Goines On: ’Tis the season

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The Goineses chose Tuesday again for their weekly Costco shopping. Goines let his wife out to go in while he got gas. 

      When he entered the store himself, he was accosted by music loud enough that when he phoned Mrs. Goines to tell her he was in the store and ask where she was, each of them had to speak louder to rise above the din.
    Later, in the car, Mrs. Goines said she had complained to the front desk about the noise, but she was told, “The head office issued a directive we are to play seasonal music every hour during the month of December.”

Highways and Byways: In the Fire of This Water

By Maik Strosahl

Before getting my license to drive commercially, I worked a couple years in an Amazon warehouse picking orders. It’s a controlled chaos system intended to utilize every bit of available space, so it feels like a scavenger hunt with a scanner gun.
    On one of these many searches, I found a sobriety coin engraved with a serenity prayer for Native Americans who struggle with alcohol. I thought the message in the inscription was beautiful:

Boldt Words & Images: History’s Rhymes 9/11/73

Convergences

By Bob Boldt

[Appeared here originally four years ago today, on November 30, 2017.]

The poem below comes from a portfolio of poems that I submitted during fall semester for the “Poetry Workshop” at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. I hope in the coming months to publish a few more of these poems on Moristotle & Co.
    As a frame for today’s poem, I have adapted from the essay that accompanied the portfolio some hopefully relevant reflections on poetry and a poet.

From the Scratching Post:Courage

By Ken Marks

[Originally posted four days ago (on November 25, 2021) on The Scratching Post. Extracted here by permission of the author.]

The subject of courage baffles me. I hear people use the word, I see it in news stories, but I fail to grasp its essence. Maybe it has no essence. I’m told it has a relationship with fear and virtue, but I can’t find a felicitous connection. I’ve sought help in collections of quotations, and ... well, I’ll just show you what happens.

      I’ll start with the view of courage held by Joe Sixpack, as expressed by John Wayne, The Duke of Hollywood legend. With cowboy brevity, he said:

Courage is being scared to death ... and saddling up anyway.

    So many problems there. Wayne is offering only the warrior’s notion of courage, the kind that would probably be the death of me. I imagine my sergeant ordering me and a few others to charge up Pork Chop Hill and take out a machine gun nest. That sounds pretty reckless to me; I’ve got a family back home, and, oh yeah ... I don’t want to die. And damn that sergeant for the conflict he’s laid on me — either being labeled a coward and court-martialed or being riddled with bullets.
    OK, say I and one other soldier survive….

[Read the whole thing on The Scratching Post.]

Copyright © 2021 by Ken Marks Ken Marks was a contributing editor with Paul Clark & Tom Lowe when “Moristotle” became “Moristotle & Co.” A brilliant photographer, witty conversationalist, and elegant writer, Ken contributed photographs, essays, and commentaries from mid-2008 through 2012. Late in 2013, Ken birthed the blog The Scratching Post. He also posts albums of his photos on Flickr.

All Over the Place: Thanks for...

By Michael H. Brownstein

morning enters the room
a selfie
behind the hills
unconscious on his porch
empty bottles nearby

the disease of the woman,
saliva dripping from her open mouth
onto the sidewalk in a place once called
White Clay, Nebraska

Goines On: Clarification

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Goines had to scratch his mind to remember how he had decided the day before to start wearing his distance glasses all of the time, and not just for viewing something on the TV monitor, driving, and taking walks. (Of course, he wouldn’t wear them when he was using his reading or computer glasses.)
    He had already discovered in the first 24 hours of wearing his distance glasses all of the time that he felt better, livelier – even more optimistic. And he could swear that now he wasn’t bumping into stuff as much when walking around the house; now he was truly walking – not stumbling – around.

From the Alwinac: US Cello Performances, 1891-2 Season: An Annotated Timeline, part 1

[Click on image to
go directly to
the Alwinac’s home page]

[The Alwinac blog is part of the schroeder170 project, honoring the life and musical career of cellist Alwin Schroeder (1855-1928) and exploring the history of cello playing in the US.]


