Tuesday, June 06, 2017
Friday, May 26, 2017
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
How A High-School Dropout Became The Most Dangerous Man In Financial News - Business Insider
I used to watch the subject of this feature on Bloomberg daily; a few years ago, however, we cut the cord, as they say, and I lost track of him.
We will always need "print" journalism, imho, because it gives his eminently colorful "back story" (which I didn't know), and as John Lee Hooker might say, his "front story" -- even more remarkable.
Thank you, Lord, that my father forbade me having a motorcycle......
How A High-School Dropout Became The Most Dangerous Man In Financial News - Business Insider
We will always need "print" journalism, imho, because it gives his eminently colorful "back story" (which I didn't know), and as John Lee Hooker might say, his "front story" -- even more remarkable.
Thank you, Lord, that my father forbade me having a motorcycle......
How A High-School Dropout Became The Most Dangerous Man In Financial News - Business Insider
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Friday, May 19, 2017
Thursday, May 18, 2017
Thursday, May 04, 2017
This is where markets meet Bible prophecy....must read
China's Plan To Subvert The Global Dollar Standard | Zero Hedge
Already, China dominates world trade. Her own economy is already significantly larger than that of the US on the purchasing power parity (PPP) estimates. While being the largest consumer of raw materials, China also exports more finished goods by value than any other country. As the Asian powerhouse, she has lifted the economies of all the countries on the western side of the Pacific Ocean, which including her own between them have a GDP of $50 trillion. Her exports into Asia now exceed her exports to the US. Yet despite this dominance, most of China’s trade is conducted in US dollars, something China is bound to change, if she is to contain external economic risk and replace America as the dominant global empire. Both objectives can only be achieved by China replacing the dollar as a medium of exchange.
Already, China dominates world trade. Her own economy is already significantly larger than that of the US on the purchasing power parity (PPP) estimates. While being the largest consumer of raw materials, China also exports more finished goods by value than any other country. As the Asian powerhouse, she has lifted the economies of all the countries on the western side of the Pacific Ocean, which including her own between them have a GDP of $50 trillion. Her exports into Asia now exceed her exports to the US. Yet despite this dominance, most of China’s trade is conducted in US dollars, something China is bound to change, if she is to contain external economic risk and replace America as the dominant global empire. Both objectives can only be achieved by China replacing the dollar as a medium of exchange.
The answers to these questions are likely to be revealed in the coming months, possibly in only a matter of weeks, if North Korea heats up. But if China decides to revalue gold, western capital markets will be wholly unprepared for the fall-out. China itself will be affected, as will all other nations that trade with the US or trade with countries that trade with the US. The advanced welfare-driven nations dependent on capital markets are at risk. The great financial crisis of nine years ago will be a light rehearsal compared with what could follow.
The irony is that the countries isolated from the dollar, especially Russia and Iran, will come out best. Iran will be significantly stronger relative to Saudi Arabia, with important consequences for the power-play in the Middle East. Russia will also have an interest in pushing China for this action, partly because it should tip the balance in Syria in Russia’s favor, and partly because the destruction of US hegemony will free Western Europe from being tied to America’s apron strings.
This is the final prize for the two leading nations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization: a free trade area which will eventually include the whole Eurasian Continent, with the rest of the world acting as its feedstock. It has always been the ultimate logic behind the Russian-Chinese partnership. Despite all its military power, America will be isolated, unless, like Britain ditching her colonies in the 1960s, America accepts she no longer controls global commerce.
That is hard to imagine.....
Perhaps China and Russia no longer have the luxury of time. America’s increased military belligerence in Trump’s first hundred days might force their hand. Perhaps America, knowing her demise is becoming increasingly inevitable, has some dramatic plan under wraps to seize the financial initiative, as dramatic perhaps as the Nixon shock, when America abandoned the post-war gold standard. The instability brought into the geopolitical equation by the Trump presidency, and the early signs the US economy is grinding to a halt under the sheer weight of consumer and government debt, are increasingly likely to prompt China and Russia into firm financial action, if only to protect themselves in an unstable financial and monetary environment.
Thursday, April 27, 2017
Bob Moriarty - War, Precious Metals, Fate of USA
Bob Moriarty - War, Precious Metals, Mining Stocks
If anybody fires a shot whether it’s the North Koreans, whether it’s the United States, whether it’s the South Koreans, whether it’s Japan, whether it’s China, if anybody fires a shot, it will go nuclear. They war gamed it a number of times and every single time it went nuclear.
Trump came in and said, “I’m going to balance the budget. I’m going to rebuild America. I’m going to make America great.” Promptly hands the military another 54 billion dollars that they don’t need and the military is going after him for more. We are broke. There is no solution to it. There is simply nothing you can do other than to declare bankruptcy.
I predicted many of the things that have happened including the assent of both Sanders and Trump and some reflections on what happens when a country goes into a permanent state of warfare. And basically, you’re either defeated militarily or you bankrupt yourself. It happened to the Spanish. It happened to the Dutch and it happened to the French. It happened to the English. It happened to the Russians. And we act like it’s not going to happen to us. Well, it’s going to. We either get bankrupted or we get defeated militarily.
