Sunday Serendipity

A wonderful work for solo guitar.

Enjoy the music but most of all enjoy your day!?
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69 thoughts on “Sunday Serendipity”

  1. jace, thank you. wonderful.  came upon this at im-guitarra about regondi:

    Who doesn’t know them? Paganini, Liszt, Chopin and many others. Heroes of a whole generation. All seen as prodigies, early drawn with the mark of Cain, lived without a net and double bottom and gave a bourgeois world the thrill of danger it so desperately longed for.

     

    Among them was a little boy from France, who was to conquer the stages of his time with an imperfect instrument and became one of the most important representatives of the romantic guitar: Giulio Regondi.

     

    Even his childhood sounds like it was invented by Ch. Dickens. Born in Geneva in 1822, his mother died at birth and so a man raised him, posing as his father. Without ever knowing if they were really connected by blood ties, he was helplessly chained to him for many years.

    Giuseppe, so his name, had decided early on to turn Giulio into a prodigy with whom he could earn a lot of money. He relentlessly drove him to the guitar, locked him up in his room during the day, where, supervised by a grumpy neighbor, he had to practice the same finger exercises for hours.

    So he was able to put Giulio on stage at the age of five and present “his” prodigy to an astonished audience.

    To make even more money from his son, they broke up their tents in Lyon and tried their luck in Paris.

    Within a very short time the little boy had a resounding success here as well. He was invited to the most important concert halls, was very well received by critics and audiences and even N. Paganini and F. Liszt became interested in the boy.

    Also in the circles of guitar lovers one was enchanted by his appearance. Fernando Sor, who was fond of the “Infant Paganini” with a paternal affection, dedicated his fantasy “Souvenir d’amitié” op. 46 to the eight-year-old “Jules Regondi”.

     

    But his father still didn’t have enough. In search of new sources of income, he was drawn across the canal and in May 1831 they arrived in London, one of the leading music capitals of that time.

    Giulio made his debut here with Catherina Josepha Pelzer, another prodigy, who later became the doyenne of the Victorian guitar world as Madame Sidney Pratten.

    To make the two children more visible on stage, they played music standing on a table. When Regondi played alone, his chair was sometimes placed on the piano. All this was arranged by a father who wanted to draw even more attention to his boy.

    Of course, the audience was enthusiastic about these performances and the press praised them. Even in the Buckingham Palace the reputation of this wonder boy penetrated and so he was finally allowed to play before the queen, who, like the whole world, was enchanted by the meanwhile eight-year-old.

    […]

    Carried by a wave of enthusiasm, father and son now travelled the entire kingdom and were celebrated with phrenesis everywhere.

    Now the father should have finally reached the goal of his dreams, because one day he handed the child a 5-pound note and fled with all the rest of their money, allegedly several thousand pounds sterling.

    He left the 12-year-old boy alone in the world, perhaps hoping that good-natured people and music lovers would take care of this little genius.

     

    Left alone, Giulio fell into deep despair, but through the maternal care of friends and a loving foster family, he managed to overcome this trauma. The child prodigy became a young man who succeeded in transforming his suffering into music and who continued to conquer people’s hearts at acclaimed concerts throughout Europe.

    [continues]

  3. wapo:

    After four months of campaigning, the Democratic presidential race remains wide open, with the bulk of the electorate still uncommitted, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

     

    Asked to name the candidate they currently support, 54 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents did not volunteer anyone. That figure is little changed from 56 percent in January, despite a slew of candidate announcements, vigorous campaigning in the early primary and caucus states, multiple cable television town halls and interviews and constant fundraising appeals.

     

    Among the minority who expressed a preference, former vice president Joe Biden holds a tenuous advantage over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

    […]

    The Post-ABC poll, conducted largely before Biden’s Thursday campaign announcement, asked whom respondents support in an open-ended format that did not name any of the candidates. The results show notably lower levels of support than produced in polls that ask people to pick from a list of names.

     

    Biden tops the field with 13 percent among Democrats and Democratic-leaning adults, followed by Sanders at 9 percent and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 5 percent. Sens. Kamala D. Harris (Calif.) and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) are at 4 percent, while former congressman Beto O’Rourke of Texas is at 3 percent. Sens. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) and Cory Booker (N.J.) are at 1 percent each.