The 1891-2 season, Alwin Schroeder’s first in the US, saw an extraordinary convergence of musical talent in this country, and the development of rivalries between New York and Boston musicians and ensembles. The timeline below chronicles some of the concerts given by cellists in the US during October, November, and December, when Schroeder was taking his first steps in establishing himself as a leading cello soloist on this side of the Atlantic.

October 1891

9, 10    Music Hall, Boston – First BSO concerts with Alwin Schroeder as first cello

Formerly first cellist of the Leipzig Gewandhaus and Theatre orchestras (1880-1891), Schroeder came to Boston in September 1891 at the invitation of Boston Symphony Orchestra music director Arthur Nikisch to join the Kneisel Quartet and lead the BSO cello section. His BSO predecessors as first cellist included Wulf Fries (1881), Wilhelm Mueller (1882-4), Fritz Giese (1884-9), and Anton Hekking (1889-1891).

14      City Hall, Portland ME – Alwin Schroeder solos….
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Copyright © 2021 by Geoffrey Dean

Life Goes On

By Victor L. Midyett

The temperature this morning is the coldest it has been to date this autumn at 33˚F, just one degree above freezing for my Aussie friends.
    The grass is covered in a white sheet of frost, but thankfully there is no wind or even a breeze to speak of. The best part is there are no clouds and the sun is beaming brightly.

Goines On: Friends on the road

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Goines lifted the ice chest onto the back seat of the Volvo to hold the cold stuff he and Mrs. Goines expected to buy at Costco.
    They were going two days earlier than usual because “usual” would be Thanksgiving Day. He went back into the house to see whether Mrs. Goines was ready yet.
    “Oh,” she said, approaching in her housecoat, “I forgot we were going to Costco.”
    The bit of relief Goines felt at her confession surprised him. He joked, “I don’t know whether to feel relieved that you forget stuff too, or alarmed that the whole household memory is declining.”

From the Scratching Post:Fear and trembling

By Ken Marks

[Originally posted on The Scratching Post one month ago today, on October 23, 2021. Extracted here by permission of the author.]

Now and then I’m accused, usually for goods reasons, of being insensitive. At the year’s end, when the subject of new year’s resolutions comes up, I don’t write anything down, but I remind myself that insensitivity is a demon I haven’t exorcised. It’s a lifelong struggle.

Putting on a show

    So I counted it a personal victory when I realized how insensitively we celebrate Halloween. Of all our yearly observances, it’s the cruelest and most misguided. Millions of adults annually go out of their way to scare the bejesus out of little kids. They delude themselves by imagining that kids enjoy it, but the small fry have misled them. To save face, they’ll tell you, “Yow! I think my heart stopped! Ha ha ha!” Fright is supposedly fun. Just ask any roller coaster junky.
    I sense you doubting me....

[Read the whole thing on The Scratching Post.]

Copyright © 2021 by Ken Marks Ken Marks was a contributing editor with Paul Clark & Tom Lowe when “Moristotle” became “Moristotle & Co.” A brilliant photographer, witty conversationalist, and elegant writer, Ken contributed photographs, essays, and commentaries from mid-2008 through 2012. Late in 2013, Ken birthed the blog The Scratching Post. He also posts albums of his photos on Flickr.

From the Alwinac: Hugo Becker’s Love Scenes, Op. 7

[Click on image to
go directly to
the Alwinac’s home page]

[The Alwinac blog is part of the schroeder170 project, honoring the life and musical career of cellist Alwin Schroeder (1855-1928) and exploring the history of cello playing in the US.]


Liebesleben (Love Scenes), a “little suite” for cello and piano, was published in Liepzig by Max Brockhaus in 1894. I discovered it in the Carlo Fischer Collection at the Hennepin County Library in the summer of 2021.
    The six movements are Begegnung (First Sight), Zweifel (Doubt), In Traumen (Dreaming), Tandelei (Flitting), Frage (Question), and Antwort (Answer). The song-like form and expression of five of the movements is contrasted with the instrumentally-conceived and aptly-named Flitting movement. Becker dedicated this suit….

