Sunday Serendipity

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Today’s selections are by French composer Marice Ravel.

I’m not much on classical operatic singing but as I listened to this album yesterday, these solos are just beautiful. It is a double album I couldn’t pick just one, you get them all. So, get out your good speakers it will be worth the effort.

Enjoy, Jack

The Complete Songs of Ravel
Lorna Anderson (soprano), Julie Boulianne (mezzo-soprano), John Chest (baritone), Sarah Dufresne (soprano), Dafydd Jones (tenor), Simon Keenlyside (baritone), Paula Murrihy (soprano), Nicky Spence (tenor), William Thomas (bass)
Anna Stokes (flute), Julian Bliss (clarinet), Matt Glendening (clarinet), Cara Berridge (cello), Sacconi Quartet
Malcolm Martineau (piano)

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49 thoughts on “Sunday Serendipity”

  2. from wiki on ravel
    His earliest works to survive in full are from these student days: Sérénade grotesque, for piano, and “Ballade de la Reine morte d’aimer”,[n 4] a mélodie setting a poem by Roland de Marès (both 1893).[18]

    in case you want to sing along or just want to know what they’re going on about, here’s a translation

    https://oxfordsong.org/song/ballade-de-la-reine-morte

    Ballad of the queen who died of love
    English translation © Richard Stokes

    In Bohemia there lived a Queen,
    The King of Thule’s gentle sister,
    There was never a queen more beautiful,
    She reigned through beauty alone.

    The great Troubadour of Bohemia,
    One sad russet autumn evening,
    Murmured: ‘I love you’, that old refrain!
    Crazed souls and such crazed hearts!…

    And the white-skinned beauty
    Was so loved by the gentle poet,
    That of a sudden her white soul
    Gave up the ghost and fled to the stars…

    The great bells of Bohemia
    And the little bells of Thule
    Sang the last Honsanna
    Of the Queen who died of love.

  3. on the lighter side of the news
    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/go-to-hell-trump-melts-down-as-chuck-schumer-cripples-senate-confirmations/

    ‘Go to hell!’ Trump melts down as Chuck Schumer cripples Senate confirmations

    President Donald Trump had a Saturday night meltdown as Democratic leader in the Senate Chuck Schumer threatened to bring negotiations to approve nominees for multiple administration positions to a screeching halt.
    As the Senate Republicans rush to push through Trump’s choices before heading out for a month-long summer vacation, Schumer is throwing out multiple conditions for Democratic support.
    They include unfreezing federal funds for programs such as foreign aid and the National Institutes of Health that were shut down in the administration’s purge on spending.
    The demands were reportedly rejected by Trump, bring the negotiations to a standstill.
    In a rage and insult-filledTruth Social post, Trump demanded that Republicans in the Senate not back down.
    “Senator Cryin’ Chuck Schumer is demanding over One Billion Dollars in order to approve a small number of our highly qualified nominees, who should right now be helping to run our Country,” he wrote.
    “This demand is egregious and unprecedented, and would be embarrassing to the Republican Party if it were accepted. It is political extortion, by any other name. Tell Schumer, who is under tremendous political pressure from within his own party, the Radical Left Lunatics, to GO TO HELL!
    “Do not accept the offer, go home and explain to your constituents what bad people the Democrats are, and what a great job the Republicans are doing, and have done, for our Country. Have a great RECESS and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

  7. Chuck’s comment: WaPo.

    “In a fit of rage, Trump threw in the towel, sent Republicans home and was unable to do the basic work of negotiating,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) told reporters Saturday night.

    Sonofabitch thinks negotiations consist of him saying jump with us saying “how high?” on the way up.

  10. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/11/the-politics-of-fear?

    The young Donald Trump was the Nelson Muntz of Jamaica Estates. (Or was he its Draco Malfoy? Scholars will debate such questions for generations.)

    In any case, Trump was, from his formative years, a spoiled bully. The Trump family, whose fortune was made in outer-borough real estate, had a cook and a chauffeur, and “Little Donny” was a pigtail puller, an unruly loudmouth who tormented his teachers and hurled insults and rocks at other kids. When Trump was thirteen, his father, Fred, shipped him off to a military school, in Cornwall, New York. This was just the sort of place, it was hoped, where Donald would mature into a young man of rectitude and self-regulation.

    That, in fact, did not happen. Trump made it plain that his delight in domination was the immutable core of him. Marc Fisher, who co-authored “Trump Revealed,” an astute early biography and character analysis, once told PBS that, as a cadet, Trump “used a broomstick as a weapon against classmates who didn’t listen to him when he told them what to do. He was in part enforcing the rules of the academy, but he was equally so enforcing the rules of Donald Trump.”

