Rita Gorr is no more

Another star of the opera world has dwindled. Rita Gorr has died, the woman who made walls of various Opera Houses tremble.
I saw her last performance in Pikovaja Dama in 2007, my very first blog post.

Pneumatology ≠ pneumology

I have this strange subject that, regardless what your field of study is, you are required to take it. It's called Religion, meaning and world-view. It bores the pants off if you're not into that kind of thing. Some theologist saying this and then another theologist not agreeing because of God knows what kind of reason.
The text we're using is larded with words like creed, revelation and eschatological.
Anyway.
I was reading through this bit of text on a certain Mr Jürgen Moltmann. I got through a paragraph but it didn't really make any sense.

It says (roughly translated): "In the third volume the insights from previous works are completed by reflections on ecclesiology and pneumatology."

I could't quite work out why a theologian would be remotely interested in combining religious studies with pulmonary diseases. Could it have been because of the crucifiction Jesus had a hard time breathing with all that water in his lungs?

It didn't make sense. None at all. The penny dropped quite late after a bit of confusion.
And then it dawned on me: Pneumatology is not the same as pneumology...

Gríma DSVD

I must be one of the few people on the planet that hasn't seen the complete Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.
Eight years after the last movie came out I have finally seen the first two episodes. Friday was The Two Towers one.
It struck me as quite funny to see that Gríma Wormtongue is a dead ringer for Channel Zero lead singer Franky De Smet Van Damme.
If they are by any chance related, or share the same hairdresser, I think we must be told.

George Friedrich de Wever

Slap a wig on him and you wouldn't notice the difference! It is uncanny how Bart de Wever, the man famous for using Latin expressions, resembles Georg Friedrich Händel, the man famous for setting Latin words to music.
Are they by any chance related? I think we must be told.

I found the image in one of Dr Livingstone's old study books on music. I chuckled when I first saw the section on the baroque composers.
I had an exam on musical history today. It went quite well considering I have damaged hearing. So I couldn't really tell if the instrument we had to recognize was a french horn or a trumpet.
Oh, and the professor said I did Mahler an injustice by ranking him as the more conservative composers in the romantic period. I told him Mahler really wouldn't have minded since he is long dead.

He gave me a funny look. I don't know if that was a bad thing or not.

Hot, hotter, hottest

It is nearly 2 pm and the temperature in the conservatory has already reached 34ºC. Yesterday it peaked at 38ºC. It's currently 29,3ºC in the shade outside. That's where I'm at. I managed to keep the house inside at a cool-ish 24ºC. Without airconditioning or fans. \o/ If it'd be isolated (ceiling, walls, windows) it could probably be kept even cooler. Mind you, I didn't really open up all windows during the night to let the night air in. Because that'll also let in all the midges. And Dr Livingstone is not here to get stung in my place.
Mouser is also inside the house, reposing on a bed. It doesn't want to come out at all. Usually Velvet Claws is in the kitchen in a flash when the fridge door is opened. But not so now.
I wish I was be able to have a nice lie down in my hammock right now.
But no. I need to get through the First World War and the Interbellum. Bleh. I hope I'm all done by this evening, then I can finish up Music History tomorrow.

Metallica in the library

When I was strolling from the faculty library to the central library, the belfry was playing. Every Wednesday during lunch hour sweet tunes emerge from the tower. Not your some unknown music, but the musician manipulating the bells adapts contemporary pop songs. Yesterday, during my brisk walk, I heard 'Killing me softly' by The Fugees and an excellent 'Nothing else matters' by Metallica.
The library is absolutely dead silent (except on market days), but when the big bell is struck you can feel the sound going through the whole building.

Business as usual

Went down to Brussels to meet up with some friends on tour with Jamiroquai. Very nice to see them all again. Some of them I haven't seen since touring with that band.

They were all well. Mending and healing from broken bones, limping on busted kneecaps and nursing their hangovers.

Exemption

Good news in my mailbox today! I got word that I got an exemption for one of the subjects on my program next semester. \o/
I also got word that another one was turned down.
I have to take Music History. Not to pleased about that. I've studied Music History at two different institutions before (that amounts to five (!) different courses) but according to the university they didn't have the equivalence to what is going to be teached here. Meh, I disagree. I've seen the course manual. It is the spitting image of what I've done before. Waste of time i.m.o.
Ah, well. The story of my life I guess?

Househunting (part 7)

We got a call from the real estate guy. The house is ours, they agreed with our final bid!
ZOMG! We're going to be in debt for the next twenty odd years!

Ah well, all in a good cause. Friends of ours said we'd be doing the right thing.
Dr Livingstone and myself were already discussing how we'd arrange all of the furniture. We both want a new made-to-measure bookcase. I did have to compromise, the Dr's exact words were: 'No, they're not going on every wall in the room, I don't want to live in a bloody library!'.

Right. It's off to the shops to get hold of some Chuiqita banana boxes. I've already hoarded eleven over the past two weeks. I'm aiming for the round number of fourty.
This means we'll be moving house again, around the New Year. We've moved a lot over the last couple of years.
This'll be the third time in seven years. And hopefully the last! So we'll be getting another chance to throw out some of the rubbish we've accumulated over the years. And I'm not someone who keeps everything just in case.

