The way home

Many of you may have read the description, widely circulated last week, of the howling chaos that is a class full of black kids in a failed school.  Without ever saying so explicitly, the author seemed to attribute the problem to race, though maybe he really was referring to a subculture, or wasn't trying to think carefully about the difference.

Anyway, it was a depressing piece.  Today at Maggie's Farm they posted another perspective on schoolchildren from an imperiled culture who were doing well in a charter school.  The author also described the experience of similar kids in an Outward Bound program:

Of course, taking 16 kids, many of whom came from troubled homes and whose lives were mostly confined to a few blocks in Brooklyn, into the woods for six weeks produced its share of drama.  Outward Bound crews go through a normal process that starts with a certain formality and descends into homesickness, alienation, irritation, and conflict, before people adapt and bond and shoulder their responsibilities and really get into it, and this course was no exception.  After a few days, one girl decided “this is b***s***” and set out to walk home – about 200 miles.  An instructor walked with her, mile after mile, until she got tired and agreed to go back.  She went on to complete the course, and cried at the graduation because she had to leave her new “family.”

That's my image of a guardian angel.  He won't force you to do what's best, but he'll follow you into hell and be ready to lead you back when you see your mistake.

Some kind of abuse, anyway

After both the prosecution and the defense rested in the Zimmerman trial, the prosecution popped out with its secret strategy:   they asked the court to drop the aggravated assault charges and instruct the jury instead on felony murder (that is, murder committed in the process of a felony).  What's the predicate felony, you ask?  Child abuse, because Trayvon Martin was 17 years old.

Kafkaesque.

Die Seele unbewacht

Perhaps the most beautiful music ever composed, especially the instrumental interlude and conclusion.  Some pipes on this gal, too.



Beim Schlafengehen, Vier Letzte Lieder (3/4)

Nun der Tag mich müd gemacht,
soll mein sehnliches Verlangen freundlich
die gestirnte Nacht wie ein müdes Kind empfangen.
Hände, laßt von allem Tun
Stirn, vergiß du alles Denken,
Alle meine Sinne nun wollen sich in Schlummer senken.

Und die Seele unbewacht
will in freien Flügen schweben, um im Zauberkreis der Nacht
tief und tausendfach zu leben.

                                    Hermann Hesse

Now that I am wearied of the day,
my ardent desire shall happily
receive the starry night like a sleepy child.
Hands, stop all your work.
Brow, forget all your thinking.
All my senses now yearn to sink into slumber.

And my unfettered soul
wishes to soar up freely into night's magic sphere
to live there deeply and thousandfold.

Barry Lyndon music

Douglas got me thinking about Bach:



And this other beautiful music, also used in "Barry Lyndon," which had just about the best movie soundtrack ever:



And this, not from Barry Lyndon, the "Knights' Dance" from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, Nureyev choreography.  Juliet's doting family tells her, "Fun and games are over, honey!  Time to step into the grinding machinery."

Right brain

I feel like posting music and movie clips that speak directly to my right brain and have effects I don't understand at all.



That was Philip Glass's "Opening" performed on the marimba.  It's perfect for that instrument:  simple repeating pairs on notes in each hand.  It sounds complicated only because the right hand is doing triplets over the left hand's doublets.  This composition is buried in the theme music for the under-appreciated movie "Breathless."  In the final scene, the modified Glass piece alternates with Jerry Lee Lewis's "Breathless," followed by the same song performed by "X."



I get exactly the same feeling from "The Piano":

Rest

An unusually well-structured hymn, number 652 ("Rest") in the 1982 Episcopal hymnal, by Frederick Charles Maker, 1844-1927.  Too many hymns have the tune structure a-a-b-a, but not this one:



The harmonies are unexpected, too.

Saint-Saëns

This Saint-Saëns piece is called "Aquarium," but I first heard it without knowing its title, and it always made me think of the scene in one of the Narnia books where Lucy awakens in moonlight and feels that the trees are just about to wake up.  This short film has something of the same feeling.

 

I heard "Aquarium" on the radio coming home this evening and noticed that the announcer pronounced the final "s" in the composer's name.   An internet search suggests that this is a result of the diaresis over the "e" in Saëns.

Belated Fourth

I'm fond of the "Titan" science-fiction trilogy by John Varley.  There is a race of centaurs who communicate in music.  They're puzzled by the human habit of playing the same piece of music over and over in what they consider a frozen form, but at the same time they go ape over some human musicians, particularly John Philip Sousa.  Well, who wouldn't?



Speaking of music, I attended my uncle's memorial service in the old San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio today.  Imagine my enchantment when the very beautiful harp music that was playing while mourners were being seated gave way to a fine mariachi band that led the priest up the aisle.  After the service, which included some thoughtful eulogies by my uncle's son and two of his grandsons, the same mariachi band played another song and led the crowd in a procession down the street (this was in downtown San Antonio near the Alamo) to the building where the reception was being held.   It was like a San Antonio version of a New Orleans funeral.

A fitting send-off for a grand paterfamilias.

Magic & The Occult in Islam

I haven't had a chance to watch this yet, but it comes well-recommended.

Ready To Die

Tex has been throwing us some good stuff. I think I like this popular trend against the law. It's old school for moonshine country, as some of them seem to realize. It's also past the racial divide, which is nice for those of us who have fought together with brothers across the color line. Who still cares about that? Some. Not us.



'Pistol Packin' Papa' is a clear play off the 1943 hit "Pistol Packin' Mama," which you can hear here:



The law lacks defenders among those who are supposed to be its chief champions, except when it's rhetorically convenient. Doubtless that's one reason support for the law as such is wearing away.

