20-Word Fiction: Listen to Your Teachers

Greetings from the Hartford Public Library here in Hartford, Conn., which is not actually where we are blogging from but we expect they have every novel from Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, which have been translated into English.

Speaking of Turkey, today's image is of the famed Hagia Sophi, a state museum in Istanbul, Turkey, where actress Ashley Judd visited yesterday (we learned this from one of her tweets) which started as a Byzantine church before being converted to a mosque by the Ottomans.

Here is today's 20-word fiction which we are writing while listening to Brahms........:

"My religion professor said to be a true intellectual, one must read the Holy Bible and the Koran. Maybe so."

http://www.hplct.org/

Little Thinkers Quotes (7 of 16): Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Greetings to our blog-readers in Slovakia, Panama and Vietnam.

Tonight, we feature a special quote from Wolfgang Amadus Mozart, who has been the subject of the award-winning play and movie "Amadeus"as well as a '80s pop song by the late Falco, who also hailed from Mozart's Austria.

For those who enjoy listening to classical music on the radio, we highly recommend WETA, an NPR station in Washington, DC, dedicated virtually exclusively to classical music.

For those who want to see a symphony, as luck would have it, The Cleveland Orchestra in Cleveland, Ohio, is performing Mozart's 'greatest hits' this weekend (our words!).........

Here is the quote from Wolfgang Amadeus:

"There is no female Mozart because there is no female Jack the Ripper."

SIDEBAR: Brigham Young University's men's basketball team won a road game over San Francisco (university) last night; the final score was 83-76.

The visiting Cougars, which has a roster that includes former Wake Forest U stand-out Chase Fischer, were lead by Kyle Collingsworth (soph. guard who happens to hail from Provo, Utah, where BYU is located) who put in 19 points. His teammate and fellow Utah resident Skyler Hlaford Jr. added points for the Cougars (12-7, 4-2 in West Coast Conference). The home town Dons (yes, that is really the team's nickname!), which have a record of 12-7, 4-2 in the WCC, were lead by 26 points from Cole Dickerson. The game aired nationally on the ESPN networks.

Happy 200th Birthday, Richard Wagner

Greetings to those of you in Cyprus, Finland and Ethiopia and other parts to the world for taking time to read our blog. And, thanks to everyone here in America, who chose to read this as opposed to checking out "Dilbert" in their local newspaper. Of course, hopefully, there is time in your day to read "Dilbert" too!

Today marks the 200th anniversary of classical composer Richard Wagner's  birth. We, in no way, support his anti-Semitic views, but we do admire his tremendous body work, including "Rigoletto" which is one of our favorite operas.

So, we are going to quote the German composer here:

"Whatever my passions demand of me, I become for the time being_ musician, poet,director, author, lecturer, or anything else."

SIDEBAR: We want to wish our kudos to American Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman even though she did not win her "Dancing with the Stars" competition with her dancing partner; that honor went to country singer Kellie Pickler. We know one of them was paired with Mark Ballos and the other one was with Derek Hough, and if you want to know which one is correct then go check out Bing:)

IN THE WHOOPS DEPARTMENT: Ok, I just realized I inadvertently referred to "Rigoletto"as a Wagner opera; it is in fact an Italian opera by Verdi. But, as the great western philosopher Billy Joel once said: "You''re only human; you're supposed to make mistakes."

http://www.bing.com

http://www.dilbert.com

Teaser: Bach @ The Beach: A Myrtle Beach Diary

Though we didn't actually read "The Other Boleyn Girl," which was made into a movie with Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman, which we saw at an outdoor cinema in Buyukada (Istanbul), Turkey, while visiting Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, we thought that it does seem like the ideal book to bring to a beach, of course, then again, so would "50 Shades of Grey"!

"Bach at the Beach" sort of just came to us from the sky like the Hindu love god Shiva, but as it turns out there is an orchestra at Myrtle Beach?! They are called Long Bay Symphony, and, of course, we found out about them after the fact.

