Quote: Ray Johnson

"May 30, 1973
Dear Michael,
We heard a rumor that the New York Corres-sponge
Dance School of Vancouver drowned.
The floor of my VW now has been leopard-covered.
Lucy Lippard's kid shoots caps.
New York Crap school.
Pat Loud will be here in July.
Pat Oldenburg has a darling boyfriend.
Pat Ast is quite a clown.
Felix Private Partz's teeth.
I think the Grand Jatte item is choice.
Love and kisses,
                   Sid and Ethyl"

from Ray Johnson: How Sad I am Today..., Vancouver: Morris/Travos Archive and Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, 1995.

Alphabet Soup (F)

Hello, Alphabet Soup II reached F, my first stop here was a remarkle band, when they recorded their first album their average age was 17. Two years later they had a worldwide hit , which to date has had 2 million airplays in the UK alone. Alright now indeed. Two years later again and the band recorded their final album, preceded by the Live ! album i present here, and a first break up. Too much , too young perhaps, anyway guitarist Paul Kossoff died of a heroin induced heart attack age 25....Free at last....Second today are The Feelies they released just 4 albums over 11 years , i've posted their brilliant debut a year ago and this here, their last, shows why they have been kept in such high regard over time....Finally a brother and a sister that proove the Carpenters were't a fluke, siblings can rock together. Their music is known to get some mixed responses, reviews ranging from 1 to 9 , which is rather unheard of in the music review scene, an aquired taste let us say...anyway Blueberry Boat is considered something of a multi layered concept album, so take your time to take the 76 min in..it comes in two sizes....

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Free - Live ! (71 ^ 97mb)

Most remarkable about the birth of Free was the young age of the band members who first came together to rehearse at the Nag's Head pub in Battersea, London, on April 19, 1968. Bass player Andy Fraser, was only 15 years old while lead singer Paul Rodgers, lead guitarist Paul Kossoff, and drummer Simon Kirke, were also still teenagers. By November of that year they had recorded their first album Tons Of Sobs for Island Records and, although it was not released until the following year, the album documents their first six months together and contains studio renditions of much of their early live set.

Free are still cited as one of the definitive bands of the British blues boom of the late 1960s with the release of Tons of Sobs in 1969, but this is the only album that can strictly be called blues-rock. The next album, Free, released in 1969, has a marked difference in the musicianship of the band as well as Paul Rodgers's voice. Unlike their previous albums Tons of Sobs and Free, Fire and Water - released in 1970 - was a huge success, largely due to the album containing the hit single "All Right Now", a top 5 hit in the UK and the U.S. On teh back of that the able sold very well too Highway was their fourth studio album, recorded extremely quickly in September of 1970. Though widely considered to be an excellent follow-up to Fire and Water, Highway sold poorly. After a grueling tour which yielded 1971's Free Live, in April 1971, due to differences between singer Paul Rodgers and bassist Andy Fraser, the drug problems of guitarist Paul Kossoff, and inconsistent record sales, the band broke up. Although Free made excellent studio records, Free "Live" is perhaps the best way to experience the band in all its glory. Led by singer-guitarist Paul Rodgers and lead guitarist Paul Kosoff, the band swings through the songs with power, clarity, and a dose of funk. Live ! is one of the great live albums of the 1970s.

Early in 1972 the band set aside their differences and reformed in an effort to save Kossoff from his growing drug addiction, and in June of the same year released Free at Last. But all was not well with the band. Bassist Andy Fraser left the band in mid-1972 due to Paul Kossoff's unreliability in being able to perform at shows or even showing up. The remaining members recruited Japanese bass player Tetsu Yamauchi to record what would be Free's final album, Heartbreaker. Free disbanded in early 1973 with Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke going on to form Bad Company that same year. With Paul Kossoff in better health again in late 1975, he was delighted that now ex-Free colleagues, Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke asked him to join them on stage for two nights. A British tour was set to begin on 25 April 1976, but again his drug addictions contributed to a drastic decline in the guitarist's health. On a flight from Los Angeles to New York on March 19th, 1976, Paul Kossoff died from drug-related heart problems at the age of 25.