As a not-so-serious part of their ongoing effort to get rid of Obamacare, House Republicans in May started a Twitter fight they called #ObamacareInThreeWords. Rep. Darrell Issa got things started with a tweet that said simply, "Serious Sticker Shock." Rep. Michele Bachmann added "IRS In Charge." Sen. Richard Burr tossed in "Huge Train Wreck."

Democrats hit back, weakly, with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz's "Good for America" and Rep. Gregory Meeks' "What America Needs." And then the White House stepped in with a killer line: "It's. The. Law." The tweet was accompanied by a photo of the president's signature on the Affordable Care Act, dated March 23, 2010.

Case closed: What part of "It's. The. Law" don't you understand? Just to add emphasis, in early June President Obama dismissed concerns that the national health care startup was not going well. "This is the way the law was designed to work," he told an audience in California. "Since everyone's saying how it's not going to happen, I think it's important for us to recognize and acknowledge that this is working the way it's supposed to."

Now, however, it appears the administration's bravado was all for show. At the same time Obama was expressing great confidence, White House officials were secretly meeting with representatives of big business to discuss ways to postpone enforcement of parts of the new law. And on Tuesday the White House announced that the employer mandate - sometimes described as a "crucial" element of Obamacare - will be delayed to 2015 from its scheduled start on Jan. 1, 2014.

Extra points if you can relate the discussion to Plato's Statesman. Turns out that Plato was interested in the very same questions. It's only the last third of the dialogue, if you want to read it and haven't.

Not a satire

Wish it were.

The Rains of Amicalola

Amicalola Falls is a special place for me: the playground of my youth, the place where I was married, the place of testing myself by running the seven hundred steps in the days before I went to war. It is impressive to see how the recent heavy rains have affected it.

Crash

Perhaps it's too soon to say, but it's starting to look as though everyone aboard the Asiana flight out of Seoul got out safely after crash landing in San Francisco just now.  The TV footage of the burned-out fuselage looks terrible, but evidently most of the fire broke out after the nearly 300 passengers evacuated.  It seems that the plane came down just short of the runway on a water approach, clipped the rocky breakwater, lost its tail section, and spun like a top without breaking up.

Mud life

This sounds like fun:

Mud bogging has been a popular activity for decades, especially in the South, but the mud world's musical tradition is recent, with live-music stages sprouting up in at least 162 off-road-vehicle parks over the past five years.  Fans typically pay about $40 a weekend to cook out with friends and play in the mud with a wide range of vehicles, from $100,000 trucks to homemade contraptions fashioned from tanks, lawn mowers, even king-size mattresses, all jacked up on giant tires forbidden on city streets.

Golf carts and "mules" are popular here.  If my neighbors got into the mud-bogging tradition I might be inspired to get a golf cart and trick it out with monster tires and woofers.

The hick-hop music doesn't do it for me, though.  Since I couldn't find a YouTube example that I liked enough to link here, I opted instead for the theme from "Justified," which apparently is called "ganstagrass":

 

Photos of a Bustling 19th Century America

It's too bad this didn't come before Independence Day, but it's still worth looking at now. Here is a large collection of some extremely clear photographs from what is now the century-before-last. There's something of a focus on technology, I think, though it wasn't the purpose of the collection as far as I can see. It's just that in those days the new machines were so impressive, perhaps.

Government by waiver

A new dilemma in Washington, D.C.:  how to impose a job-killing minimum-wage hike without killing the unionized employers we approve of?  Easy answer:  waive the requirement for your supporters:

Which is why the proposed law exempts companies operating under collective-bargaining agreements. That's right, supermarket chains like Safeway SWY +2.80% and Giant get a pass because they have union workforces. So paying a non-living wage is fine as long as it also finances union dues.

This way, we can acknowledge the ruinous effect of crazy economic policies without letting anyone we care about experience the ruin. Wait, did I say economic policies?  I meant to include healthcare policies.  And FOIA fees.  And foreign policy on coups.  And welfare policy.   And immigration policy.   And layoff notices too close to an election.  Really, it's safest to make everything illegal, and then grant dispensations for your more compliant subjects.

It's bound to work this time

If only we could curb that terrible profit motive.  I know!  Let's implement price controls and prosecute hoarders.

They probably believe they're helping the good people by punishing the bad people.  The problem is, they have no understanding of where value comes from, and what keeps it coming.

The plant that can't die

Because the employer has no right to close it, if workers would be unhappy.  Ever.

You can pull that trick once.  Then try getting the next guy to invest in a factory.  It may turn out that the only capital available is whatever the locals can raise, because foreign capital isn't endlessly gullible.  And, strangely enough, local capital isn't readily available in such a system.

It's not enough for the policy to have benevolent intentions.  Pretending that jobs are charity is a good way to ensure that the jobs go away.

A Medieval Movie Resource

If you're like me, you know someone who periodically shows up at your door and says, "Hey, let's see a movie."

"Great," you respond, "what did you want to see?"

"Oh, I don't know," she replies. (It may be a 'he' for some of you.) "Pick something and let me know." This turns the two-hour commitment for the movie into at least a three-hour commitment as you try to dig things up, only to have your first several choices shot down as unappealing.

One good resource might be this collection of movie reviews at Medievalists.net. Most of these are available online, which is the only way I usually see movies anymore, and the reviews are by people who are knowledgeable about the relevant history. I suspect that many of you, like me, find that to be an important quality in a movie.

Got any other good resources?

For my neighbor Max

From Douglas's link:



To Max:  Viet Nam vet, business owner, indefatigable builder, good neighbor, and the kind of solid citizen that every free society needs.  When he came back from overseas, he didn't get much of a welcome, which was a shame, but he didn't let it ruin his life.  Those people were wrong, they should have known it, and I hope they know it now.

Update:  link fixed, I hope.