraternity of C-minus, backbone of the nation, steadily scribbling on. A rustle arising simultaneously, the majority turning a page in their bluebooks, good teamwork. The shaking of a cramped wrist, the failing ink, the deodorant that breaks down. When I catch eyes directed at me, they are forthwith raised to the ceiling in pious meditation. Windowpanes getting misty. Boys peeling off sweaters. Girls chewing gum in rapid cadence. Ten minutes, five, three, time's up.

Vladimir Nabokov taught at Cornell from 1948 to 1959.

CSL/JFK * Alice/Jimi * Harold/Hamlet

Today I learned C.S. Lewis died the same day as Jack Kennedy: November 22, 1963. Talk about getting pushed off the front page!

Hey, I also learned Alice Cooper's real name is Vincent Damon Furnier. He was born in Detroit, grew up in Phoenix, and rocked his early years in California with FZ and some of them other freaks. That first album, Pretties For You is an underrated, adventurous, and surprisingly listenable & lovable LP.

Today I also learned about Jimi's 2nd guitar: a white Danelectro Silvertone with matching amp, bought for him by his bandmates in The Rocking Kings in 1959. Yep, a Sears, Roebuck deal for $49.95. He painted "Betty Jean" on it, after one of his high school girl friends, Betty Jean Morgan. Nice of the boys to chip in after Jimi's first, the Supro Ozark was lifted.

Something I heard Harold Bloom say today about Hamlet: "He is moody. He is abrupt. He is very violent. He is surpassingly intelligent, and he is, in the end, a very dangerous, fascinating kind of person." Professor Bloom was talking the heavy talk today. Check it HERE. A must listen.

Kong television and KKK high school

Today I learned about formerly independent WOR-TV in New York and how they used to run classics as part of their Million Dollar Movie thing. Sometimes they would just repeat greats like King Kong or Moby Dick. Back to back to back, all day, all week even. Sometimes they'd show Son of Kong right after original Kong, and many today believe they are one big film as Son picks up exactly where Kong ends. Lordy, that's tv: just run them greats, right on.

In the land of NOT right on, I learned there exists today a school named after Ku Klux Klan founder and Confederate horseman, Nathan Bedford Forrest. I am still stunned. Nathan Bedford Forrest High School in Jacksonville, Florida. How can this be? How in the world has this been allowed to continue? Do they have murals of him in their halls? Is their mascot the Fighting Knights? Good grief. Ok, so they're the Rebels - it still has no place in a living school. I had looked into it, just wondering if there were any such honorings, like from 50 years ago! Had no idea no one's had the moral balls to change its name. Unbelievable but true. Good ol' Florida.

The World of 1987

Tonight I Learned Walt Disney's original Tomorrowland was promoted as "The World of 1987." Love it. Pulled it outta this ASTOUNDINGLY GORGEOUS BOOK >>> Charles Phoenix ~ Southern Californialand: Mid-Century Culture in Kodachrome : "In 1969, when I was six, I watched man's first steps on the moon live on a big-screen monitor in Tomorrowland. Then I rode the Flight to the Moon afterwards. That made a big impression on me." Right on, Charles Phoenix.

Jefferson's Slavery Paragraph

Can't say he didn't try!

He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobium of INFIDEL Powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he also obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed against the LIBERTIES of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the LIVES of another.

Ka-POW!

Callin' out the British monarchical system as inherently hurtful and morally corrupt, he naturally thought to establish the true across-the-board declaration of personal independence. It wasn't to be ~ axed by Them Guys -- or we ain't gon' bee gettin' that nation we ended up gettin. Our almost-ideal is built on faultlines of ugly compromise, and a worse-off negative virus. I just didn't know TJ was on the full delivery at this point. He seemed to have been following the reasonable course of thought as passed to him through Natural Philosophy. To include ALL men. The Rights of Man! Les Droits Des l'Homme! Thomas Paine! Voltaire! David Hume! El Shaddai! Francis Bacon! Knowledge is Power!

Here's some o'that LC Flavor, including some sweet close-up parchment shots. PBS Africans in America good stuff here right on. Even General Powell brings a little somethin' round. And a quick rundown of DEISM to round out the TJ stroll.

