I was more in the mood for Beethoven than lunch yesterday in between my classes. So I sat at the piano and continued playing my way through his sonatas. I was playing the Bb major, opus 22, movement 1 when a young ballet instructor walked through the studio returning equipment he had been using.
(I played it much slower than this recording)
He came over and asked me what it was I was playing. He seemed to be attracted to the music. We chatted amiably for a bit. He played french horn in high school and has since studied bagpipes and didgeridoo.
He has recently taken up ukulele and recognized Amanda Palmer’s name when I mentioned it to him.
Pleasant conversations like this diminish my pessimism about universities.
At 5:30 PM I finished my 3rd class and counting the hour of Beethoven finished up 5.5 hours sitting at the piano bench.
I was pretty tired after that. I walked to Mr. You’s (a pretty good Chinese take out housed in a former A&W section of a Shell station nearby) and ordered supper for Eileen and me.
This morning I am still pretty exhausted. I listened to This American Life. They had a disturbing report on the new laws in Alabama aimed at driving out illegal aliens, the so-called self deportation law.
The idea is to make illegals so frightened that they go home.
Nice.
It’s hard for me to swallow since I tend to think that every person is individually more significant than the idea of countries and organizations. I was surprised when one politician, himself a self professed Xtian, confessed that even with the modifications he was supporting to this law he just couldn’t see Jesus voting for it.
Nice.
On a lighter note, I found this parody by William Carlos Williams in the footnotes to volume one of his collected poetry this morning:
Trees
Of all the things that I could be
I had to be a lousy tree,A tree that stands out in the street
With little dogs around my feet.I’m nothing else but this, alas,
A comfort station in the grass.I lift my leafy arms to pray,
Get away, little doggie, get away!A nest of robins I must wear
And what they do gets in my hair.Of all the things I had to be
I had to be a goddam tree.
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In San Francisco, a Push for Public Benches – NYTimes.com
No benches for the homeless….
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NBC News Asks Romney Campaign to Remove Ad – NYTimes.com
I’m definitely not a Romney guy, but I don’t agree at all with NBC about this. Why is this reporting not public record?
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Slow Freedom of Information Answers a Shade on Window Into Washington – NYTimes.com
The pace of revealing information reminds of Dickens’ Bleak House.
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Gay Won’t Go Away, Genetic or Not – NYTimes.com
Frank Bruni tells a personal and touching story.
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I love the TM behind Rasmussen Reports.
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Adding It Up: Press Freedom, Democratic Health and Public Media Funding | Save the News
US number 47 in Reporters Without Borders 2011 Press Freedom rating.
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STUDY: The Press And The Pipeline | Media Matters for America
It’s not just the government that is inundated by big business partisans.
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