News & Views: September 4th, 2012

04 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Music, Sharing

Tags

Abraham Lincoln, Édouard Manet, Carl Jung, collective subconscious, Gabriel Fauré, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Julian Lloyd Webber, Oliver Wendell Holmes, The News, United States

: A Bar at the Folies-Bergères, by Édouard Manet*

Édouard Manet (1832–1883)

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Oliver Wendell Holmes on Taxes

Today will not be my best day as a blogger, as today is the day Quebec elects a Premier, which is a pre-occupation. But I would like to quote Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr (8 March 1841 – 6 March 1935) with respect to a citizen’s obligation to pay taxes. “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society,” he wrote in Compañia General de Tabacos de Filipinas vs. Collector of Internal Revenue 275 U.S. 87, 100 (1927). I know very little about Mr Holmes, but he was mentioned in a document I read, which prompted me to investigate a little, but not to an extent that would allow me to express opinions about him. What I know is that he was an “American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932.”

Let me repeat my quotation:

Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.

The Collective Subconscious

As for the post I published yesterday: The River Runs Deep… Thoughts on the United States and Quebec, what I wrote is relevant. There is not only a personal subconscious, but also a collective subconscious (Wikipedia). This theory is part of a precious legacy. It was formulated by Swiss-born Carl Gustav Jung (26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961), the famed “psychologist and psychiatrist who founded analytical psychology” (Wikipedia).

the existentialists: We can shape our lives

Although there is a collective subconscious, we can to a large extent break away from it. The existentialists also left a message. Put in a nutshell and simplified, this message is that we can shape our lives. In fact, we can do so not only at a personal level but also at a collective level.

Garibaldi and Slavery

Garibaldi, a founder of Italy as a unified state, offered his services to President Abraham Lincoln, but would not act if slavery was not abolished. So although slavery may not have been perceived as unethical to plantation owners, it was perceived as very wrong by Giuseppe Garibaldi (4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882). And among plantation owners, many treated their slaves with a degree of respect, as all human beings should be treated. It could be that they knew, in their heart of hearts, that slavery was morally unacceptable.

The News

English

The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/

The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/

The Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The Montreal Gazette: http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html

The National Post: http://www.nationalpost.com/index.html

Le Monde diplomatique: http://mondediplo.com/ EN

CBC News: http://www.cbc.ca/thenational/

CTV News: http://www.ctvnews.ca/

French

Le Monde diplomatique: http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/

Le Monde: http://www.lemonde.fr/

Le Devoir: http://www.ledevoir.com/

La Presse: http://www.lapresse.ca/

German

Die Welt: http://www.welt.de/

Micheline Walker©

September 4th, 2012

WordPress

composer: Gabriel Fauré (12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924)

title: Élégie

cellist: Julian Lloyd Webber (b. 1951)

pianist: Peter Pettinger

The Art of Ivan Aivazovsky & the News

20 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Canada, Music

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Crimea, Feodosiya, Imperial Academy of Arts, Ivan Aivazovsky, Seascapes, The News, Yousuf Karsh

: Russians at Navarino

Photo credit and main source: Wikipedia

Ivan Aivazovsky (July 29, 1817 – May 5, 1900) was a Russian artist of Armenian descent born in Feodosiya who lived and worked in Crimea (Russian Empire). His family moved to the Crimea from Galicia (then in southern Poland, now in Ukraine) in 1812. In Poland the family name was Aivazian.

His talent as an artist earned him a scholarship that allowed him to enroll in the Simferopol Gymnasium and later to enter Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts. As for his talent as a seascape artist, it earned him a long-standing commission from the Russian Navy stationed in the Black Sea.

As of 1845, he travelled to İstanbul eight times upon the invitation of Sultan Abdülmecid I. He was court painter and as a result of his stays in Istanbul, some of his paintings acquired a certain Orientalism.

The Hamidian massacres (1894–1896) saddened him profoundly and were the subject of many of his paintings. It seems the only escape from that massacre was flight to other countries. Photographer Yousuf Karsh (December 23, 1908 – July 13, 2002) is Armenian Canadian and remains the most accomplished portrait photographer “of all time.” (Wikipedia)

Artist Aivozovsky married twice, first to an Englishwoman, until 1865, and second to an Armenian woman from Feodosiya.

Aivazovsky spent his last years in Feodosiya (also called Theodosia) where he supplied the town with water from his estate, opened an art school, a historical museum and was otherwise generous. Aivasovsky died in Feodosiya in 1900.

Aivazovsky was very successful. He was an Academician at 27, and Professor of Marine Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, at the age of 30.

According to Wikipedia, Aivazovsky is considered one of the best seascape artists of all times. J. M. W. Turner wrote a poem about him.