    At home, Trump apprenticed with his father, collecting rents and learning the finer points of discriminatory housing. He eventually came under the tutelage of the attorney and sybarite Roy Cohn. What lessons Trump learned from Cohn were entirely malevolent: Never show weakness. Never apologize, never explain. Attack, never defend. Engender loyalty through intimidation. With his curious coif and self-satisfied expression, Trump made himself a presence in Page Six. Indecency and aggression were his brand. Cruel, narcissistic, duplicitous—the list is long and by now so familiar that even some of Trump’s supporters concede that his most poisonous attributes are, to use the D.C. lingo, baked into the cake.
    […]
    “I’m scared,” a twelve-year-old girl in North Carolina told Trump during his first Presidential campaign. “What are you going to do to protect this country?”

    “You know what, darling?” Trump said. “You’re not going to be scared anymore. They’re going to be scared.”

    Six months into his second term, Trump has made it evident who “they” are; the population of the unnerved is diverse. (If that word is still legal.) It includes immigrants, university presidents, media executives, the heads of cultural institutions, librarians, scholars, scientists, trans people, government contractors, and dedicated federal employees. Some suffer for the President’s pique and are deported in handcuffs and leg-irons. Some are forced to pay millions in tribute in order to go on conducting scientific research or broadcasting the news. Others must hire lawyers to fend off phony accusations of treason. In Congress, fear keeps the Republican majority in line and causes all too many Democrats to mind their language. Trump once derided his own Secretary of State and national-security adviser as “Little Marco,” and he has been an entirely obedient satrap ever since. The Cabinet is a quivering collection of yea-sayers.

    This response brings the President no end of titillation. “They’re all bending and saying, ‘Sir, thank you very much,’ ” he bragged, after certain law firms started making their pitiful arrangements with the White House. “They’re just saying, ‘Where do I sign?’ ”

    Fortunately, there are encouraging instances of self-possession in various corners of the country. There are civil-rights groups and judges who have refused Trump’s most blatant challenges to the rule of law. Some artists, too, have set an example. Lately, there is Amy Sherald, who withdrew her solo show scheduled for September at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, in Washington, D.C., rather than have her painting “Trans Forming Liberty” “contextualized” by an accompanying video. And then came Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s still vital, still scabrous “South Park,” which recently ran an episode about a naked President, his shortcomings pitilessly exposed.

    But, even as Trump’s disapproval ratings climb, the Democratic Party continues to languish; its leadership is woefully scattered and deficient. Still, resolve comes in many forms. Cartoon bullies do not inevitably prevail. If individuals and institutions can muster that resolve in far greater numbers, neither will this President. ♦

  14. Thank you, Jack.

    Long ago we had season tickets to the Houston Grand Opera and learned to understand and appreciate it. The only ones we didn’t like were Wagner.

  16. Will Trump let Ghislaine Maxwell out of jail?

    They’re plotting a prison break-out when they think nobody’s paying attention.

  19. Craig – Here’s my answer about Maxwell & it’s the same as it ever was on Wednesday. SCOTUS will overturn her sentence, based on her attorney’s filing in April. Orange Adolf’s tiny hands will be clean, as far as MAGAts are concerned, and if any are actually concerned about sex trafficking humans, many minors, their anger will be directed at SCOTUS. I think this has been in the works for longer than we know.

  20. Clancy Mudge, Esq. returns to explain why moving her to a yoga-prison might not be random.
    Immunity? Influence? Slow-motion cover-up?

    Written by humans, delivered by raccoons.

  22. Putting this on Bluesky and X etc, interested to see who shows up:

    🎙️ OPEN MIC SUNDAY: Pop in, Sound off
    Studio’s open right now — come hop in and record your prediction:

    WILL TRUMP SET MAXWELL FREE?

    No prep, no pressure. Just drop your take. Responses will be edited and posted on YouTube tonight —

    🎧 Enter the Trail Mix Chat Studio →

    Live Chat

  26. The Jeffrey Epstein Questions Nobody is Asking
    Story by William Spivey

    I follow the Epstein mess as closely as anyone, and the media doesn’t seem to be asking the right questions. For once, what I want to know and what MAGA wants to know is in alignment, which scares me and gives me hope. It proves MAGA is capable of logic and critical thinking. Unfortunately, it proves they often ignore those skills when they pursue various conspiracy theories.

