Early Risers.

[iL Dottore]

6 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

But the rap "message" is almost invariably as you describe, insofar as it can be understood at all. 

 

It isn't a viable world view. Nor is it of any musical merit.

Your comment illustrates amply why I chose rap as the analogy.

 

Rap is, by many, denigrated, ridiculed and dismissed as not being either valid or “proper” music. And yet there are very many who regard rap, not only as a valid form of music, but a very important way that members of the underclass (i.e. those living in the ghetto) can express themselves; even if what they express discomforts many.

 

Having said that, I do like your analogy, which is a lot less abstract than mine and definitely very applicable to the UK.

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

After a fair bit of chuckinitdarn yesterday afternoon/evening I await a ground report before I go to Hartogate CC for our game today. If Ridings win they are through to the semi finals of the Over 60s bowl. It is, for August, somewhat chilly. Pah!

 

Gloss paint was used to cover the woodwork sanded down first thing yesterday. Ceiling was given a coat of emulsion. Herself will wall paper the walls on Saturday apparently (cricket today, dental appointment tomorrow then volunteering at the sorting room for Sue Ryder on Thursday and Friday).

 

Time to toddlevoff for breakfast..

 

Stay safe!

 

Baz

 

 

[jjb1970]

Even as an opera enthusiast I'm not sure I'd use the word singing to describe performing anything he wrote...... Now Mozart or Rossini, they knew how to write a most splendid aria.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Up earlier than usual again this morning, as my car is due a service and MOT and is being picked up anytime between 8 and 12 o’clock. Once it’s been picked up, I’ll give the cellar a quick tidy, as the dust sheet is still down from last week’s furniture painting session. After that, if the weather is fine, I’ll do some pruning and dead heading and weeding, if it’s raining, then I’ll potter about the workshop. 
 

Back later. 
 

Brian

[Compound2632]

4 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Flavio, I like your analogy but when the different opera that can be sung turns out to be something like Wagner and the audience starts putting on red accoutrements (armbands or whatever) it's a problem.

 

The lazy equation of Wagner and Nazism is something that infuriates me nearly as much as regurgitation of the words "small engine policy".

[BSW01]

The car has just been picked up! So time to head downstairs!

[DaveF]

I woke early this morning as well as several times during the night.  It seemed very noisy outside but I think it was just the wind.  When I came downstairs and opened the curtains the first thing I noticed was a tub of geraniums floating in the pond, so the wind must have strong.  They have been rescued and are back in the right place, dripping gently as they start to dry off.

 

I'm now just waiting for the groceries come before I get on with today's many jobs.  To be honest it is "what jobs", I don't think anything is very urgent, it looks like being either a trip to the museum or a visit to the barbers, depending on the weather.

 

It is still very damp, in fact it is raining on and off so I still ache which is not helping my mood.  My daily waterworks tablet doesn't seem to have done much the last couple of days, I am hoping things return to normal today or it will be a phone call to the surgery again.

 

David

Edited August 20 by DaveF

[PhilJ W]

28 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

Even as an opera enthusiast I'm not sure I'd use the word singing to describe performing anything he wrote...... Now Mozart or Rossini, they knew how to write a most splendid aria.

Not forgetting Verdi.

[PhilJ W]

No matter what opera it is we should look closely at who is conducting the orchestra. The recent riots here in the UK were fueled by social media (the orchestra), conducted in the main by Elon Musk.

[roundhouse]

Morning

 

The only opera I know is the web browsing one.

 

Cloudy and much cooler so far this week. Even had some rain.

 

No pub till Thursday evening when we get to Exeter. No doubt our favoruite Spoons, The Imperial for food and they have a good range of ale. Shame that the Great Western Hotel has closed as that was a favourite place for a night cap. I remember when there were four pubs in that part of town (Red Cow was excellent for pool) and now there's none. I suppose the Mill On The Exe is the closest after Spoons but I find it hit and miss these days.

 

Anyway today will be working on a layout.