    Support for Biden has ticked up four percentage points since a Post-ABC poll in January that used the same open-ended format. Sanders gained five points in that time, as has Buttigieg, whose name was not volunteered by any respondents three months ago. Support for Harris has dipped four points from January.

    The poll finds less than 1 percent of Democratic-leaning adults volunteering former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper, former San Antonio mayor Julián Castro and entrepreneur Andrew Yang. None of the survey’s 427 Democratic and Democratic-leaning respondents volunteered Rep. John Delaney (Md.), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Gov. Jay Inslee (Wash.), Rep. Seth Moulton (Mass.), Rep. Tim Ryan (Ohio), Rep. Eric Swalwell (Calif.) or author Marianne Williamson.

    [continues]

     

  4. Kgc it was Winky-Dink, pretty hokey show atc.
    We were also partial to Crusader Rabbit back then.
    Amazing what some peoples  can extract from from a guitar. 

  5. Although the media is pushing the white males in the Democratic party field of presidential candidates (they also may include a Russian agent) there is little mention of the many women running.  As noted in one article quoted above, most Americans have no idea of who is running for president with the election next year.  A few activists are involved right now, but it will be another sixteen months before there is interest in the race against a mob boss dictator wannabe.
     
    That said, there is something calming about watching babies and dogs sleeping.  So calming I am going to take a mid-morning nap now.

  8. Beany and Cecil, Crusader Rabbit, and Thunderbolt the Wonder Colt.

    So much for my misbegotten childhood with the earliest of the TV babysitters.  

  10. sturge, I forgot to thank you for your boffo thread yesterday. brought back some memories.

  11. There are virtuosos and there are guitar players.  No question which we’re listening to this morning  
     
    Great article at WaPo by David Fried about SFB’s wrongheaded view of history. – specifically about Lee and the Charlottesville racists and his attempts to justify his stupid comments supporting the racists. 

    President Trump today tried to justify his defense of the 2017 white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville by invoking the memory of Confederate commander Robert E. Lee. The demonstrators, argued the president, doubling down, were indeed “very fine people” because they “felt very strongly about the monument to Robert E. Lee, a great general.”
     
    Lee was indeed a great general. But so what?
     
    For more than 100 years, Lee, and other generals of the Confederacy, have been invoked to justify the cause of segregation and Jim Crow bigotry. Their statues — including the one of Lee in Charlottesville — were erected in the South when the federal government abandoned Reconstruction and allowed Southern whites to disenfranchise, and then terrorize, the newly-freed African Americans living among them. Those statues, and the romanticized memory of the Confederate cause that they are intended to evoke, serve a bad cause. Today, Trump again identified himself with that bad cause.
    [continues at length]

    SFB showing that it IS possible to be wrong about almost everything. 

  12. cnn via msn: William Barr: Attorney General’s appearance at House hearing still up in the air because of dispute with Democrats

    […]

    The Democratic chairman, Jerry Nadler of New York, wants to allow all members of his panel at Thursday’s hearing to have one round of questioning of five minutes each, according to the source. He also wants to allow for a subsequent round of questioning of 30 minutes for each side, allowing both parties’ committee counsels to also engage in questioning during their respective turns.

    Nadler also is proposing that the committee should go into closed session to discuss the sections of the report that are redacted.

    But Barr has rejected those proposals for additional rounds of questioning, according to the source. The Justice Department has informed Nadler’s office that Barr doesn’t want the committee counsels to be allowed to question him, the source said, prompting the attorney general to threaten to not show up next week if Nadler follows this format, the source said. He also has objected to holding a closed session to discuss the full report.

    It’s unusual — but not unprecedented — to allow committee counsels to question witnesses. But doing so would allow the subject-matter experts to follow up on questions the lawmakers may have missed from earlier rounds. Barr has proposed allowing a small group of lawmakers to review a less-redacted report, but House Democrats have issued a subpoena for the full report.

    Barr is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday. And he’s still expected to attend the Senate hearing.

    […]

    Barr’s scheduled testimony comes ahead of House Democratic plans for Mueller to also appear next month to discuss the report and investigation. If Barr does not appear before the House Judiciary Committee, it’s not clear how that would affect the panel’s plans for Mueller’s testimony. Graham has said he does not want to hear from Mueller himself because it would be too much of a circus.