If anybody fires a shot whether it’s the North Koreans, whether it’s the United States, whether it’s the South Koreans, whether it’s Japan, whether it’s China, if anybody fires a shot, it will go nuclear. They war gamed it a number of times and every single time it went nuclear.
Trump came in and said, “I’m going to balance the budget. I’m going to rebuild America. I’m going to make America great.” Promptly hands the military another 54 billion dollars that they don’t need and the military is going after him for more. We are broke. There is no solution to it. There is simply nothing you can do other than to declare bankruptcy.
I predicted many of the things that have happened including the assent of both Sanders and Trump and some reflections on what happens when a country goes into a permanent state of warfare. And basically, you’re either defeated militarily or you bankrupt yourself. It happened to the Spanish. It happened to the Dutch and it happened to the French. It happened to the English. It happened to the Russians. And we act like it’s not going to happen to us. Well, it’s going to. We either get bankrupted or we get defeated militarily.
Monday, April 24, 2017
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
Thursday, April 13, 2017
Tuesday, April 11, 2017
United passenger hauled from plane is doctor who traded drugs for gay sex with patient, lost license
United passenger traded drugs for gay sex with patient | Daily Mail Online
Met his partner "in church." "He denied the gay sex even though he was caught on camera shirtless and in his pants with Brian Case, his lover, 26, who was a fellow worshipper at his church," reports say.
License was revoked, later reinstated.
It gets stranger: "While he was suspended from practicing, he became a semi-professional poker player, and is said to have won a total of $234,664 since 2006," according to PokerNews.
You can't make this stuff up....
Met his partner "in church." "He denied the gay sex even though he was caught on camera shirtless and in his pants with Brian Case, his lover, 26, who was a fellow worshipper at his church," reports say.
License was revoked, later reinstated.
It gets stranger: "While he was suspended from practicing, he became a semi-professional poker player, and is said to have won a total of $234,664 since 2006," according to PokerNews.
You can't make this stuff up....
Wednesday, April 05, 2017
Saturday, April 01, 2017
Book publishing 101 or: Riding the Waves of Rejection
A friend told me this week his wife is writing a book. The topic is “human struggle.” She is seeking a publisher.
Caused me to hearken back to my own simple, 23-step process to see Extraordinary Comebacks: 201 Inspiring Stories of Courage, Triumph and Success (EC) through publication. While cleaning out files recently I found these notes on its history. Here’s how it went:
2/1/2001
Concept for EC emerges during jogging. I resist, A still, small voice pushes me on. Can't shake it, and I start to plow some ground.
9/1/2001
Lined up a noted self-help guru as co-author. Why? The magic of collaboration. He already had success in the market, an audience and had a big-time agent. So I started writing, wrote the first 25 of what would (ultimately) become 700 comeback stories.
9/30/2001
My guru, and his agent, renege. I decide to go it alone.
11/16/2001
An editor as Crossing Press expresses interest, then never responds again. Still, I settle in to write the actual book, it would take more than one year.
12/15/2002
Finished principal writing. For the next 16 months or so, I research, rewrite.
4/26/2004
Still believing in the power of celebrity, for better or worse, I seek the support of luminaries for marketing reasons, to provide foreword, blurb or otherwise. I gain the support of a very major luminary. He agrees to provide material help, then reneges, and repeats this process twice more. His paranoid PR people provide me with the shabbiest treatment in memory, accusing me of planning a hatchet job on their media star (!!!); (my background is in PR, and I am astonished).
5/9/2004
Bought Publishers Guide, queried all appropriate tradtional publishers.
6/9/2004
A nibble. An editor at a major independent agrees to see proposal. Immediately sent.
7/8/2004
Editor misplaces, asks for a resend.
9/17/2004
Breakthrough: editor requests the ms.
9/29/2004
Editor declines, citing derivative nature of stories. Very deflating birthday present. I go jogging to try to shake it off. I resolve not to quit.
10/26/2004
Second effort contact with same editor, but no go, editor declines again.
10/26/2004
Same time I recontact major agent who had earlier expressed interest. He sends one email re ms., never responds again. On follow up, no response.
1/1/2005
Extensive review of self-publishers, e.g. Author’s House, and many other such. Not ready to capitulate.
3/8/2005
I go back to independent publisher with proposal on how I would make changes to satisfy them. This time I write to president as well as editor. President agrees to reconsider.
7/26/2005
Publisher accepts ms. for publication
10/25/2005
Date of publishing contract
3/10/2006
Editor requires major changes or says 'no publication'; I agree to rewrite every word. I do.
12/11/2006
Publisher sends cover art 'with title Try, Try Again" vs. my working title “364 Great Comebacks.” They had never bothered to inform me of the change. I hate "Try, Try Again" on a visceral level. It seems to me sing-song, exasperated and patronizing. Title dispute goes on for five weeks.
1/19/2007
Publisher relents, chooses instead a title created by my family member as a compromise: “Extraordinary Comebacks: 201 Inspiring Stories of Courage, Triumph, and Success”
5/1/2007
Publication. Border's buys large quantity, promotes in stores. (Remember book stores?)
Publisher arranges successful “media tour,” radio interviews. Extraordinary Comebacks: 201 Inspiring Stories of Courage, Triumph, and Success goes on to become a category best-seller on Amazon.
EC2, EC3, EC700 follow in subsequent years, as well as numerous other titles.
