Sunday Serendipity

Liebesträume (Dreams of Love), No. 3

From Wiki

“O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst” is an 1829 poem by the 19th-century German writer Ferdinand Freiligrath. Hungarian composer Franz Liszt set the first four stanzas in 1843 as a lied for soprano voice and piano, S. 298, and later adapted it into the third of his Liebesträume (Dreams of Love)

I really enjoyed the music. I’m not certain about the poem, Not your typical Valentine love poem.

Enjoy, Jack

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67 thoughts on “Sunday Serendipity”

  1. jack, thanks for another great choice.  it’s too often only remembered as a background score for silent movie’s piano players all the way to looney tunes and merrie melodies cartoons.  one forgets how really beautiful the music is.

    BTW, this verse in the poem kinda gives a hint as to the poet’s reason behind the rest:

    And guard your words with care,
    Lest harm flow from your lips!
    Dear God, I meant no harm,
    But the loved one recoils and mourns.

    that sentiment could also be a warning to dems to take care about loudly voicing over and over their worries about joe’s flaws rather than his talents. too soon the time may come they could regret inadvertently trashing him and turning off voter participation.

  2. from last thread, I totally agree with

    Bink at 10:14

    How the increasingly-bonkers shit that guy has been saying since the 2nd Carroll verdict isn’t the lead-story every night is baffling 🤷‍♂️ 
     
    i see the quotes from our senile former president that Mr. C posts all the time (the Lord’s work), there’s just no way to refute addled ramblings

    Sturge at 3:29 this morning

    I wonder if any of those attending the rally actually registered the fact that the orange fuckstick actually said he would offer the Russian carte blanche in Europe.   Like they ain’t never heard shit about the Cold War. 

    where is the gnashing of teeth about the loser’s obvious intent to violate not only the constitution, civil and criminal laws of this  country but blatantly promises to violate international treaties to boot?

    at least the cartoonists have been trying, e.g.:

    Another Trump-Putin summit? Political Cartoons – San Gabriel Valley Tribune

    and

    Who's to blame for all these Trump, Putin collusion cartoons? - nj.com

  3. and david horsey does his bit in these concluding paragraphs from his Comrade Carlson goes to Moscow | The Seattle Times opinion this week:

    Putin’s scheme will get a sympathetic reception from a majority of congressional Republicans. They have already successfully subverted the cause of democracy by using military aid to Ukraine as a bargaining chip to get Democrats to sign on to a tough immigration bill. This week, they announced they did not want the bill after all, because it would take away from the GOP and former President Donald Trump a key point of attack in the 2024 campaign. Aid to Ukraine thereby became a collateral casualty in the Republicans’ brazen political game.

    If Russia’s other favorite stooge, Trump, is returned to the White House, there can be little doubt that the shameful, treacherous path laid out by Putin in his interview with Carlson will be eagerly followed by a second Trump administration and the MAGA caucus on Capitol Hill. Should that happen, it will be the moment that the United States fully and finally abdicates its role as leader of the Free World.

  6. Movie of the Week:
    ”Lisztomania”,
    somehow something to do with “The Who” and as I remember it not a particularly good movie, but it’s about Liszt so all the judges voted to include it.  
    Sometimes ya gotta roll with the judges.

    Lisztomania or Liszt fever was the intense fan frenzy directed toward Hungarian composer Franz Liszt during his performances. This frenzy first occurred in Berlin in 1841 and the term was later coined by Heinrich Heine in a feuilleton he wrote on April 25, 1844, discussing the 1844 Parisian concert season. Lisztomania was characterized by intense levels of hysteria demonstrated by fans, akin to the treatment of celebrity musicians today – but in a time not known for such musical excitement.

    Lisztomania is a 1975 British surreal biographical musical comedy film written and directed by Ken Russell about the 19th-century composer Franz Liszt. The screenplay is derived, in part, from the book Nélida by Marie d’Agoult (1848), about her affair with Liszt.

    Maybe he was kind of like the first Beatle.

  7. seriously tho’ to continue Jack’s valentine sunday serendipity, here are others of that intoxicating ilk.

    Best Classical Romantic Music: Top 20 Pieces For Valentine’s Day (udiscovermusic.com)

    [in particular the 14th on the list which is cleverly but poignantly animated]

    14: Elgar: Salut d’Amour
    What could be more romantic than Elgar’s Salut d’Amour, the musical love letter he presented to his wife, Caroline Alice Roberts as an engagement present. Originally scored for violin and piano, the sweeping melody exudes grace and elegance. There are no pyrotechnics, grand orchestra or over-the-top gestures in this piece: it is the embodiment of simple, uncomplicated, joyful love. There are now many different arrangements and manifestations of Salut d’Amour, demonstrating perfectly the universality of music as a language of love.

    [warning: odd sounds for 1st 41 seconds. the piece begins when the drawing starts]

  8. Trump has been lying about NATO funding ever since 2015. A few factoids from the Washington Post’s many efforts to fact check this particular pack of lies:

    The former president yet again delved into his stockpile of falsehoods about NATO and Ukraine. With Trump, it’s hard to know if he’s willfully ignorant or if he has simply swallowed his own spin.
     
    For starters the story he tells, and repeated yesterday, about threatening NATO allies, did not happen as he tells it. Leaders and others who were inside the room at that 2018 summit said Trump’s threats to them were actually less explicit than the former president recounted in his speech. Trump said that if countries did not live up to their spending targets by the end of 2018, he would “do his own thing,” according to interviews in the hours after the meeting with two officials familiar with the conversation.
     
    Trump claimed NATO members were “delinquent,” but that was not the case.
     
    He also often asserted NATO spending was at a low point when he came into office, but that’s also not true.
     
    Trump repeatedly told aides he wanted to leave NATO. His National Security Advisor John Bolton said in his memoirs he had to convince Trump not to quit NATO in the middle of a 2018 summit. “I don’t give a shit about NATO” Bolton quoted Trump saying at the time.
     
    His chief of staff John F. Kelly said “one of the most difficult tasks he faced with Trump was trying to stop him from pulling out of NATO.”
     
    In a fit of pique at Germany, Trump in 2020 ordered the withdrawal of 12,000 U.S. troops, about one-third of the force based there. When Biden became president, he quickly reversed the plan and kept the troops there.
     
    https://wapo.st/4bysrOn

     

  10. I remember Bugs Bunny tying his fingers in knots playing classical piano pieces in his cutaway tux. That and the introductory music to the Saturday Night Movies on WBRC were my introduction to classical music as a kid, and I absolutely loved it. And in high school the 1812 Overture was on the Corn Pops commercials, then in college a friend introduced me to Bach, Beethoven and Mozart and really, I was hooked.

    Jack, I appreciate your Sunday offerings, many of which I’ve not heard before or have simply forgotten- which is unfortunately all too common and becoming more so. 

    Jennifer Rubin’s piece in WaPo this morning is a poignant statement of the decline of ethics in the federal judiciary. Think Fat Clarence and Aileen Cannon here. 

    The mere presence of Justice Clarence Thomas — never mind his chutzpah in asking the first question — at the oral argument in four-times indicted former president Donald Trump’s appeal of the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling disqualifying him from the ballot represented a new low for the Supreme Court. It constituted one more assault on the rule of law and the credibility of the court, already at low ebb in public support. After all, Thomas’s wife (sending multiple messages to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, egging on fake electors, using her relationships with former Thomas clerks).

    Thomas declined to recuse himself in the matter involving release of relating to the Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt. He was the sole dissent in the ruling ordering that the messages be released.

    At the time, constitutional scholar Leah Litman told me, “The court protects its reputation in large part through good will, and by acting like a respectable institution. Ginni Thomas is burning through that good will at a rapid pace — making the court and its justices appear corrupt, as if they are or could be casting votes in cases based on the interest or possible involvement of their spouse.” Calling Thomas’s refusal to recuse “appalling,” Litman joined others, including Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), who sits on the House Judiciary Committee, in castigating Thomas for “wielding his significant power to attempt to shield his wife and himself from scrutiny is an abuse of his role as a Supreme Court justice.”

    And that brings us to Thursday’s argument about whether the attempted coup was an “insurrection.” When Trump’s counsel conceded that it was a “criminal” activity, one could barely believe that Thomas was allowed to sit there. Imagine if this were a robbery case and the judge’s wife had urged on the robbers. No one with a shred of respect for the judicial system would countenance that judge hearing such as case
    .….

    Thomas is hardly the only right-wing judge fouling the judicial nest. Even before her latest ruling in the matter concerning Trump’s alleged snatching of highly sensitive documents and obstructing the investigation thereof, U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon’s impartiality was sufficiently in doubt as to warrant recusal. Her ruling appointing a special master and preventing the Justice Department from continuing its national security investigation was widely vilified and reversed unanimously by the infamously conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

    When she was assigned the criminal case, legal scholars Norman L. Eisen, Richard W. Painter and Fred Wertheimer wrote at Slate, “Because her earlier handling of this case went well outside the judicial norm and was roundly criticized by the Court of Appeals, reasonable observers of this case could question her impartiality.” They explained, “Federal law has a way to deal with this challenge: Under 28 U.S.C. § 455(a), a judge ‘shall disqualify himself [or herself] in any proceeding in which his [or her] impartiality might reasonably be questioned.’ Cannon’s situation clearly fits that test, and she is obligated to recuse herself in Trump’s case.” Unfortunately, the special counsel made no motion to recuse.

    Since then, the argument for recusal has grown only stronger. Last month, constitutional gurus Dennis Aftergut and Laurence H. Tribe wrote that Cannon’s ruling rejecting “special counsel Jack Smith’s entirely standard request that she order Trump to state whether he intends to rely on an ‘advice of counsel’ defense” was yet another sign the judge was in Trump’s “pocket.” That followed months in which she has foot-dragged, delayed and made irrelevant demands of the prosecutors.

    Then came her latest affront: Granting Trump’s motion to unseal classified documents. As the special counsel noted, this would put the identities of government witnesses at risk, reveal “signals intelligence” and identify an FBI code name. This is a bridge too far. Smith filed a motion for Canon to reconsider, citing the threats to witnesses, her “clear error” and her disregard for 11th Circuit precedent.
    …

    RW Assholes is the correct term. Judge or Justice is an inappropriate title at this point.

  11. WaPo continued, please, let this be true…
     

    But there is a remedy if Cannon does not reverse herself. As the Lawfare blog explained, “Section 7 [of the Classified Information Procedures Act] allows the government — and only the government — to file a fast-track interlocutory appeal of any district court ruling that would require the disclosure of classified information or penalize the government for failing to reveal such information.” Smith could exercise that right, combine it with a motion to recuse and clearly articulate the argument that in this case Cannon’s bias not only makes it impossible for the government to get a fair trial but puts national security at risk. Alternatively, former prosecutor Joyce Vance wrote that Smith could wait until “the Section 4 hearing rulings are issued.” That is when Cannon will decide if classified documents must be revealed at trial.

  12. “Forced recusals are rare. But at this late date, even if the 11th Circuit were to move quickly, as it has in the past, and force Cannon to step aside, it would take a new judge some time to get up to speed. There are no quick fixes for the damage Judge Cannon has done.”

    from Joyce Vance’s substack. 
     

  15. This should count for something…

    “I’ve had more than a dozen extended phone conversations with President Biden. He also came on a visit to Israel during wartime, which is a historic first, and I found him very clear and very focused,” Netanyahu told Karl on ABC’s “This Week.”

  16. pogo, same with me. keep forgetting but discovering anew those songs that haunt whether they’re from the18th, 19th or 20th centuries.  they keep popping up like this one heard in the original “love affair” as a classical piece, in “the heiress” and other movies or by elvis as a hit love song:

    from wiki

    “Plaisir d’amour”  “Pleasure of love”) is a classical French love song written in 1784 by Jean-Paul-Égide Martini (1741–1816); it took its text from a poem by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian (1755–1794), which appears in his novel Célestine.

