Tag: Opera

Seven Things I Love (1-4-2021)

1. This History of Chestnut Trees – this actually is something to both love and hate. I hate the story behind why we’ve lost the vast majority of the American Chestnut trees in North America (not surprisingly it had to do with some wanker deciding to import a dozen Chinese Chestnut trees to the US from Japan. Because there will always be people who have to have bigger, better, new.) There’s further details on the blight here.

But what I love is history, and the history of the Chestnut tree is fascinating and extensive. These were enormous trees, strong, hearty, and they provided for everyone and everything that lived around them. Another thing I love is that there are people working to bring back the American Chestnut. One organization in particular, the American Chestnut Foundation, leads the show and they are getting close. According to this article from 2019, the final stage/cut should take place this year and then they should be able to start repopulating the Appalachian Forests with blight-resistant American Chestnut trees. Hope!

2. This Article on the Regency Design of Bridgerton – Have you watched Bridgerton yet? If not, get thee to the television and start streaming thy Netflix!

My favorite era in British history has always been the Edwardian era (and I mean design-wise) with the Tudor era in a close second. BUT I must say, this show made me start to wonder if I should rethink that.

3. This Incredible Photograph of the Chicago Skyline – it really does look like flames are shooting up!

4. This Video of Robots Dancing to “Do You Love Me?”Boston Dynamics is one of the most advanced Robotics company in the world. They have a huge following on social media and for good reason – their robots are incredibly impressive. They created this video for their fans for a holiday treat. AMAZING! (full disclosure – I’m a robotics nerd.)

5. This Incredible Bridge – my friend Kathy sent me this photo. It’s the Golden Bridge in Vietnam. We were trying to decide whether we loved it or found it disturbing. Truthfully, it’s both but in the end we decided we loved it much more than we found it disturbing. I think it’s all a matter of your upbringing and how you look at it.

6. These Pandemic Words – Here’s an article that includes an interview with Ben Zimmer who is the chair of the American Dialect Society’s New Words Committee. They discussed not only the winning words – COVID was the word of the year – but also some of the nominees. Here are a few that I liked:

gleethreshing (ph) the opposite of doomscrolling, reading some good news for a change.

oysgezoomt (ph), being Zoomed out. You’re fatigued by being overexposed to Zoom.

Very interesting too about the term BIPAC. Need to read more about that.

Here’s another article on how the newly developed pandemic words are helping people cope.

7. This Short Film ‘Opera Performed by Animals’ – it’s from a few years ago but it makes me as happy now as it did in 2019. And HEDGEHOGS!!!


Word of the Day


Quote of the Day

Have a MARVELOUS week!

Seven Things I Love (9-21-2020) : RBG Edition

1. This Excerpt from an Op-ed by Ruth Bader, Grade 8B1 which she wrote for her school paper in 1946 at age thirteen (found on brainpickings):

Now we have a fifth great document, the Charter of the United Nations. Its purpose and principles are to maintain international peace and security, to practice tolerance, and to suppress any acts of aggression or other breaches of peace.

It is vital that peace be assured, for now we have a weapon that can destroy the world. We children of public school age can do much to aid in the promotion of peace. We must try to train ourselves and those about us to live together with one another as good neighbors for this idea is embodied in the great new Charter of the United Nations. It is the only way to secure the world against future wars and maintain an everlasting peace.

Full op-ed included in My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a collection of writings selected by Justice Ginsburg herself, published by Simon & Schuster

2. VOTING – there is no better way to pay your respects to Justice Ginsburg than to make sure you vote in this election, and to vote wisely.

The ideal way to vote is to vote EARLY, in-person, if you are able to do that. Check your local municipal website (they are most likely getting bombarded by calls) or call if you can’t look it up online.

If you’re at-risk, sign up for an absentee ballot. This would be the second best option. Be sure to do this NOW, as early as possible. You need to give the application to arrive at your municipality, get processed, have it go back in the mail, get returned to you. That can take a few weeks. Don’t dawdle!!! Also, if you can, drop your absentee ballot off directly at your municipality rather than putting it back in the mail. Many municipalities have drop boxes now.

I voted today!!! And I made sure to wear my RBG pin when I did it.

Worst case scenario, you can’t vote early and you didn’t get an absentee ballot, DO show up to the polls on November 3rd. People keep saying it but it is true, this is the most important election of our lifetimes.

If you would like to find some information about voting in your state Stephen Colbert has put together a very useful site called Better Know A Ballot. He’ll eventually have a video (like below) for every state but until he does you can still find the basic voting info like how to register in your state, when early voting begins, how to get an absentee ballot, and how to vote in-person.

https://youtu.be/gX7wl8Sy6M8

3. This NYT article, For Women, the Death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg Brings a Particular Grief by Sheryl Gay Stolberg – I think men can’t quite understand what RBG’s death truly means to many of the women and girls in this country. She wasn’t simply someone who made decisions that we were happy about. RBG was our role model. She was our mentor. She was our teacher. She was our mother. She was our hero. This article puts it into words much better than I ever could.

Girls dressed as Justice Ginsburg outside the Supreme Court on Saturday.Credit…Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times

4. These RBG movie, RBG & On The Basis of Sex – if you haven’t seen them yet, now is the time. If you’ve already seen them, now is the time to re-watch!

5. This time when Stephen Colbert worked out with RBG – Colbert was trying so hard to make her laugh but she was f-o-c-u-s-e-d.

6. This Artist, Adrian Wilson, who turned the 50th Street subway sign in NYC into a tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg (found on hyperallergic) …

Adrian Wilson’s renaming of Manhattan’s 50th Street station using stickers created by Matt Duncan (all images courtesy of Adrian Wilson and Matt Duncan)

7. This Tweet by the Washington National Opera showing a photo of when Justice Ginsburg appeared in a performance of The Daughter of the Regiment in 2016 alongside the opera house’s Lawrence Bronwlee. RBG was a great lover of opera and what a delightful tribute (found on Deadline, more details available.)

Bonus: I had to include this – the RBG Rap from SNL

Bonus: This Vigil held at the Supreme Court – “Honor her wish.”

Bonus: The many Artistic Tributes to RBG: