Posted on by the coffee philosopher

I Have Given Up Comic Books


For something like two years now, I have been regularly buying several series of comic books from my local comic book store (Aquaman, Batman, Action Comics, Moon Knight, and Deathstroke).

I think I’m done. I’m not sure I can justify the money. Also, I recently fell behind and that feels… ok. I’m not distraught about not knowing how story arcs will end. I’m okay with things. But I have enjoyed this particular interlude – my return to a portion of my misspent youth – and don’t regret it. And I’m sure I’ll find something else to spend the money on.

Posted on by the coffee philosopher

Arabian Nights


For some reason, I was recently possessed with a desire to pick up my copy of The Arabian Nights. Of course, that copy has to be the translation by the nineteenth century explorer, adventurer, writer, and libertine – Richard Burton. Nothing else will do.

No other translation dies so deeply into thick, decadent language. It’s like thick, sexy syrup. And it is so very sexy. As a child, I was put into giggles and delight by the sheer number of synonyms he found for sex and kissing (‘bus’ and ‘futtering’ being my two favorites). It’s like Scott Moncrieff’s Remembrance of Things Past. I may accept that it is not really the most accurate translation and that it may miss many clear stylistic authorial intentions, but it’s old fashioned rhythms are so much better on the tongue than the other English options.

Posted on by the coffee philosopher

Nimoy


Someone once said to me that she would break down and cry when (and if – modern medicine can do miracles, I hear) Patrick Stewart were to pass away. Of course, she wasn’t thinking of his masterful performances on stage as Lear and Prospero, but rather as Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

I love Patrick Stewart, but she was obviously younger than me, because my Star Trek memories are of the original series in syndication and the original movies (especially Wrath of Khan). As good at Stewart was, the others are only pretenders to the throne. Of the original duo, Kirk and Spock… Spock, aka Leonard Nimoy, has shuffled off his mortal coil.

He did more than Spock, of course (remember In Search Of?), but it is because he was Spock that I am reminded of a certain cultural mortality.

If I have children, they will never really know who Spock was and if I try to show them, they will merely mock an old man for watching something with such shoddy production values.

And one day, Kirk will be gone, too. And after that, there will soon be little memory of my Star Trek. Which, I suppose, is really just saying that one day, I will be dead and there will be a day, some time after – maybe years, maybe decades, maybe more, but there will be a day – when there will no longer be any memory of me or my world.

Happy hump day, folks.

Posted on by the coffee philosopher

2 3s


That’s just a silly bit of titling, really. Last week, I saw Emmanuel Ax and the National Symphony Orchestra play Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto (for piano and orchestra), followed by an Ax-less performance of Beethoven’s Third Symphony. That’s the Eroica (not the Erotica; check your CD cover more closely and you’ll see that I’m right).

Both are nicely epic pieces. I’m not a good enough judge of piano playing to really know, but it was obvious that Ax conveyed great feeling through those keys. The orchestral moments felt like a massive tide of humanity’s emotions crashing and the piano as Beethoven’s personal, passionate dialogue with humanity.

The Third Symphony, which was famously had its title changed after Beethoven became disillusioned with Napoleon, is, of course, like the earlier concerto, an epic work. Ludwig didn’t do small symphonies. There were moments when the brass took center stage and you could feel, beneath an otherwise very positive score, a certain simmering resentment. Maybe it’s just, but it felt like those small moments were the expressions of his disappointment and anger with Napoleon’s perceived betrayal of revolutionary sentiments.

At the end, Ax came out and played a solo piano piece – I’m not sure what it was; possibly Chopin, but it sounded a little more recent than that.

Posted on by the coffee philosopher

2015/01/img_4467.jpg