    The song was greatly successful in Martini’s version. For example, a young woman, Madame Julie Charles, sang it to the poet Alphonse de Lamartine during his cure at Aix-les-Bains in 1816, and the poet was to recall it 30 years later.

    Hector Berlioz arranged it for orchestra (H134) in 1859. Louis van Waefelghem arranged the tune for viola d’amore or viola and piano in the 1880s. It has been arranged and performed in various pop music settings.

    good valentine ditty thru the ages

  22. i don’t watch tv news, but i see what y’all are saying about ABC, what a manipulative poll to take and report on

    once again, network news never leaves an image on screen more than 3 seconds to hypnotize you, basic manipulation tactics

    all that zooming and swishing and those fade-transitions are designed to shut off your brain, you’ll see the same techniques in the football game tonight

    ok enjoy it, imma make a pundit dartboard and play that instead 😡

  24. i like Carville but if he’s out there saying stupid shit again, F him and the Begala he rode in on.  

  25. craig and those two should just go be old and wring their hands somewhere 

    Biden is the candidate because that’s who Democrat voters picked, from among a field of candidates that were all of a lesser numerical age, simple as that

    Like, why wouldn’t ABC ask “Is a guy who spouts Taylor Swift Super Bowl conspiracy theories too batshit crazy to be President?”

    ok deep breaths… ✌️

  27. Had to look up the rest of that poll which didn’t get as much coverage:

    ABC/Ipsos finds voters think both too old, w/86% Biden & 62% Trump. W/indies its 91% worried about Biden & 71% Trump. For both, that’s a lot!

  28. Sturg, that was former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu you saw on Meet. Was pleased to see they moved him from White House to campaign co-chair as a full-time TV surrogate. He is top notch, hopefully gets a cabinet job in the second term. 

  33. If Carville had a suggestion for President Biden, perhaps he should have phoned in to the White House and suggested it—or told it on television—you know, before it’s too late to do the interview, instead of flappin’ his yap on TV about something which is a done deal, as figured out by President Biden and his closest advisors—people who might actually know what they’re doing.  

    What POSSIBLE good was accomplished by his yakking it up on television about President Biden shoulda, he coulda, shuta mutta

  36. Playing around with one of the speech generators I am working on creating plausible, yet completely phony, things I could laugh at.  This is one that was incomplete so I filled in the missing parts.  Will AI write posts for you? Of course. We have had speech generators for decades. Now, they come with better garbage.

    today I want to talk to you about a topic that is often overlooked but has a significant impact on our society – tooth loss in old leaders.As we age, our bodies go through various changes, and unfortunately, our teeth are not immune to these changes. According to a study by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, 27% of adults over the age of 65 have no remaining natural teeth. This means that a significant number of our leaders, who are in their golden years, are facing the challenges of tooth loss.But why should we care about the teeth of our leaders, you may ask? Our leaders are the face of our nation, the role models for our youth, and the decision-makers for our future. They represent us on the global stage and are responsible for shaping the direction of our country. And yet, we often overlook their oral health, which can have a significant impact on their overall well-being and ability to lead effectively. Doing drugs and chewing on bones are not good, just look at those whose pale skin requires more makeup to cover the disease splotches.

  37. Carville is booked to play a role, if he doesn’t play the role then he isn’t booked and he becomes irrelevant.
    Old age and irrelevance, that is Carville’s fear and hell.
    Jack

  38. jack – I have this song on one of my dad’s old 78s, and I think it was a Liberace recording. 

    Sturg – The Who’s Tommy is coming back to Broadway. I think it’s in previews in Chicago right now.

