Lee Lefever has a really good thing going.

other | No Comments »

Elisabeth Alexander’s inaugural poem was bad. She’s best when she holds back and condenses. Her prosaic poetry is close to prose, her scenes spare and strong and close to home. “Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire”. Wonderful! But the scenes were disjointed, and didn’t stand up [...]

language, poetry | No Comments »

What a lovely “coronation hymn”. Maestro John Williams wrote a piece based on Aaron Copeland’s arrangement of the old Shaker Tune “Simple Gifts” in “Appalachian Spring”. Yo-Yo Ma performed along with Itzhak Perlman on violin, Gabriela Montero on piano and Anthony McGill on clarinet.
“Simple Gifts” is an 1848 Shaker song by Elder Joseph Brackett. The [...]

other, songs | No Comments »

Obama said it’s the risktakers, the doers, the makers of things that are responsible for our current prosperity (and we are still the most prosperous society). He said “we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and start rebuilding America.” He talked about government programs needing to be analysed for whether they work. And he [...]

other | No Comments »

Today is the big day. To celebrate a president we can be proud of and who allows us to dream of a more humane world, have a look at the beautiful Eagle Nebula, described as follows:
From afar, the whole thing looks like an Eagle. A closer look at the Eagle Nebula, however, shows the bright [...]

other | 2 Comments »

Wonderful, brilliant, romantic, funny, thrilling, naughty Poe. Our greatest classic writer. Happy birthday, bicentennial poet. Vincent Price reads:

language, short film | 2 Comments »

If anyone can get the birds to come back, Andrew Bird’s the one. His instruments are the violin, the mandolin, his voice and his whistle. “Without words“: “As much as I sometimes downplay the importance of lyrics I can’t seem to resist writing them. I think I only pretend to disrespect words so I don’t [...]

songs | 3 Comments »