39 thoughts on “Sunday Serendipity”

  1. Maurice Sand: Scaramouche (1860)

    from interlude:

    In 1936, the French composer Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) wrote incidental music for Le médécin volant (The Flying Doctor), a play by Charles Vildrac based on Molière’s play of the same name, which uses Italian commedia dell’arte characters. The title of the work comes from the business where the servant must be himself and at the same time his false doctor brother, who has to appear in different places just as the servant has vanished. To move from the top of the house to the ground floor, for example, was accomplished by means of a rope.
    The goal, of course, is for the servant to help his master’s problems with love. The Vildrac version opened at the Théâtre Scaramouche in Paris in May 1937.
    In 1937, at the request of Milhaud’s teacher, Marguerite Long, he created a version for 2 pianos. She was looking for music for two former students, Marcelle Meyer and Ida Jankelevitch, for a performance at the 1937 International Dog Show in Paris. Milhaud took the name of the work from the theatre where Le médécin volant had played and then added a middle movement, a piece he wrote in 1935 for stage music for a play by Jules Supervielle, Bolivar. And so we have Scaramouche.
    As a commedia dell’arte character, Scaramouche is a stock clown, serving sometimes as the servant and sometimes as the henchman. He usually appeared in black clothing and was often beaten by his master, Harlequin, both for his boasting and his cowardice.
    The first movement uses an old English children’s count-down tune known as ‘Ten green bottles hanging on a wall,’ a smaller version of ’99 Bottles of Beer.’ The lively movement carries us immediately into the world of the flying servants, seemingly being everywhere at once!
    The second movement gives us time for the love story.
    In the final movement, we seem to journey to South America, where Milhaud had served earlier his life when he was secretary to Paul Claudel, the French Ambassador to Brazil. This is probably the most familiar melody from this suite.
    The adaptation of a Molière play for children is captured perfectly in Milhaud’s music and the work proved to be unexpectedly popular. Originally written for alto saxophone and orchestra, it was also rewritten for clarinet and orchestra.
    The original two-piano recording gives us an idea of what would have been heard at the 1937 Paris Dog Show!
    The other versions for sax and clarinet had their advocates. Benny Goodman gave the debut of the clarinet version in New York in 1941 and Jascha Heifeitz wrote a version for violin and piano but of only the final two movements, but with his own virtuosic additions.
    [continues]

  2. that scaramouche is not to be confused with the short-held WH communications director for the big loser, anthony scaramucci, or as the urban dictionary defines the noun scaramucci as

    scar-mōo-cheé
    unit of time, 5-10 days.

  3. speaking of the loser and other clowns, here’s david horsey’s toon and op ed Trump won’t easily give up being king of the castle | The Seattle Times

    There has been a lot of overblown talk about a coming second civil war in this country between the left and right, but the much more likely fraternal conflict is the one about to erupt inside the Republican Party.
    The results of the midterm elections finally convinced many Republican leaders that it is time to move beyond former President Donald Trump if they hope to have success in future campaigns. Trump backed a contingent of scary, election-denying oddballs and opportunists in races all over the country, from secretaries of state and governors to seats in the U.S. Senate and House. Other than those without serious opposition, they all went down in flames.
    Republicans who have concluded their ex-president was largely responsible for the party’s pathetic showing in places where they should have had easy victories are longing for someone who can break Trump’s grip on the GOP. Right now, the top candidate for the job is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose landslide re-election victory was almost the only good news for conservatives on election night.
    […]
    First, though, he will have to get by Trump, and Trump is not going to quietly slink into retirement. His overweening narcissism and deep fear of being called a loser will drive him to battle for another shot at the White House – and he will have a loyal, militant share of the Republican base behind him.
    If the Republican establishment wants to be rid of Trump, it will have a war on its hands.

  7. Pat thanks for the research, your search engine works better than mine, all I found were some vague references to the play. I find it interesting that it was named after the theater rather than the clown, as I assumed. 
    As to scaramouche/scaramucci, what difference does it make? After all, they are both clowns. 
    I listened to the piano version of Scaramouche too, but I just loved the young woman’s vibrant performance on the sax. 
    Jack 

  8. As a commedia dell’arte character, Scaramouche is a stock clown, serving sometimes as the servant and sometimes as the henchman. He usually appeared in black clothing and was often beaten by his master, Harlequin, both for his boasting and his cowardice.