In subsequent years, life happens. Our poster boy for great comebacks, Lance Armstrong, who beat cancer to win the Tour de France seven times, finally confesses to the doping allegations that dogged him for years. I change my web site, accordingly.
Others of our stars fell from the firmament as well: Bill Cosby, Paula Deen, most notably. One notable symbol of male, Olympian athletic prowess switched genders, creating a media firestorm while winning a major award for his/her courage.
Some climbed even bigger mountains, like debt overcomer and now President, Donald Trump. Some passed into eternity, like we all will some day.
How fragile this thing, life, and how easily a comeback can turn into a comedown. And how fast the clock goes by.
And how long the steeplechase, littered with rejection hurdles, from concept to printed book, in this case, six and one-half years.
And so it is that we wish all prospective authors like our friend's wife only the best, and to keep their eye on the prize, no matter how serpentine the road becomes, and no matter how many tell you that you are lost on the way.
You are not lost. You just have farther to go.....
Caused me to hearken back to my own simple, 23-step process to see Extraordinary Comebacks: 201 Inspiring Stories of Courage, Triumph and Success (EC) through publication. While cleaning out files recently I found these notes on its history. Here’s how it went:
2/1/2001
Concept for EC emerges during jogging. I resist, A still, small voice pushes me on. Can't shake it, and I start to plow some ground.
9/1/2001
Lined up a noted self-help guru as co-author. Why? The magic of collaboration. He already had success in the market, an audience and had a big-time agent. So I started writing, wrote the first 25 of what would (ultimately) become 700 comeback stories.
9/30/2001
My guru, and his agent, renege. I decide to go it alone.
11/16/2001
An editor as Crossing Press expresses interest, then never responds again. Still, I settle in to write the actual book, it would take more than one year.
12/15/2002
Finished principal writing. For the next 16 months or so, I research, rewrite.
4/26/2004
Still believing in the power of celebrity, for better or worse, I seek the support of luminaries for marketing reasons, to provide foreword, blurb or otherwise. I gain the support of a very major luminary. He agrees to provide material help, then reneges, and repeats this process twice more. His paranoid PR people provide me with the shabbiest treatment in memory, accusing me of planning a hatchet job on their media star (!!!); (my background is in PR, and I am astonished).
5/9/2004
Bought Publishers Guide, queried all appropriate tradtional publishers.
6/9/2004
A nibble. An editor at a major independent agrees to see proposal. Immediately sent.
7/8/2004
Editor misplaces, asks for a resend.
9/17/2004
Breakthrough: editor requests the ms.
9/29/2004
Editor declines, citing derivative nature of stories. Very deflating birthday present. I go jogging to try to shake it off. I resolve not to quit.
10/26/2004
Second effort contact with same editor, but no go, editor declines again.
10/26/2004
Same time I recontact major agent who had earlier expressed interest. He sends one email re ms., never responds again. On follow up, no response.
1/1/2005
Extensive review of self-publishers, e.g. Author’s House, and many other such. Not ready to capitulate.
3/8/2005
I go back to independent publisher with proposal on how I would make changes to satisfy them. This time I write to president as well as editor. President agrees to reconsider.
7/26/2005
Publisher accepts ms. for publication
10/25/2005
Date of publishing contract
3/10/2006
Editor requires major changes or says 'no publication'; I agree to rewrite every word. I do.
12/11/2006
Publisher sends cover art 'with title Try, Try Again" vs. my working title “364 Great Comebacks.” They had never bothered to inform me of the change. I hate "Try, Try Again" on a visceral level. It seems to me sing-song, exasperated and patronizing. Title dispute goes on for five weeks.
1/19/2007
Publisher relents, chooses instead a title created by my family member as a compromise: “Extraordinary Comebacks: 201 Inspiring Stories of Courage, Triumph, and Success”
5/1/2007
Publication. Border's buys large quantity, promotes in stores. (Remember book stores?)
Publisher arranges successful “media tour,” radio interviews. Extraordinary Comebacks: 201 Inspiring Stories of Courage, Triumph, and Success goes on to become a category best-seller on Amazon.
EC2, EC3, EC700 follow in subsequent years, as well as numerous other titles.
In subsequent years, life happens. Our poster boy for great comebacks, Lance Armstrong, who beat cancer to win the Tour de France seven times, finally confesses to the doping allegations that dogged him for years. I change my web site, accordingly.
Others of our stars fell from the firmament as well: Bill Cosby, Paula Deen, most notably. One notable symbol of male, Olympian athletic prowess switched genders, creating a media firestorm while winning a major award for his/her courage.
Some climbed even bigger mountains, like debt overcomer and now President, Donald Trump. Some passed into eternity, like we all will some day.
How fragile this thing, life, and how easily a comeback can turn into a comedown. And how fast the clock goes by.
And how long the steeplechase, littered with rejection hurdles, from concept to printed book, in this case, six and one-half years.
And so it is that we wish all prospective authors like our friend's wife only the best, and to keep their eye on the prize, no matter how serpentine the road becomes, and no matter how many tell you that you are lost on the way.
You are not lost. You just have farther to go.....
