From Ariel Rámirez’ gorgeous Missa Criolla, as performed by José Carreras.
My boyfriend turned me on to this beautiful album in the early years of our courtship. His dad was a bigwig at Philips, bringing home one of the first CD players and high-end digital recordings like this one.
If I correctly remember the story, a producer was on holiday in Spain and had his mind blown when he heard a small-town choir and orchestra performing in the local church. All the performers were locals — butchers, barbers, bakers, but they came together in that church to make music of a rare and furtive power.
This producer called in José Carreras (who would shortly thereafter be treated for leukemia) as well as some additional session musicians, including the composer of the Misa Criolla himself as pianist. It was a bunch as eclectic as the music they’d make together; unequal parts South American, Spanish and Latin, with roots in diverse, but unified traditions.
Lastly, they sought out some beardy nerds from my home country, as Philips boasted the finest sound engineers in the world. They wanted to record on-site, in that little old church, to capture the magical resonance the producer had heard that first time.
My boyfriend’s mother had an old VHS tape of a documentary about the engineering prowess that went into capturing a live performance in such a space, for digital mixing no less. The long-haired Dutchmen would carefully place corrugated sound baffling sheets just here, and then aim the microphone just there to catch just that reflection…
There was a really funny bit, too: an exhausting siku panflute solo that had the (bearded) panflautist red in the face was to be followed by Carreras bellowing “Balthazar!” except he kept mangling it to “Balzathar!”. While Carreras kept his good humor at his repeated flubs, you could see the panflautist very rapidly reaching the point of explosion.
While I prefer the version on the album, I know that’s mostly because I’ve listened to it so often. This version is very good too. I especially love how the guy in the green is so moved by the spirits when he plucks the strings of his little charango.
"Reëlection" - does English use the diaeresis?
In the linked-to article on the New Yorker, Richard Socarides uses the spelling “reëlection”. This is the first time I’ve seen the diaeresis, the two points over the e, used in this fashion.
Germans call it Umlaut, but use it primarily to modify the sound of vowels. In Dutch we call it a ‘trema’ and use it exclusively to separate two adjoining monopthong vowels, preventing them from being parsed as a dipthong.
Concretely, that means exactly what’s happening here: the diaeresis over the second e notifies the reader that the word is re/e/lec/tion, not reel/ec/tion.
Since Dutch borrows the German habit of combining related words, we need this diacritic pretty badly, though it’s not such a huge problem since the late-’90s spelling reform.
A classic example is the word ‘reeëëer’, a bizarre word even by Dutch standards. A ‘ree’ is a deer, ‘eer’ is honor, and they’re joined by another e to make the word flow. “Honor of deer / a deer”. The result is that the connecting e needs a trema to separate it, and the first e in ‘eer’ also needs separating. The spelling reform chilled it out somewhat and now it’s ’ reeëneer’, which is obviously miles better.
Anyway: I’ve never seen this diacritic used like this in English.
Socarides, who penned the author, was an adviser to Clinton, so I can only assume he enjoyed a robust education.
So, to my American friends, the question: what’s up with this? Is this use of the diaeresis old-fashioned, or restricted to certain educational institutions?
Is it still a King Cheetah when it’s a girl?
by JanKihle on DA:
The sun started to settle in front of me when this cheetah came running and halted some 10 m in front of me. For a blink of an eye she (a Queen Cheetah from Shingwedzi) stared right into my eyes, in a highly agitated maner (note the rising fur on her back). One of those memorable moments in time! Jan K
Source: jackdanielle
Clever short film settles the Canon vs Nikon argument. Looks a fair bit slicker than the one I linked in May!
(by GerardHenninger)
Source: youtube.com
And in other cute animal news, here are dogs in cars sticking their snooters out the window.
It’s a dog thing.
Source: vimeo.com
Fun with voice-mods: some sample vocal effects I made for the draconic Drakes from Rukis’ and @Alectorfencer’s comic “Red Lantern”.
Go to Google Maps. Search for “Cunt”. Watch Google’s suggestion.
Me thinks someone isn’t over a certain censorship issue.
Bad Dog Books is joining FurPlanet!
Bad Dog Books and FurPlanet have long been partners, and now it’s time to tie the knot! So to speak.
Effective immediately, Bad Dog Books will transition from an independent publisher to an imprint of FurPlanet, bringing with it the portfolio of novels and the anthology series ROAR and FANG. The anthologies will continue to be produced by their current staff, the books will continue to be sold with the BDB logo — everything will keep going just as it was, only better.
Since its inception in 2005, BDB hasn’t had its own printing and distribution facilities. These had to be secured elsewhere: first through the print-on-demand service Lulu.com, later by contracting FurPlanet. This has always been an expensive proposition, and by joining FurPlanet and becoming an imprint, a lot of overhead is eliminated.
In many ways it’s business as usual. The finishing touches are being put on the fourth volumes of FANG and ROAR, we have a few cool new products on the horizon for 2012 (you’ll hear more about those soon enough), and all of us at BDB will keep at our mission to deliver fine furry fiction to our readers.
Which means, concretely, that the authors, editors and artists will get more money. Score!
Of course, Bad Dog Books cares about readers as much as authors, and Furplanet share our passion. So until the end of December all BDB books and comics will be discounted $5.
This is a tasteful Dutch ad for a push-up bra. The model is a dude. That is pretty cool.
Source: nrc.nl
A Weekend in Paris
The boyfriend and I snuck off for a quick, cheap weekend in Paris. It’s been years since I’ve been there, and never before in winter. Magnificent!