  39. Which leads to this thought, think about the power that certain producers/ editors have to drive a story. Also, in todays concentrated media there are only a handful of behind the scenes individuals. My little local paper relies on USA Today for all their national coverage. Catch enough of this small group with their pants down? Now there is a conspiracy for you.
    Jack

  40. Jamie
    I’m beginning to hate nouns because I can never remember the one I need. I can describe it, if I was an artist I could draw it, but I can’t come up with the word.
    btw, 
     
    Trumps inability to stand there and listen to a judge is more of a sign of age related mental problems.
    Jack

  41. The choice is actually, would you rather have someone who will be 86 at the end of the next term and governs well despite a lifelong speech impediment, or do you prefer Hitler? 

    Craig – Bibi making a peep, good or bad, about Biden right now is NOT helpful.  

    President Biden came to Nikki’s defense with regard to her husband’s military service, and tRUMPsky continually disrespecting the military.  
     
    I’m with Jamie.  POTUS Joe is absolutely capable of another term.  

    Looking at that pic of the christo-fascists in SC, I’m embarrassed to be white.   (If you look closely, there are a couple of people there who are white-adjacent, and they will find they are just being used and are not actually welcome in that hate-filled tent.)

  43.  
    I never did “get” the blind pinball player bit and the guitar smashing, but they did a pretty good set at Woodstock.

  44. He just had to get involved. Takes credit for her fortune…

    Donald J. Trump

    @realDonaldTrump

    I signed and was responsible for the Music Modernization Act for Taylor Swift and all other Musical Artists. Joe Biden didn’t do anything for Taylor, and never will. There’s no way she could endorse Crooked Joe Biden, the worst and most corrupt President in the History of our Country, and be disloyal to the man who made her so much money. Besides that, I like her boyfriend, Travis, even though he may be a Liberal, and probably can’t stand me!

    Feb 11, 2024, 12:19 PM

  45. https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/11/trump-taylor-swift-endorse-00140864
     

    “Trump to Taylor Swift: Please don’t endorse someone else”

    “Endorsing Joe Biden would “be disloyal to the man who made her so much money,” Trump posted.”

    I hope she wears a Dark Brandon 2024 tee!

    “Trump claimed credit for Swift’s financial success, calling a possible endorsement of Biden “disloyal to the man who made her so much money.”

    “I signed and was responsible for the Music Modernization Act for Taylor Swift and all other Musical Artists. Joe Biden didn’t do anything for Taylor, and never will,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, referencing legislation he signed in 2018 meant to modernize copyright laws.”

     

    He’s also jealous because she’s an actual billionaire, not a grifter living on lines of credit.

    “There’s no way she could endorse Crooked Joe Biden, the worst and most corrupt President in the History of our Country, and be disloyal to the man who made her so much money. Besides that, I like her boyfriend, Travis, even though he may be a Liberal, and probably can’t stand me!”

    Adolf, You are the orangest, most un-self aware POS on the face of the Earth.

  46. Odds are that next he says that Taylor Swift has totally endorsed him.  
    Cause he’s a liar.

  48. Trump dismisses Biden’s stuttering condition, says it’s because his “brain’s not working too well”

    So what’s he attribute his memory fog – mixing up people, places and even eras to?  He reminds me of Belushi’s Bluto’s inspirational speech in Animal House

    What? Over? Did you say ‘over’? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!…
    It ain’t over now, ’cause when the goin’ gets tough, the tough get goin’. Who’s with me? Let’s go! Come on!…

    What Tim Matheson’s Otter said in response fits:

    Bluto’s right. Psychotic, but absolutely right. We gotta take these bastards. Now, we could fight ’em with conventional weapons. That could take years and cost millions of lives. No, in this case, I think we have to go all out. I think this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part.

    We’re in Animal House territory now. 

  49. BTW, on Dumbass’ claim about the Music Modernization Act and his role in Taylor Swift’s success and wealth, from Variety:

    In an apparent attempt to undercut Taylor Swift’s potential influence on the presidential election later this year, former president Donald Trump issued a statement on his Truth Social platform Sunday claiming credit for the 2018 Music Modernization Act and stating, without evidence, that Swift would not endorse President Joe Biden’s re-election bid.