Sunday, March 26, 2017
Release of Arctic Methane "May Be Apocalyptic," Study Warns
Dahr Jamail | Release of Arctic Methane "May Be Apocalyptic," Study Warns
A study published in the prestigious journal Nature in July 2013 confirmed what Shakhova had been warning us about for years: A 50-gigaton "burp" of methane from thawing Arctic permafrost beneath the East Siberian sea is highly possible.
Such a "burp" would be the equivalent of at least 1,000 gigatons of carbon dioxide. (For perspective, humans have released approximately 1,475 gigatons in total carbon dioxide since the year 1850.)
The UK's Met Office considers the 50-gigaton release "plausible," and in a paper on the subject added, "That may cause ∼12-times increase of modern atmospheric methane burden, with consequent catastrophic greenhouse warming."
Thursday, March 23, 2017
The Perfect Storm -- straight ahead
Did you see The Perfect Storm, George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, the fetching Diane Lane?
We are approaching the convergence.....must read:
Go Ahead -- You Own It in [Market-Ticker]
...... the Federal Government spent $1,417 billion last fiscal year on Medicare and Medicaid, up from $380 billion in 1998, which incidentally was 37% of all federal spending last year -- and it's accelerating at ~8-9% a year as it has been for the last several decades (with some notable outlying years.)
At this rate it will cross $2,000 billion, or more than half (by a good margin) of the current federal budget within 5 years. That will blow a $600 billion additional annual deficit hole in the budget into a rising rate environment which the government will not be able to finance.
We are approaching the convergence.....must read:
Go Ahead -- You Own It in [Market-Ticker]
...... the Federal Government spent $1,417 billion last fiscal year on Medicare and Medicaid, up from $380 billion in 1998, which incidentally was 37% of all federal spending last year -- and it's accelerating at ~8-9% a year as it has been for the last several decades (with some notable outlying years.)
At this rate it will cross $2,000 billion, or more than half (by a good margin) of the current federal budget within 5 years. That will blow a $600 billion additional annual deficit hole in the budget into a rising rate environment which the government will not be able to finance.
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Saturday, March 11, 2017
The Jew Who Changed Football Forever
I grew up in Cleveland. I was a high school QB. I went to Ohio State.
Still....
I never heard of "Benny Friedman" and his legacy to football until today......what a remarkable story......
Our Age Of Folly
Our Age Of Folly -- Paul Craig Roberts - PaulCraigRoberts.org
.............(Author) Lapham spares no one, least of all his own class. As a young man Lapham was a member of the upper class and remains today a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He could expect a career guaranteed by the preferments bestowed on his class. Returning from Cambridge University, he secured an interview with the CIA, looking forward to an exciting life as a spy serving the cause of freedom and democracy.
In a passage that is perhaps the most amusing in the book, he describes boning up for the interview by “reading about Lenin’s train and Stalin’s prisons, the width of the Fulda Gap, the depth of the Black Sea. Instead of being asked about the treaties of Brest-Litovsk or the October Revolution, I was asked three questions bearing on my social qualifications for admission into what the young men at the far end of the table clearly regarded as the best fraternity on the campus of the free world.”
His fellow Yalies wanted proof of his upper class bonafides and relied on three questions that would reveal if Lapham were the real goods. Lapham had to answer the question, which club does one take from the golf bag when standing on the thirteenth tee at the National Golf Links in Southampton, followed by the question of the direction at dusk in late August of the prevailing wind on final approach under sail into Hay Harbor on Fishers Island, followed by “Does Muffy Hamilton wear a slip?”
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Program notes for tonight's opera
The Resurrection of Armageddon -- Paul Craig Roberts - PaulCraigRoberts.org
The prospect that Trump would work with Russia as part of better relations assumed that Trump would actually be in charge, which has turned out to be delusional.
The prospect that Trump would work with Russia as part of better relations assumed that Trump would actually be in charge, which has turned out to be delusional.
Sunday, February 26, 2017
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Monday, February 20, 2017
Sunday, February 19, 2017
Saturday, February 18, 2017
Monday, February 13, 2017
Trump And The Third Temple
Trump And The Third Temple
"It is interesting in this context to also consider Michael Snyder's calculations that Trump was born 700 days before Israel became a nation, won the election on Prime Minister Netanyahu's 7th year, 7th month and 7th day in office, and served his first full day in the White House at the age of 70 years, 7 months and 7 days old.
"It is interesting in this context to also consider Michael Snyder's calculations that Trump was born 700 days before Israel became a nation, won the election on Prime Minister Netanyahu's 7th year, 7th month and 7th day in office, and served his first full day in the White House at the age of 70 years, 7 months and 7 days old.
"While we should be careful of reading too much into these numbers, it would seem that God Himself has had His hand on the unusual rise of Donald Trump and if so would have a particular purpose for his presidency."
The Coyote Principle: CALIFORNIA, TEXAS
The Coyote Principle
CALIFORNIA
• The Governor of California is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks the Governor’s dog, then bites the Governor.
• The Governor starts to intervene, but reflects upon the movie “Bambi” and then realizes he should stop because the coyote is only doing what is natural.
• He calls animal control. Animal Control captures the coyote and bills the state $200 testing it for diseases and $500 for relocating it.
• He calls a veterinarian. The vet collects the dead dog and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases.
• The Governor goes to hospital and spends $3,500 getting checked for diseases from the coyote and on getting his bite wound bandaged.
