Peter, Björn and John: Young Folks
Young Folks If I told you things I did before Told you how I used to be Would you go along with someone like me If you knew my story word for word Had all of my history Would you go along with someone like me I did before and had my share It didn’t […]
Z is for zen
Lovely snowflakes, they fall nowhere else! No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place. Two Zen sayings, or two translations of one saying? When I was a little girl, taking ballet lessons at St. Mark’s, my parents would take me to see the Nutcracker around this time of year. And like most girls, I would […]
X is for exult
Kiri Te Kanawa sings Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate with the Royal Opera House Orchestra, conducted by Stephen Barlow, in Greenwich. I grew up in the joyful German Christmas Eve tradition, thanks to my mother, who brought her beliefs and practices to the US. Whatever your religion and practice, peace, joy and love to you this evening […]
W is for who
http://annehodgson.de/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/whos.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download 2 little whos — ee cummings 2 little whos (he and she) under are this wonderful tree smiling stand (all realms of where and when beyond) now and here (far from a grown -up i&you- ful world of known) who and who (2 little ams and over them […]
V is for violin
Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on. — Samuel Butler (1835-1902) Here is virtuoso Itzak Perlman finding his way into Klezmer with the Klezmatics (don’t miss magic minute 7): I did a fun Christmas exercise for Spotlight: A Great Christmas
U is for understand
I understand. — Empathy, part 2: an effective active-listening phrase when you don’t really want to listen to somebody (“too much information”), but don’t want to sound rude. Laughs c/o sitcom Two and a Half Men, 1st season, 7th episode. I put together tips and a language exercise on active listening here.
T is for thee
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” is the beginning of possibly the most beautiful love poem ever written, of William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18. Pity that there is no “Du” in English. The intimacy of “thou, thee, thine”, the “du, dich, dein” we have lost in English, is one of the things that makes […]