    Ok, doesn’t this describe the brief time Anthony Scaramucci worked for Trump? We live in weird world.
    Jack

  9. Wow, Jack!  What a find! 

    Scaramouche, Scaramouche, Will you do the fandango? -Freddie Mercury

  10. When i was a kid one time the mother unit took the 3 of us to the movie.   Yum, popcorn and candy cigarettes.  So this one she took us to that time was like a sword fighting musical deal.  Nearest I’ve been able to pin it down is it must have been a Mario Lanza flick.  Maybe a Sigmond Romberg or something like that.  There was lots of color but the standout part was the great big swordfight scene involving a staircase, a balcony, and a swinging chandelier (standard swordfight schtick) and that especially, someone was doing a lot of hollering of the word “Scaramouche!”  
    The 3 of us went around for a few weeks sword fighting and hollering, “Scaramouche!”    It’s a wonder we didn’t put out an eye.
    As for Scaramucci i hear he’s smarter than he looks.

  11. https://www.texastribune.org/2022/11/18/texas-earthquake-fracking-railroad-commission/

    “Inspectors for the Texas Railroad Commission are investigating a 5.4 magnitude earthquake that was recorded west of Pecos near the border of Reeves and Culberson counties on Wednesday, the agency said.”

    “The quake could be felt as far away as Carlsbad, New Mexico, and El Paso, and it forced University Health, the Bexar County Hospital District, to vacate a historic downtown San Antonio hospital building after structural engineers declared it unsafe.”

    “The number of earthquakes recorded in Texas has spiked in recent years, particularly in West Texas’ Permian Basin, the most productive oil and gas region in the state. Scientific studies have linked the seismic activity to the disposal of contaminated, salty water deep underground — a common practice by oil companies at the end of the hydraulic fracturing process that can awaken dormant fault lines.”

    “Between three and six barrels of salty, polluted water also come up to the surface with every barrel of oil during the fracking process — ancient water that was trapped underground by rock formations.”

    “Years of pumping hundreds of millions of gallons of contaminated water per day underground in Texas has coincided with more frequent and more powerful earthquakes in the state…”

  14. Could it be that simple?    lol

    Yeah, Stewart Grainger and Janet Leigh…..that makes sense……

  16. When I saw Prince (“Musicology”) his main sax player was a lady and she could honk.   And I think she was also on a few  of the talk show bands…don’t know her name though.

    Candy Dulfer…..but she shared the stage with the Great Maceo Parker.
    Also Rhonda Smith on the bass.
    Prince was slick……everyone who came to the concert was given a “free” CD of “Musicology” But if you look at your receipt, $25 of the ticket price went to buying the CD. So he sold over a million tickets for the whole tour and automatically sold over a million copies of his album.

  17. sturge,  duifer also toured with prince according to this about her from

    jazzfuel

    Candy Dulferis a Dutchsax playerwho is known for her soulful playing style and a commercial appeal which is not dissimilar to that of the divisiveKenny G. 

    She has released several solo albums and has toured the world with some of the biggest names inmusic, including Prince and Dave Stewart.

    Born in Amsterdam in 1969, her debut album,Saxuality, was released in 1990 and became a commercial success, as well as being nominated for that year’s Grammy Awards. 

    Largely self-taught, her level of crossover appeal is perhaps best illustrated by her position on the Dutch version of the X Factor. 

    Candy Dulfer was born in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, as the daughter of saxophonist Hans Dulfer. She began playing the drums at the age of five. As a six-year-old she started to play the soprano saxophone. At the age of seven she switched to alto saxophone and later began playing in a local concert band Jeugd Doet Leven (English translation: “Youth Brings Life”) in Zuiderwoude. Dulfer played her first solo on stage with her father’s band De Perikels (“The Perils”). At the age of eleven, she made her first recordings for the album I Didn’t Ask (1981) of De Perikels. In 1982, when she was twelve years old, she played as a member of Rosa King’s Ladies Horn section at the North Sea Jazz Festival. According to Dulfer, King encouraged her to become a band leader herself. In 1984, at the age of fourteen, Dulfer started her own band Funky Stuff.