    None of the questions being asked will ultimately lead to the man (and possibly women) who have been abusing young girls. Even the release of redacted files won’t tell us who the young girls have been trafficked to and what steps have been taken to protect them. The steps taken to protect the innocent victims have gone overboard in protecting the guilty. Here are the questions I want to get to the bottom of:

    After interviewing thousands of girls, why has no one been prosecuted besides Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell?
    The sweetheart deal engineered by U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta included a provision not to prosecute any co-conspirators, some of whom were known but not identified in the agreement. Ghislaine Maxwell is hoping to use that provision to void her conviction.

    How much evidence is required for the Justice Department to launch an investigation?

    We keep hearing there isn’t enough information to investigate anyone else, but let’s look at the types of information the Justice Department is known to have. Victims have named individuals with whom they were made to have sex with. Included are Attorney Alan Derschowitz and Prince Andrew, who is notoriously pictured with Virginia Giuffre. You could convince me there isn’t enough evidence to secure a conviction, but not that there’s not enough to investigate.

    Epstein’s case in 2006?
    How bad does it have to be for local police who have to work every day with the State Attorney to get their cases prosecuted, to beg the FBI to step in because the State Attorney isn’t doing his job? The grand jury indictment doesn’t mention that one of the girls was fourteen years old. The State Attorney refused to file charges on behalf of any girl sixteen or over and inferred that the underage girls were prostitutes.

    Why were so many underage girls working at Mar-a-Lago?
    By all accounts, Mar-a-Lago is a luxury resort, and its owner, the current President of the United States, claims the spa is one of the finest in the world. Several girls indicated they were recruited at Mar-a-Lago. President Trump discussed several young girls Epstein “stole” from the spa.

    “I have a great spa, one of the best spas in the world in Mar-a-Lago,” said Trump. “And people were taken out of the spa. Hired by him. In other words, gone. And other people would come and complain, this guy is taking people from the spa. I didn’t know that. And then when I heard about it, I told him, I said, listen, we don’t want you taking our people, whether it was spa or not spa. I don’t want him taking people. And he was fine. And then not too long after that, he did it again. And I said — out of here.”

    Exactly what jobs were young girls performing with little enough supervision to get picked up by child abusers? The State of Florida requires a licensed massage therapist (LMT) to be 18 or older to get a license after 500 hours of approved education or an apprenticeship. The girls Epstein recruited had no massage experience, nor were they old enough to be masseuses. My daughter is an LMT and has worked in several spas, including a luxury spa in Orlando. No underage girls were running around performing any tasks. What jobs were they working at Mar-a-Lago?

    Young girls can’t be expected to have the experience and skills to provide the quality of service expected at a “world-class spa.” They must have been there for another reason.

    What did Donald Trump think Jeffrey Epstein was hiring his girls away to do?
    When Epstein was allegedly hiring Trump’s staff away. What did Trump imagine Epstein wanted them to do? Epstein didn’t own a hotel or a spa. Trump knew Epstein liked them young. What did he think Epstein was asking them to do? The first victim to testify in Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial alleged that Jeffrey Epstein took her to Mar-a-Lago when she was 14 years old to meet Donald Trump. What did Trump know and when did he know it?
    Who are the pedophiles being protected?
    The guilty have been protected long enough. Everyone who engaged in sexual relations with underage girls needed to be prosecuted. If the statute of limitations has run out. They should at least be named so that other girls can be protected from them. No matter if it turns out to be Prince Andrew, Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Alan Dershowitz, the late Bill Richardson, or any other known associates of Jeffrey Epstein. If there was enough evidence to bring charges, they should be named and shamed.

    How were the girls being transported to Epstein’s homes?
    I’m thinking of Epstein’s estate in Palm Beach, but the same concern holds for his New York penthouse, New Mexico ranch, or private island. Young girls didn’t walk to these locations; someone brought them, likely the same people repeatedly. Did Epstein have a personal driver or use a limousine service, and are there records? We know about the flight logs on Epstein’s plane. There are witnesses whose testimony seems not to have been solicited.

    While the media is chasing down every rabbit hole and Trump’s misdirection, MAGA wants to know who the pedophiles are and so do I. I’m far less concerned with the missing minute of video on Epstein’s cell than I am with who was raping young girls. Let’s focus for a minute on the cover-up and protection of pedophiles.

    This post originally appeared on Medium and is edited and republished with author’s permission. Read more of William Spivey’s work on Medium.

  27. The spa thing is a good question.
    What kind of spa hires underage girls (according to Virginia Guiffre, she was not a licensed massage therapist); what was going on at Mar-a-Lago?
    Epstein didn’t have a spa of any kind, so the kids were definitely being trafficked; Donald knew and did nothing

  31. https://www.rawstory.com/immigration-2673807250/

    A leaked Department of Homeland Security memo reveals advanced plans to expand military involvement within the U.S., which has stunned a number of policy experts, The New Republic reported on Saturday.

