Open Thread: An Afternoon at the Symphony
I had planned to post the video(s) of the absolutely wonderful performance of Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” by the Anchorage Civic Orchestra and Shannyn Moore as narrator. However, the download seems to be taking FOR-EVA! (It couldn’t POSSIBLY have anything to do with the video game being played on the other computer…nooooo…) Ya’ll will have to wait until tomorrow for that.
However, I have a couple of still photos off of my little Sony-version of a “Flip” (called a “Bloggie”…yeah, I hate the name too…). They aren’t the quality of my Nikon pics but you’ll see those tomorrow as well.
The first photo is Phil Munger directing (yup, Progressive Alaska Phil Munger) as he is the guest conductor this year. (By the way, he’s flippin’ amazing!)
Since I didn’t get any stills of Shannyn at the performance, I’ll give you one from Thursday, as she and the crew from “Moore Up North” relax with their “adult beverages” after this week’s taping.
I’ll have the pictures and videos ready for sometime tomorrow.
excellent resource material:
“Buyer Beware: Why Advertisers Should Still Be Wary Of Financially Supporting Fox News”
“Before Glenn Beck announced that his Fox News show is ending, more than 300 advertisers had dropped their ads from the show due to Beck’s reckless vitriol, demonstrated pattern of deceit, violent rhetoric, repeated use of racially charged rhetoric, and propagation of anti-Semitic stereotypes. However, even with Beck leaving, advertisers have plenty of reasons to be concerned about associating their brands with Fox News, as extremist rhetoric pervades the network, from the management to the so-called “news” shows to other Fox personalities. For example:” snip
http://mediamatters.org/research/201105160002
“Retracted climate critics’ study panned by expert “
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2011/05/retracted-climate-critics-study-panned-by-expert-/1
“Plagiarism and peer review concerns aside, some readers are asking whether a soon-to-be-retracted study by climate critics was any good. So, we asked an expert.
“In a story in Monday’s newspaper, we reported on the federally-funded 2008 Computational Statistics and Data Analysis study headed by Edward Wegman of George Mason University. Echoing charges of plagiarism in a 2006 Congressional report by Wegman and colleagues that was critical of climate scientists, experts have noted apparently copied text — including portions taken from a Wikipedia entry — in the CSDA study. Journal editor Stanley Azen of the University of Southern California, says the journal will retract the 2008 study, wiping it from the scientific record.” snip
This diary contains a great missive:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/16/976505/-My-response-to-Prof-Wegman-and-the-Mercatus?via=siderecent
also, too: Dear Koch bros; “lies return”
I am sorry I wasn’t able to attend this. Thanks so much for posting this and sharing your photo.
Speaking of classical music, my choir had our spring concert this afternoon. We invited several other local choirs to perform with us and the entire group sang the last song together. It was “The Promise of Living” by Aaron Copland (one of my favorite composers!). It’s a beautiful, majestic song and, with about 250 voices, we actually shook the rafters of the church where we were singing with the last few measures. I was just a little worried that all the stained glass windows wouldn’t survive! Definitely an experience guaranteed to send chills up and down your spine.
I thought I saw a video camera at the back of the church. I’m hoping that someone will post a video of that song somewhere. At least the concert was recorded so I will get a CD of the performance in the fall when we start rehearsing again. In the meantime, here’s a video of a choir from Kentucky singing the same arrangement. Just imagine double the number of people singing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HjbKZxu2Pg&feature=related
Not to nitpick, but the video UPLOAD is taking forever. (Typically upload speeds are vastly slower than download speeds with most internet service providers.) The other computer running the game is probably not guilty, at least this time. 🙂
“Testimony, Goldman-Style; A Tour Through the Levin Report”
By Matt Taibbi: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/testimony-goldman-style-a-tour-through-the-levin-report-20110513
“Yankee Stadium Tips Taken By Owners, Servers Allege” (Goldman Sachs et al)
“In the more desirable seats at Yankee Stadium, an already pricey $10.50 draft beer will run you an eye-popping $12.60 thanks to an involuntary 20 percent “service fee” tacked on to the original price. If the sticker shock doesn’t make that brew bitter enough, consider this: Despite what you might expect, that extra $2 and change isn’t going to the hustling server who sold it to you, according to a new lawsuit.
“Legends Hospitality, the concessionaire co-owned by the New York Yankees, the Dallas Cowboys, and Goldman Sachs, allegedly pockets the 20 percent service fee attached to food and drink in violation of New York law, according to a class-action lawsuit filed against the company by three Yankee Stadium servers this week. If certified as class action, the suit could involve more than a hundred servers and hundreds of thousands of dollars in claims.” snip
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/13/yankee-stadium-tips_n_861770.html
Rip off your customers, rip off your employees (allegedly), dump your golden parachute bonuses on the backs of the tax payer and call it free market capitalism. Is this what “make your wang bodacious” means?