     

  13. Never got to see Beany and Cecil for some reason, we only had one channel for most of the fifties, CBS, so didn’t get Sid Caesar or Soupy Sales, or Uncle Miltie…..

  14. I loved Beanie and Cecil. We had 3 stations in the 50s. ABC,  NBC, CBS. Whatever educational tv was called then came along at some point but I can’t recall when. 

  15. Jace….   wonderful!
    My favorite tv show from way back when was The Little Rascals….   also loved the 3 Stooges…  still do.   My favorite cartoons were Speedy Gonzales… and The Roadrunner. 

  16. The other one that I got to watch before being sentenced to the bedroom was Space Patrol featuring Commander Buzz Corey and Cadet Happy.  I still eat Rice and Wheat Chex.  Guess the commercials worked.

     

  17. patd…  I just got through reading that polling article from Wapo… some of the comments said what I was thinking…   who the hell answers their phone anymore from a strange number.  I know being from NH that we can smell a poll on the first ring.  If you make the mistake of answering… you get put on a list of “people stupid enough to answer the phone”…   and then you get hounded to death.

    And even with that list of people the number one answer is still…  haven’t decided yet.  I think Sturg is correct…  this election season will be ratings gold.  But right now it’s too early.

  18. I let any phone call without an identity go straight to voice mail.  They then get blocked if one of the robo callers.  It takes persistence, but I’ve got them down to about only one a day.  

  19. In the 1950’s Detroit had the big three, NBC ABC CBS, along with Canada’s CKLW-TV.  I think there was a few years of DuMont but that was early on and there was an add on antenna to go with the rabbit ears to get UHF stations.  I did get to watch Soupy Sales before he went national.  He was a blast, I can just imagine what parents thought of him. 

  21. omg  The weekend line-up except for Morning Joy on MSNBC is sub par.  But even worse are the subs
    It’s like they were all born yesterday.

  23. Franklin Graham – what a loser even his own sister thinks he’s a throwback

  28. I mistakenly tacked this on to yesterday’s thread–timely concept involved:
    It has already been decided over the centuries on this one: The ability of Congress to jail subpoena scofflaws in its personal jail. It is the concept of Inherent Contempt established by the Supremes in 1821. Here is a fascinating wiki on the subject.  I would like seeing the Congress entering into an assistance agreement with the local police departments to apprehend Administration subpoena evaders. SFB would, of course, be exempt. 

  29. Jace, a truly marvelous selection today. Wouldn’t it have been exciting hearing Henderson and Segovia performing together? Their styles are so simpatico. 

  33. Jesus- an unmarried, highly-eligible 33 year-old bachelor with no interest in women- and the Christians don’t like gay people?

  35. Captain Video and his Video Rangers. 
    I didn’t care for Super Circus, except for the … um … hostess ?

    We had NBC after the war. CBS came around 1949. Our family got a tv in the late spring of 1950. Ding Dong School. SEE IT NOW ! Omnibus.
    ABC came in 1953, with Crusader Rabbit.
    1954 : The Army-mccarthy Hearings. Edward R. Murrow destroys joe mccarthy.
    The Educational Channel was around 1957, I think. “Repitan, ‘Mucho Gusto !’ ”
     

  36. NEW THREAD

    IGNORE THAT, new thread cancelled for time being – carry on until we hear from fearless leader.

    meanwhile, back to the future 6/14/20 –

    jack (or craig if you’re responsible for this thread selection) thank you for reminding us of how our world can change so much so fast in just a year.

  38. It’s Flag Day.  I wonder how many of those SFB will molest today?  
    You know, that clip of tRump perv-ing on that girl should be enough to creep out any soccer mom thinking of voting orange in November.

  41. I don’t want to relive 2019.  The rest of 2020 is going to be hard enough to finish. The closer we get to Nov 3 the better. 

     

  45. …heard this on NPR, yesterday, it’s hilariously blasphemous, plus the guy can shred:

    ✌️❤️🇺🇸🇺🇸 (extra flag for Flag Day)

  46. patD – Perfect, pervy-SFB flag ‘toon.  Wonder what my GAR great-great grandfather and my GAR great-great-great grandfather who died at the Battlefield of the Wilderness would think of the presence of Confederate flags and monuments at this late date…or at all?