Stay tuned for our look at a long Mother's Day weekend trip to Myrtle Beach, SC, within the next few days.

http://www.visitmyrtlebeach.com

http://www.jsbach.org

http://www.longbaysymphony.com

Quote of the Day/Week-Sergei Prokofiev

We continue with quotes from famous people from Euro 2012 countries with a quote from the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) who is known for his great children's orchestral piece "Peter and the Wolf" (1936).

Russia beat the Czech Republic 4-1 on Friday; they face co-host Poland today.

Here is his quote:

"When the Second World War broke out, I felt that everyone must do his share, and I began composing songs and marches for the front. But soon events assumed such gigantic and far-reaching scope as to demand larger canvasses."

http://www.classicalarchives.com

Status Update_ Life Might Be Turning Back to Normal

Status Update for June 27, 2011:

"Life is apparently, somehow/somewhat becoming normal again. Can I listen to Slipknot now?"

For those who don't get my sense of humor, and many people do not, there is actually an entry on my sister blog "The Daily Vampire" with an image of the great composer Franz Liszt, whose music will be on the PRI/NPR show "Performance Today" this evening in our market.

Somehow, when the opportunity permits, I also like to listen to "Chainsaw Rock" on 88.1-FM (Raleigh), which is the North Carolina State student radio station. It airs from midnight to 2:00 a.m. on Friday night/Saturday morning; the show is hosted by Hammerhead. And, it is responsible for introducing me to the speed metal band Slipknot, a band that originated in Iowa, of all places!

Orginally, we were going to use Guns N Roses as the band for this entry, but we think Slipknot makes it more offbeat and perhaps slightly funnier. My own personal favorite music genres are actually Turkish psychedelic music from the '70s and New Wave music from the '80s. I should add that I much prefer Talking Heads over Culture Club. And, Turkish psychedelic pioneer Erkin Koray turned 70 this month.

A Turkish music radio show airs on WUVT-FM (90.7, Blacksburg, Va.), the student station of Virginia Tech, on Saturdays from 1:00 p.m.-2:30 p.m.

Quote of the Day- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

We are hoping to start a series of blog entries about my 36-hour trip to Washington, DC, and hopefully, when I can get around to it at some point next week, I will remember the annoying cute young couple who did look a real-life Ken and Barbie. Their mutual lack of communication made me also wonder if they had batteries in their necks.

I also saw this supposedly-Hispanic guy who looked like he journeyed forward in time from the set of the 1970s sitcom "Chico and the Man." I saw all three of these people on the DC Metro, and the supposedly-Hispanic guy in his early 20s had this huge Afro which might well be a nuisance at the Kennedy Center.

We are going to entitle our series "Amadeus in Bethesda" because the Roundhouse Theatre in Bethesda, Maryland, is performing the famed Peter Shaffer play. The production will be helmed by Mark Ramont, and the cast features Edward Gero, Sasha Olinick, Floyd King and Laura C. Harris. It runs through June 5.

Shaffer is still alive and well as he turned 85 on May 15.

WETA-FM, the Washington DC area's main classical music station is focusing on the music of another great composer Gustav Mahler until the end of the month, but we imagine they will play a fair share of Mozart music as well.

We leave you with this quip from the great Austrian composer Mozart (1756-1791) who alas died way too young:

"I thank god for graciously granting me the opportunity of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness."

Status Update_ Cat Scratch Fever

My six-year-old (soon to be seven-year-old) cat Gizmo is actually a tuxedo cat. But he is one with a naughty streak.

This morning, as I was feeding him no less, he scratched my hand and hissed. I suppose he doesn't tuna (he must be one of the very few cats in the old who would prefer something else.....moo goo gaipan?!)

So my Status Update for 1/30/11 is: "This morning, my crazy Gizmo scratched the hell out of me."

I suppose that is one of the nice things about living in Cucumber, W.Va*, it is that it brings pure delight to use the word hell on a Sunday morning. Of course, doing it publicly is perhaps not a good idea, definitely not in a small hamlet in southeastern West Virginia.

For those who wish to adopt a cat or dog in Greensboro, NC, they can reach the Guilford County Animal Shelter at 336-297-5020. And, for those in Richmond, Va., they can contact the Henrico County Animal Shelter at 804-652-3360.