“Freshman lawmaker works to repeal transparency effort in Dodd-Frank”
“Last week members of the Capital Markets Subcommittee forwarded legislation to repeal a portion of Dodd-Frank that requires big banks to disclose income information for all of its employees onto the full Committee on Financial Services for consideration.
“The Burdensome Data Collection Relief Act, H.R. 1062 was introduced in March, 2011 and has a long way to go. But if the Act passes it will repeal Section 953 b of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which is meant to increase transparency by forcing banks to disclose the median income for its employees.” snip……
“In the first quarter of this year, 11 organizations including the Chamber of Commerce reported lobbying on this issue specifically. The amount of lobbying money spent by those organizations—not including the Chamber’s total—was more than $5 million. The Chamber reported spending almost $11 million on lobbying in the first quarter. Some other organizations that lobbied on the issue include the American Benefits Council and Ameriprise Financial.” snip….
http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/2011/freshman-rep-works-repeal-transparency-effort-dodd-frank/
“FLASHBACK: Corporations Used 2004 Tax Holiday To Repatriate Billions, Then Laid Off Thousands Of Workers”
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/588311/flashback%3A_corporations_used_2004_tax_holiday_to_repatriate_billions%2C_then_laid_off_thousands_of_workers/#paragraph3
Looks like the Republican Field for POTUS is going to get a little smaller…
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0514/Sen.-John-Ensign-sex-scandal-spreads-to-other-Republicans
And here’s some stuff about Ron Paul. It actually seems like this guy believes his own rhetoric! I guess he never grew up after reading Ayn Rand. Peter Pan Syndrome.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/2011/0513/Election-101-Ron-Paul-sets-sights-on-2012.-Ten-things-to-know-about-him/Why-is-he-running-again
What a grummpy usher!
When my grandson was very young, he would sit by the TV and listen to Opera.
Also, he would line up chairs in the family room, and ask they we sit while he “performed”.
What a show!
He would later go on to Miami University where he received his degree in music.
I took my Grandson Arrom. He is 2.5 and loves classical music, which I always make sure is on the radio to in the car when Arrom is rising with me. It relaxes him and he loves the clarity of most classical orchestral lines. We arrived and picked up our tickets at the “will call” window. I let him hand the tickets to the Usher and he held the stub-less tickets like they were precious. We went to the balcony and sat in the right front loge because it was mostly clear of people. Arrom applauded appropriately and was, for the most part seated. He was very excited about the orchestra, however, and he loves to move his body and ‘conduct’ music with his arms, like he does in his car seat. So he was standing next to me on the bottom of the stairwell swaying to the music when an Usher came down, a tall, older white-haired lady with glasses, and insisted that Arrom be confined to the sitting area. I corralled him in the area and he put his precious tickets on the thick top of the balcony wall. A second time the Usher came down and told me to ‘remove the objects’ from the balcony ledge and she told me that Arrom needs to be seated ‘not so animated’ during the performance. At that point, I just packed-up took Arrom and left. We never got to hear Shannyn or hear Prokofiev. *sigh* He was too young. Foolish Grandpa!
“riding” not “rising”…GOD!!!
My nephew and his wife are both musicians and teach private lessons as well as play in symphony orchestras as substitutes. There was always classical music being played at their house and their children have grown up with it. When their oldest daughter was only about 2 1/2, my nephew was driving her to the store with a classical station playing on the radio.
My great-niece piped up from the back seat, “Daddy, is that Mommy playing Mozart?” Well, it wasn’t her mother playing, but it sure was Mozart!
The girls have been going to concerts since they were tiny babies and I’m sure know more about classical music than I ever will!
Bummer , dude…. Sometimes I think they actually LOOK for grumpy people to functon as ushers; especially those events with children in mind !! It’s a poor second choice, but there ARE recordings of narrated Peter and the Wolf – I like the Disney version myself.. My daughters, when young, liked to conduct the William Tell Overture, except for the quiet lake scene movement…
If he wasn’t being noisy then I fail to see why there was a problem. That usher sounded like an evil old biddy.
what a lovely thoughtful thing to have done Elstun.
at 2.5 your grandchild is remarkably well behaved but perhaps just a bit too young to be expected to sit still and not express the joy of the music in his sweet soul.
nevermind just keep playing the music he loves and when he is older you take him again. you are a wonderful PawPaw.
It reminds me of my son (now 20). When he was a toddler we would put him into the carseat and as soon as he was strapped in he would break into song. His favourite was “Michael rowed the boat ashore.” It wasn’t very melodious and I remember his dad asking him if he knew another song. He immediately gave us a rendition of “Gordon rowed the boat ashore.” Gordon was an uncle.
A neighbour drove him somewhere one day and was startled to hear all the singing from the backseat!
He is now studying Business and Art Management and I haven’t heard him sing in years.
Killjoy
I bought him a guitar!!!!
With Huck out of the way, is it Palin time?
http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=126408