Most recently Paul Rodgers has joined the remaining members of Queen (Brian May and Roger Taylor), as vocalist. Rodgers would be "featured with" as Queen + Paul Rodgers, not replacing the late Freddie Mercury.



01 - All Right Now (6:30)
02 - I'm A Mover (3:40)
03 - Be My Friend (5:52)
04 - Fire And Water (3:57)

05 - Ride On A Pony (4:30)
06 - Mr Big (6:14)
07 - The Hunter (5:18)
08 - Get Where I Belong (4:14)

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Feelies, The - Time For A Witness (91 ^99mb)

The Feelies were a rock band from Haledon, New Jersey. They formed in 1976 and disbanded in 1992. The Feelies created shimmering soundscapes with multiple guitar layers that sounded unique compared to the punk/new wave atmosphere of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Their name is based on Aldous Huxley's novel "Brave New World" where in the novel there are theaters where all of your senses are incorporated along with sight, called "the feelies."

Original band members Bill Million, Keith Clayton and Anton Fier released their first single “Fa Ce La” on Rough Trade Records in 1980. The album that followed on Stiff Records, was Crazy Rhythms, Afterwards, Fier and Clayton left the band. With the Feelies in limbo, Mercer and Million collaborated with other local New Jersey musicians, forming a band called the Trypes.

Reformed as a quintet, the Feelies recorded The Good Earth in 1985 with Peter Buck of R.E.M. as producer. They toured in support of the album as an opening band for Lou Reed as well as R.E.M. that year. In 1988 the Feelies signed to a major label and released the album Only Life on A&M Records. The new lineup featuring two guitarists, two drummers, and the bass playing of Brenda Sauter made the album a critical favorite. Their final album, Time for a Witness, was released in 1991, as a conclusion to the band's active days, it makes for a fine coda. Million and Mercer peel out some amazing frazzled solos, and the rhythm section keeps the beat steady and flowing. It's a virtuoso performance from a band that doesn't need to create pointless flash with its abilities, a fine balance all told.

The Feelies are remembered as one of the most underappreciated indie-rock bands of the 1980s and to this day have many fans throughout the world. Although the band never sold many records, they are to date considered to be still influential in the indie rock scene .



01 - Waiting (3:36)
02 - Time For A Witness (3:34)
03 - Sooner Or Later (2:33)
04 - Find A Way (7:01)
05 - Decide (4:51)
06 - Doin' It Again (2:41)
07 - Invitation (3:00)
08 - For Now (4:47)
09 - What She Said (5:38)
10 - Real Cool Time (4:23)

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Fiery Furnaces, The - Blueberry Boat (04 ^ 170mb)

The Fiery Furnaces primary members are brother and sister Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger, after seperate trips abroad upon returning to their Chicago suburb, the siblings decided to make music together. Simple, poppy melodies with a dizzying array of wordplay, sounds, and influences, dashes of folk, blues, and garage rock. In 2000, they moved to Brooklyn, took day jobs, and began playing as the Fiery Furnaces late in the year. They signed with the Rough Trade music label in 2002, and recorded their debut album, Gallowsbird's Bark, the same year. Released in 2003, it was often compared in the press to The White Stripes due to the garage blues elements of the band’s sound .

Matthew is primarily responsible for the band's songwriting and studio instrumentation, while Eleanor handles the majority of the vocal duties. Drummer Andy Knowles and bassist Toshi Yano both joined the band for live performances in time for their 2004 tour. Beginning with a performance at the April 2004 All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in Camber Sands, England, the band's live performances took the form of hour-long, continuous sets of music featuring snippets from most of their recorded songs.

The Fiery Furnaces released their second album, Blueberry Boat, in the summer of 2004. It is also often interpreted as a multi-layered concept album. "Quay Cur," the ten minute lead track on Blueberry Boat, switches from dirty, gurgling organ to slide-guitar-fueled ditties, pulsing electronic beats to abstract lullaby within a few minutes, highlighting the Fiery Furnaces' variety in songwriting. Some critics, however, interpreted this type of material as evidence that the album is unfocused. The epic nature of the majority of the songs made them unsuitable for radio play so the band prepared "Single Again," a take on a traditional folk song as a substitute. This single, along with their previously released ones, was mostly only made available to the UK audience, so in January 2005 the band released a 41-minute compilation disc named EP it was a contrast to the epic and, according to some, inaccessible nature of Blueberry Boat.

