Rod wants you to look at his ass, and who am I to deny him?
This Is Cool
Yeah, I’m a dork.
Christian Rock 101
So this is how they do it.
Latin Football Cheers
Football season is over of course, but you can use these for any sport. It’s not like Latin had a real equivalent for “touchdown” anyway.
Sequimini, sequimini, facite ut pilam relinquat!
Pursue them, pursue them, make them relinquish the ball!
Illos repellite, expellite, compellite ad fugiendum!
Repel them, expel them, compel them to retreat!
Utinam vincamus!
Oh, would that we would score!
Volebamus atque volemus pilam trans metas deponi!
We have been wanting and shall continue to want a touchdown!
Those are from Latin For All Occasions, by Henry Beard, a Classics major who went on to co-found National Lampoon. For years people gave me books like that.
Here’s a bonus (under “LATIN AT THE AIRPORT”) that might come in handy as we enter the imperial era:
Recedite, plebes! Gero rem imperialem!
Stand aside, plebeians! I am on imperial business!
Sly!
Yes, please.
Pedagogy
Who needs drugs?
Wynton on Beethoven
YouTube’s algorithm has presented me with another opportunity to highbrow troll this blargh. Here’s Wynton Marsalis on his transition from reverse snobbery to Beethoven fan. If you want to explore the nine symphonies, there are many great recordings and as many boring ones. To make it simple, check out George Szell’s cycle with the Cleveland Orchestra. No weak links, and should be available for streaming everywhere. It’s been in print since the 60’s, and for good reason.
If You’re Interested…
I’m unfamiliar with this YouTuber–this popped up in my feed yesterday. He’s kind of annoying, but it’s a decent summary of Shostakovich and his appeal. As a former Shosta-kid and Shost-adult, and a current Shosta-senior, I feel obliged to pass it along. If you’re interested, start with his 5th and 10th symphonies. Something shorter and lighter is his 9th, an ironic, smart-ass middle finger to the authorities, who were expecting a grand triumphal celebration of the end of WWII (his 7th had done much to bolster the spirits of the residents of Leningrad while it was under siege by the Nazis). Hearing the 5th-8th and 10th symphonies live by a world-class orchestra is a sonic KO similar to a Who concert. More cerebral are his 24 Preludes & Fugues, inspired by Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. Give those a shot if you think modernized Bach might be your thing. His later symphonies and string quartets are very grim affairs, pretty much music to slit your wrists by. He’d spent his career alternating between appeasing and fucking with the Kremlin (sometines both simultaneously), and it left him embittered.
I was confused by the narrator’s comment that he and his friends couldn’t come by a recording of the 5th. Wherever he grew up in Texas must have been remote. Most record stores had at least small classical sections, and all of them would have had at least one copy of the 5th, probably Bernstein’s.
Pop/Punk Fix
Good punk/pop from Tucson. They drink the same Buzzcocks/Clash/et alia Kool-Aid as their more talented predecessors, The Exploding Hearts. I also detect some Johnny Thunders and Hives, and this seems to channel Love. Some weaknesses in lead vocals, but strong guitar work and decent hooks compensate. I’d put them on par with The Number Ones from a few years ago. Formulaic perhaps, but it’s still a great formula after almost fifty years. As for lyrics, does anyone care in this kind of music?
The above songs are not necessarily the best from a recent album worth listening through. There are a couple of semi-duds, but even those have some strong points. I think they have two earlier albums, but I haven’t gotten to them yet.
A “Modern Spiritual”
No comment, just putting it out there.