Author: whskyjack

Thoughts on Fried Baloney

Well, not really.

Fried baloney is very popular around here. Brewster the dog loves scrambled eggs with fried baloney. Kiki the parrot loves baloney in any form. The only person in this house who doesn’t eat baloney is Lady Sofie. She politely tells me “Cats don’t do baloney but we do like cat treats”

Now I’ve ate a lot of baloney in my life and always assumed cheap baloney would be about the worst food you could give somebody.

But I was wrong.

I had never tried to eat food that do gooders think is “good enough for poor people”

The Police department in partnership with a do gooder group have been operating a drive through food pantry in our neighborhood every Thursday. I happened to be working on some vacant lots over that way. So I pulled in and talked to them.

Last fall before I went into the hospital I had been working with the Buddhist Temple passing out fresh fruit and veggies. The boxes of fruit and veggies were large and more than one elderly person could eat before they spoiled. So I would let everybody pick and choose, then I gave what was left to a large extended family that would use the rest.

When I pulled in I was thinking about doing it again. They thought it was a good idea and gave me 4 boxes to pass out. These boxes were different in that they had dairy and meat products in them as well as fresh fruit and veggies. The meat products were cheap hotdogs, and 2 packages labeled taco meat.

The label on the taco meat said meat and soy fillers. So I thought ok. Taco Bell.

I wish.

I had a package left over so I opened it to see what it was like and maybe tacos for supper. I put some in a bowl and nuked it in the microwave. I took it out and the “meat” was swimming in grease. After straining out the grease I had 1/3 cup of “meat” and 1/4 cup of grease. A look at the label and the product was half fat with more grams of fat than protein. Of the 160 calories in a serving 110 of them were from fat. From what I could tell the manufacturer ground up beef tallow trimmings added a bit of soy to boost the protein and sold it as meat.

But it was good enough for poor people. If there is one constant in this neighborhood it is that statement.

Thank you for letting me rant.

Jack

Sunday Serendipity, with Mozart and helpers

An interesting back story about todays selection, on Mozart’s premature death it remained unfinished From Wiki

The Requiem in D minor, K. 626, is a requiem mass by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). Mozart composed part of the Requiem in Vienna in late 1791, but it was unfinished at his death on 5 December the same year. A completed version dated 1792 by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who commissioned the piece for a requiem service to commemorate the anniversary of his wife’s death on 14 February.

The autograph manuscript shows the finished and orchestrated Introit in Mozart’s hand, and detailed drafts of the Kyrie and the sequence Dies irae as far as the first eight bars of the Lacrymosa movement, and the Offertory. It cannot be shown to what extent Süssmayr may have depended on now lost “scraps of paper” for the remainder; he later claimed the Sanctus and Benedictus and the Agnus Dei as his own.

Walsegg probably intended to pass the Requiem off as his own composition, as he is known to have done with other works. This plan was frustrated by a public benefit performance for Mozart’s widow Constanze. She was responsible for a number of stories surrounding the composition of the work, including the claims that Mozart received the commission from a mysterious messenger who did not reveal the commissioner’s identity, and that Mozart came to believe that he was writing the requiem for his own funeral.

Performed by: Orchestre national de France and the Choeur de Radio France

James Gaffigan, conductor

Enjoy, Jack

Sunday Serendipity

In March of 1721, Johann Sebastian Bach carefully inked six of his best concertos into a book for the Margrave of Brandenburg, Christian Ludwig. The original title, “Six Concerts à plusieurs instruments” is now known as the “Brandenburg” Concertos in English or “Brandenburgische Konzerte” in German. These six concertos represent the summa of chamber music in the high baroque period, and the third concerto (BWV 1048) is noted for its rich texture of three violins, three violas and three cellos, with a continuo part for the harpsichord and violone. The original title is as follows: “Concerto 3zo [terzo] a tre Violini, tre Viole, è tre Violoncelli col Basso per il Cembalo”. On the continuo part, Bach has written “Violone & Cembalo”, and this is how it is performed in the video, just as it is indicated in the original manuscript.

Enjoy, Jack