Their following album, Rehearsing My Choir (released in October 2005), saw the band return to an experimental sound once again. A concept album featuring the Friedbergers' grandmother, Olga Sarantos, narrating stories about her life, Rehearsing My Choir was met with widely differing opinions from both the press and the band's fans, being branded "difficult" . Jason Loewenstein of Sebadoh and Bob D'Amico took over band duties for the supporting tour, replacing Toshi Yano and Andy Knowles. The band released their fifth LP, entitled Bitter Tea, in April 2006. In interviews they stated the album to be influenced by the sound of synthpop group Devo and to consist of far more conventional and accessible songs .

Matthew Friedberger released Winter Women and Holy Ghost Language School in August 2006, two separate albums which were packaged as a double album. According to a press release, Winter Women is "intended to be a summer record, full of memorable, catchy, and un-ironic pop songs," while Holy Ghost Language School is like "Faust, the Residents, or the most 'out' moments of Brian Eno's solo records." Eleanor appeared on neither. In June 2007, it was announced that the band had signed with Chicago label Thrill Jockey and their album Widow City was later released on October 9, 2007. Unlike their two previous efforts, this album lacks a central concept and has a 70s album rock feel. The band toured in support of the album throughout the later months of 2007 and early 2008. A live compilation album, Remember, is scheduled to be released on August 16, 2008.



01 - Quay Cur (10:25)
02 - Straight Street (5:00)
03 - Blueberry Boat (9:09)
04 - Chris Michaels (7:53)
05 - Paw Paw Tree (4:39)
06 - My Dog Was Lost But Now He's Found (3:29)
07 - Mason City (8:14)
08 - Chief Inspector Blancheflower (8:58)
09 - Spaniolated (3:21)
10 - 1917 (4:52)
11 - Birdie Brain (3:05)
12 - Turning Round (2:13)
13 - Wolf Notes (4:51)

extra lite

Fiery Furnaces, The - Blueberry Boat (04 * 99mb)

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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !

Tuesday Musings

Another busy week, but the quarter is nearly over, my second-to-last big reading responsibility now done, and only various exams to participate in or administer. As for the big class, three more class meetings, and three more authors to discuss: Donald Barthelme ("The Glass Mountain"), Theresa Ha Kyung Cha (Dictee), and Junot Díaz (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao)--and the huge theoretical concept of post-modernity/post-modernism, which, when I drew a schematic of it on the board on Monday, drew thanks from several of the TAs.

I also went to two talks, my colleague Evan Mwangi's penetrating discussion of Ngugi's Maitagari on Monday, which led to a conversation about translation, local languages, and Kenyan censorship of Gikuyu texts versus their English versions; and then tonight a presentation on the legacy of Aimé Césaire, led by colleague John Márquez and featuring Aaron Kamugisha, Paul Breslin, Doris Garraway, and Barnor Hesse. Brilliant people, to put it simply, speaking with cogency and subtlety about a brilliant man. (Did you know that Discourse on Colonialism was one of the leading political texts of the 20th century? If you didn't or doubt it, I know Hesse can convince you.)

I may try to say more about both events soon, but tomorrow I'm on a panel with another brilliant colleague from my department, Alex Weheliye, in conversation with Daphne Brooks, from Princeton. We'll be taking part in a discussion on African American Studies and the disciplines, with this one being English and American literary and cultural studies.

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The news of Teddy Kennedy's malignant brain tumor really saddens me. I know things look grim and it's too early to start memorializing him, so let me just say that I am glad I did once have an opportunity to vote for him, back in 1988, when he ran against Joe Malone, though one of my favorite memories of him was from 1994, when we'd moved from Massachusetts, and Kennedy, again up for reelection, faced a younger Mitt Romney. C-SPAN televised one of the debates that took place in downtown Boston, and we sat cheering, many states away, as Kennedy argued rings around Romney. The TV audience was cheering and applauding so much it sounded like a revival. Of course he won that election, as he has every one since 1962, when he assumed the Senate seat his brother had held before his election (and which a family friend, Benjamin Smith, kept warm for two years). It'll be hard to imagine a US Senate without Teddy Kennedy--but then I said I ought not start memorializing him now, and I won't.