Socrates the Secular Martyr

"The unexamined life is not worth living. Doing what is right is the only path to goodness, and introspection and self-awareness are the ways to learn what is right." Socrates drank Hemlock and died in 399 BC. He died a hero's death because we can see how his government sentenced him to die for refusing to acknowledge their gods. He was enormously popular with the Athens people, but ruffled feathers up top with his strolling about town, willing to converse with anyone on any matters. He often made self-proclaimed smart guys look and feel stupid, just by peppering them with ordered, reasoned questions, getting them to show their errors in laying weak premises. He claimed to do this as a means of revealing Truth. He never accepted money (like the Sophists) and maintained his right to speak for the Self, even when directly threatened by heads of state (the temporary rulers, Thirty Tyrants). His Apology (as preserved by follower Plato) was not what his accusers had in mind. In Ancient Greek the word "apology" was more accurately defined as "defense" and this is indeed what he delivered. There was a trial and Socrates called it a success because he was convinced that he was a virtuous man, so nothing his enemies did to him could truly harm him, as long as he stuck to his moral guns. Socrates also expressed no fear of death. Why fear an eternity in Paradise, and why fear nothingness? He chose suicide amongst friends over execution.
Famous last words?
"Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt?"

Madison & Liberty

Today I was learnding about Herr Madison and his dedication to building and preserving a rational structure of liberty, anchored by a true freedom of religion -- taking it one step further than John Locke's toleration of religious choice. Thomas Paine wrote, "Toleration is not the opposite of intolerance, but it is the counterfeit of it. Both are despotisms. The one assumes to itself the right of withholding Liberty of Conscience, and the other of granting it." Madison was a member of this critical club. He was guided in his studies @ The College of New Jersey (Princeton) by Dr. John Witherspoon, who earlier in his life studied with Adam Smith, Thomas Reid, and the great David Hume, so you know he was down for some serious talk on Reason >> "Common Sense Realism" they called it. That's some hardcore Scottish Enlightenment action right there! Anyway, all through his coming up young in Virginia government, Madison worked on protections of religious freedom. Then, as the stage moved to the new national level, he remained firm in keeping others like Patrick Henry at bay, while championing the concept of vigorous separation of church and state at every level of government. Jefferson arrived at similar understandings, although through an independently different path, and this was partially why they became fast friends. These guys consciously -- rigorously -- built our government with this distinction of separation in mind.

Them Business Guys

There's this stuff goin' on about the recent gargantuan Oil Profits co-newsing it with the price spikes, and defending them business guys with Supply & Demand. Talkin'bout "If executives of ExxonMobil had anything to do with these circumstances, they are the most powerful people on Earth, and perhaps Congress really should try to prevail on them to create harmony in the Middle East and less cyclonic activity in the Atlantic Ocean." Smartass. As it happens though, I've just been reading about Teddy Roosevelt comin' in as prez when Big Bill went down and TR taking stock of his situation with his conservative cabinet and all their ties to the --- no, not big --- HUGE money corporate folks. This from Edmund Morris' Theodore Rex :::

"They were prepared, in return, to give trust lords such as J. P. Morgan their favorable support in disputes between capital and labor, or local and interstate commerce. They tacitly acknowledged that Wall Street, rather than the White House, had executive control of the economy, with the legislative cooperation of Congress and the judicial backing of the Supreme Court. This conservative alliance, forged after the Civil War, was intended to last well into the new century, if not forever."

Yeah, forever. Also, the same Edmund Morris just wrote a book on Beethoven, and spoke @ The Library of Congress last week. He talked about the beginning of the 9th and how it was like straining to hear -- the willing of sounds into a Cohesion of Sound. The rolling background of the deaf has a tone, and this static ^^ this ... white noise ^^ is conjured at the symphony's introduction.

