Unfriend?

When I typed the title word for this post on the Blogger application, the spelling checker immediately flagged me. I did not correct it, or add it to my on-line dictionary. Accordingly, this word "unfriend" was named as the New Oxford American Dictionary (NOAD) word of the year in 2009. An associated word also registered acceptance in the dictionary was "defriend".

These words have lex-appeal in this intensely charged techno-social networking age. It is now understood, though grammatically incorrect, for someone to say, "I have unfriended President Obama" from the Facebook. You say President Obama only does Twitter? No problem. You could just "tweetup" the prez in you Blackberry or iPhone. If you don't agree with his health care plan or tax and spend socialist policies, you can't "untweep" or "unfollow" him just yet in Twitter. These words, you see, are not sanctioned by NOAD. I should think they will be by the end of the year. (Surely, you may say these words or make up you own. I am just being sarcastic.)

For the New Oxford American Dictonary to bestow its blessings on the life-style words, as though it owns them, is a shrew business ploy. Notwithstanding the detractors and supporter of this tactic, Oxford University is latching on to its brand name recognition and holding an edge over the competitors. It is much like what Forbes does each year by scoring America's Most Livable Cities. What sells matters.

Thus the butchering of the English tongue continues in the twenty-first century.

A Graffiti Bolero

Joseph Maurice Ravel
French Neo-classical composer
(7 March, 1875 – 28 December, 1937)
The MP3 below expired on 03-09-2010.
Click here for current selection.

The Planets (2002)
Bolero Fantasy (after Ravel)

Brazilian Bach Pieces No. 5

Antônio Parreiras - Fantasia (1909)
Today's post is a little something about Brazilian arts, but with a twist. We have art within art in both the painting (above) and music (below).

In Parreiras' painting "Fantasia", he paints an artist painting vases. Quick. How many vases are in the painting? If you would only look at the vases...*grin*

As for our birthday guest, Heitor Villa-Lobos, he loves the works of JS Bach. In his Bachianas brasileiras (Brazilian Bach Pieces), Villa-Lobos insinuates Bach's artistry into his own distinctive compositions.

It gives me pleasure to post one of Villa-Lobos most recognized and popular Brazialian Bach Pieces for your listening enjoyment. Click on the link below to listen to this piece.

Heitor Villa-Lobos
Brazilian-born composer
(5 March, 1887 - 17 November 1959)
The MP3 below expired on 03-06-2010.
Click here for current selection.

Werner Muller and His Orchestra (1971)
Bachianas brasileiras No. 5 (Villa-Lobos)

A Neither Here Nor There Video

I made this video for the birthday anniversaries of G.F. Handel and Richard Lewis. The former's birthday was on 23 February, and the latter is on 10 May. It's a case of either a too late or too early tribute for the artists.
Follow the libretto on the screen and sing along in English. The music and words are very beautiful. Enjoy.

Click on the following YouTube link to view the video:

Richard Lewis, Tenor
"Where'er You Walk"
(Air from Handel's Semele)
Click here to view this L'Envoi YouTube.

The Five Daughters of Zelophehad

In two of her novels, "Pride and Prejudice" and "Sense and Sensibility", Jane Austen writes about the angst of women who were not permitted to inherit, and therefore, not to continue to live in the same home, upon the death of either husbands or fathers. If there were no brothers or sons in the families, the properties must be entailed to some close or distant male kin.

Entailing property was a historical fact in Austen's time, during the Regency Era between 1811 and 1820.

A similar fate almost happened to five women in the Old Testament. In the tribe of Manasseh, the great-grandson of Joseph (that Joseph who was sold into slavery in Egypt), Zelophehad, died in the wilderness and survived by five daughters. Accordingly, there being no males in the family, there could be no land alloted to these women once the trans-Jordan crossing into and possession of Canaan occurred.

This incident was not so minor, however, for the five daughters of Zelophehad were mentioned nine times in the Old Testament (Numbers 26:33; Numbers 27:1; Numbers 27:7; Numbers 36:2; Numbers 36:6; Numbers 36:10; Numbers 36:11, Joshua 17:6; and 1 Chronicles 7:15). God instructed that these woman were to be given their portion of the land in Canaan, with the proviso they marry men from the same tribe. Thus the inheritance was complete for all rightful heirs of the tribe of Manasseh.