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What you reap, you sow. In many cases. In big-league global publishing, this is an old and bleak story, told quite succinctly and with brio by André Schiffrin, and it has yet to get any better or less ridiculous. Out with hatchet man Peter Olson, in with...

New Head of Random Comes from Bertelsmann Printing Unit May 20, 2008
Bertelsmann is appointing the head of its worldwide printing operations to replace Peter Olson at Random House, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Markus Dohle, 39, who heads Arvato Print, one of Bertelsmann's most profitable units, is described as "entrepreneurial" and has helped Arvato expand into such unrelated businesses as repairing cell phones, storing pharmaceuticals and running call centers and billing systems, the paper said. Dohle has a degree in industrial engineering and economics from a German university and has no publishing experience.

Hartmut Ostrowski, who became Bertelsmann's CEO at the beginning of the year, headed Arvato for five years and has "vowed to shake up [Bertelsmann's] slow-growing businesses." In the past year, Random sales fell 6% and operating profit was down 5%. Random represented 10% of Bertelsmann's sales and operating profit last year.

Olson blamed the depressed numbers on a lack of megasellers last year. This year already looks brighter: Barbara Walters's memoir, Audition, has a million copies in print already and forthcoming titles include a new novel by Christopher Paolini and a biography of Warren Buffett.

Ostrowski has said that he wants other parts of Bertelsmann, including Random House, to diversify as Arvato did. According to the Journal, "an area of interest" for Random is educational services.

Now don't you think this news will make Random House's editors, authors, and readers feel a lot more secure? Call centers, Buffett bios, "educational services".... (H/T Lisa Moore).

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This is one of the snarkier obituaries I've read in a while. A name I vaguely recalled from childhood, he's probably totally forgotten now. (His white elephant of a personal monument, because rich people still have the power to commemorate themselves as they see fit, no matter how ridiculous the results, however, has been radically transformed.) That still wasn't enough for the New York Times's obituary writer to serve up a dose of corrosive Schadenfreude. Read it, you won't be bored.

Eight-X (32)

Hello, Eight-X time again, this time all female..First up, a landmark release in the New York art scene of the '80s, and quite possibly the best art rock album of the decade...Big Science. Seriously Laurie Anderson has become a remarkable artist whose drive has kept her in the frontline of the avant garde whilst never forgetting that her activities need to be more than just peer pleasing navel staring......My second lady today didn't achieve that level of success, she's written and recorded many songs, but her biggest hit which initially launched her was a cover. Not sure what happened, her active website doesn't really comment on why things didn't happen for her. However, she said: i may not have sold big numbers but i'm doing my thing and im not in a routine 9 to 5 or as a house wife..well she sure has a point there, Annabel Lamb.....Last up an all female group..with some serious lookers( in my view) that tried , but didnt get ahead with their own work, so they released a number of covers that did get them noticed, and which cleared the path for their self penned biggest hit, Sign Of The Times. Unfortunately not much chart success afterwards and so after 6 years playing together they had enough..no more Belle Stars..

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Laurie Anderson - Big Science ( 82 ^ 96mb)

Anderson was born in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, where she graduated from Glenbard West High School. She attended Mills College in California, and eventually graduated from Barnard College magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, studying art history. In 1972, she obtained an MFA in sculpture from Columbia University. Her first performance art piece – a symphony played on automobile horns – was performed in 1969. In the early 1970s, she worked as an art instructor, as an art critic for magazines such as Artforum, and illustrated children's books.

Laurie performed in New York through the 1970s. One of her most-cited performances, Duets on Ice, which she conducted in New York and other cities around the world, involved her playing violin along with a recording while wearing ice skates with the blades frozen into a block of ice; the performance ended only when the ice had melted away. During the late 1970s, Anderson made a number of recordings which were released either privately or included on compilations of avant garde music. She claimed to base all of her projects on the power of words and language, her work also emphasized visual imagery and cutting-edge technology, with pieces like 1980's "Born, Never Asked" written for both orchestra and electronics.

