Gertsamtkunstwerk

Friday, 21 November 2008

Latest links

Four philosophical questions to make your brain hurt

It's National Philosophy Day today, apparently although by the time this link magics onto blog, today will be yesterday

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Posted by Gert on Friday, 21 November 2008 at 08:03 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Thursday, 20 November 2008

Latest links

wandering: JOHN ADAMS IS BEHIND THAT HEDGE

Composer-spotting, and strange-conversation-overhearing

Tags: dr-atomic

Opera Today : Doctor Atomic and Arjuna’s Dilemma

Tags: dr-atomic

Rolando Villazón: QUAND IL NE CHANTE PAS...

El tenor Rolando Villazón vuelve a dejar claro su amor para el mundo de los clows y anuncia oficialmente que él adquirirá la responsabilidad de ser el embajador del humor del International Clowndoctors de las NARICES ROJAS.

Tags: rolando

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Posted by Gert on Thursday, 20 November 2008 at 08:02 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Wednesday, 19 November 2008

Dodgy management speak

I felt rather pleased with myself today at work. It was mentioned that a particular group of people now meet on a regular basis to keep up-to-date and communicate. Not important who, but I was a bit shocked, because I would have assumed that this has been the case for years, almost since time immemorial. Or, as I phrased it (note the tone of voice) "Well, that's really blue sky thinking outside the box!"

Spurred on by my innovative use of established Business Bullshit Buzzwords, I decided to get creative.

I was fretting about forthcoming encounters with people much more important and busier than me, and my fear of floundering out of my depth and damaging my professional pride and my self-esteem. I was reassured that the Important People would not expect me to have a detailed comprehensive knowledge of their various responsibilities.

I pondered, and I ventured. "They don't expect us to be Superman, running on Kryptonite, but they do expect us to be as visibly well-briefed as Superman"

I was rather proud of that, even as my tongue rested easily in my cheek!

Posted by Gert on Wednesday, 19 November 2008 at 23:43 in Language | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Feeling good to be alive

(except for my ongoing Broadband problems)

It is difficult to explain how good I feel. It feels so good it is scary. I am petrified it might go away. I feel that good, I think I might be normal.

Many people think I am incurably unable to get up, out and in of a morning. Not actually true. I am very poor at going to bed. On both Monday and Tuesday nights I went to bed much much later than I ought to have done and, of course, got less sleep than I should. Not very long ago, two consecutive nights with too little sleep would have left me barely able to get through the working day. But not this week. Yesterday and today I did slightly more than a full day without ever feeling tired. Last night I cooked a meal from scratch and did some tidying, as well as write two - very pleasantly - laborious blogposts.

I took my swimming kit into work today. By six o'clock I was undecided as to whether I actually wanted to go swimming. I opened my desk-pedestal and saw that there was no room to store my swim-stuff. When I left the office I realised I had just missed an 88 from outside, so walked to the next bus-stop. If I caught an 88 that would take me to Clapham Common to pick up another bus to take me home, avoiding Brixton Rec. The first bus that came was a C10 to Pimlico Station, so I decided that as the simplest way home was via Brixton, I might as well go swimming.

There are two things that put me off going swimming. One is the journey. But I would still have to journey home, so that's silly. The second is the getting dressed and undressed. Coldly and analytically that is 'wasted time'. One of my character defects is allowing irrelevancies and peripheries deter me from doing something essentially positive.

Within 45 minutes of leaving the office I was in the water. I am not, by any stretch, a strong swimmer. I am, actually, a natural water babe. I can happily swim under water, eyes open, no goggles. I can happily do quite a medley of strokes:

doggy paddle;
front-crawl-with-a-float (that is to make me use my legs rather than relying on my arms too much);
lazy-backstroke (lie on back and kick legs; occasionally use arms);
proper backstroke (when I can be bothered);
sort-of-front-crawl (head down, three strokes, up-and-breathe, head down, repeat, breathing at each side alternatively) - considering I got my 25metres badge in this in 1978 I think I am doing damn well to be able to do probably 18 metres without breaking rhythm!

You get the picture!

I stayed 20 minutes in the water. Remember, I am early middle-aged, overweight, heavy smoking, unfit and recovering/ed from several years of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. That's ten lengths, taking it easy, resting when I feel like it, ploughing up and down at my own pace, increasing the heart rate, getting elegantly sweaty.

And I wonder, is it enough?

I'm not knackered, tired, achy. All positive. I can feel my muscles strengthening...yes, I know that swimming is a cardio, not resistance, exercise, but my starting point was low. Also, I think I my natural body-type is muscular (albeit wrapped in a protective layer of fat); I suspect I am more muscular than many women who are exponentially fitter than me. Even my fat tummy now has muscular definition.

I sat on the bus on the way home (so much quieter, what a difference an hour makes) and reflected on this startling development. I feel like I did years ago when a hard day's auditing was followed by a work out, a long evening on Council stuff, and often a session in a pub, and I just went on and on. I have been puzzled for years how I managed to do it, full of wonder at the energy of other people. I am beginning to believe that I can do it. Energy is plentiful.