I've already made a start by sifting through old cassettes I used to record. I've even got a recording of a Top 30 from 1985. Radio was soooo slow in those days.
I'm making a list of songs I still like. Then I proceed to go to the library. Which is like one big iTunes, really. On the plus side I don't have to pay for the songs. A lot of them aren't available online anyway due to copyright laws and what not.
Yes I'm a cheapskate. And a pirate.

All quiet on the blogging front

I've rather run out of flippant remarks this week. And time to blog. As I have the usual exams preventing me from leading a normal life. James Randi is giving a talk in Utrecht on the 11th, I'll have to miss that too. Two of my internet acquaintances are going. So, yes, I will sacrifice myself on the altar of education (again).
Dr Livingstone is out with the usual former cocaine guitar playing millionaire so I have the house all to myself.
Except for Mouser who keeps me company at all times. I still need to put ointment in its left eye four times a day. It looks like it is healing properly, although quite slowly. Kitteh ran into something and her lens has been damaged (again). It's similar to like last time albeit a very deep scratch. I think I'm going back tomorrow to our strange neurotic vet to have a check-up.
So it'll be all quiet on the blogging front for a while.

Untill then, I will leave you with a final look-alike match. As I was viewing the red carpet pictures from the Robin Hood premiere at Cannes I came across the unshaven face of Russel Crowe. He looks like that Verstrepen guy that hopped parties a while back. They sport the same foppish hair. My guess is they'll be using it to mask a rapidly receding hairline in a short while; actors and politicians tend to be very self-absorbed and share a common trait: vanity.

A collection of Leonards

I've always had trouble telling the two apart: Leonard Nimoy and Leonard Cohen.
They look so similar with aging. And I must admit, I find Mr Nimoy's work far more entertaining than Mr Cohen's.
I'm sure I'm not the only one on the planet.
Highly logical.

Shroud of Turin

The shroud of Turin is back on display for a limited time only. This thirteenth or fourteenth century piece of cloth has been restored. Some catholics still believe it was used to wrap Christ's body in and it magically transferred an image of a man that had been subject to a round of whipping and crucifiction onto its surface.
What science or religion have failed to prove either way is not why the image of a man believed to be Christ appeared on the fabric when everyone can clearly see it is the image of the Devine Frank Zappa!
We even have a picture of him when he appeared on the cover of his 1979 album Sheik Yerbouti wearing some kind of similar head gear.
There you go. Mystery solved!

Let me soften you up with a little music

Saturday night there was case of severe traffic agression in Antwerp. Two vehicles simultaneously entered a street, but could not cross each other because the passage was too narrow. Neither driver wanted to reverse. Eventually they both got out of their cars.

One of the two, a 45-year-old man, wanted to attack the other with a banjo which he had taken from his trunk. The other, a 22-year-old, evaded the stringed instrument and threw a couple of punches.
The police have confiscated the banjo.

Well, they do say music softens you up, but one of these guys took it a little too seriously.

The groupie awakens

Dr Livingstone surprised me with yet another swell present this morning. He got me an OMD t-shirt and had it signed by the band! Andy McCluskey, Paul Humphreys, Mal Holmes and Martin Cooper all decorated it with sharpies.
I can never wash it now!

Don't be afraid of the dark

Walloons are switching off lights on roads, which saves them a bob or two on the national budget, cuts down on electricity consumption and even benefits the reduction of light pollution.

So when Flemish Minister of Mobility Crevits was asked if there were any similar plans in the pipeline the answer was at the very least miserably inadequate: 'Wallonië heeft een totaal ander wegennet: daar heb je rechte en verlaten stukken, waardoor verlichting minder belangrijk is. In Vlaanderen heb je om de honderd meter een kruispunt en staat er om de haverklap een bloembak.'

Well, thanks a bunch. Amateur astronomers like myself give her reaction a big thumbs down (see my earlier post on light pollution). Is it because she hopped from the Environment to the Mobility ministerial job the policy is not to give a rat's ass about things that really matter? Very strange indeed.
When she was still minister for Environment she sang to a different tune as we can still read on the Exxon Mobil website: 'Als je energie bespaart, wordt het eenvoudiger om de doelstellingen te halen, zoals de nieuwe voorgestelde Europese norm voor België om 13 procent duurzaam op te wekken in 2020. Het totale energieverbruik daalt immers. Maar we kunnen niet wachten tot de laatste kilowattuur is bespaard. Rationeel energieverbruik en hernieuwbare energiebronnen moeten dus hand in hand gaan.'