Anderson became widely known outside the art world in 1981 with the single "O Superman," originally released in a limited quantity by B. George's One Ten Records. "O Superman" reached number two on UK charts, prompted by British DJ John Peel playing the record, it led to Anderson's signing with the Warner Bros. label, which re-released the single. "O Superman" was part of a larger stage work entitled United States and was included on her following album, Big Science Prior to the release of Big Science, Anderson returned to Giorno Poetry Systems to record the album, You're the Guy I Want to Share My Money With. This was followed by the back-to-back releases of her album Mister Heartbreak, her most overtly pop-oriented work, teaming with artists including Peter Gabriel and Adrian Belew, it even reached the American Top 100, and United States Live, a five-LP (and, later, 4-CD) recording of her two-evening stage show at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

She next starred in and directed the 1986 concert film, Home of the Brave, and also composed the soundtracks for the Spalding Gray films Swimming to Cambodia and Monster in a Box. She also hosted the PBS series Alive from Off-Center during this time, for which she produced the short film, What You Mean We?. Next she released Strange Angels in 1989. The next several years were devoted to performance tours, including 1990's "Empty Places," 1991's "Voices from the Beyond" and 1993's "Stories from the Nerve Bible." In 1994, Anderson teamed with producer Brian Eno for Bright Red. An interval of more than half a decade followed before her next album release. During this time, she wrote a supplemental article on the cultural character of New York City for the Encyclopædia Britannica.and created a number of multimedia presentations, most notably one inspired by Moby-Dick (Songs and Stories From Moby Dick, 1999–2000). One of the central themes in Anderson's work is exploring the effects of technology on human relationships and communication.

In 2003, Anderson became NASA's first and so far only artist-in-residence, which inspired her most recent performance piece, The End of the Moon. Anderson mounted a succession of themed shows and composed a piece for Expo 2005 in Japan. Anderson was part of the team that created the opening ceremony for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. In 2005, her exhibition The Waters Reglitterized, a diary of dreams and their literal recreation as works of art. This work, created in the process of re-experiencing or re-working her dreams while awake, uses the language of dreams to investigate the dream itself. The resulting pieces include drawings, prints and high definition video. She narrated Ric Burns's Andy Warhol: The Documentary Film, which was first televised in September 2006 as part of the PBS American Masters series. Anderson also performed in Came So Far For Beauty the Leonard Cohen tribute event. Big Science, has been remastered and rereleased on Nonesuch Records last year, aswell as a DVD box set containing her short films and the concert movie Home of the Brave, a book of drawings titled Night Life, and her new album, Homeland is to be released in 2008. .



01 - From The Air (4:29)
02 - Big Science (6:17)
03 - Sweathers (2:21)
04 - Walking & Falling (2:09)
05 - Born, Never Asked (4:51)

06 - O Superman (For Massenet) (8:21)
07 - Example #22 (2:56)
08 - Let X=X - It Tango (6:46)

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Annabel Lamb - Once Bitten (83 ^ 99mb)

Annabel was exposed to all the music of that era are a very early afe: "I knew everything about the sixties and was very annoyed that when I got old enough to participate the scene was all over." From an early age she knew she wanted to be a musician. She learnt the piano, religiously copying her favourite songs note for note from the radio and her big sister's records. Since then she's been a session singer and musician for the likes of Toni Basil and Tina Charles but it's only since her marriage failed that she's been able to have the adventure she's always wanted.

Her highly acclaimed debut album, Once Bitten, behind her she assumed she was on the right road for success. However after the chart success of her cover of the Doors classic Riders on the Storm, her follow-up album , the Flame didnt score aswell. The years that followed saw her releasing 6 more albums for A&M Records, BMG/RCA, Polygram and, most recently, BMG label Red Rooster where she released her currently last album "Flow". During the writing and recording of "Flow", Annabel began a close association with cowriter and producer Dave Dix (producer of Black, Alison Moyet and Melanie Garside), and under his influence and guidance, "Flow" was produced. As well as her recording and touring career, Annabel has co-written songs with many other artists and songwriters, she also writes short stories and is working on her first novel, and performs regularly at London's prime singer songwriter venue The Kashmir Klub.