    “The memo is alarming, because it speaks to the intent to use the military within the United States at a level not seen since Japanese internment,” said Carrie Lee, a senior fellow at the policy think tank German Marshall Fund, speaking with TNR. “The military is the most powerful, coercive tool our country has. We don’t want the military doing law enforcement. It absolutely undermines the rule of law.”

    Obtained by TNR, the leaked memo details a high-level meeting between leadership at DHS and the Department of Defense focused on expanding coordination between the two agencies on immigration enforcement. It was attended by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and Defense Secretary Secretary Pete Hegseth, along with other top leaders at the two agencies.

    It’s disturbing to see DHS officials pressuring the U.S. military to turn its focus inward even further,” said Joseph Nunn, counsel in the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program, speaking with TNR.

    Specifically, agency leaders named the recent operation in Los Angeles as “a good indicator of the type of operations (and resistance) we’re going to be working through for years to come.”

    *Is the ~leaked~ memo an intentional distraction from Epstein? Remember that your oath, military, is to the US Constitution, not to Orange PedOTUS and his N@zis.

  32. By the way, the “tRUMP was right about everything” lawn signs that a neighbor put up a couple of weeks ago, have all disappeared. They were probably thinking that list of DEMs only was going to get released.

  35. https://www.alternet.org/epstein-mar-a-lago/

    …the timeline of Trump’s story doesn’t add up, as Maxwell recruited Giuffre in 2000.

    He cited reporting from the Miami Herald finding that Epstein was still a paying member of Trump’s Palm Beach County club many years after Epstein exploited Giuffre — including for a full year after he was arrested for child trafficking.

    “Jeffrey Epstein was actually still on the Mar-a-Lago membership logs up to 2007,” Levine said. “So Trump was still getting money from Jeffrey Epstein up until 2007 … Jeffrey Epstein was still paying for his membership at Mar-a-Lago, according to the Miami Herald. And that of course is a year after Jeffrey Epstein’s arrest in Florida in 2006.”

    *Jeffrey turned 50 in 2003, three years after he “stole” Guiffre. Adolf, allegedly, sent him a drawing and a birthday wish about wonderful secrets in 2003.

  36. Looking forward to this week I see chaos and planned wet [redacted] being thrown against the wall to see what sticks. So far nothing has knocked Epstein off the Big Nasty Billboard. Speculation keeps growing that whatever sfb wants hidden is really bad. I am sticking to “live boy in bed, or dead girl in bed”.

    It is very obvious that mangomoron is rattled. He is doing a lot of his instinctive actions, lie, fight back, blame others and destroy whatever is close at hand. That he is low intelligence, with demented, delusional, diseased, senile and living in an alternate universe should help those working to put him in a padded cell.

  37. Critics React with Horror at Trump’s Patio Rose Garden Makeover: ‘Dear God’

    “As part of a Rose Garden redesign project, the central lawn has been replaced by concrete. Roses in the garden remain.”

    “The drainage grates on the sides of the concrete patio are shaped like American flags while the corners are the presidential seal.”

    *~Classy~ American flags for drainage. The US is a sewer thanks to Taco Don and his N@zis & the welfare billionaires.

  38. It is difficult coming to grips with the Baby Boomers are zipping on down the down slope of the bell curve of life. Our television world stars are leaving us faster and faster. Just as I watched the VA medical centers empty of WWI, WWII and Korean veterans, I am watching so many stars, major and minor, leave us now.

    News of the death of Loni Anderson comes to us, age 79 (a few days off being 80). She was adding on to the strong woman that Mary Tyler Moore was on her show. Although Loni Anderson in the sitcom was a lot of wink and nod, she also was smarter and better than most.

  40. The Rose Garden is horrid, but the planned hideous, gold encrusted ballroom is definitely gag a maggot time.

  41. Bronc,

    Being a leading edge boomer means watching everything familiar disappear. Genetics gives me the probability of eight years or a family record of another 25 ,,, Going for the record by hanging out with the young whipper snappers under 70. 🙂

  42. Jamie – My mother is a week away from 98. She has lost all her friends now, only one cousin is still alive. But, she has her children and grandchildren and we call her. Now that my children are in their late 40’s and early 50’s it is difficult to keep things straight. It is not the same as 60 years ago.

  43. Yeah I thought presidents were not allowed to make such drastic changes to White House property that hes getting away with. And that new White House ballroom he’s building is completely out of proportion to the rest of the buildings.