 

Tomorrow is visit Mum. Brother is back from his boat in the Carribean so no doubt I will be told of all the things that I need to improve on looking after Mum.

[iL Dottore]

34 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

Even as an opera enthusiast I'm not sure I'd use the word singing to describe performing anything he wrote...... Now Mozart or Rossini, they knew how to write a most splendid aria.

I saw a superb performance of Benjamin Britten’s Death in Venice performed at the Bregenzerfestspiele. The staging was superb, the costumes were superb, the lighting was superb, everything was superb, except the music. Every time the singers threatened to break into a hummable tune, that tune was strangled at birth. Atonal ain’t the half of it.

 

The Bregenzerfestspiele. was having a Benjamin Britten festival that year, so we attended a few of his operas and other works; some of his early stuff was pretty okay, but as he “matured as a composer” (ahem) his music became more and more atonal and more and more unlistenable.

 

And yet that famous and memorable short film about the travelling post office, The Night Mail, wouldn’t have been the same without the music of Benjamin Britten or the poetry of W. H. Auden.

[jjb1970]

For modern opera I like John Adams, I think 'Nixon in China' is a wonderful work, ditto 'Doctor Atomic'. 

[iL Dottore]

36 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

No matter what opera it is we should look closely at who is conducting the orchestra. The recent riots here in the UK were fueled by social media (the orchestra), conducted in the main by Elon Musk.

I sincerely doubt that. He may have made provocative statements (and I wonder how many blasting off at Musk have actually read his tweets in context), but X was merely a conduit for long simmering resentment and grievances which were used by the booze fuelled rent-a-mobs on both sides to indulge in that venerable British tradition of Summer Rioting.

 

The root causes of the rioting are a lot, a lot closer to Westminster than most will care to admit.

 

Edited August 20 by iL Dottore
typo

[Gwiwer]

9 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. No chance of seeing the supermoon this evening, too much cloud. There might be a break in the cloud this time tomorrow evening so I might try then. Now time to tackle  Farcebook.

Foggy here. No chance of seeing one foot in front of the other. 
 

G’morning all. Welcome to Cheeseday. A double-shift on watch beckons from 12 - 8pm and therefore not much else. 
 

At least the weather is better-behaved today so far. Breezy, cool but cloudless (and fog-less) skies. 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A busy day ahead, washing to be put on and a necessary trip to pick up a prescription from the pharmacy. Heads up, I watched 'Freddie Flintoff, Field of Dreams on Tour' last week, part 1 of 4. Part 2 tonight, a good watch. I missed the 'blue' moon last night but tonight the prediction is for clear skies so I'll still be able to see 97% of it.

Edited August 20 by PhilJ W

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Rap is, by many, denigrated, ridiculed and dismissed as not being either valid or “proper” music. And yet there are very many who regard rap, not only as a valid form of music, but a very important way that members of the underclass (i.e. those living in the ghetto) can express themselves; even if what they express discomforts many.

Rap is said by some to have roots in the Jamaican “dub ranting” (a/k/a “Mic-chanting”) style popular in the 1970s and 1980s. 
 

That in its turn can be traced farther back to the ska-beat of earlier times. 
 

Another source and inspiration for some has been the early C20 “Delta Blues” of the lower Mississippi region.
 

What is common across all of those?  
 

Music using simple instrumentation (easily obtained, perhaps), improvisation and with a strong story borne of suffering, adversity, poverty and oppression.   
 

And another common theme among all these styles. Most artistes were men of colour. Much as is the case with rap today. 
 

A well-known Bob Marley song refers to living “In a government yard in Trenchtown”. Yardies had a reputation rightly or wrongly for being criminal and violent gangs. Housing Commission “yards” were appalling slums. You reap what you sow. Later MC’s and “toasters” referred to similar conditions and the gun-law which pervaded especially Kingston (Jamaica). 
 

