Sunday Serendipity

William Grant Still

Song of a New Race

Even though Still’s Symphony No. 2, (“Song of a New Race” [1937]) is not as well known as his first symphony, its Western-infused-African compositional style helps tell the story of African Americans through the 1900s. This symphony works together with his first, the “Afro-American”, to paint the full picture. While the “Afro-American” symphony used music to show the daily life of African Americans after the Civil War, “Song of a New Race” tells the story of Still’s people in modern times, a new man of various races integrated into American society.

Enjoy, Jack

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62 thoughts on “Sunday Serendipity”

  2. as usual, the cold open

    be sure to catch ted cruz (and BiD you are right that ted lately is acting odder than usual)

    Dr. Anthony Fauci (Kate McKinnon) hosts a game show to help simplify the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

  4. more snl

    Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week’s biggest news, like the House passing Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus bill.

  8. craig, me too. in addition to sunday serendipity and those times sturge can’t post his pictures, we could have saturday surfing sounds. 

  9. cpac too mainstream? they must think federalist society are bernie bros.

    orlandoweekly:

    Smarmy neo-Nazi and dirtbag homecoming king Nick Fuentes was kicked out of the Hyatt Regency Orlando today, where he was attempting to start a commotion on the CPAC floor.

    Fuentes, a Holocaust denier and cartoon frogophile, last gained attention as one of the speakers at the Jan. 6 rally at the U.S. Capitol followed by the insurrection. He’s in Orlando hosting AFPAC, the annual gathering of his America First Foundation.

    AFPAC is for those who find CPAC too mainstream, too wishy-washy. Speakers this year included Michelle “SJW Hollywood feminists turned Prince Harry into a woman” Malkin and Rep. Paul “I want Biden’s concession on my desk tomorrow” Gosar. Apparently they were done trading Pepe cards and singing rounds of “Tomorrow Belongs to Me”or ran out of CapriSuns or something, so they wandered over to CPAC for a playdate.

    Fuentes, who looks like what would happen if you put Matt Gaetz in a tofu press, didn’t put up much of a fight when sheriff’s deputies moved in and asked him to leave for (of course) not wearing a mask. After crowing, “I knew this would happen — I didn’t even park my car,” he strolled out trailing a gaggle of slackjawed apostles.

    Once he got to his car, he gave an impromptu (or seemingly impromptu) America First stump speech to the dozen or so deeply redpilled bystanders, exhorting them to attend AFPAC next year.

    “At AFPAC, we don’t wear masks. At AFPAC, we don’t have homosexuals speaking on the stage,” Fuentes boasted, to cheers. He then launched into an impassioned pro-Christianity spiel, in a sort of douchebag Elmer Gantry moment. Maybe his next move will be a megachurch? He andPaula Whitewould probably get along like a house on fire.

  10. Jack

    Excellent choice.  I vaguely remember when his opera was on TV 40 years ago.  His compositions have a huge variety.  One of my favorites is “Africa”

     

  14. 3:40 p.m. ?

    sorry, too busy. have to scoop poop from the coop. 

    no time for more chickensh*t from cpac speakers no matter who they are or were

  15. Yeah, 3:40…………I’ll be doing something by then I’m sure…….probably watching the lacquer dry.

  16. Oh, so I need to find something else to do this afternoon so I don’t inadvertently run across dumbass’ address to the white supremacy gathering. After seeing Ted’s attempt at standup I have to reluctantly say I think he’s probably a marginally better senator than he is a comic, but he’s Peter Principled out in either of those fields. 

  17. Craig, thanks for the CPAC info but I will not be watching Trump speak. Never again do I want to hear his drivel.

  18. Jack…  great choice for the end of Black History Month!
     
    Rick and I got our first shots yesterday afternoon.  We were stunned at how easy and fast the whole process was.  We had an appointment at 3:50 in Keene (about a 45 minute drive for us).  We thought…  yeah that’s when we’ll get in line…  we’ll be lucky if we get our shots by 5pm.  We pulled up to the athletic field parking lot a bit early at 3:40.  We were IDed…  and put in a parking space.  At 3:45 we were approached by two nurses who quickly and very amicably gave us our shots.  We waited the 15 minutes in case of severe allergic reaction …   left the parking lot at 4:00…  were on the highway toward back home by 4:02.  We get got Pfizer shots and get our second on exactly a month from then.  We will be all set by mid- April!

  21. It will make the evening news.  It’ll probably knock Tiger and GagGa’s dogs out of the next few news cycles.  Time to listen to MixCloud or radio from the home office in Scotland, while I clean something or nap, waiting for the disturbance in the force to pass.

  22. too bad, BiD, tiger and the million dollar  dumb dogs are high culture compared to what’s happening at cpac and would sell a lot more merchandise for the sponsors.

  23. Meanwhile, COVID rages on and there is still no relief for those suffering economically as a result of SFB’s lies about the virus.  (It won’t even be gone by this Easter.)  

  24. cpac’s so bad even rand paul declined their invitation this year.  don’t forget he and his dad won their straw polls for years.  that’s how looney it’s become.

  25. Yeah, I got lucky. TV & internet are out. My entertainment is restricted to my phone. I’ll just listen to the rain on the family room roof, replace the batteries in a security light or two, smell the paint dry on the bathroom fixtures I transformed from shiny brass to brushed nickel this morning and noodle on my phone. God knows I’m not going to search out the CPAC-WNP site to watch a livestream of dumbass’ drivel. That would just be stupid. 

  29.  
     

    While the “Afro-American” symphony used music to show the daily life of African Americans after the Civil War, “Song of a New Race” tells the story of Still’s people in modern times, a new man of various races integrated into American society.

    I found this part of the quote I posted above a bit strange from a 21st century pov. I don’t know if it was an accurate description of Stills beliefs or his dreams. But as we all know the 20th century was complex at the same time Still was composing this Billie Holiday was composing a different pov. , I’ve also included Nina Simone in the play list.

  32. next speech as advertised in the cpac playbook

    See the source image

    “L’État, c’est moi” so kneel and kiss the ring

  37. as scary as they are, the extremes on both sides are a small part of the population.

    from a livescience piece back in 2016:

    In terms of the percentage of the United States’ population that identifies itself as liberal, moderate or conservative, the numbers have held relatively steady over the last 20 years, according to Gallup.

    Liberals have remained in the vicinity of 20 percent, moderates, around 37 percent and conservatives a shade higher around 40 percent, since the early 1990s.

    At the extremes, those who identify themselves nowadays as hard-left Democrats stands at 9 percent compared with 21 percent who are hard-right Republicans.  

    A blue or red brain?

     

    Researchers have long wondered if some people can’t help but be an extreme left-winger or right-winger, based on innate biology. To an extent, studies of the brains of self-identified liberals and conservatives have yielded some consistent trends, Schreiber said.

     

    Two of these trends are that liberals tend to have more activity in parts of the brain known as the insula and anterior cingulate cortex. Among other functions, the two regions overlap to an extent by dealing with cognitive conflict, in the insula’s case, while the anterior cingulate cortex helps in processing conflicting information. [10 Things You Didn’t Know About the Brain]

    Conservatives, on the other hand, have demonstrated more activity in the amygdala, known as the brain’s “fear center.” “If you see a snake or a picture of a snake, the amygdala will light up — it’s a threat detector,” said Iacoboni.

     
     

    A study of British subjects published in 2011 supported these past imaging studies with measurements of brain structure. The study showed that on average the amygdala is bigger in conservatives, likely indicating greater use of it in neurological processing. In contrast, liberals often possessed larger anterior cingulate cortexes.

     

    Altogether, these findings suggest liberals can more easily tolerate uncertainty, which might be reflected in their shades-of-gray policy positions. In the U.S., those typically include being pro-choice and lenient on illegal immigration.