A few remarks:
- Raised flowerbeds are a means of slowing down cars in streets so they have to zig zag and can't proceed to race through full throttle. They are usually put in roads that run in a straight line... Did she forget that implementing them are a means of trying to reduce speed and thus accidents resulting thereof? Or does road safety not fall under the guise of the department of Mobility? So no straight secondary roads in Flanders?
Hmmm. I think Crevits should go out more. Or just take up gardening if she thinks the flowerbeds are just there because they are pretty.
- Why does, according to her answer, every intersection need to be fully lit up? If an intersection is unsafe for crossing, then it is usually due to lack of visibility in the structural sense. Not the presence or lack of lighting.
It might also be a remark expressing a reluctancy to really take on structural measures. 1) ensuring people drive more safely (prevention, information, better checks on technical car safety), 2) building or changing intersections so they are easier to oversee (roadworks) and 3) stemming the juridicalization of our society (I'm thinking of the numerous court cases the last few years brought by citizens who summon mayors because the judges rule there was no lighting at an intersection).

On a different note. Judging from Crevits' remarks it seems as if she has never actually been in the southern part of the country, or hasn't travelled anywhere else in Europe for that matter. Straight and abandoned pieces of roads? No need to be lit just because of that?
I get dizzy most of the time when driving in the Walloon part. Because of the geological appearance most roads wind a lot. I'd say the opposite of Flanders. Or maybe she wasn't paying attention because her chauffeur does all the driving. Or she could be a bit dim... (geddit?)

What is it with this fixation on lighting every inch of every road? We have the most lit up country by far but still manage to have very high figures of road accidents with deadly outcome in Europe. And they're not due to bad lighting alone. Statlovers go here.

Bleh. I still renew my plea for darker skies. Even in the International Year of Astronomy.

Remember what The Robert Cray Band sang: 'Don't be afraid of the dark'.

Howard who?

It looks like summer is over. It has gotten quite chilly so I've been cleaning out our hat and cloak area. When rummaging around in the draw where we keep gloves and the like I found a rather unusual item.

It's one of those cloth bags. The sort you get when attending a business fair. You never use them afterwards. They're not sturdy, they're useless for keeping something in them. People always have masses of them thrust upon their person, but never seem to get rid of them after they've taken them home. The bag as Ding an Sich wasn't that strange, but it was the print on it that puzzeled me.

Howard Carpendale - Alles ok. With a picture of a square-faced, open-armed, blond German guy.

He sounds and looks like an eighties 3rd rate pop idol. So I looked him up. His music is absolutely horrid.

To be absolutely clear on this: It is not my bag.
So I confronted Dr Livingstone. Is he a Howard Carpendale fan?

Dr L: 'Who is that guy?'
Mrs B: 'I dunno. He's on your bag.'
Dr L: 'Where did you find it?'
Mrs B: 'In the draw.'
Dr L: 'I've never seen it before.'

It sounded like one of those cheesy dialogues the police have in those crime series on the telly.
He probably got the bag when doing a show somewhere once upon a time.

Come on, how is it possible to forget the famous Howard Carpendale? Once you've seen him, you'll never. And just to tune your musical taste buds: here it is for all of you to 'enjoy'.



The bag is definitely going in the trash.

Michael balls - part III

Oh yes, even more post mortem capers. Won't be long now before bigger bits than this go missing:
It is alleged Michael Jackson's prosthetic nose is missing.
So it really was a case of putting your face on before going out.

Michael balls - part II

I've had to catch up with teh intertubes. But as I'd thought, Michael Jackson has already made his first appearance post mortem.
His ghost was spotted haunting the corridors of his Neverland ranch.



Looks like he's a mere shadow of his former self these days.

Michael balls - part I

Looks like CTV Calgary really got the scoop on this one:

Lawyer Brian Oxman, a sometime-spokesperson for the Jackson family, alleged that prescription medications may have contributed to the death.
"For the last many months, and almost more than a year, this family has been talking about the use of medications by Michael and warning he was going to wake up dead," Oxman, his voice wavering, told CTV News Channel.

Oh noes! Run! Zombie alert!

You tend to read over these things, don't you?

The King of Pop has popped it

I thought I'd woken up two decades ago this morning. I haven't heard so much Michael Jackson songs playing on the radio since the eighties.

I can still remember when the Thriller video directed by John Landis aired for the very first time on the telly. I think it was on a British network, MTV was not available in Europe at the time. Don't recall if it was on ITV, Channel 4 or the Beeb. Announcements went out and everyone anticipated the full length version. I got to stay up late to watch it, and it subsequently gave me a fascination for all things concerning undertaking, interment and funerary architecture.
The thing that impressed me most was the spoken word act by a long time favourite of mine Vincent Price.
That and the dancing zombie with the green tights.

I wonder how long it will take before the nutjobs come a-crawling out of the woodwork saying he faked his own death.
And reports twenty years from now still spotting him alive, just like Elvis.

I hope he will be cremated. I'm sure everyone will not refrain from pointing out he'll resemble himself as he did in the Thriller vid very soon. Or we will probably end up with a neverending stream of reports of postmortem excursions of the body; just like Mr Chaplin. Or parts of it showing up on auction somewhere.

So is the King of Pop going to have a funeral befitting his status?
I mean,the venue has already been booked, a King should lie in state.
As the man said himself: "I just want to say that these will be my final shows in London. When I say this is it, this really means this is it. This is the final curtain call. I'll see you in July and I love you."

AEG Live could make a killing on this one.

Meh, I hate it when Icons die. Let's hope they give him a good send off.