And, to those in the Washington, DC metro area who want to ease my guilt for listening to Mozart via an Internet stream from WETA-FM (an NPR station that only plays classical music), they can go to http://weta.org/fm (.), but don't tell them I sent you!

Alas, we can not list every animal shelter in the country up here, but we can always make fun of West Virginia!

*- Yes, Cucumber, W.Va., does really exist. No, I don't actually live there. According to Wikipedia (don't tell them, I 'borrowed' info on them, the small mining community in McDowell County is the only Cucumber in America!

PS- Alas, my beloved Radford University Highlanders lost to Coastal Carolina yesterday, but we did found out that surprisingly enough the women's tennis team has four young ladies from Croatia, and one of them, Mia Drobnjak has a name that's very hard to spell (well, she has my sympathies actually!)

Quotes from the Composers- Zoltan Kodaly

We conclude our Quotes from The Composers series with a quip from Hungarian master Zoltan Kodaly (1882-1967) who was also an educator, linguist and philosopher. Kodaly is perhaps best-known for his orchestral/opera "Hary Janos" (1926) which Wikipedia describes as 'a Hungarian folk opera.' It was first performed by the Royal Hungarian Opera House in Budapest that same year.

We love this quote, and in case, you were wondering the image above is of Hungarian goulash, which they might serve at the Mirabell Restaurant in Chicago, which is actually a German restaurant:

"The laws of morals and the laws of music are the same."

Classical music fans in Pittsburgh, Pa., can hear a performance of "Mozart's Symphony, Number 4" on Jan. 28 at 8:00 p.m., followed by another performance on Jan. 30 at 2:30 p.m.

SIDEBAR: Since I am a Turkish-American, it may surprise a few folks that I am a huge fan of the Greek film composer Mikis Theodakris, who is alive and well (we hope!) at age 85. Theodakris is known for his legendary compostions to "Z" and "Zorba the Greek" and he also scored the 1973 Al Pacino drama "Serpico."

One can listen to WUVT-FM (90.7 Blacksburg, Va), the student-run college radio station of Virginia Tech, for Greek music from 11 a.m.-1:00 p.m. on Saturdays. A Turkish music show follows on the same station from 1:00-2:30 p.m. I co-hosted a Turkish music show on WUVT in 1994 and I was told that I played too much music from the late pop singer Baris Manco which proves it's impossible to make people happy!

Quote from The Composers- Edvard Grieg

Since we really like kitsch and all things Scandanavian (though I've never been to Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden or Finland), we thought we'd quip the great Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) for our entry in the series today.

Grieg is known piano miniatures "Lyric Pieces" and his piano concertos in A-minor; he was born in Bergen. The composer also drew inspiration from Norwegian folk music.

Earlier today, we learned that Norway is NOT one of the 27 European Union member nations (neither is Iceland) from our friends at "Mental Floss" (actually, we don't know a single person who works for that ultra-hip magazine, based in Birmingham, Alabama- of all places). I was able to name every member state except one: Cyprus. The irony here is quite well ironic because I have been to Cyprus (well, the northern Turkish part) and Greece and Turkey, the country of my late father, fought over the island nation in a short, but bloody war in 1974.

Getting back to Grieg, whose music is of course more relevant than silly ethnic squabbles (note to my friends in Athens: our yogurt is better than your yogurt!), here is a quip from the Norwegian master who perhaps just couldn't stand Swedes:

"Suddenly a mist fell from my eyes and I knew the way I had to take."

SIDEBAR: For those interested in classic music who live in Salt Lake City, Utah, the Utah Symphony will be conducting Stravinsky's Pulcinetta from Jan. 27-29, which we perhaps should have mentioned yesterday when we were quoting Russian composers!

Quotes from The Composers- Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Today, as promised, we are featuring quotes from legendary Russian composers and today we quip Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) who the Romanitc era composer who composed symphonies, operas and chamber music. But, he is arguably best known for his ballets, which include "The Nutcracker" and "Swan Lake."