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Copyright © 2021 by Geoffrey Dean

All Over the Place:Dear Canadian Tourist Bureau

This is Why We Will Not Be Visiting Manitoba Anytime Soon, but We Are Thankful We Went Because We Discovered Frybread

By Michael H. Brownstein

Locked up knocked up trespassed vandalized and varnished,

Plum River curves into Manitoba earth easy as a pout, a frown, gimme tears.

Large mosquitoes thick with blood sprout from heavy grass like so many leopard frogs.

Who is this place where no one smiles?

Who is this place where no one knows thank you, please, excuse me?

A Couple of Maroons: Behind the Splash

Detail from
4th photo

By Craig McCollum & Maik Strosahl

More than one reader have requested more information about how the photo for our “Making a Splash” piece from September was produced. Let Craig tell you about it:

It was a lazy afternoon hanging out on the shoreline of Echo Lake in Montana. The sky was still filled with smoke from distant summer wildfires. It was getting late and I was caught by how the hazel light from the sun reflected across the water.

From the Scratching Post:Joy diminished

By Ken Marks

[Originally posted on The Scratching Post, November 19, 2018. Extracted here by permission of the author.]

I was elated the night of the midterm elections. The Democrats got a combative foot in the door! My tongue reached for appropriate cheers, something to express my joy and relief, and I knew at once that I was poorly equipped for the task.
    At such moments, one pulls up nothing but lame stuff — “Thank God!” or “Praise the Lord!“ or “Bless you, Jesus!” or other variations of religious programming. In my frustration, I wanted to cry out, “Yes, by Zeus!” But that’s the same thing, no?
    There are neo-religionists who, like me, would like to avoid invoking the conventional gods. So what do they say? Flaky stuff like “Bless the Universe!” or “Thank you, Cosmic Spirit!” The universe is gas and dust and a limitless quantum vacuum. It has no affections or affinities. We are on our own, with our values and our commitment or indifference to them.

[Read the whole thing on The Scratching Post.]

Copyright © 2018, 2021 by Ken Marks Ken Marks was a contributing editor with Paul Clark & Tom Lowe when “Moristotle” became “Moristotle & Co.” A brilliant photographer, witty conversationalist, and elegant writer, Ken contributed photographs, essays, and commentaries from mid-2008 through 2012. Late in 2013, Ken birthed the blog The Scratching Post. He also posts albums of his photos on Flickr.

From the Alwinac: Bel Canto Cellists: Cesare A. Casella pere et fils

[Click on image to
go directly to
the Alwinac’s home page]

[The Alwinac blog is part of the schroeder170 project, honoring the life and musical career of cellist Alwin Schroeder (1855-1928) and exploring the history of cello playing in the US.]


Listen to my performance of Chanson Napolitaine by C. A. Casella fils

A second-generation member of an Italian cello-playing family, Cesare A[ugustus] de Casella (1820-1884) was born in Lisbon, Portugal, to parents from the Italian city of Genoa. He was the eldest of three sons who were taught how to play the cello by their father, Pietro Casella (1790-ca. 1858), described as the founder of the Turin school of cello playing. After the family returned to Genoa, Casella made his solo debut there at the age of 14 and studied at the local conservatory. Following Pietro’s appointment as first cellist to King Charles Albert of Sardinia, Casella spent six years playing alongside his father (and, for one season, the teenage Alfredo Piatti) in the orchestra of the Royal Theatre in Turin before resigning this position to apply himself more seriously to the study of cello and composition.
    One of his early cello pieces, said to have been admired by the Sardinian king himself, was an Elegy on the death of Casella’s mother that he would continue to perform frequently. Casella received the titles of Solo Violoncellist of the royal court of Genoa and Professor of the Conservatory before creating a sensation in France, where his performances of his own compositions caused “tears to flow” and elicited flowery accounts:

Behold this fine young artiste, surrounded by a brilliant assemblage in the midst of a profound silence; his instrument is an organ which for a moment becomes part of himself….

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Copyright © 2021 by Geoffrey Dean