The blues came from the impoverished south and often told of extreme hardships. It was the street music of its place and time where if you had a few strings on your guitar you sat out and sang hoping for a few coins in your hat. No coin - no meal. 
 

Rap, love it or hate it, is the street music of the current era. It too tells of hard times, unrest and disaffection. It too refers to violence. It too refers to male supremacy / female subserviency. 
 

We should take notice. It’s not my “thing”. I can appreciate a message and listen to what is being said without liking it or feeling comfortable. I have always said I can acknowledge good music without liking it (the example I use here is Genesis or Yes but you can substitute Mahler or Wagner if you wish)  but that does not lessen the importance of the work itself. 
 

We ignore the noise from the street-corners at our peril. From there the next generation of leaders may come. 

[jjb1970]

The musical form I  really cannot listen to is Beijing opera. I love opera, and I love China, but listening to Beijing opera can make me feel there are worse things than going deaf, it's like being stabbed through the ears.

[Grizz]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

The danger is, of course, by denigrating, ridiculing and marginalising the rappers (whose rap may displease the powers that be, but isn’t intrinsically “bad”) there is a significant risk of pushing them towards Death Metal or Satanic Metal.

Too late…..I’m already there with the Death Metal…. 
 

 

(yeah I know there’s always one). 
 

 

[polybear]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Your comment illustrates amply why I chose rap as the analogy.

 

Rap is, by many, denigrated, ridiculed and dismissed as not being either valid or “proper” music. And yet there are very many who regard rap, not only as a valid form of music, but a very important way that members of the underclass (i.e. those living in the ghetto) can express themselves; even if what they express discomforts many.

 

Having said that, I do like your analogy, which is a lot less abstract than mine and definitely very applicable to the UK.

Rap?

Three-quarters of the way to Cr@p in this Bear’s book.

[Grizz]

Morning All

 

So far a pleasant day weather wise. Off into Aalborg shortly to visit the ‘Model Train Store’. Then on to visit family in Storing and Skørping. 
 

There have been loads of deer ticks here this year, more than I can ever remember. Same for ‘Skeetas’…..millions of the b’stards. I’ve been bitten to cr@p. 
 

No trains at all on DSB between Aalborg and Arhus until October due to the OLE going up and associated works. So no bl00dywell MZ locos on freights. Boooooo. 

Still off to Harburg for a week in a while, plenty of trains there. 
 

Have a great day all.

 

ATB Grizz

 

 

Edited August 20 by Grizz
Spelling

[Barry O]

Cricket is on so its off to Harrogate shortly....

 

Baz

[PupCam]

Morning

 

7 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

This is ridiculous - probably the point.

 

CNN: Chechen warlord shows off gun-mounted Tesla Cybertruck

 

 

Won't be so sleek looking if it takes a few rounds in the Lithium battery 🤞

 

ION

 

Another day of amusing two small boys.    The 08 test track and wireless "Super controller prototype#1" has been coaxed back into operation so eldest JJP can have a go at driving a model of the full size box that runs on parallel strips of metal we saw last week at Sherringham.  

 

Did I mention previously what an absolutely splendid example the NNR is of a Herritage Railway?   It and others deserve our support.

 

Currently waiting for a call back from a nurse to discuss a few things in anticipation of tomorrow's appointment with a Swann Morton.

 

TTFN

 

 

[Two_sugars]

Morning all . . . .weather cool and breezy . . .

 

I took a photo of the Moon last night  . . . it wasn't blue . . . 

 

 

Have a good day all.

 

 

John

 

[jjb1970]

I bought some Danish salami today, which was made in Australia. I can only conclude that Australia has conquered Denmark, why weren't we told about this? No wonder nobody believes the news anymore when they suppress news of a military triumph by a country which plays cricket and drives on the left. Bravo Australia, I salute you and wish you success if you decide Germany is next!

[Hroth]

 

Skies are clearing at present, there was no chance of spotting any sort of moon last night but there might be a chance tonight, though it won't be blue or super, though there still might be a reddish tinge to it...