Big Bam Böhm

Today I learned about the conductor Karl Böhm and all his badassness. First of all, the Strauss in Kubrick's 2001 was conducted by Böhm. Stanley loved his versions and used to play them in those sections while waiting for Alex North to finish the soundtrack. Of course, they ended up using all the old originals, and scrapped the North score -- although I hear it ended up being pretty damn amazing itself. Böhm is a Mozartian's favorite. They love him doing pretty Mozart things, and even Wagnerians bow down to his versions of Die Zauberflöte and Così Fan Tutte. The Mozartians love Böhm so much, they adore his versions of stuff by the dudes they usually loathe: Bruckner, Wagner, Mahler ... He's often known as Mr. Mozart, but he's equally known as Mr. Strauss cuz he did loads with Richard. They were, in fact, pals. Strauss respected Böhm so much he wrote an opera FOR him! Yep. Daphne! Anytime Karl Böhm is conducting the Vienna Symphony it's forever. He ROCKED the Brahms cycle and BOOMED out Lil Bruckner (4 ft. 10!) Also I'd like to mention I just learned Igor Stravinsky's favorite piece of music was Beethoven's Grosse Fuge. He even preferred it to all of his own! My favorite Grosse Fuge: 1960 @ The Library of Congress: yowzer. Straight-up essential set right there.

Anticonstruction & the 90-yr-old Man

Today I learned there was no "Reconstruction" ... there was deliberate, systematic anti-construction, and the Reconstruction Era is a lie. Sure, like most history is filtered and we're only piecing scraps together, but this is bigger. This goes back to the founding of our basic laws: the Constizzitution. When people say something is unconstitutional, it doesn't hold logically cuz slavery is constitutional. You can't start out with an exception. Our Constitution is unconstitutional. It's states rights and power concerns all the way til it got amended and amended. It remains imperfect, yet with enough heart to keep idealism alive and legitimate. Today I also learned more about what it means to be a man. I digested yesterday's event: John Hope Franklin speaks the truth as naturally as breathing. He rocked the house last night up in the Montpelier Room on the 6th floor of the James Madison Building. Yes it was nice to see large framed paintings of Jemmy & Dolley cuz I am a dork, but it was way sweeter to hear one of the great Americans of the 20th Century speak ... and see him smile. The place was standing room only and everyone was touched. He knows the big secrets and he demands those who learn them SPEAK. He also said the reason we're sinking is cuz as a people we do not actually care about history. Give it up to the mighty Dr. John Hope Franklin.

Descartes Rules Ass

IL EST RENE! His Discourse on Method {Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason in the Search for Truth in the Sciences} is the masterstroke. This is the foundation of modern thought ~ the beginning of the process of enlightened thinking. Clear the table and start from the bottom. Here are the 4 Precepts:

"The first was never to accept anything for true which I did not clearly know to be such; that is to say, carefully to avoid precipitancy and prejudice, and to comprise nothing more in my judgement than what was presented to my mind so clearly and distinctly as to exclude all ground of methodic doubt.

The second, to divide each of the difficulties under examination into as many parts as possible, and as might be necessary for its adequate solution.

The third, to conduct my thoughts in such order that, by commencing with objects the simplest and easiest to know, I might ascend by little and little, and, as it were, step by step, to the knowledge of the more complex; assigning in thought a certain order even to those objects which in their own nature do not stand in a relation of antecedence and sequence.

And the last, in every case to make enumerations so complete, and reviews so general, that I might be assured that nothing was omitted."

... and so, all scientific method, all rational thought, all problem solving around us, all machines working for us, and the awareness of such as it's happening, is living in the Cartesian World. Monsieur Descartes was 4 ft. 8, and a first-rate fencer.

Concordance!

Boy oh boy, how come I hadn't learned about concordances before? These are marvelous! The first one I saw was for Chuckie D (Darwin) and it blew mind right out the back of my skull. It becomes pure poetry. The 'species' entry was the largest, with it noting he used the word on almost every page of The Origin of Species. The sentences taken together form a new cohesion of thought, a wildly thoughtful new perspective on writing ideas down. Which words were used where? The biggest world of concordances is of course the ol' Bible. Next is Shakespeare. After that, you got yer big boys (Milton, Blake, Dante) and other tiers of hotness (Poe, Shelley, Gibbon). Even music guys (Leonard Cohen, Richard Wagner). Lordy, so this idea of organizing the words used and how often and where has been around for a couple hundred years? The Germans started it. Then it grew into consolidated nerd studies of certain works, certain writers. This is exciting. Apparently it's like an ultimate student-of-something task. Concordance! Love the word. Love Concordia as well. I've GOT to get into a Leaves of Grass concordance ... and Napoleon! Of course, now you can access the info through these little computer machine things ... joyous 21st century 2 bee sure, right on. 3 hot concordances here.

Sweet Lew

Today I learned Union General Lew Wallace wrote Ben Hur. Wha-? Actually I learned this two days ago, but I'm only now coming to accept it. So this means Sweet Lew, who commanded at Shiloh -- General Lew Wallace who successfully defended Washington DC against Confederate forces, also wrote the Ben Hur book? The one made into a movie starring Charlton Heston? Shoot, there were 4 -- four! -- film versions of that book! You mean General Wallace could have won an Academy Award? Huh? Blimey! Tis true. He wrote it in 1880 while he was Governor of New Mexico Territory. Plus it was the first novel to be blessed by a pope. I've held the two-volume illustrated 1889 edition in my hands. Can you say SLAMMIN'? Hot stuff. He wrote lots of other things too. After the war Wallace, as a lawyer, participated in the trials of the Lincoln assassination conspirators and of Henry Wirz, commandant of the Andersonville prison camp. And while he was Gov of New Mex he went after Billy the Kid so he's got good ol' William Bonney tied up in his life too. Also we can thank him for The Battle of Monocacy in July 1864, the "Battle That Saved Washington." Give it up to Sweetass Lew.

All Our Junk

Today I learned more about junk DNA, and how crazy much of it we have. Over 90% of human DNA is extra! leftover! historical! What gives? That's a heap of (unused?) information right there -- and megafoundation to evolutionary processes. Going 'small' is one way to get to the hub of biological data-passing. And who's got the longest DNA strain? Not us, by far: ready? Salamanders. No other beast comes close to holding so much extra info. What gives there? Also, today I learned Wagner's Tannhauser is not Total Wagner. That is, he didn't get into his full-voiced multi-tongued full-throttle assault til Tristan. Those before were more linear, and although the overture to Tannhauser remains my favorite, the rest of it seems almost listless compared to how he grew later. Now, he did go back and re-write some sections, but that only serves in bringing the frustrations to the front: you can hear his easy old style backed right up against some complex future combinations of melody. He stuck the ballet in the beginning, thereby upsetting the French. Also, the only real versions should be performed nude (the first bit, the humping of the satyrs). Georg Solti's 1970 recording is the best to get for this.

Robert & Rupert

Met the delightful Rupert Holmes and he was good enuff to pose for a photo with me right on. I complemented him on his 1979 masterpiece [Partners in Crime] and his brave beard. He writes mystery thrillers now. He has built a rich career in songwriting & storywriting; singing & telling. He is a genuinely sweet man and I look forward to reading more and listening more from The Pina Colada Man -- AND I shall drink many more pina coladas this autumn, mixed in my new blender, in his honor, while reading Vonnegut. Schlachthof-funf! All day today, listening to Deep Purple In Rock and Verdi's Requiem, horrific hotwords tweeting atoms into my reading eyes, up-dripping into my brain, mixing with the stereo sounds comin' in, right nice; real right righteous-ass nice Sun-day. Also, I baked a cake. For the first time. A delicious banana cake. Now I shall play "Over-Nite Sensation" side one whilst preparing treats'n'comforts for television viewing: premieres of EXTRAS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM. Happy weekend publicly protesting our wretched state of affairs, shared some time with Rupert, Kurt, and Frank.