  47. It’s good to see that trump is calling slavery evil. He’s now ready to enter the mid-1860s.

  48. Will trump now take credit for freeing the slaves, or will he merely say that freeing them was his idea ?

  49. this is also fat ass the golfing president’s birthday.  Birthday wishes anyone?
    I’m going with “Hope you die soon and since it’s your birthday , painlessly

  50. Last week, SFB seemed to think that freeing the slaves was a “questionable” idea.  
    Hope he chokes on his birthday cake.

  53. craig, is jack okay?  KC has had some bad stuff happening lately police-wise, weather-wise, covid-wise stc. 

  55. des moines  register:

    Fresh off a four-way primary race that drew millions in outside spending, Democrat Theresa Greenfield leads Republican Sen. Joni Ernst by 3 percentage points in Iowa’s hotly contested U.S. Senate race, a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows.
    According to the poll, 46% of likely voters say they would back Greenfield if the election were held today, and 43% say they would back Ernst.
    […]
    The poll, which was conducted June 7-10, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points for questions asked of the 674 likely voters in the 2020 general election and plus or minus 3.5 percentage points for those asked of 801 Iowans.

  56. Looking at normal mortality rates without factoring in the virus, and Trump’s dependence on older voters in 2016 swing states, looks like about 1 million of his voters there are now dead.

  58. The latest Des Moines register poll finds joni ernst (rIA) 3 points behind Theresa Greenfield. ernst joins gardner (rCO), collins (rME), mcsally (rAZ) and tillis (rNC) on my list of probable Dem gains.
     
    I’m also cherishing low hopes for murkowki, perdue, loeffler, lindsey graham, steve daines, moscow mitch, john cornyn, pat roberts and dan sullivan.

    I have doubts that Doug Jones can pull off a victory, but I’m not calling it yet.

  62. Jamie – I’m not on Twitter, so thanks for the info. Anything to push the dumb-f**k over the edge.  

  63. I expect many others are enjoying going through the products frozen in your freezer during these trying times. Perhaps you remember you stored a special steak from the store in it, something you bought on a special discount.  You may have frozen it well.  You might have tossed a few extra sausages you did not need for a recipe in a freezer bag and tossed it in the freezer for use later in the week.  Those links are now well buried, but in your Sunday search of the freezer you find that bag once again.  The date of Jan 5 2015 is a hint.  Do not bother with those sausages, throw them away.
     
    This PSA courtesy of Gag Me Mouth Wash.

  64. BB – Good point.  Freezing food doesn’t keep it from going bad, it just makes it spoil very, very slowly.   

  65. something else that will get to him bigly –  a prayer meeting going on in front of WH

     

    wapo:

    Black Lives Matter Plaza was transformed into a church Sunday morning, with thousands of mostly African American worshipers praying, protesting, kneeling and dancing near the White House after marching from the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
    […]
    The Trump administration forcibly removed protesters from the area near Lafayette Square on June 1, ahead of President Trump’s photo opportunity at the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church. On Sunday, that show of federal force was replaced with prayer.
    […]
    That same ground near St. John’s was transformed by afternoon into a kaleidoscope of prayers, chants, singing and preaching from Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian faith leaders who joined in a multifaith effort to bless the protest movement. Among them was the Rev. William Barber II, one of the country’s best-known progressive clergy, who called for a “moral reconstruction” that pulls in people of all backgrounds and races and forces sweeping policy changes rather than moderate tweaks.
    […]
    By evening, the energy had taken a turn, with some shouting matches between protesters and individual police officers, and angrier chants. A crowd of hundreds gathered as close to the White House as they could get, listening to a speaker yell through a microphone, and yelling back, “Trump, Pence out now! Trump, Pence out now!”

  66. It’s weird that CNN chose, so far, not to cover this morning’s prayer/protest in DC.   Thanks for posting the Wapo story.

  68. You should have taken the Frozen Food Challenge of Death.  i’ve already confirmed 6-month old opened ground beef and two-year old gum as safe.

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