• The running trail gets shut down for 6 months while Fish & Game conducts a $100,000 survey to make sure the area is now free of dangerous animals.
• The Governor spends $50,000 in state funds implementing a “coyote awareness program” for residents of the area.
• The State Legislature spends $2 million to study how to better treat rabies and how to permanently eradicate the disease throughout the world.
• The Governor’s security agent is fired for not stopping the attack. The state spends $150,000 to hire and train a new agent with additional special training for the nature of coyotes.
• PETA protests the coyote’s relocation and files a $5 million suit against the state.
TEXAS
• The Governor of Texas is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks his dog.
• The Governor shoots the coyote with his state-issued pistol and keeps jogging. The Governor has spent $.50 on a .45 ACP hollow point cartridge.
• The buzzards eat the dead coyote.
And that, my friends, is why California is broke and Texas is not.
CALIFORNIA
• The Governor of California is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks the Governor’s dog, then bites the Governor.
• The Governor starts to intervene, but reflects upon the movie “Bambi” and then realizes he should stop because the coyote is only doing what is natural.
• He calls animal control. Animal Control captures the coyote and bills the state $200 testing it for diseases and $500 for relocating it.
• He calls a veterinarian. The vet collects the dead dog and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases.
• The Governor goes to hospital and spends $3,500 getting checked for diseases from the coyote and on getting his bite wound bandaged.
• The running trail gets shut down for 6 months while Fish & Game conducts a $100,000 survey to make sure the area is now free of dangerous animals.
• The Governor spends $50,000 in state funds implementing a “coyote awareness program” for residents of the area.
• The State Legislature spends $2 million to study how to better treat rabies and how to permanently eradicate the disease throughout the world.
• The Governor’s security agent is fired for not stopping the attack. The state spends $150,000 to hire and train a new agent with additional special training for the nature of coyotes.
• PETA protests the coyote’s relocation and files a $5 million suit against the state.
TEXAS
• The Governor of Texas is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks his dog.
• The Governor shoots the coyote with his state-issued pistol and keeps jogging. The Governor has spent $.50 on a .45 ACP hollow point cartridge.
• The buzzards eat the dead coyote.
And that, my friends, is why California is broke and Texas is not.
Friday, February 10, 2017
Wednesday, February 08, 2017
Tuesday, February 07, 2017
Monday, February 06, 2017
Friday, February 03, 2017
Liszt: Music's first rock star was also music's greatest fan
Who wrote more transcriptions or arrangements of others' work than Liszt? His own creations sit atop 19th century romantic art and his last works presage modern atonality, but interestingly, much of what he did was rework the genius of others.The famous Hungarian and Man About Europe wrote his own versions of works by more than 100 different composers. Operas, songs, symphonies, organ works, etudes, and more. For our money, that makes him music's greatest fan.
There are few more interesting personalities than his, by the way. The wealthy touring virtuoso and number one pianist in Europe often gave benefit concerts wherever he was performing, always allowing an extra day for such in his busy schedule. He taught numerous students without compensation, and aspirants from around the world sought his erudition in Weimar. When he performed on stage, women fainted for him, and he enjoyed his many admirers, but he turned to the church in his last days. His early and middle music was filled with notes and bombast, octaves and runs, but his last works were an almost otherworldly shunning of sound. He wrote the Hungarian Rhapsodies but struggled himself with the language, and was more comfortable in French and German.
"Early in 1840, when he addressed the public at his first concert in Pest upon his return to his native Hungary after an absence of almost two decades, he began with the famous words Je suis Hongrois....
"Yes, he said it in French. For Liszt had not simply forgotten his Hungarian; he had never learned it. In 1873 he wrote, in a letter to a friend, Man darf mir wohl gestatten, dass ungeachtet meiner beklagenwerthen Unkentniss der ungarischen Sprache, ich von Geburt bis zum Grabe im Herzen und Sinne, Magyar verbleibe (It must surely be conceded to me that, regardless of my lamentable ignorance of the Hungarian language, I remain from birth to the grave, in heart and mind, a Magyar)."
One may conclude this thing of being Hungarian, was for Liszt, and many others, a state of mind.
More.
Give a listen to excerpts from ALL his works for piano here. 99 CDs on the Hyperion label. A remarkable accomplishment of pianist Leslie Howard and the label that produced this box set. To quote another famous romantic, "Hats off, gentlemen....." (And ladies, of course......)
Monday, January 30, 2017
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Before the Flood - The New Yorker
Before the Flood - The New Yorker
"If the dam ruptured, it would likely cause a catastrophe of Biblical proportions, loosing a wave as high as a hundred feet that would roll down the Tigris, swallowing everything in its path for more than a hundred miles. Large parts of Mosul would be submerged in less than three hours. Along the riverbanks, towns and cities containing the heart of Iraq’s population would be flooded; in four days, a wave as high as sixteen feet would crash into Baghdad, a city of six million people. “If there is a breach in the dam, there will be no warning,” Alwash said. “It’s a nuclear bomb with an unpredictable fuse.”