01 - Riders On The Storm (5:52)
02 - Once Bitten (3:16)
03 - Take Me In Your Arms (3:24)
04 - Heartland (3:21)
05 - Backwards Through The Looking Glass (4:21)

06 - Dividing The Spoils Of Love (5:10)
07 - Hold Fast (3:40)
08 - Snake Pliskin (2:19)
09 - Missing (4:05)
10 - No Cure (4:41)

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Belle Stars, The - The Belle Stars ( 83 ^ 93mb)

After the Bodysnatchers broke up, guitarists Stella Barker and Sarah-Jane Owen, saxophonist Miranda Joyce, keyboardist Penny Leyton, and drummer Judy Parsons decided to form a new band, recruiting bass player Lesley Shone and lead vocalist Jennie Matthias (also known as Jenny McKeown). Their first performance was on Christmas Day, 1980, before they had chosen a name. Within a short time, the group became well known around London, notably appearing on the front cover of Sounds magazine early in 1981. Shortly thereafter, they were signed by Stiff Records, then highly successful due to its star act, Madness. The band's debut single, "Hiawatha"/"Big Blonde" was released in the late spring of 1981, produced by Madness producers Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley. The band promoted the single by playing support for ska acts The Beat and Madness. However, the single failed to chart, despite continuing media attention.

The second single failed to chart aswell, keyboard player Penny Leyton left the band for The Deltones, to be replaced by Clare Hirst. When the third single, the radio friendly "Another Latin Love Song" again failed to break into the charts, the band tried cover versions instead, with some success. "Iko Iko", a cover of The Dixie Cups' 1965 hit (later featured in the 1988 movie Rain Man), was The Belle Stars' long-hoped-for UK Singles Chart debut. The Belle Stars's next singles were remakes aswell "The Clapping Song", and then "Mockingbird".

In January 1983 the Belle Stars released what would be their signature single, "Sign Of The Times", peaking at number three, and a chart success throughout Europe. The song's music video, showing the Belle Stars in tuxedos, was also played frequently by MTV in the United States. It was followed a month later by the band's eponymous debut album, which reached number 15 on the UK Albums Chart. As with the band's singles, it was a mix of original songs and cover versions. However, "Sign Of The Times" proved to be the peak of the band's success. Each follow-up single was less successful than its predecessor: Despite this, the band continued to tour throughout Europe. However, the lack of success took its toll, and McKeown left the band, followed by others, until the band was down to Owen, Joyce, and Shone.

By 1984, Stiff Records was ailing, and it merged with Island Records; in July 1985 it was liquidated and bought by ZTT, the label owned by the husband and wife team of producer Trevor Horn and Jill Sinclair. Under Horn's supervision, the three remaining members recorded a new Belle Stars album with the 4th & Broadway production team in New York City. However, the only tracks to be released were the single "World Domination"/"Just A Minute", a flop in Britain but a Top 5 Billboard Dancefloor chart hit in the U.S. Following this, the band broke up. However, in 1989, the Belle Stars finally had a big U.S. chart hit, when "Iko Iko" reached number 14 on the Billboard Top 100 in March, after it was included on the soundtrack of the film Rain Man, starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. The song had been a favourite of Hoffman's. Jennie Matthias toured the U.S. to promote the song.



01 - Sign Of The Times ( 2:52)
02 - Ci Ya Ya ( 2:40)
03 - The Clapping Song ( 3:11)
04 - Indian Summer ( 3:43)
05 - Harlem Shuffle ( 3:17)
06 - The Reason ( 3:57)

07 - Iko Iko ( 3:00)
08 - Baby I'm Yours ( 3:36)
09 - Mockingbird ( 3:22)
10 - The Snake ( 3:16)
11 - Burning ( 3:21)
12 - Needle In A Haystack (2:38)

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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !

Around The World (32)

Hello Around the World is still covering classical treasures. Besides the introduced multi-faceted prodigy Saint-Saëns, and the to me unknown thusfar Max Bruch, there are goodies from Debussy , Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto De Aranjuez and Carl Gustav Mahler's 5th symphon. We end with the Bolero which seems to get people, specially women, into a hormonal frenzy, personally i think 13 minutes is a bit short, but then i read recently that a bolero a day keeps the divorce lawyers away...wink.

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Charles Camille Saint-Saëns (9 October 1835 – 16 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor, and pianist, and more known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse Macabre, Samson et Dalila, and Symphony No. 3 (Organ Symphony).

Saint-Saëns was born in Paris, France. His father died three months after his birth. His mother, Clemence, sought the assistance of her aunt, Charlotte Masson, she moved in and introduced Saint-Saëns to the piano. One of the most talented child prodigies of his time, he possessed perfect pitch at two years of age and began piano lessons with his great-aunt at that time. He almost immediately began composing. His first composition, a little piece for the piano dated 22 March 1839, is now kept in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. His precociousness was not limited to music, however. He had learned to read and write by age three and mastered Latin by seven.

His first piano recital was given at age five, when he accompanied a Beethoven violin sonata. In 1842, Saint-Saëns began piano lessons with Camille-Marie Stamaty, who had his students play the piano while resting their forearms on a bar situated in front of the keyboard, so that all the pianist's power came from the hand and fingers and not the arms. At ten years of age, Saint-Saëns gave his debut public recital with a performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 15 , and various pieces by Handel, Kalkbrenner, Hummel, and Bach. As an encore, Saint-Saëns offered to play any one of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas by memory. Word of this incredible concert spread across Europe, and reached as far as the United States. He then studied organ and composition. Saint-Saëns won many top prizes and at the age of sixteen, Saint-Saëns wrote his first symphony; his second, published as Symphony No. 1 in E-flat major, was performed in 1853 to the astonishment of many critics and fellow-composers. Hector Berlioz, who also became a good friend, famously remarked, Il sait tout, mais il manque d'inexpérience (He knows everything, but lacks inexperience). For income, Saint-Saëns worked playing the organ at various churches in Paris, his weekly improvisations stunned the Parisian public and earned Liszt's 1866 observation that Saint-Saëns was the greatest organist in the world.

Saint-Saëns was a multi-faceted intellectual. From an early age, he studied geology, archaeology, botany, and lepidoptery. He was an expert at mathematics. Later, in addition to composing, performing, and writing musical criticism, he held discussions with Europe's finest scientists and wrote scholarly articles on acoustics, occult sciences, Roman theatre decoration, and ancient instruments. He wrote a philosophical work, Problèmes et Mystères, which spoke of science and art replacing religion; Saint-Saëns's pessimistic and atheistic ideas foreshadowed Existentialism. Other literary achievements included Rimes familières, a volume of poetry, and La Crampe des écrivains, a successful farcical play.

In 1870, the Franco-Prussian War, despite being over in barely six months, left an indelible mark on the composer. He fled to London for several months when the Paris Commune broke out in the besieged Paris of winter 1871. After the fall of the Paris Commune, Saint-Saëns returned and became a powerful figure in shaping the future of French music. In 1875, Saint-Saëns married Marie-Laure Truffot and they had two children, André and Jean-François, who died within six weeks of each other in 1878. Saint-Saëns left his wife three years later. The two never divorced, but lived the rest of their lives apart from one another.

In 1886 Saint-Saëns debuted two of his most renowned compositions: Le Carnaval des Animaux and Symphony No. 3, dedicated to Franz Liszt, who died that year. Two years later, Saint-Saëns's mother died, driving the mourning composer away from France to the Canary Islands under the alias "Sannois". Over the next several years he travelled the world, visiting exotic locations in Europe, North Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America. Saint-Saëns chronicled his travels in many popular books using his nom de plume, Sannois. Saint-Saëns continued to write on musical, scientific and historical topics, travelling frequently before spending his last years in Algiers, Algeria. In recognition of his accomplishments, the government of France awarded him the Légion d'honneur. Saint-Saëns died of pneumonia on 16 December 1921 at the Hôtel de l'Oasis in Algiers. His body was repatriated to Paris, honoured by state funeral at La Madeleine, and interred at Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris.

