Franz Liszt vs. Jordan Catalano

The War of the Romantics

Cziffra

Leto

And I stood upon the sand of the sea...

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and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
And it was given unto him to make war with the saints,and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
If any man have an ear, let him hear.
He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Revelation Chapter 13. Image from the the Facundus Beatus, c. 1047, Spain

Who would like this?

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal...

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and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became as black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood. And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains. And said to the mountains and the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

Why I Hate the Beatles

Twins and Triplets

Jaroslaw Kaczynski stepped down today as Prime Minister of Poland. Lech Kaczynski stayed on as President.
Charles I was king of England from 1625 until the 30th of January 1649.

I don't know why I like these

Ed Ruscha

Reason Enough for Anglophobia

Anthony Van Dyck's, James Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox, 1637
Charles I, 1635
George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol, 1638-39

Battle of Tours, Oct. 10th 732

Charles de Steuben briefly studied with Gustave Corbet.
The Battle of Tours occurred 1275 years ago.

One is weirder than the other

Pieter Bruegel's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus

John Singleton Copley's Watson and the Shark

Copland, Cop Land, Kapell

I generally don't like much of Copland's music--though I haven't heard much of it, except in Spike Lee movies and the like--but the Piano Sonata (1941) is a great piece. HERE is a live recording made by the died-too-soon William Kapell at the Frick Collection in 1953. Also on the disk is Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, most memorable in Ravel's orchestration, or as an Emerson Lake and Palmer live album, or a Tomita album, or as the intro to Method Man's Tical. I've never seen Cop Land.

His Comics are better than His Paintings, but His Comics made me like His Paintings more

Ad Reinhardt and his comics and his paintings.

Dumb Japanese Doodles

Sengai Gibon (1750-1837) was a contemporary of Antonio Salieri (1750-1825).

Boring Dutch Squares

1658
1921

Uchida on Schoenberg

An illuminating discussion of some difficult 12-Tone music. Also, for the three people who look at this, below is an album with Uchida playing several Second Viennese School classics, including the Concerto for Piano in the clip, with Boulez keeping time instead of Tate. The disc also has some solo piano music by Schoenberg, Webern, and a Berg sonata that I've never really enjoyed.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/vefq3m

U.S.S.R.ichter

Sviatolslav Richter

Friday, May 25th, 2007

Initially I was mad, but then I thought it was really good

This one is a parody of a Beethoven Sonata.

Good Luck Segolene!

Avian Cannibals

Ambergris

A cute story about ambergris . Also this.

U.S.- Franco Relations

A Misfit Bibliophile

New York

DC

Abhorrence

Loren Mansfield

Whispers

Veronese

Paolo Veronese before the Inquisition in Venice