"If the dam ruptured, it would likely cause a catastrophe of Biblical proportions, loosing a wave as high as a hundred feet that would roll down the Tigris, swallowing everything in its path for more than a hundred miles. Large parts of Mosul would be submerged in less than three hours. Along the riverbanks, towns and cities containing the heart of Iraq’s population would be flooded; in four days, a wave as high as sixteen feet would crash into Baghdad, a city of six million people. “If there is a breach in the dam, there will be no warning,” Alwash said. “It’s a nuclear bomb with an unpredictable fuse.”
Thursday, January 26, 2017
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
The pathetic remnant of the American left
Three days in and Trump has already kept one pledge - PaulCraigRoberts.org
Clearly, the pathetic remnant of the American left has more hate for those who stand up for the working class than they have for those oppressing the working class and those fomenting war.
Why did the women so quick to march against Trump not march against the Clinton, Bush/Cheney, and Obama regimes for killing, maiming, orphaning, widowing, and dislocating millions of peoples in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, and Syria?
Answer: mindless lack of critical thinking, herd instinct, the same kind of impetus that turned Germany into the Nazi state. The same fuel behind the Political Correctness movement. Among humans, more fall prey to mindless following than critical thinking. Critical thinking takes work. Mindlessness....none at all.
Clearly, the pathetic remnant of the American left has more hate for those who stand up for the working class than they have for those oppressing the working class and those fomenting war.
Why did the women so quick to march against Trump not march against the Clinton, Bush/Cheney, and Obama regimes for killing, maiming, orphaning, widowing, and dislocating millions of peoples in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, and Syria?
Answer: mindless lack of critical thinking, herd instinct, the same kind of impetus that turned Germany into the Nazi state. The same fuel behind the Political Correctness movement. Among humans, more fall prey to mindless following than critical thinking. Critical thinking takes work. Mindlessness....none at all.
Sunday, January 22, 2017
Feature: A Road Trip with Options Supertraders
Download your copy here. From Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities. By John A. Sarkett.
Saturday, January 21, 2017
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Friday, January 13, 2017
The Best Classical Music Recordings of 2016 - The New York Times
The Best Classical Music Recordings of 2016 - The New York Times
Check out Il Giardino Armonico Mozart 4 on Spotify.
Check out Il Giardino Armonico Mozart 4 on Spotify.
Saturday, January 07, 2017
Wednesday, January 04, 2017
Sunday, December 25, 2016
Friday, December 23, 2016
Thursday, December 22, 2016
Monday, December 05, 2016
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Monday, November 14, 2016
Frank Schaeffer, Son of Evangelical Royalty, Turns His Back, and Tells the Tale - The New York Times
Frank Schaeffer, Son of Evangelical Royalty, Turns His Back, and Tells the Tale - The New York Times
Schaeffer was interviewed on NPR today, Monday, November 14, 2016, vis-à-vis Trump, Republican wins, etc. and in researching him, I found this five-year-old feature....
Schaeffer was interviewed on NPR today, Monday, November 14, 2016, vis-à-vis Trump, Republican wins, etc. and in researching him, I found this five-year-old feature....
Sunday, November 13, 2016
This is why we love journalism
Two killer stories in recent Bloomberg Businessweeks:
How Goldman Sachs exploited Libya
Gaming the system, ripping off investors in rural Vermont
The nature of the human animal is to steal.
How Goldman Sachs exploited Libya
Gaming the system, ripping off investors in rural Vermont
The nature of the human animal is to steal.
Friday, November 11, 2016
Passings 2016
Boulez, Bowie, Harnoncourt, Prince, Zoltan Kocsis and now Leonard Cohen.
Who was more obsessed with God than Leonard Cohen?
Everybody Knows
Leonard Cohen
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long-stem rose
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you've been faithful
Ah, give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you've been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
And everybody knows that it's now or never
Everybody knows that it's me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah, when you've done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe's still pickin' cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows
And everybody knows that the Plague is coming
Everybody knows that it's moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows
And everybody knows that you're in trouble
Everybody knows what you've been through
From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
To the beach of Malibu
Everybody knows it's coming apart
Take one last look at this Sacred Heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows
I first heard the name "Leonard Cohen" at college. One of the roommates was East Coast, from Long Island, and much taken with him. It was back when everyone had a guitar, and I did, too, and I thought Cohen was certainly artistic, kind of dark, and sometimes depressing.
So much water gone by the bridge since then. Leonard made and lost and remade a fortune, spent years in a Buddhist monastery.
He was always artistic, never more so than with his last release, just a few days ago, and I am surely sad he is gone. If you haven't read the New Yorker interview with him, just four short weeks ago, I recommend it.
R.I.P. to all.....
Who was more obsessed with God than Leonard Cohen?
Everybody Knows
Leonard Cohen
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long-stem rose
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you've been faithful
Ah, give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you've been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
And everybody knows that it's now or never
Everybody knows that it's me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah, when you've done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe's still pickin' cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows
And everybody knows that the Plague is coming
Everybody knows that it's moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows
And everybody knows that you're in trouble
Everybody knows what you've been through
From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
To the beach of Malibu
Everybody knows it's coming apart
Take one last look at this Sacred Heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows
I first heard the name "Leonard Cohen" at college. One of the roommates was East Coast, from Long Island, and much taken with him. It was back when everyone had a guitar, and I did, too, and I thought Cohen was certainly artistic, kind of dark, and sometimes depressing.