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Max Christian Friedrich Bruch (January 6, 1838 – October 2, 1920) a German Romantic composer and conductor who wrote over 200 works, including three violin concertos, one of which is a staple of the violin repertoire. Bruch was born in Cologne, Rhine Province, where he received his early musical training under the composer and pianist Ferdinand Hiller. He had a long career as a teacher, conductor and composer, moving among musical posts in Germany: Mannheim (1862-1864), Koblenz (1865-1867), Sondershausen, (1867-1870) Berlin (1870-1872), Bonn, where he spent 1873 -1878 working privately. At the height of his reputation he spent three seasons as conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society (1880-83). He taught composition at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik (the Berlin Conservatoire) from 1890 until his retirement in 1910.

His conservatively structured works, in the German romantic musical tradition, placed him in the camp of Romantic classicism exemplified by Johannes Brahms, rather than the opposing "New Music" of Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner. In his time, he was known primarily as a choral composer. His Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 (1866) is one of the most popular Romantic violin concertos. Other pieces which are also well-known and widely played include the Scottish Fantasy for violin and orchestra Bruch also wrote Kol Nidrei, Op. 47, a popular work for cello and orchestra.

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Millenium - Classical Treasures IV ( 99 , 73min ^ 170mb)



01 - Camille Saint-Saens - Dans Macabre, Op.40 ( 7:07)
02 - Camille Saint-Saens - Carnaval des Animaux - The Swan ( 3:12)
03 - Max Bruch - Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor, Op. 26 - I-Allegro Moderato ( 8:13)
04 - Max Bruch - Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor, Op. 26 - II-Adagio ( 8:41)
05 - Max Bruch - Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor, Op. 26 - III-Finale (allegro Energico) ( 7:04)
06 - Archille-Claude Debussy - Clair de lune ( 4:47)
07 - Joaquin Rodrigo - Concierto De Aranjuez - II-Adagio ( 10:51)
08 - Gustav Mahler - Symphony No.5 in C sharp minor - IV-Adagietto ( 10:00)
09 - Maurice Ravel - Bolero ( 13:03)

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Foundation (IV)

Hello, had some mix ups this weekend, all rectified now... Foundation moves to the second book of the trilogy, Foundation and Empire, but first what happened last week in "The Merchant Princes"

The Foundation has expanded through the use of Scientism and economics. Three Foundation vessels have vanished near the Republic of Korell, a nation suspected of technological development. Trader Hober Mallow is sent to uncover information on their technology and hopefully find the missing ships. While at Korell, Mallow convinces Korell's leader Commdor Asper Argo to purchase Foundation technology. Mallow also discovers that Korell still maintains some relics of the Empire such as atomic hand guns. But he also notes the Republic's decrepit condition and lack of modern technology. On return to Terminus, he is considered a traitor for not spreading Scientism to Korell, although an unlikely development clears Mallow allowing him to win an election for Mayor. Years later Korell goes to war against The Foundation, Mallow as Mayor confidently severs supplies of goods that Korell's people have grown accustomed to, thus starting a revolt against their own government in favour of the Foundation.

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Foundation Trilogy, episode IV - The General (34mb)


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McLiar

There's nothing like sitting for 3 hours (or more) in an airport terminal, amid frustrated and anxious fellow passengers, inhaling recycled air and countless illnesses, while munching on a stale sandwich and drinking water that tastes like it was drawn from a sump pump, wondering if your plane is going to arrive from another city so that it can take off and get you where you'd hoped to be 3 hours ago, is there? As one of my recent students used to say all the time, echoing a phrase I would frequently hear a decade ago, good times, good times.

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According to Poblano's site, 538, the person below currently matches up very well against both of the Democratic candidates, the presumptive nominee and his challenger, in the 2008 presidential race. That this is even vaguely possible gives me a headache, but as Mencken said and thousands have quoted since, as I'm doing now, never underestimate the stupidity of the American people, and I would, the ignorance, collusion and indifference of the establishment media. The person below would not know the truth if it slapped him in the face. So, my friends, here is Robert Greenwald doing the media's job, and engaging in a little enlightening, for all of us. Do pass the video on to others, at your earliest convenience.