Surely, a modern scholar or two might pontificate on the Jewish state, history, land, intrigues, wars, and so forth. In some circles, the five daughters of Zelophehad would be fodder for gender politics. Lest we forget, Canaan was a land promised and gift of God from the time He called Abraham in Ur of Chaldees (Genesis 12:1).

All biblical statements (i.e. the Bible) are of God. There is a spiritual and theological thread binding the Old and the New Testaments. When God made provisions for the daughters to inherit land in Canaan, He was and is saying, His own children, male and female alike, are all recipients of the promise - in Canaan, and in Christ kingdom to come. As we read in Ephesians 1:13-14 of the New Testament:

13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation--having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory. (NASB)

There is no entailing of God's inheritance. He has prepared a place for us (John 14:2). The deed is guaranteed for eternity.

Viva Torroba!

Federico Moreno Torroba
Spanish-born composer
(3 March, 1891 - 12 September, 1982)
Classical guitarist Andrés Segovia was born on 21 February, 1893. Spanish composer Federico Torroba was two years younger. The latter was born on 3 March, 1891.

So then, on 3 March, we celebrate the two artists' birthdays together with Segovia playing a Torroba composition.

A quite piece goes nicely with your cup of herbal tea.

The MP3 below expired on 03-04-2010.
Click here for current selection.

Andrés Segovia, classical guitar (2002)
Romanza de los piños (Torroba)
The mood of this soft guitar music, pine trees notwithstanding, brings to mind a Spanish Renaissance song of a girl who awaits her beloved:

Si la noche se hace oscura
y tan corto es el camino,
cómo no venís, amigo?
La media noche es pasda
y él que me pena no viene,
mi desdicha lo detíene,
que nací tan desdichada.
Hazeme vivir penada,
y muéstraseme enemigo,
cómo no venís, amigo?

Although the night grows darker,
you have not far to come,
Love, why are you so long?

And still my love tarries
though midnight's past and gone,
My bad luck keeps him from me
the luck I've always known.

How much I suffer for it.
Everything goes wrong.
Love why are you so long?

Chopin's 200th Birthday

Frederic Chopin
(1 March 1810 - 17 October 1849)
Margot Lefebvre (1962)
"Mon coeur vous dédie sa mélodie"
(after Chopin - Etude Op. 10, Number 3)
Click here to view this L'Envoi YouTube.

Using Evernote to Catalog Audio Books

I use Evernote (https://www.evernote.com) to keep an inventory of audio books.

To facilitate quick searches, I created a number of filters to identify the audio books inventoried as mp3, mb4, or both.

Here are some screen captures on how I use Evernote to manage my aubio books library.

1-Examples of How I Set Up the Audio Book Library
2-An Audio Book Record Content
3-An Audio Book Search Filter
4-Audio Book Formats

Eureka!

Every time I saw Bogart and Hepburn in the movie, "The African Queen", James Agee came to mind; he wrote the screen play for this adaptation of C.S. Forester novel. I already have this Forester book, and I wanted to read the Agee work, "A Death in the Family".

I have this e-book, but I put it away somewhere. Every now and then I would search for it about the house. This has been going on for years. Finally, at the wee hours of this morning I found it. It was too securely stashed away at the bottom drawer of a desk along with all my HP manuals and calculators. Go figure.

Now James Agee is on my iPod 3G bookshelf. It's good to go.

George Duning

George Duning
American-born film music composer
(25 February, 1908 – 27 February, 2000)
The MP3 below expired on 02-25-2010.
Click here for current selection.

Morris Stoloff and the Columbia Pictures Orchestra (1956)
Moonglow and the Theme from 'Picnic'(Duning)
I sang to you and the moon
But only the moon remembers.
I sang
O reckless free-hearted
    free-throated rythms,
Even the moon remembers them
   And is kind to me.

-- Carl Sandburg (1878–1967)