  44. I’ve outlived my mom, her brother, and 3 of my 4 grandparents. So, there’s five who never took Social Security or Medicare. Of those five, two didn’t make it to 60. When it’s my time, it’s my time. If I can haunt my Senators from the other side instead of calling them, I shall. The only celebrity death that was hard to deal with was Prince.
    Still angry about CPBS. It’s like MAGAt-N@zi-Republicans stabbed my childhood to death. There was no cable when I was growing up. PBS was everything. It was a window to the rest of the world when I got older. It gave me the knowledge that there were other places I could go and other things I could do. Fascists can’t have that.

  46. https://www.reuters.com/business/europes-airline-shares-outpace-us-peers-amid-tariff-turbulence-2025-08-01/

    European airline shares have soared in the last six months despite geopolitical and economic uncertainty, while those of U.S. airlines have sold off amid a pullback in travel spending.

    ***

    Icelandic Low Cost Airline PLAY Joins with Jetstar, Norse Atlantic, Air Canada, WestJet, Porter, Flair as This Airlines Ceases All Flights to US, Everything You Need to Understand This Situation

    Icelandic Low Cost Airline PLAY Joins with Jetstar, Norse Atlantic, Air Canada, WestJet, Porter, Flair as This Airlines Ceases All Flights to US

    One by one, airlines are walking away from American routes. But why now?

    A quiet but significant shift is sweeping across the global aviation map—and the U.S. is suddenly finding itself off the radar for several international carriers.

    What’s driving this collective pullback? A mix of rising operational costs, geopolitical pressures, and uneven demand—especially for long-haul leisure travel. Airlines are finding it increasingly difficult to make U.S. routes viable outside of peak seasons.

    *Translation: The US is no longer a desirable destination.

  47. https://www.foxnews.com/us/trump-assassination-attempt-suspect-ryan-routh-cant-see-classified-info-relating-case-judge-rules

    The man accused of trying to assassinate President Donald Trump in Florida last year was barred by a federal judge from seeing classified material related to the case.

    Judge Aileen Cannon wrote in a ruling Friday that “the United States has made a sufficient showing that the information at issue was classified” and that its disclosure “could cause serious damage or exceptionally grave damages to the national security of the United States.”

    Routh, 59, was recently granted approval to represent himself in his upcoming trial. He was charged with attempting to assassinate Trump, assaulting a federal officer and multiple firearms violations stemming from the Sept. 15, 2024 incident in Florida, the second attempted assassination plot against Trump in a matter of months. Routh has pleaded not guilty.

    *Calling all lawyers and raccoons! How can the defendant not be shown the evidence the prosecution intends to use?

    Prior to allowing Routh to represent himself, Cannon told him in late July that his court-appointed attorneys “will defend you far better than you can defend yourself” and “I strongly urge you not to make this decision.”

    Fox News Digital also reported in July that Routh wrote an unusual letter to the judge asking why the death penalty isn’t on the table—and proposing that he be included in a prisoner swap with U.S. adversaries, even suggesting he be sent to freeze in Siberia in exchange for a Ukrainian soldier.

    *If he has a court-appointed attorney, wouldn’t they be asking for a competency hearing based on this last part?

  48. https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/watch-live-pritzker-texas-democrats-speak-after-group-breaks-quorum-heads-to-illinois/3804019/

    Texas Democrats left the state and headed to Illinois on Sunday in an attempt to prevent the state House from holding a vote Monday on new congressional maps that Republicans hope will net them several additional U.S. House seats in the 2026 midterm elections.

    The dramatic move could expose Democrats to fines and other penalties – with the state’s attorney general having previously threatened to arrest them if they took such an action. Refusing to attend legislative session is a civil violation, however, so Democrats legally could not be jailed and it’s unclear who has the power to carry out the warrants.
    Democrats have cast the decision to leave the state as a last-ditch effort to stop Republicans who hold full control of the Texas government from pushing through a rare mid-decade redrawing of the congressional map at the direction of President Donald Trump.
    “This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity,” said Gene Wu, chair of
    the House Democratic Caucus, in a statement.

    To conduct official business, at least 100 members of the 150-member Texas House must be present.

    Democrats hold 62 of the seats in the majority-Republican chamber. At least 51 Democratic members are leaving the state, said Josh Rush Nisenson, spokesperson for the House Democratic Caucus.
    “Apathy is complicity, and we will not be complicit in the silencing of hard-working communities who have spent decades fighting for the power that Trump wants to steal,” he said.

    *I think they sent TX Rangers to retrieve them from Oklahoma once. (The remnants of the slave patrol, not the baseball team.)

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