Poetic odds + ends

The Hellespont, in Greece.

Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos

"If, in the month of dark December,

Leander, who was nightly wont

(What maid will not the tale remember?)

To cross thy stream, broad Hellespont!

If, when the wintry tempest roar'd,

He sped to Hero, nothing loth,

And thus of old thy current pour'd,

Fair Venus! how I pity both!

For me, degenerate modern wretch,

Though in the genial month of May,

My dripping limbs I faintly stretch,

And think I've done a feat today.

But since he cross'd the rapid tide,

According to the doubtful story,

To woo,--and--Lord knows what beside,

And swam for Love, as I for Glory;

'Twere hard to say who fared the best:

Sad mortals! thus the gods still plague you!

He lost his labour, I my jest;

For he was drown'd, and I've the ague."

~ Lord Byron 

A Word

A word is dead

When it is said,

Some say.

I say it just

Begins to live

That day.

~ Emily Dickinson <3

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Well, my brother is composing a satirical song about the Occupy Wallstreet Movement, my sister is reading a kid's how-to-make-mostly-useless-but-completly-engrossing-stuff book, and I am was absorbed in eating a peirogie.

Well, not completely absorbed! 

Music?

No, I'm not really a big fan of 50's music, but I kinda like this song. (It was in Disney's The Lion King)

A-wemoweh a-wemoweh.

You really should go and check out David's (my brother) blog: A Second Shot 

I redesigned it and he finally added some new photos. He took my new profile shot too. A budding photographer.

Also, breeding season for the sheep should be starting very soon. Fingers crossed for multiple (healthy) lambs in the spring!   

Lastly, a humorous poem, which those of you familiar with Longfellow can appreciate-

The Modern Hiawatha 

by George A. strong

He killed the noble Mudjokivis.
Of the skin he made him mittens,
Made them with the fur side inside,
Made them with the skin side outside.
He, to get the warm side inside,
Put the inside skin side outside;
He, to get the cold side outside,
Put the warm side fur side inside.
That's why he put the fur side inside,
Why he put the skin side outside,
Why he turned them inside outside.

mystery

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Genesis 1:1 (as if you didn't know that! I'm just OCD; had to put the reference)

What really is out there, in the deep black void which men have been studying since the beginning?

This post really doesn't even attempt to answer that question (it would be pretentious), but these marvellous photos should inspire you with a sense of awe for our almightly, perfect, and truly omnipotent Creator.

We will never know fully what strange beings are out in the millions of galaxies. But from this earth, we can observe stars which we have named after false gods with their mysterious titles---the miniscule panorama we see from Earth, a relatively small planet in  "in the gleam of a million million of suns?"  (Tennyson)

(Sorry, Northern hemisphere only...:P)

^^^Orion, my favorite constellation, close up. If you live in the N.H. it is easily recognizable by the three stars which make up the hunter's belt.

SUPERNOVA!!!!

credits

^Andromeda galaxy closeup.

Andromeda galaxy from Earth.

We live in a galaxy known collectively by the endearing moniker the Milky Way.

~~~~~~~~~~

Isn't that awesome? And I mean "awesome" in the unadulterated sense of the word.

Remember, God only gave us dominion over Earth. What is really out there?

I don't know, but I am nearly positive there isn't a goat. (BTW, you too can edit your photo to look like that at Picnik.com)

Astronomy is so cool, fascinating, and non-practical. It is one of the seven liberal arts from the Ancients. 

Music: Holst's 'The Planets' (scroll down for the download)

~~~~~~~~~~~

Hope you all had a wonderful Monday, Halloween, and if you went trick or treating I hope you don't eat too much candy and get sick.

Auf Weidersehn, 

~Diana

our need for music

Been busy here, fellow carbon-based life forms. Will try to post one *good* post a week during the school year.
So many things I could post about: my upcoming birthday, the ban on DDT and malaria, the decay of popular culture, music, what love really is, or I could post a recipe for chocolate milk which will make you die. (In a good way, that is, not a bad way!)
Well, I think I shall have to pick......music.


                                               ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 
(being rather a perfectionist, I HAD to make the divider another color!)


Music: It can feed your soul or kill it. It can change hearts or harden them. It can get your adrenaline pumping, or bore you half to death.*


Why does the human mind seem to need music? It isn't essential for life, and neither can we eat it. The answer may lie in the fact that men (and here I mean the entire race of man, not only the male portion of it) do not consist of merely their physical bodies. We are the (proud) possessors of immortal souls as well, created by a higher being as was the body.  And this soul needs food as much as our bodies do. No, we can't feed our brains cheeseburgers. In fact, the brain exercising and soul growing is in fact the hardest part of being human. It is much easier to change our physical bodies then to change our hearts. Thus, it would stand to reason that feeding our souls nourishing meat and drink would also require more mental work than not feeding it, and staying the way you are now for eternity.


But I digress...to return the subject at hand (and not wander off into a theological and metaphysical** quandary), my hypothesis of why we need (and, to assuage that need, create and perform) music, is that "real" music feeds our souls. And by "real" music, I mean hard music. Classical music,*** generally, or any true or beautiful music which may not appeal to you at first, depending on your level of education, peers, or family.


Forgive me for using a cliched example, but this could be compared to....food.**** You could think of classical (or difficult) music as the meat, or in a vegan's case, soy protein, of the diet. And the more vapid, less deep music, or "music" as the case may be, as dessert, candy bar, marshmallow, poison, or everything else.


Or think of it this way: If you can train your ears to enjoy deeper things: good literature (as opposed to light-n-fluffy reading, Dick and Jane, or romance novels*****), great music (hey, there has to be a reason it has survived so long!), healthier food (your body needs to eat sometimes too) or harder things in general, you can still enjoy the less fluffy stuff (sometimes).
 But if you are only trained to the fluffy (sometimes in the complimentary sense)) stuff, you will have a hard time understanding the deeper stuff. 