    In the post, Trump claimed: “I signed and was responsible for the Music Modernization Act for Taylor Swift and all other Musical Artists. Joe Biden didn’t do anything for Taylor, and never will. There’s no way she could endorse Crooked Joe Biden, the worst and most corrupt President in the History of our Country, and be disloyal to the man who made her so much money. Besides that, I like her boyfriend, Travis, even though he may be a Liberal, and probably can’t stand me!”

    A rep for Swift did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment. However, Dina LaPolt, a key attorney behind the MMA, disputed Trump’s claims in a statement to Variety on Sunday.
    “This [claim] is funny to me,” she wrote. “Trump did nothing on our legislation except sign it, and doesn’t even know what the Music Modernization Act does. Someone should ask him what the bill actually accomplished.”
    …
    (In fact, the usually apolitical Swift has spoken out against Trump in the past, writing in Elle in 2019, “Invoking racism and provoking fear through thinly veiled messaging is not what I want from our leaders, and I realized that it actually is my responsibility to use my influence against that disgusting rhetoric.”)

    Imagine that. Dumbass lied. Taylor called him out.

  50. Can you imagine if SFB was given a pop quiz on the specifics of the act he signed…or anything not on the McDonald’s menu board?  

  52. Townshend’s “Tommy” character becomes non-communicative as a trauma response to abuse
     
    on a lighter Who note: 

  53. https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/11/us/joel-osteens-lakewood-church-shooting/index.html

    “2 injured, including child, after shooting at pastor Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church, Houston police say. Shooter is also down”

    “In a statement Sunday afternoon, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said, “Our hearts are with those impacted by today’s tragic shooting and the entire Lakewood Church community in Houston. Places of worship are sacred.”
     
     
    Yeah, sacred. Like children in schools. How are those thoughts and prayers working for you?

  54. I wonder if the fire marshal knew about Keith’s exploding drum kit?  Roger Daltry’s hairdo is a hoot and a half. 

  56. Biden campaign has joined the kids on The Tik Tok.  I hope they have a good socials person in charge. 

  58. I hear so many thinking he’s the answer because “Kennedy,” but they know nothing about him.  
    And then there are the folks who have forgotten the horrors of 2020, and misremembered the vaccine rollout; folks we’re lying about their age and circumstances to get it, and it was never mandated for everyone.   But Bobby Jr. says…
     
    By the way, if RFK Junior has such a problem with vaccines, why does he look like he’s ‘roided up? 

  61. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12275891/Antivaxxer-RFK-Jnr-admits-using-TRT-dubbed-legal-steroids.html

    “Robert F. Kennedy Jnr has admitted for the first time that he uses testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) — which some doctors describe as ‘legal steroids’.”

    “…TRT, a hormone treatment that can cause an increased risk of blood clots, heart attacks and strokes…”

    ***

    “Many people report that they are frustrated, angry, and irritable for no reason. Depending on the dose of T you are receiving, it can also create feelings of depression and wild mood swings. In severe cases, the mental side effects of testosterone include the destabilization of bipolar or schizoaffective disorder.”

    Nah, RFK Jr. shouldn’t have access to the nuclear codes, either.

  63. Oh, Biden’s socials are on it!   In response to the Chief’s win:  Just like we drew it up! and an image of Dark Brandon and his glowing eyes!

    The Biden campaign does need to do some more artist collabs with their merch, like they did last time.

  65. My internist told me about 4-5 years ago that until he saw commercials he had never heard the word Low-T. He also said that testosterone replacement therapy use after 50 will result in increased incidence of prostate cancer among men who take the stuff. Not sure he’s right, but I don’t see the need.

    And fun fact. The Mythbusters episode on right now is checking out cold feet and shit hitting the fan. Cold feet was busted. We’ll see about shit hitting the fan.

  66. Yes, it’s drug pushing/marketing.  Firing wide for something that’s an actual problem very few, so folks will ask their doctor about it, or they’ll be aware of it if their doctor gets a kickback from pushing it.  

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