Since "The Black Swan" is in cinemas now, and we FINALLY saw it last week (I was actually going to post an entry called The Curse of the Black Swan because every time I wanted to see the film something went wrong; it is definitely one of the best films from 2010), the image of an actual black swan seemed nifty. At least, it did to Javier the intern*. The image (according to Javier) is from Perth, Australia.

Natalie Portman also won a Golden Globe Award for her cinematic performance as a ballet dancer in "Black Swan." But, since we were not able to watch the broadcast (though I saw on Twitter that foul-mouthed comedian Sarah Silverman did!), we could not see if Portman was wearing her trademark vegan sandals.

But, getting back to Tchaikovsky, here is today's quote from the Russian master:

"Truly there would be more reason to go mad were it not for music."

SIDEBAR: As we have mentioned before, there is a sequel to the hit book "Stuff White People Like" based on the ever-popular blog of the same name (they get thousands more hits than we do even though there are only periodic entries?!). The new book by Christian Lander is called "Whiter Shades of Pale." He will be promoting it at Book Cellar in Chicago on Thursday.

According to the blog's last entry from December, these days white people seem to enjoy Christopher Guest films on dvd (like "Waiting for Guffman"), cd compilations of Bolivian music (he has me there!) and single-malt scotch.

*-Javier is a fictional person!

Quote from The Composers_ J.S. Bach

Yes, we do have an odd sense of humor, hence we are posting an image of a '70s disco ball with our entry with a quip from the great Baroque period German composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750).

Bach has been more in the news lately as New York musician Simone Dinnerstein (daughter of painter Simon Dinnerstein) has just released "Bach: A Strange Beauty" which is the combination of two keyboard concertos to Bach. The recording and Dinnerstein's album were recently featured on NPR.

Dinnerstein will be performing close to home at Duke University in Durham, NC, with Tift Merrit on Jan. 21 and 22.

Among Bach's great works are "The Brandenberg Concerts," "The Goldberg Variations," "The St. Matthew Passion" and "The St. John Passion."

Here is the quote from Bach, which I personally adore:

"If I decide to be an idiot, I'll be an idiot on my own accord."

Quote from The Composers- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Yes, we decided to use an image of the late '80s Austrian pop singer Falco (1957-1998), who alas like John Lennon and Lenny Bruce died when he was 40 (which is yikes my age!). Of course, all of us who grew up in the '80s or saw the movie "Adventureland" know that Falco (who was actually more like a two-hit wonder) was best known for the 1986 smash hit single "Rock Me Amadeus," which I think all of us got sick and tired of. But, today, much like the Swedish pop group Abba, it has grown on us like kudzu!

(If memory serves me right, Falco died in a car accident on some island near Jamaica. We need our Honduran intern Javier to verify that once he gets back from Chucky Cheese!).

As for the Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), who also died quite young, he is of course known as 'the genius of Salzburg' as he composed many musical classics, including the operas "The Magic Flute," "The Marriage of Figaro" and "The Shephard King"- to name a few.

And, more importantly, he was the subject of Milos Forman's 1985 Oscar-winning film "Amadeus" which is based on a play of the same name by Peter Shaffer.

Here is our quote from Mozart, which is one I sincerely agree with:

"I pay no attention to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings."

For classical music lovers in Roanoke, Va., the Roanoke Symphony will be giving a performance called "Movie Masterworks" on Jan. 24. More details are available at their web site (rso.com).

Quote of the Week- Ludwig van Beethoven

Gazooks! It has been almost a full week since we last posted a blog entry, but I am still here.

We continue with a quip from German composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) whom we all know from "A Clockwork Orange" (I know classical music people will hate me for saying that!).

For those interested, the Beethoven music in Stanley Kubrick's classic 1971 film is "Beethoven's ninth symphony, fourth movement."

Beethoven was also portrayed by actor Gary Oldman in "Immortal Beloved" (1994).

Here is our quote from Ludwig:

"Anyone who tells a lie has not a pure heart, and cannot make good soup."

One can listen to classical music 24/7 on WCPE (89.7-FM) in Raleigh, NC.

"A Clockwork Orange" will be screened at the Bardavan Opera House (ironically enough) in Poughkeepsie, NY, on Jan. 28.