Constitution in My Pocket

Today I've been learning about the Constizzitution and how it prolly is UN-constizzitutional itself. That is, its ability to bend with the a-changin' times is plenty good enough to keep it alive and breathing and meaningful, yet viewed through the way the term "unconstitutional" is used factionally, the document itself could actually be seen as null. Does that matter? Only as its operation as a representative of our nation's law -- not as a practicality. Clearly, it still rocks, even with a coupla flawed premises. Because judges and lawyers and students and citizens have gone over every word, phrase, sentence, paragraph, we learned its strengths and weaknesses. Then we even added to it, fixed it up, polished it -- even admitted some big mistakes {booze & slave issues- I'm looking in your direction} ... The Father of the Constizzitution James Madison even predicted its first huge test in one of his 22 essays in the Federalist Papers: he predicted the Civil War. He could see how the tipping scales -- and understanding of application of the results of those scales -- of balance of power between more and more differently thinking people will lead to violent strife. Herr Madison on point again. His notes on the Constitutional Convention are indispensable. His papers here.

Sugary Pynchon

Today I learned the mighty Pynchon can write real pretty too: Near her battery one night, driving Somewhere in Kent, Roger and Jessica came upon a church, a hummock in the dark upland, lamp-lit, growing out of the earth. It was Sunday evening, and shortly before vespers. Men in greatcoats, in oilskins, in dark berets they slipped off at the entrance, American fliers in leather lined with sheep's wool, a few women in clinking boots and wide-shouldered swagger coats, but no children, not a child in sight, just grownups, trudging in from their bomber fields, balloon-bivouacs, pillboxes over the beach, through the Norman doorway shaggy with wintering vines. Jessica said, "Oh, I remember . . . " but didn't go on. She was remembering other Advents, and hedges snowy as sheep from her window, and the Star ready to be pasted up on the sky again. Yup. Sometimes, during the mentally cavernous exercise of Gravity's Rainbow you get rewarded with sweet narrative buds like this. Bless these little pivotal valves.

Vanilla From Orchids

Today I learned Vanilla is the only fruit from the massive {30,0000+} Orchid family. Vanilla has been hand-pollenated since the 1840's. The orchid blooms around 5 a.m. and begings to wilt around 10. The flower will be dead in another 2 hours unless it's hand-pollenated. Usually a tiny bamboo stick -- like a toothpick -- is used to pollenate. If it isn't done, you get no bean. There is no aroma and no flavor in the big green bean. You gotta process it before you get the deliciousness. The Mayans, among others, figured this part out. The Aztecs prized it when they came to power and asked for vanilla as part of tax payments. So, for a while, vanilla was so rare it was worth more than money. In the 1980's it was discovered to be an aphrodesiac. Patricia Rain wrote the fab book, Vanilla: The Cultural History of the World's Favorite Flavor and Fragrance. You can hear her interview here.

Caesar Hearts Servilia

Today I learned Julius Caesar was TOTALLY in love with Brutus' mother. He loved many women of course (including those of his most trusted men), but in his heart it was always Servilia. Whoa. Here's the chunk from Suetonius' Life of Caesar : "That he was unbridled and extravagant in his intrigues is the general opinion, and that he seduced many illustrious women, among them Postumia, wife of Servius Sulpicius, Lollia, wife of Aulus Gabinius, Tertulla, wife of Marcus Crassus, and even Gnaeus Pompey's wife Mucia. At all events there is no doubt that Pompey was taken to task by the elder and the younger Curio, as well as by many others, because through a desire for power he had afterwards married the daughter of a man on whose account he divorced a wife who had borne him three children, and whom he had often referred to with a groan as an Aegisthus. But beyond all others Caesar loved Servilia, the mother of Marcus Brutus."

Hamp+Wendell+Prohibition+Suffrage

Today I learned Lionel Hampton actually helped out strongly with Richard Nixon campaigns in California ~ Lionel! What gives! Also, Wendell Wilkie, the republican candidate against FDR, was once a board member of 20th Century Fox, and also stoutly served as the NAACP's counsel for a while! Once again, huh? I also learned - hopefully for the last time - the Prohibition lasted from 1919 to 1933 ~ although, the 18th Amendment didn't go into effect until January 16, 1920 ... But that Volstead Act passed the previous October-- anyway, I got the dates. But that brings me to the ol' sufferin' for suffrage, cuz in the summer of '20, that's when the gals got it down to throw down for their first election: so what's it gonna be, ladies? Harding/Coolidge? Cox/Roosevelt? Debs/Stedman? Christensen/Hayes? Watkins/Colvin? Ferguson/Hough? Cox/Gilhaus? OK, really it was Warren Gamaliel Harding stompin' on James Middleton Cox (16 million to 9 million).