So much water gone by the bridge since then. Leonard made and lost and remade a fortune, spent years in a Buddhist monastery.
He was always artistic, never more so than with his last release, just a few days ago, and I am surely sad he is gone. If you haven't read the New Yorker interview with him, just four short weeks ago, I recommend it.
R.I.P. to all.....
Coaxing Knee Cartilage to Regrow
Coaxing Knee Cartilage to Regrow
Later on, the researchers checked 66 of the patients' knees. They found signs of regrown cartilage in 42 cases. In 18 cases, regrown cartilage looked the same as normal cartilage, Stone's team reports.
Later on, the researchers checked 66 of the patients' knees. They found signs of regrown cartilage in 42 cases. In 18 cases, regrown cartilage looked the same as normal cartilage, Stone's team reports.
Tuesday, November 08, 2016
Monday, November 07, 2016
Zoltan Kocsis, Hungarian Pianist and Conductor, Dies at 64 | Billboard
Zoltan Kocsis, Hungarian Pianist and Conductor, Dies at 64 | Billboard
I met him back stage, one time, March 1, 1987, at Orchestra Hall, Chicago, following his program (I was 35, he was 34, how the time goes by....):
He was a very great artist; R.I.P. Z.K.
I met him back stage, one time, March 1, 1987, at Orchestra Hall, Chicago, following his program (I was 35, he was 34, how the time goes by....):
| Liszt | Hungarian Rhapsody No. 5 |
| Liszt | Ave Maria |
| Liszt | Grosses Konzersolo |
| Schubert | Sonata A, D. 959 |
He was a very great artist; R.I.P. Z.K.
Friday, November 04, 2016
Wednesday, November 02, 2016
10 Classical Composers With Extreme Eccentricities
You can't make this stuff up: Composers are just people, too, after all. Still.....
10 Classical Composers With Extreme Eccentricities - Listverse
10 Classical Composers With Extreme Eccentricities - Listverse
Sunday, October 30, 2016
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Hungarian Folk Dance troupe “steps higher;” much more to their art than leaps and boot slaps
When we were young we had some bohemian friends, Randy and
Daisy. Their passion was folk
dancing. They loved everything about
it: the music, the steps, the endorphins
they ginned up from the strenuous exercise, the social interactions. We were invited to join them, multiple times,
but truthfully, we thought it corny, though harmless. After all, we were young Americans, and young
Americans didn’t “folk dance.”
Now, after decades, a near lifetime, come to find out as
with so many things, we were wrong. Turns
out there is a lot to more to folk dance than is immediately apparent. Though not a “fine art,” it is art, it is not
“corny,” and it has as much meaning to offer humanity as any other art form, maybe
more, and can even serve to show some remedy to much of what ails society
today.
How did this reversal come about? During the research for the “csárdás” section
of a new book I was working on (see sarkett.com), I had made the online acquaintance of Mr. Kalman Magyar, and
learned he would be producing a national tour of the Hungarian National Dance
Ensemble in a program titled “Spirit of Hungary: Revolution and Roots in Dance and Music.” It would make its Chicago
stop October 19, 2016 . He was extremely helpful to my research, I
was grateful, and as an opportunity to say so in person, I promised to attend.
When the day actually came, as luck would have it, I was
returning from an arduous two-week business assignment. After a four hour flight, I went home long
enough to drop my bag, splash water on my face, change clothes, and exhausted,
push myself back out the door again to fight some unusually brutal Chicago
traffic and make it to the show on time.
I’m glad I did. I was
repaid 500 times. The dancers, some 20
strong, in the prime of youth, were unforgettable: athletic, artistic, confident, poised, in
absolute command of their intricate steps.
The young women were beautiful, lithe, expressive, and modest, all at
the same time, not a small feat. The
young men: muscular, leaping, boot-slapping,
powerful, ferocious, even, at times, tender.
Moments of humor interspersed with moments of awe at the sheer
athleticism of all the dancers. It was a
two-plus hour program, quite long, but one wished it wouldn’t end. Part one was a moving tribute to the 1956
revolution; part two, traditional folk
dance.
Out in the wider world, we have wars and rumors of
wars; in this idyllic, mythic ‘village’
recreation, there was no such enmity. In
the dances for men only, everything was handshake, nod and respect, freely
given, freely received. No “dissing,” no
“trash talking.”
Most notably, the same high plane was attained when the
young women took the stage to join the dance, and male-female relations came to
the fore. Respect, admiration, and
eventually .... love. One of the eleven
set pieces even depicted a village marriage that followed a proper courtship.
Here was parity between the sexes vs. master-slave; respect and love vs. cynical exploitation; partnership vs. separation. “Gender
equality,” an ancient issue that has never and maybe never will be resolved and
obviously much discussed in our society, actually becomes a reality in
the art of folk dance.
It was in the steps, in the assured expressions, the eyes,
the heart, the feeling that came from the dancers over the stage lights and
into the audience. All was right in the
world, at least while the music was playing and the dancers were dancing.
Folk dance was showing us a possibility: a world not only of
art and rhythm, dash and color, leaping and boot-slapping, sound and fire, but
a world in which men can cooperate, and men and women can respect each other
and achieve true oneness of purpose, neither diminished, both enhanced by the
exchange.
