A Wagnerian Morning

After yesterday's wash out, this morning looks sunny and warmer. Hence ,bestirring morning music is the order of the day. I think it should be on  a grand scale, and Wagnerian. Oh yes , the perfect piece, Ride of The Valkyries.

But like Stephen Fry, i am slightly queasy about some of the anti-Semitic tendencies surrounding the composer,who was anti-Fascist, and yet, because of Hitler's regime taking up the mantle of the composer,  I find it sometimes difficult to separate the music of the Norse myths from the surrounding Nazi ideology.

Here is Stephen Fry, a Jewish writer, presenter, comedian, and a Wagner buff, addressing the anti-Semitism  associated with Wagner, and visits Bayreuth. He lost some of his family in the Holocaust.

Enjoy the music on its own terms.

A Very French Birthday

Happy birthday to coming42 , my brother. Hope you have a very good day on your 69th. :)

Happy Bro'

My bro coming42 received the parcel in time for his birthday. It was a book on Kent which i purchased in Tome, Eastbourne and a double CD of the music by the Chris Barber Jazz band, which he is absolutely thrilled with. Meanwhile, i am still hunting that single his friend wants.

Book 40 - Honore de Balzac "Cousin Pons"

Honore de  Balzac "Cousin Pons" (Folio Society) 




This started off as a comedy, which then became a dark comedy, and kept descending until the darkness got so dark, there wasn’t any comedy left. He creates these lush, theatrical characters and immerses them in a very period-feeling Paris of the 1840’s.

It starts off light enough, with detailed character sketches of Sylvain Pons – confirmed bachelor, middle-aged playhouse orchestra director, and collector extraordinaire of bric-a-brac. His long-time partner, live-in best friend, and German transplant to Paris, Herr Schmucke, is like a comedic doting mother hen.

M. Pons is a bit of a bon vivant, and likes to eat well, and so he calls on his high-placed relatives, making the rounds to mooch an occasional dinner off them, but timed in a carefully-planned schedule to avoid wearing out his welcome. There was lots of comedy of manners here, with people dropping not-so-subtle hints that maybe Pons should make his own damn food, and Pons intentionally not picking up on these hints. It wasn't quite laugh-out-loud, but I was chuckling.

The drama starts when Pons' cousin (M.Camusot de Marville, a legal official in the high court, and a Peer of France) and his family get sick of him, and devise a plan to discourage him from coming around. ...But it gets complicated, because after they shoo him away once and for all, Pons befriends a wealthy patron of the playhouse, who would be a perfect suitor to Pons’ niece Cecile. Suddenly the Camusot de Marvilles need Pons for a proper introduction, so they find themselves backpedaling, explaining how all the insults they heaped upon him were misunderstandings, and in fact kidding gestures of affection.

In the midst of this whole marriage arrangement (which falls through for bizarre reasons) Cecile’s suitor makes small talk of his admiration for Cousin Pons’ bric-a-brac collection, which he casually speculates must be worth about 750,000 to 1,000,000 Francs.

If Cousin Pons was redone as a cartoon, you would see M. and Mme. M.Camusot de Marville's eyes pop out of their heads at that figure. 1,000,000 Francs?!! Who would have thought his little trinkets would be valued so highly? Apparently he had an eye for great artistry, and picked up the early works of some great masters on the cheap. He's sitting on a goldmine! Now the snooty upper middle class family who once disdained Cousin Pons is falling all over themselves to please him. There’s some good humour here too. Honestly, Balzac should have kept the tone light… the story is fun here. It almost feels like a Neil Simon play. And that's no surprise - after all, Cousin Pons is part of Balzac's larger body of interrelated books, which share crossover characters and storylines, which he calls "The Human Comedy".

Through some quirky circumstances, Pons and Schmucke’s landlady - the conniving Mme. Cibot- catches wind of Pons’ fortune. In a bizarre and funny scene, she consults a gypsy fortuneteller about how to get a share of it, and comes up with a very mean-spirited scheme, which turns the mood of the whole book very ugly and cruel.

She gets a crooked art dealer and appraiser involved, and then a down-on-his-luck lawyer, who all want to cheat Pons out of his treasures. These characters are all wonderfully rendered, but the plot is too inhumane, and Pons' suffering too pitiful for this to be a called comedy. It’s hard to explain, without getting too spoilerific, but Pons was too good natured, and was introduced too engagingly to the reader, to be treated this way now. He's too sympathetic; readers don't want to meet lovable characters, only to see them tortured mercilessly.

I get that life was very hard in the era Balzac writes from, and some of the injustices that may have been taken in stride in 1840 would horrify us today. I also get that the comedic as well as cruel schemes are all part of the same underlying "Oh! What a tangled web we weave" message... but I've got my limits, you know? This is supposed to be part of "Human Comedy", and this is just not funny any more. You know what I think? I think Balzac has really got us reading "The Human Tragedy", and is just seeing how far he can string us along before we figure that out.

Well, to be fair, there is a half-hearted stab at poetic justice at then end, but it's too little, too late.

The story's really good, so I still recommend this book, but just know what you're getting into; you'll need something lighthearted to revive your spirits after this one.

Misogyny

One reason why i am a socialist is that in a proper true social democracy there should never be  misogyny
.I saw this BBC documentary via Facebook from my good friend Sharpie Bongo - Blurred Lines, The New Battle of The Sexes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0436qlw/ad/Blurred_Lines_The_New_Battle_of_the_Sexes/

IMHO I think misogyny is getting worse and that isn't something we should accept but I have no easy answers other than becoming the change you want to see in the world.

It is a pity that this documentary by Kirsty Wark will  only be watchable by UK located LJ people,as like Sharpie said, this is important, but i would like to feel what you good people have to say on this vexed subject.

Jazzy D's friday Night Grooves

Well after all that serious stuff , i thought it was time to play some uplifting tunes and grooves. So stop what you are doing, kick off your shoes and dance. Jazzy D will massage your earlobes and your feet.

Kicking off with this remake of Runaway by Nuyorican Soul -

Next up a salsa flavoured version of Gil Scott Heron's The Bottle by Joe Bataan -

Oh yes, so cool a track.

Next up, Banda Black Rio and Mr Funky Samba

Next up, Third Coast Kings with Spicy Brown.

A bit mo' jazz here with a scat jazz come funky ditty from George Benson with Nuyorican Soul and You Can Do It Baby

And finally, a house groove classic from NU Yorican Soul, the Nervous Track

Enjoy.

Quite So

You Are a Philosophical Thinker
You are very profound. You are an intense and deep thinker. You look at things from every perspective possible. You don't take much as given. You are wise and thoughtful. You are very philosophical about life. You are able to reason your way through anything, and you often come up with interesting and controversial conclusions.

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