Week in Seven Words #465

agreeable
We watch a movie and wonder why it was made. But we don't wonder why we're watching it to the end. The couch is comfortable. The company is undemanding and pleasant.

entertained
They pass some time with songs, a dance routine she made up with her friends, and random odd dribbles of entertainment on YouTube.

jackpot
The dog strains on his leash towards the cat hospital.

parquet
The herbal smell of floor wipes, the wood floor glistening.

pop-up
Each pretty house is like a storybook. Open one, and the rooms and the people would pop out in colorful illustrations.

shivery
Walking through a chill spill of rain to an overcrowded restaurant.

surmounting
On her scooter she attempts to go over a speed bump slowly, as if it's a hill she's scaling.

Funny Songs from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

I don't watch this show, but someone sent me the first clip, which made me laugh. It starts out like a typical inspiring song about facing your fears and goes on to become a series of terrible suggestions.


I found this second clip from the show - a hardcore electronic dance music video about someone getting ready for guests.

Van Cortlandt Park and a Laura Mvula song

This past Sunday, I went on a hike through Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. The hike leader also gave a talk on the role the park plays in the city's water supply, and the challenges of supplying water to a city of millions.

This is a memorial on Katonah Avenue, right outside the northeast corner of the park, for tunnel workers who lost their lives building Tunnel #3, a major piece of city water infrastructure.



Some photos from the hike:







Also, because it's summer - and Laura Mvula's "Green Garden" (and its music video) is full of what I like best about summer - I'm sharing it here.

Week in Seven Words #330

clarification
What at first sounds like the wind crying resolves into choir music broadcast on a radio in a waiting room down the hall.

hamming
She makes short videos of evil twins leaping out of mirrors and people finding an intruder in the closet as they tour their new home. I'm cast in several roles. My favorite is the one where I get stabbed with a plastic pineapple and deliver a monologue for the ages.

meaty
All of the commuters packed, flesh to flesh, turn the subway car into a sausage link.

median
He continues to be fanatic about how normal he is. His way is the one true way of normality.

reactiveness
Waiting for the elevator, stone-faced as a Buckingham Palace guard, while a neighbor and her child scream at each other a few feet away.

spud
Pleasure from a potato's crinkly gold skin.

sway
In her marriage, she's a courtier. Dressed in elegant fabrics that pool on the floor as she bows and scrapes.

Sound familiar?

Beethoven's Heiligenstadt Testament (read for Deal Me In 2017)

When Beethoven was in his early 30s, he addressed a letter to his brothers explaining his withdrawal from society and misanthropic behavior.

He tells them that for several years now he’s been losing his hearing and can’t bear the thought of people finding out. He considers the humiliation, the wounds to his pride:

Oh, how could I possibly admit an infirmity in the one sense which ought to be more perfect in me than others, a sense which I once possessed in the highest perfection, a perfection such as few in my profession enjoy or ever have enjoyed.

This is a common response to personal struggles - self-imposed isolation, to spare oneself from pity or insensitive reactions. He expresses its agonies, the fear of exposure warring with the desire to be understood.

What’s most powerful in his letter is the tension between craving life and desiring an end to his suffering. He admits that he considered suicide. What mostly held him back was an urge to keep working on his music. Though virtue, too, might have played a part in holding suicidal thoughts at bay, he emphasizes the role of art even more: “Oh, it seemed to me impossible to leave the world until I had forth all that I felt was within me.”

Continuing to live to see out one’s potential, and what one can keep bringing to the world, even in the face of suffering and uncertainty, means everything. It isn’t something that can be encouraged through platitudes or rote admonishments. It’s bloody and raw and hard-won (and can be easily lost too). It’s everything.

Beethoven lived another twenty-five years after writing this letter. Here’s his last symphony, courtesy of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on their YouTube channel:


I read this letter as part of the Deal Me In 2017 challenge.

"The water sustains me without even trying..."

A beautiful duet. Have listened to it over and over again. The lyrics are poetry.

"I see you when you're sleeping..."

Before I go off to light the first Hanukkah candle, I wanted to share this, as it gave me a much-needed laugh earlier this week. Happy holidays, folks.

Postmodern Jukebox Delights

Postmodern Jukebox does covers of contemporary pop songs in older styles.

For instance, Rihanna's "Umbrella" (ella, ella...) in a Singin' in the Rain style with tap-dancing.


And Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" in soul music style (and so beautiful, how it builds).


Other gems I've found so far: Radiohead's "Creep", Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance", and Beyonce's "Halo".

12 Beautiful Music Videos

Carnival (Natalie Merchant)
Wandering around taking photos of a city. I love the exploration, the mood of taking things in and questioning and leaving questions unanswered.

Everybody Hurts (R.E.M.)
I like the words flashing over the people in the traffic jam, revealing their thoughts. Their separation from each other and their shared plight.

I Am Not a Robot (Marina and the Diamonds)
Simple, direct, beautiful with a few different looks, including astronomical body paint.

I'm Going Slightly Mad (Queen)
I like so much of Queen's music - and some of their other videos - but this one is my favorite video. Comic, tragic and creative. (I also love the lyric "one wave short of a shipwreck" to describe descending madness.)

Kind and Generous (Natalie Merchant)
Peaceful, magical carnival atmosphere, with people hanging out together in whatever costumes they choose.

Lately (Charlie Winston)
More disturbing and intense than beautiful, but kind of beautiful too. In an eerie way.

Level Up (Vienna Teng)
Hopefulness, inspiration, starting over. Beautiful breakdancing.

Nobody's Fault But Mine (Abigail Washburn)
This was filmed live, with the musician wandering from room to room in an abandoned building, the acoustics changing. It's an amazing performance.

Papaoutai (Stromae)
The video shows a boy trying to connect to a father who's mentally or physically absent. Comedic and heart-breaking.

Poison Tree (The Milk Carton Kids)
A security guard roaming a mall with his imagination and memories. The images in the video somehow soften the bleakness of the lyrics.

The Sensual World (Kate Bush)
Dancing, deep colors, the feeling of love and old legends. Kate Bush is like a beautiful sprite.

Tightrope (Janelle Monáe)
I love the idea of an asylum for people practicing music, dance and magic. The dance moves are awesome, and I like this song so much.

Intense Competition in Chamber Music

This is awesome - the "Competitive Foursome" by Salut Salon.

Dancer Taking in Paris

Earlier this year, the Opéra National de Paris YouTube channel posted short videos directed by Benjamin Millepied. They feature different dancers from the Paris Opera Ballet. This one focuses on Dorothée Gilbert and, all around her, Paris.

NYC Marathon: Music Video and Some Route Photos

The 2015 New York City Marathon is currently underway. Am I participating? No. Do I care who wins? Also no. But I'm using it as an excuse to post a music video of a singer I like:


Imelda May (I've shared some of her music before). The guy running through the video here is Al Gare, double bass and bass guitar player for her band.

Also, the last Sunday of September I walked the Brooklyn and Queens segments of the marathon route, which takes you through different neighborhoods, each with its own flavor. So I'll share some of those photos here.

Starting the weekend with a little Milk & Honey

An Amy Schumer Reality TV Spoof

Marian Anderson footage from the Lincoln Memorial

I came across this historical footage recently, of Marian Anderson at the Lincoln Memorial. It's from April 9, 1939.


By 1939, she had already enjoyed much professional success as a singer (of arias and other classical pieces, also spirituals), but in DC she wasn't permitted to give a performance at Constitution Hall, because she was black. So she sang at the Lincoln Memorial. (Here's more background about Anderson and the performance.) The footage here is just a small excerpt from the program.

"With our palms cupped like shovels"

Spring is here, so why not enjoy a music video where notes mushroom out of the earth and trees to float in the sky? I've liked this song for a while now.

Dragonballs: Harry Potter as a much different movie...

Not only is this funny, it's also a good example of excellent video editing skills.

Cartoonists at work

Charlie Hebdo, Before the Massacre from The New York Times - Video on Vimeo.

The New York Times posts a short documentary on Charlie Hebdo filmed in 2006 (after violent eruptions over Danish cartoons).

Le flashmob