This must be what God (we know in some quarters it is
“politically incorrect” to mention him, still......) had in mind when he
invented marriage and we don’t find it often in film, or television, or books
or plays, but we did in the most unlikely setting: folk dance.
Maybe the writer of Ecclesiastes had it right: enjoy your spouse, enjoy your food, enjoy
your work, your days under this sun are short, and end soon enough. Here, through dance, was the enjoyment of the
spouse, male to female, female to male, in a wholesome, yet vibrant setting.
The young pairs here were having fun, there was no angst, no
hand wringing, so much so one might imagine having this much fun was illegal or
at least politically incorrect. Out in
the wider world, sadly, too many young people were at the same moment taking
drugs, committing crimes, ruining their lives in 1,000 ways, but none of that
in this pristine, artful setting.
Dance, specifically folk dance, has in it a treasure chest
of good things: all the things our friends
liked plus a) a model of relations between all humans, and specifically between
male and female.
We write this at a time (October, 2016) when that very topic
-- male-female relations -- is in the very forefront of the presidential race
news. Candidate Donald Trump was
recorded some years ago bragging about his ways and means with women that some say
should more rightfully be titled sexual assault. Others chalk up the same disclosure to “locker
room talk,” never acted on. The “discussion”
and race goes on....meanwhile....
Whether talk or action, that sort of sensibility could not
be further from the ethos of folk dance where respect, parity, positive
intentions reigned.
From the earliest days of “classical” music, composers have
appropriated folk and popular tunes.
For example, the final variation, no. 30, in J.S. Bach’s Goldberg
Variations, which some cite as the foremost keyboard composition ever
written, is a Quodlibet (lit. “that which pleases”) based on the tunes of two
folk-songs, as pointed out by harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick, in his liner
notes to his classic 1958 recording:
“Ich bin so lang nicht bei dir g'west.
Ruck her, ruck her, ruck her.”
Ruck her, ruck her, ruck her.”
and:
“Kraut und Räben habenmich
hätt' mein' Mutter Fleisch gekocht,
so wär' ich länger blieben.”
“Kraut und Räben haben
hätt' mein' Mutter Fleisch gekocht,
so wär' ich länger blieben.”
These might be translated thus:
“I've not been with you for so long.
Come closer, closer, closer.”
Come closer, closer, closer.”
and:
“Beets and spinach drove me far away.
Had my mother cooked some meat,
then I'd have stayed much longer.”
A touch of love, a touch of humor, a good summation of the
folk art. If folk music was not a “dumbing
down” for Bach, and countless other composers, then how much less for us. It was for them a tool to be employed, and a
special one. Instead of “dumbing down,”
it might be a “stepping higher.”
Understanding the ramifications and hidden meanings of folk
dance help us to better understand
classical music. For that alone, we earn
an intellectual profit by giving a closer look to folk dance.
One of the projects Kalman Magyar had contributed to earlier
in the year was my pursuance of a translation of Mihály Vörösmarty’s 19th
century symbolist play, Csongor és Tünde. Considered avant-garde for its time, the
title character Csongor encounters money, power, and knowledge as paths to
self-fulfillment, but finds them all wanting.
Only love, he concludes, can provide transcendence.
The folk dance art from Hungary seemed to provide another argument
-- in human movements vs. words -- to the same conclusion that night in
Chicago, that parity, respect and partnership were paramount virtues in human
transaction, especially so in male-female transaction. And that only these values would provide the
path, the only path, to transcendence, at least in the never-ending interaction
between the sexes.
Monday, October 24, 2016
The way to go out
Chicago radio legend Herb 'The Cool Gent' Kent dies at 88 | abc7chicago.com
The radio station where Kent worked, iHeartMedia's V103 FM Chicago, said Sunday that Kent died Saturday evening.
Kent had been on the air, like he was every weekend, just a few hours earlier and had celebrated his birthday just a couple weeks prior.
The radio station where Kent worked, iHeartMedia's V103 FM Chicago, said Sunday that Kent died Saturday evening.
Kent had been on the air, like he was every weekend, just a few hours earlier and had celebrated his birthday just a couple weeks prior.
Thursday, October 20, 2016
Sunday, October 16, 2016
Sunday, October 09, 2016
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Sunday, September 11, 2016
Sunday, September 04, 2016
Friday, September 02, 2016
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Sunday, August 28, 2016
Thursday, August 25, 2016
If USA elects Hillary......
Trump vs. Hillary: A Summation -- Paul Craig Roberts - PaulCraigRoberts.org
If the result of Americans’ dereliction of duty is nuclear war, the American people will be responsible for the death of planet Earth. One would hope that with responsibility this great on their shoulders, the American people will reject the unequivocal war candidate and take their chances on holding Trump accountable to his words.
If the result of Americans’ dereliction of duty is nuclear war, the American people will be responsible for the death of planet Earth. One would hope that with responsibility this great on their shoulders, the American people will reject the unequivocal war candidate and take their chances on holding Trump accountable to his words.
Monday, August 22, 2016
Friday, August 19, 2016
How Much Money Ryan Lochte Could Lose From Robbery Scandal? Probably north of $3 million
How Much Money Ryan Lochte Could Lose From Robbery Scandal
And how to put a price tag on that resurrection of that old appellation: "ugly American"...............?
Thursday, August 18, 2016
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