Russians at Navarino, 1846 (at the head of my post)

Moonlit Seascape with Shipwreck, 1863

Empress Mary Caught in a Storm, 1892

(please click on the pictures to enlarge them)

The News: August 20th, 2012

English

The Montreal Gazette: http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html

The National Post: http://www.nationalpost.com/index.html

The Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com//

The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/

Le Monde diplomatique: http://mondediplo.com/

CBC News: http://www.cbc.ca/news/

CTV News: http://www.ctvnews.ca/

Tchaikovsky (May 7, 1840 – November 6, 1893)

Polonaise

Cole Porter’s “Let’s do it,” sung by Ella Fitzgerald

18 Saturday Aug 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Songs

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Broadway musicals, Cole Porter, Ella Fitzgerald, Let's do it, Song & Lyrics, The News, the US, WordPress

Let’s do it was composed by Cole Porter (9 June 1891 – 15 October 1964) and was included in his first Broadway musical Paris, in 1928. It was sung by Irène Bordoni.

Let’s do it had a long career. In 1960, “it was included in the film version of Cole Porter’s Can-Can” and, in 2011, it was sung in Woody Allen’s film Midnight in Paris. The film won several Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Art Direction. (Wikipedia)

If the “it” of Let’s do it is an invitation to make love, as was suggested by a commentator, “Let’s do it” was “a pioneer pop song to declare openly ‘sex is fun’.” (Wiki2.org.)

The Jan. 31, 1949, cover of TIME
Cover Credit: BORIS CHALIAPIN

About Cole Porter

Cole Porter was born to a wealthy family in Indiana. He studied at Yale University and, as a student at Yale, Porter wrote 300 songs. He then attended the Harvard Law School, and “at the suggestion of the dean of the law school,” he switched to the study of harmony and counterpoint. (Let’s Fall in Love, Wiki2.org.)

In 1937, he was injured, a leg injury, as a result of a horseback riding accident. Several years later, in 1958, he grew ulcers on the injured leg, which had to be amputated. Cole Porter died of kidney failure on 15 October 1964. He was 73 and living in Santa Monica, California.

The News

English

The Montreal Gazette: http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html

The National Post: http://www.nationalpost.com/index.html

The Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/

Le Monde diplomatique: http://mondediplo.com/ EN

CBC News: http://www.cbc.ca/news/

CTV News: http://www.ctvnews.ca/

French

Le Monde: http://www.lemonde.fr/

Le Devoir: http://www.ledevoir.com/

Le Monde diplomatique: http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/

La Presse: http://www.lapresse.ca/

German

Die Welt: http://www.welt.de/

____________________

Ella Fitzgerald

LET′S DO IT

Birds do it, bees do it
Even educated fleas do it
Let’s do it, let’s fall in love

In Spain, the best upper sets do it

Lithuanians and Letts do it
Let’s do it, let’s fall in love

The Dutch in old Amsterdam do it
Not to mention the Fins
Folks in Siam do it – think of Siamese twins

Some Argentines, without means, do it
People say in Boston even beans do it
Let’s do it, let’s fall in love

Romantic sponges, they say, do it
Oysters down in oyster bay do it
Let’s do it, let’s fall in love

Cold Cape Cod clams, ‘gainst their wish, do it
Even lazy jellyfish, do it
Let’s do it, let’s fall in love

Electric eels I might add do it
Though it shocks em I know
Why ask if shad do it – Waiter bring me
“shad roe”

In shallow shoals English soles do it
Goldfish in the privacy of bowls do it
Let’s do it, let’s fall in love

Source for lyrics: http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/lwordthe/letsdoitletsfallinlove.htm

18 August 2012

WordPress

More on Levitan & the News, August 2nd, 2012

02 Thursday Aug 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Isaac Levitan, Lyrical landscape, Mitt Romney, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Spirituality, The News

Shore (Плес) by Isaac Levitan, 1889

Featured Artist: Isaac Levitan (30 August 1860 – 4 August 1900)

The United States: Defense

Today, I am sending the news earlier, so my list arrives in other parts of the world closer to the morning. All I will say is that Mitt Romney, who will probably oppose President Obama, is reassuring Israel. Israel and the US must have their arsenal, but…

I hope sincerely that President Obama will be re-elected. He is a man of peace. I left a brief message on Twitter which reads that we have entered “a new age of diplomacy.” The amount of money Israel and the US spend on defense is extremely high. In the US, lowering these expenses may be useful. There has to be money for defense, but the people need jobs and their social programs.

By the way, in Quebec, the demonstrations, called manifestations in French, are continuing. Protest has spread outside Quebec. The group has given itself a name: La Classe.

Isaac Levitan: Spirituality

Levitan is a very important Lithuanian–Russian artist, more important than I first thought. Additionally, spirituality was an important part of his life and it is a characteristic of his work.

The video I am including features, to a certain extent, that aspect of his life. It combines the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff (1 April 1873 – 28 March 1943) and some of the abundant number of paintings executed by Levitan. In the video the word “lyrical” landscapes is used. That seems fine. “Mood” landscapes could be considered a form of “lyrical” landscapes.