And yet, I am so scared because the constant danger with CFS is 'overdoing it'. That massive step forward is destroyed by a violent lurch back. I don't ever want to be like that again.Half of me wants to push myself, to demonstrate to myself and others that it's over, I'm cured, I'm normal again. But I have to conquer that psychological barrier of fear that I try and kid myself is sensible caution.

Posted by Gert on Wednesday, 19 November 2008 at 23:31 in Health | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Latest links

BBC NEWS | Magazine | The myth of record debt

An excellent - if flawed - article showing how rubbish journalists are at understanding basic statistics and economics

Tags: numbers

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Posted by Gert on Wednesday, 19 November 2008 at 08:03 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Tuesday, 18 November 2008

You Tube

Some recent additions:

Camcordered in Costa Rica - audience singalong

Plácido conducts (watch him dance...) Juanito in My Song in Vienna in 2006 - I think it was a concert to mark the end of Austria's EU Presidency

and then Granada, which is Pláci's song.

No puede ser in Chichén Itzá. I'd love to play the timpani in that - and then take him home with me ;-)

Amor vida de mi vida (Chichén Itzá)

Mariachi in Chichén Itzá

More Mariachi, Ella - this is so gorgeous

There's more but that will have to do for now. If YouTube didn't exist, someone would have had to invent it.

Posted by Gert on Tuesday, 18 November 2008 at 23:20 in Placido Domingo - my hero! | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Some links I didn't post when I was busy and then deinternetted*

*this is a word. Trust me.

Another report from the concert in Chichén Itzá way back in October.

A nice long and detailed report which reads evocatively despite the mangling of Google Translate, a necessity for me: Encuentro de leyendas en el Concierto de las mil columnas

Placido Domingo lights up Mayan pyramid

video

Plácido Domingo afina para cantarle a los ticos

- an interview he gave in October in anticipation of last week's concert in Costa Rica - 6 minute audio and transcript. He says he won't do projects with pop singers (similar to Pavarotti and Friends); he is more interested in opera singers.

I'm glad I'm not an obsessive completist

The next album - as originally posted by White Rabbit is called Amore infinito. I winced at the featured duettists, and wasn't much taken by the track listing. Even before I clicked onto the web-page and saw the description: Canzoni ispirate alle poesie di Giovanni Paolo II - Karol Wojtyla. I knew this had been mooted, but I rather hoped it had been forgotten about. I don't think Karol Wojtyla was a man to be admired. His views on the subjugation of women were odious, and the impact of his attitude to AIDS prevention, especially in Africa, were little short of genocidal. So this is definitely one album I will not be buying.

Then I see an article about the album "Amore infinito" il nuovo cd di Placido Domingo. Then I read there will be ten scheduled around the world. I sincerely hope not in London, which, after all is predominantly a Pagan city. I really don't think bear such a concert and wouldn't wish to face such a dilemma.

Posted by Gert on Tuesday, 18 November 2008 at 21:10 in Placido Domingo - my hero! | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Great baritones

In my previous post, I described Gerald Finley as the world's greatest baritone, and I mean that. It's not a light task to ascribe 'greatest' to anything.

Okay, I can say - sing - that 'Manchester United are by far the greatest (football) team the world has ever seen' and I can say that Plácido Domingo is the world's greatest tenor (but I am sure he, being a Real Madrid fan, would disagree with the Manchester United claim). Perhaps I can state that Clement Attlee was the greatest British Prime Minister ever, but I am sure many people would disagree. Shakespeare was the greatest playwright - in the English language. The Bible is the greatest book written (but it's not a 'book', it's an anthology). After that I am struggling!

Even when I wrote that Gerry is the world's greatest baritone, I suspected that people would challenge this, especially fans of Bryn Terfel (okay, bass-baritone), Simon Keenlyside and Dimitri Hvorostovsky. Also fans of Thomas Quasthoff, but as he doesn't sing opera I am going to exclude him for the sake of my argument.

Both Bryn and Shirtless, living on farms in Wales, are well known for not wanting to be away from home for long periods, and like Gerald Finley, appear frequently in London (or at least in the case of Bryn, in Britain). Dima is a bit more inclined to travel but nevertheless is London-based and frequently appears. And Thomas Quasthoff is making many appearances in London throughout this season. He doesn't really support my argument, but can't be overlooked if we are talking great baritones.

I got to thinking - I don't think we appreciate the wealth of baritone talent so centred in Britain. If four of the world's top sopranos or four top tenors were so London (Britain) based, it would be remarked upon and seen as extraordinary. Of course, Gerry and Dima are merely British by choice, residence and naturalisation (Gerry is a graduate of a British University - as of course are Bryn and Shirtless).

I am no expert in baritones but I think that in twenty or thirty years (two or three in the case of Bryn) time, when these four great singers are nearing the end of their careers, we will look back at an unprecedented Golden Age of Baritones.

Posted by Gert on Tuesday, 18 November 2008 at 12:14 in Opera Stars | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)