'eavy Metal

Learned loads about The New Wave of British Heavy Metal ~ NWOBHM!!! How bout some of these guys? And all them things they did, ay? Martin Popoff sure knows his stuff ~ let's see what he says. I like to think of all them band meetings, cups of tea, etc. Surely some giggles in there somewhere. Like the giggles I get when thinking about The Scorpions on a road trip in the Carolinas somewhere, arguing about where they're stopping next cuz Rudy wants grits, and Francis wants to find the North Carolina A & T campus for some reason, Klaus keeps asking truckdrivers if they "likebigloudhorn?" ... OK, back away from the Scorps Fantasy, they're a German band in an American dream---- anyway, many of those BRITISH metal bands always seemed made-up to me. Maybe that's cuz they were all indeed madeup: created. They were dreams. That's why they're succeeding in charming me ~ not terrifying me as I think some of them surely wish they were doing -- or did. Now how bout these NWOBHM GIGS!

Comics Head

Today I learned about how friggin' cool IRON MAN is. After a coupla days of diggin' the mid-60's stuff, I now know I gotta clock ALL the Stan Lee books. This is fulla boyish, promising heart. And this Gene Colan fella! Right on. And shouldn't we all be giving grander shout-outs to that letterer extraordinaire, Artie Simek? Shoot, all them cats. Today I learned about this awesome Jack Kirby Museum. Heck Yes! And just before that I learned he had a pre-Marvel life with DC Comics. A pretty significant one too with the fabulous Challengers of the Unkown and that one he did called Kamandi. Lots to look into besides all his legendary Marvel stuff: Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Thor (which I'll begin this autumn), Captain America and all those other things with which he's been involved. But this IRON MAN thing is killin' me! My Tony Stark adventures continue here in the nation's cap. Oh yeah, I also learned about the DC Archives series. Wow!

Whitman Walt

Today I learned about the early days of our National Bard, WALT WHITMAN. He was in school until he was 11, then, as part of a family of 8, he went to work. His employer recognized his brightness and gave him a library card. That fired him up for years. He soon became a teacher on Long Island. He used Socratic methods, with play and recess a big part of classtime. Rather Montessauri ... He was good but he soon grew unhappy and frustrated teaching, and started writing articles and -- more excitingly, PRINTING. During his move to DC, he was pickpocketed in Philadelphia, and arrived with no money. He eventually worked three federal jobs ~ for the Paymaster, the Dept of Indian Affairs, and the Attorney General's Office. Walt Whitman was totally awesome. You can actually HEAR him reciting here!

Beethoven's Supreme VC

Today I learned Beethoven only composed ONE violin concerto: The Concerto for Violin in D major, Op. 61. It rules. There are many versions of course, but here are the cream: Heifetz, Milstein, Neveu, Menuhin. There are other special performances but these are the tops. I recommend starting with Yehudi Menuhin's {conducted by the supreme Wilhelm Furtwangler!} which you can score el cheapo ~ as is the Ginette Neveu. She plays some parts sooo small and beautiful it's like she's stroking atoms with her bow. The Milstein is heavenly and the Heifetz is sublime. Once you rock that one you're done.

High on the Blog

What up.
Blog #1 out da gates.
Barn Owl rising.
"Here I am!" Klaus Meine style. Even, "Here I go again on my own!" I might say. Just like HeWhoMustNotBeNamed ~ ok, David Coverdale. There I named him. I ain't afraida no ghost. So all I've learned so far today is Stepin Fetchit's real name was Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry, and he had a pink Rolls-Royce with his name lit up in neon lights on the side: STEPIN FETCHIT. He had many cars and many servants. Also, Nina Mae McKinney was GORGEOUS. I got these bits from the amazing book Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams by most excellent researcher/writer Donald Bogle. Read on. Right on.