The second book in the three I had purchased to catch up on the classic literature I should-have-read-but-didn’t. This was overfull with stories and so hard to really think about as a whole. I’ll be looking back on them for months. I am still researching terms I may not have fully understood and reading through essays and can pull more interesting quotes than I have so far. Here are my notes:
Author: Scott D. Strader
Jean Rollin’s Two Orphan Vampires (1997)
[ IMDB ]
Blind, in an orphanage run by nuns. A doctor examines them. Two girls, two nuns. Blond Henriette, brunette Louise. Later, two female victims that parallel them.
They escape at night and we find out that they are faking blindness (or, later, that they are only blind during the daytime). “The day is black but the night is blue.”
First night out they philosophize via long dialogues about their lives, deaths, and constant rebirth. People hunt them and they are always reborn. Melancholy about their future.
Continue reading Jean Rollin’s Two Orphan Vampires (1997)Orchestral Study #1 (flowing and hymn-like)
- Orchestral Study #1 (flowing and hymn-like)
- Orchestral Study #2 (driving and chaotic)
- Orchestral Study #3 (adagio with melisma)
- Orchestral Study #4 (allegro)
- Orchestral Study #5 (variations)
- Orchestral Study #6 (space)
- Orchestral Study #7 (dialogue)
- Orchestral Study #8 (toccata)
- Orchestral Study #9 (seven interludes)
- Orchestral Study #10 (rupture, slowed down and from different angles)
- Orchestral Study #11 (a crowd, disassembled)
- Orchestral Study #12 (thesis)
A year or so ago I decided to start studying orchestration in order to continue composing, even if no longer able to perform on piano. I had acquired a used copy of Walter Piston’s Orchestration book somewhere. It’s bound with an imprint of Allerton High School–England–on the cover. A note pasted on the first page: Frank Snape Music Prize, Marilyn Smith,1960-16, J. J. Morton (?) Head Mistress.
Anyway, cut to a month ago when one of the classical stations I listen to on the way to work was playing a Haydn symphony. Thinking of the 100-plus that he had written, I decided to try to write a piece for orchestra every month this year. Learn by doing, etc. Although I will commit the offense of not fully allowing the pieces to develop their themes and structures, I will benefit from frequent fresh starts, and will be able to grow out of the previous works’ mistakes. I had this idea on January 15th so I’m on target for 30-day composing sessions, but behind for the year. It’s a soft target.
I started unsure what my orchestral style would be. Rock musicians turned orchestral generally produce tonal works similar to their songs but without any of the edge that electric guitar, studio processing, etc. adds to the music. I didn’t want to fall into that. Inspirations are the Russians: Shostakovich and Prokofiev, the sonorists: Schnittke and Penderecki (5th Symphony), and works like Sibelius’s 5th Symphony (for its discursive fluidity) or Shostakovich’s 10th Symphony.
In this first study, I started with the general intent of opening with a section of chattery, fluid strings, then leading to a more homophonic section dominated by brass, and developing off of those. The result is 5 sections and a coda, generally:
- Polyphonic theme A for string
- Homophonic hymn-like theme B for brass
- Theme C derived from the texture of theme A, progressing with more dissonant brass
- Theme B in the string section while the brass references theme C
- Theme A and C interwoven, closing with coda referencing the simplified texture of theme B for brass and strings
At 3:12, it does feel a bit rushed as if it’s 30 minutes in a 3 minute span, but I feel like it did achieve what I set out to express. (Musescore used for scoring and PDF/MP3 output.)
orchestral-study-1
Four pulp sci-fi novels (set #4)
Updated 2 Mar 2019 (Ordeal in Otherwhere)
Updated 23 Apr 2019 (The Last Planet)
Updated 26 May 2019 (Breed to Come)
Updated 8 Jul 2019 (Agent of Entropy)
I select based on the description on the back cover and, by chance, I picked up three Andre Norton books. Sadly, only one of the books has information on their cover artists.
Continue reading Four pulp sci-fi novels (set #4)Witness
A crowd of Covington Catholic (website, Facebook) students harass and mock Nathan Phillips. Known contacts:
- Browe@covcath.org
- Sbeiting@covcath.org
- Rflesch@covcath.org
Loose timeline of useful information that was released on Twitter:
4:16 AM – 19 Jan 2019 – A video of the event
3:53 PM – Jan 19, 2019 – Rapist Jake Walter from the school
Boone County deputies say Jake Walter, a one-time Covington Catholic basketball standout, held a woman down this weekend and repeatedly raped her until she bled.
Walter dismissed the victim by laughing at her and telling her that she would be fine.
12:16 AM – Jan 20, 2019 – Statement from one of the students mother
Shame on you! Were you there? Did you hear the names the people where calling these boys? It was shameful. Did you witness the black Muslims yelling profanities and video taping trying to get something to futher (sic) your narrative of hatred?? Did you know that this “man” came up to this one boy and drummed in his face? Shame on you. Only reporting what you want. More fake news.
…
Delete my email. I want nothing to do with helping perpetuating (sic) your hate. I do not want to be a part of your story. You are ruining a boys life for fake news. Hate spreads like wildfire. I pray for you.
— Quote captured from WATCH: Covington Catholic Students Wearing MAGA Hats Taunt Native Americans [VIDEO] on Heavy.com.
8:44 AM – 20 Jan 2019 – Each student’s face–45 in all–screengrabbed from the video
Updated 24 Jan 2019
Images of previous incidents where Covington students were being racist
Student wearing blackface at a basketball game, apparently taunting a black player on the other team. Taken from a thread titled Should The Colonel Crazies’ Treatment Of Inbounders Have To Change?
Another image taken from a basketball game with students giving the white supremacy hand sign (the Medium article Does the OK Sign Actually Signify “White Power,” or What? details the symbol’s history and hoaxes). Image originally from this tweet. No source.
6:04 PM – 21 Jan 2019 – Harassing a female before the Nathan Phillips incident
Last thing, for people wondering what they yelled, all we specifically heard was “MAGA”, “Build the Wall”, and some people say they hear “slut” at the end of the video ok it’s past my bedtime goodnight twitter
Media presence
Daily Beast posted the article Covington Catholic Teen on ‘Fox & Friends’: Blackface Is ‘School Spirit’ on two students’ interview on Fox the morning of the 23rd. File under “male white privilege makes stupid”. These teens are either unprepared or stupid or both. Cf. the Parkland kids carrying themselves in the public sphere with calm intelligence and moral certitude.
Savannah Guthrie interviewed Nick Sandmann (possibly #1 in the group image above) on NBC Nightly News on the evening of the 23rd. He is as expressive and sympathetic as the two on Fox. This is more of an indictment of thrusting kids into the media. Allegedly, the Bishop at the school has now barred them from speaking to the media.
Predictable, Trump and Fox support them.