Which will you choose?


And as a final note, your soul's worth lies in your own hands. It is your own choice what you make of yourself; whether you feed your soul with the good stuff, the meat and drink, the soy protein****** which will enlarge you mind, or keep on stuffing the junk food into your mind, the effects of which may not be visible right away, but will eventually accumulate in something far worse than a sick body: moral and mental decay!


Finis.


FOOTNOTES:


*For instance, country or pop music.
**What a fun word to say: metaphysical! I <3 long words.
***Classical music hasn't actually been proven to make  you smarter, but it can't hurt IMHO. And it doesn't distract you from your work with silly lyrics.
****.....Always a good thing. Especially with chocolate or frosting. 


***** "Oh George, marry me, darling, or I shall throw myself off this cliff!"
******Yuck. Save soybeans, eat more cow. ;-) 


(These footnotes were fun to write!)


OKAY. Now that I have attempted to convince you of the importance of "real" music in the grand scheme of things, I feel liberated to jabber on about my personal music preferences.


Never having been much exposed to more popular and recent music as a young child, I grew up thankfully old-fashioned in my music tastes. Now that I am older, the more I see of popular music  today (2011) the less I am impressed with few exceptions. Some of it seems to be a sort of opiate of the masses, keeping them distracted from bigger issues, and some of it is just obscene, and some of it is just dumb, at least to me.

For classical composers, my two hands-down favorites are Beethoven, and Mozart. (NO, I did NOT forge their signatures. I got them off Wikipedia)





For me, Beethoven portrays the most timeless passion, strong beauty and mystery in his music. His themes are always fresh and new sounding, never dated. My particular favorite of all of his works I have listened to thus far is his Piano Concerto #4. It reminds me of the power and inscrutability of the ocean. His pieces are rendered even more amazing by the fact that he was deaf when he wrote some of them! Personally, Ludwig Beethoven was said to be a strange and turbulent character, proof that God can work through all of us! 
I'm planning on listening to every single one of his symphonies. No, stupid, not all at once.





And Mozart's music is just....beautiful. His music with its often incredibly melodies reminds me of a dancer, light and airy on her feet, skipping through high soprano pieces and darker, heavier pieces with perfect ease. His music sounds like his signature looks. And I am a fan of some of his opera music (from, at least those I have listened to!) Being a kind, thoughtful person,I will post links to Voi, Che Sapete (one of my favorite pieces to sing) and L'ho perduta, me meschina (another fun piece to sing). I can't say I've listened to a ton of Mozart; will have to sometimes.


Chopin is nice for something different.


On to singers: I can't say I have a favorite singer. I do enjoy opera, which while not for everyone, is thoroughly dramatic, tragic, romantic, melodramatic (I enjoy amateurly over-acting scenes) and beautiful. 
Favorite pieces at the moment:


Una Voce Poco Fa from the Barber of Seville (Rossini) as sung by Maria Callas.
Casta Diva from Norma can't remember who composed it?!
Nessun Dorma from Turandot 
O Mio Babbino Caro 


Anyway, I also like a select few Broadway musicals: namely, My Fair Lady and Man of La Mancha.  The former because it is hilarious, and the latter because it reminds me of these goofy goats, and I like the music!


I listen to jazz with der Vater sometimes too, which is okay, but puts me to sleep, sadly.


But my absolute overall just plain FUN music HAS to be Gilbert and Sullivan. Hilarious, extremely fun to both sing and act, and witty lyrics and also alliterative agony. 


What music makes you, dear readers, the most happy?


Auf Weidersehn!


~ Diana


"Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing."
Psalm 100:2

music, life, and other ramblings....

Two very different songs:

1957- Julie Andrews sings "The Lass with the Delicate Air", an old English folksong I sang in June for my recital. Perfect diction, as always.

And you are going to hate me for this--Julian Smiths absolute WORST song ever! It is so irritating, not funny, and obnoxious, that I think you should have it stuck inside your head too! I'm an extremely compassionate blogger. ;-)

So, on to less jovial subjects...or not. Joviality does indeed have its place.

Last night the other females members of our household and me went to see H.M.S. Pinafore as performed, in a simplified concert form, by the Cornell Savoyards of Ithaca, NY. They did a fantastic job! We really enjoyed it. I was in the chorus of this operetta in 2009. Lots of fun!

I performed with the Summer Savoyards, which is an amateur group which performs a different G + S each July. They're doing Patience this year, if anyone wants to go see it. We're going!

Gilbert and Sullivan is amazing! W.A. Gilbert wrote the witty and gently satirical lyrics and dialogue in the 1880s. It goes perfectly with the sparklings music composed by Arthur Sullivan, who also composed a "real" opera and the hymn Onward Christian Soldiers. For a sampling of G + S just go onto Youtube. 

From Pinafore's dialogue:

"I am poor in the essence of happiness, lady --— rich only in never-ending unrest. In me there meet a combination of antithetical elements which are at eternal war with one another. Driven hither by objective influences — thither by subjective emotions — wafted one moment into blazing day, by mocking hope — plunged the next into the Cimmerian darkness of tangible despair, I am but a living ganglion of irreconcilable antagonisms. I hope I make myself clear, lady?"

I love that line: "I am but a living ganglion of irreconcilable antagonisms." i can even pronounce it!  Ah, the joys of using and learning really long words, even if half the time no one can make out what you're saying....

Finally, as a suitable ending to a completely raggletaggle assortment of blatherings, a photo of a toucan. NOT MY PHOTO.