    Conservatives, meanwhile, have a more binary view of threats versus non-threats. Again, such a predisposition could be extended to policy positions, such as being pro-life and stricter on the immigration issue.  

  39. gallup last year reported:

    Conservativism averaged 73% among Republicans in 2019, maintaining the peak level recorded last year and previously in 2012. Most other Republicans, 21% of the party, identified as moderate, while 4% were self-identified liberals.

    The large majority of Republicans have consistently labeled themselves conservative in Gallup polling over the life of this trend, although the proportion has inched up from about six in 10 during the early 1990s to over seven in 10 more recently. This shift may relate to the decrease in the percentage identifying as Republican over the same period and the corresponding increase in political independent identification. People who once might have been liberal or moderate Republicans may increasingly identify as politically independent instead.

    and

    Democratic partisans are more ideologically diverse than Republicans, with 49% in 2019 identifying as liberal, 36% as moderate and 14% as conservative.

    The liberal wing of the Democratic Party has about doubled in size over the past quarter century, rising from 25% in 1994 to 51% in 2018. The slip to 49% in 2019 suggests that trend may be slowing or leveling off, at least temporarily.

    and

    Independents typically mirror the country as a whole, but in this case they are more centrist than center-right. A large plurality identify as politically moderate (45%), whereas 30% call themselves conservatives, and only slightly fewer are liberal (21%).

    Independents’ political views in 2019 are nearly identical to those from 2018 and are generally in line with the long-term pattern, although conservatism was a bit higher among this group during the Obama years.

  45. I’m hearing it.   It’s gruesome, ugly, grotesque, and macabre.

    He’s such an ugly, twisted little man. Pure venal malevolence.

  50. You know what’s next?   Just had a jumping jack flash.  Certain R senators are soon going to be forced to become D.  They’ll have no choice.  Changing to independents just ain’t going to get it, they’ll have to go all the way because the asshole is leaving them no other option.

  52. Do you suppose Republicans will return to DC from CPAC, all amped up from their motivational BS-ing, making it tougher on the COVID bill, confirmation hearings, and anything else this country needs right now?

  53. That 55% is 27% less than the 2019 straw poll when dumbass got 82% – the last one conducted before this one. 

  54. They have limited power to do those things BiD. The Senate is evenly split and the House is ours. 
    Been an interesting day without real internet access and without any TV. Quiet’s the best word to describe it, well except for the Clapton and CTA I was listening to.

  56. his remarks about liz cheney (especially the words “get rid of her”) in his throwaway line “So hopefully they’ll get rid of her with the next election.”  will no doubt bring on his violent crazies who will follow up with threats or worse.

  57. It’s amusing that dipshit doesn’t understand CPAC was about auditioning his replacement, not reasserting him as the leader 

  58. Now would be a good time for any Republican Senators who don’t support tRUMPsky-ism (it’s the ism that won’t go away, no matter what happens to SFB) to side with Dems on the COVID bill.  Just show Crazy Cruz and his ilk that they’re not gonna fall in line with those in the party who have fascist ambitions.

  59. I’d like to see the Dick Cheney machine, if it still exists, pull the party into the 21st century, if only to save Liz. It might also put an end to the ugly assault on democracy and save our collective ass.

  60. Craig – IDK how feeding the GqP’s Civil War narrative is a good thing, given the violent nature of their followers.  It might be something to campaign on in 2022, but the thing could actually ignite, too.  Crazy stuff, yes, but not war.

  61. Well, still no cable or TV but all’s not lost. After a bit of George Harrison while running around this morning, then on to Jack’s excellent Buddy/BB/Clapton suggestion I’ve travelled through Clapton to CTA then a brief Frampton side trip and back onto the main itinerary to Little Feat and now on to Tedeschi Trucks. And I’m going to cap the night off with the video of the 2005 G3 in Tokyo concert featuring Steve Vai, John Petrucci and Joe Satriani (need a little visual stimulus). Nice musical trip today. 

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