  18. All those freak republicans are doing is insuring that the goobers keep sending the dipshit more and more money.   It’s just schizophrenic.

  19. Jack
    A great way to start the day.
    And all the others who chimed in on the characters.  Cocktail chatter to get through the
    holiday season.

  21. I bet if you bumped into Pence you’d get an oil stain…….\

    Pence says “Russian hoax” does Tuck Chodd say a word? Nah.

    Todd is about worthless He just lets that oleaginous creep sit there and lie. Worthless is talking to Unctuous.

  22. wonder if any of the remaining moderate republicans in the house are considering switching to independant status?  if enough (six give or take?), it sure would cause quite a stir especially if they decided to caucus separately – neither with one side or the other.  

  23. Pat the way I see it is that every non-magat republican has a moral, spiritual, and patriotic duty to switch parties.   And those who do not are–Cowards.

    Word on the street is that republicans are out trying to get democrats to switch…..well, fugdat…..gotta be the other way. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if that’s actually in the process of happening.. Dem turning goper would be like quitting a good band to join a bad band for less money.

    I don’t see McCarthy getting 218 either.

  25. Saw a few minutes of FOX (regular OTA, not Faux Noise) Sunday morning show while waiting for another program.   They are all still carrying Adolf’s orange-ade about other presidents moving documents.  No. It’s already been debunked. They did not move the documents (for their libraries) themselves, and more importantly, they were not classified documents.

    tRUMPsky is a traitor, and he REMAINS a threat to our national security. I hope he and his den of thieves are being heavily monitored at all times. 

    Just in case, he needs to be given decoy documents in the future; false intel that can be tied back to him and his cohorts.

  26. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/20/politics/adam-kinzinger-kevin-mccarthy-speaker-cnntv/index.html

    “I think he has cut so many deals with bad people to get to this position that I think he’s not going to be a leader at all. I think he’ll be completely hostage to kind of the extreme wings of the Republican Party,” Kinzinger, who is retiring from Congress, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.” “And I frankly don’t think he’s going to last very long.”

    Also a danger to democracy, No-Nuts McCarthy, who can be bullied and/or bought.

  28. I don’t think those are the choices that goopers have selected.  They  have already taken a position on governance and they are opposed.  As for raising hell – if by that he meant obstruction and lying then fine
    I used to have great respect ofr Panetta but not anymore.  He asked a lot of people to support his move to run a group whose goal was to reform state financing.  After many had donated money and time – he left the group flat and since he was the driving force that was the end.   
     

  29. It’s not a real choice…..they’re out for blood. They may find time to try and make things easier for rich people. The only thing which will pull THIS fat out of the fire is several republicans who go independent. Rule number 1: Members of the GOP cannot feel shame. They can only feel getting CAUGHT. And nowadays they don’t even seem to mnd that.
    They didn’t care to govern when they had house, senate, and presidency, why would they now.

    They’re just going to see which little shithead can make the most nasty noise.

  31. I think we should begin campaigns against specific house members  specifically I would start with gym Jordan and his weird comb over
    The camapign should focus on his house district and Columbus I think if the college students could get on board real damage could be done to Jordan

    I think Tim Ryan might be willing to help

  32. The Tyranny of Inertia by Bill McKibben

    If this were a normal political problem, that might be okay: slow but steady progress counts. But this—almost uniquely for world leaders—is a timed test. Every year brings us 12 months further into the new geological epoch we’re creating. As we come out of Sharm el-Sheikh we’re still headed for a world nearly three degrees Celsius warmer.

     

  33. Dollars? Not imaginary, crypto-money. Dollars? What about that incorruptible blockchain ledger? Digital chicken scratch?

    Yeah, so, you and i, the retail sucker investors put real money in to “buy” crypto, so they had real funds, from which the guy (allegedly?) backdoor-loaned $4 B!ll!on (xrep homage) to his separate failing hedge-fund, hence your $3.1 bil missing (a few hundred mil has been recovered or seized)

  34. So, now that the election is over, i can tell you that some people who didn’t need stimulus but took it anyway gambled it on the crypto exchanges, why the whole “industry” ballooned during pandemic

  38. Someone on twitter:

    President Biden should start handing out low level diplomatic positions to House Republicans. We only need to lose a couple for the Dems to take back control.

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