Things are smaller than they appear

 In taking yesterday's photo, my phone camera was acting up as usual, and I ended up with this one that I call the above. In case you missed it, it's a riff on what's on some cars' review view mirrors. You can click on the image to see a larger version, which is kind of ironic, isn't it?

This morning

This morning
I looked out the window
and saw diamonds
strewn across the snow.

 

A wee something to brighten your day

 (I hope.)

Zip

 Can you imagine anyone writing a song today that assumed people would know who Schopenhauer was?

Here are two versions of the song from Pal Joey sung by a character who interviewed Gypsy Rose Lee (I'm not going to give the movie version because the song's given to an entirely different character and the lyrics are different, but you can see it on Amazon prime if you want to take a peek.)

Here's the fabulous Elaine Stritch's version:

 

 

And Bebe Neuwirth's (I guess her stage partners weren't off book yet)

 

 

Pal Joey - Zip Lyrics

I've interviewed, Leslie Howard

I've interviewed, Noel Coward
I've interviewed the great Stravinsky
But my greatest achievement is the interview I had
With the star who worked for Minsky

I met her at the Yankee Clipper
And she didn't unzip one zipper
I said, "Miss Lee, you are such an artist
Tell me, why you never miss?"
What do you think of? Why you worried, and she said
"While I work my thoughts go something like this"

Zip, Walter Lippmann wasn't brilliant today
Zip, will Saroyan ever write a great play?
Zip, I was reading Schopenhauer last night
Zip and I think that Schopenhauer was right

I don't want to see Zorina
I don't want to meet Cobina
Zip, I'm an intellectual

I don't like a deep Contralto
Or a man whose voice is Alto
Zip, I'm a heterosexual

Zip, it took intellect to master my art
Zip, who the hell is Margie Hart?

Zip, Toscanini leads the greatest of bands
Zip, Jergens Lotion does the trick for his hands
Zip, Rip Van Winkle on the screen would be smart
Zip, Tyrone Power will be cast in the part

I have read the great Cabala
And I simply worship Allah
Zip, I am just a mystic

I don't care for Whistler's mother
Charlie's aunt or Schubert's brother
Zip, I'm misogynistic

Zip, my intelligence is guiding my hand
Zip, who the hell is Sally Rand?

Turkey tracks in the snow

 Mother Nature gifted us with a wee blanket of snow over the weekend (well, on Saturday it was over 60F and Sunday was cold enough to support fluffy snow. I calls it New England Weather Whiplash). The neighborhood wild turkeys blessed us with a visit this AM.

If you look closely to the right of the tree, you can see where they wandered around the yard looking for berries on the bushes.

Rachmaninoff and Böcklin

 I wasn't at the funeral for my twenty-seven-year-old nephew, Mitch, today, so want to share something that bubbled up, as things occasionally do, that seemed pertinent. The Rachmaninoff piece was inspired by the Böcklin painting, Isle of the Dead. Here is the painting: 

And here is a link to the piece:

Seems to me that the composer chose to end the piece the way he, with the flute on the five of the chord and not on the tonic, to indicate the unfinished nature of grief.

DORCHESTER PEAR

 Here's a video Andy found about a new sculpture in a nearby park. If you read the wall art at our local T stop gives all kinds of history of the area for anyone who takes the time to read it while waiting for trains.

 

I'm pretty sure Dad wasn't aware of this history when he made these.