Best of the Web This Week

I got a pleasant surprise when I arrived at work last night.  The boss' brother told me I was to have the night off as the boss had arranged for Nicole to work in my stead, he just forgot to tell me about it.   That was very OK by me as I was really exhausted from trying to keep up with things and working every day for two weeks.  I grabbed a soda and returned home where I changed into some comfy clothes and immediately took a two hour nap which was sorely needed.  I awoke somewhat refreshed and began to work on the selection process for this post.  I had some 1200 photographs that I collected in my many travels around the web this week to sort through so that I could select the very best for your review today.  It took me a while, but I think you guys will appreciate the results when you scroll down the page to check them out for yourselves.  After selecting all the photographs, I then had to choose some appropriately beautiful music to accompany this collection of outstandingly handsome examples of male pulchritude.  I came up with the idea of a mini-concert of sorts to give you plenty of musical accompaniment while you take your time scrolling down the page to admire and desire all that I have to offer today.  For this Mini-Concert I have put together two different works by German Composer Joachim Raff, who coincidently happens to share my birthday of May 27. The first piece is his "astonishingly mature and individual work", the String Quartet Number 1 in D Minor, Opus 77 written in 1855 when he was 33 and performed by Quartett di Milano. The second piece was "written in Spring 1873 when Raff was at the high point of his creative life." Dedicated in "friendly admiration" to his lifelong friend, the pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow, Piano Concerto in C Minor, Opus 185 was his only Piano Concerto. This performance is by Peter Aronsky accompanied by Radio-Sinfonieorchester Basel conducted by Matthias Bamert.  That's it for today, thanks for spending part of your weekend with me, I will see you again on Monday.  Now I am off to take another much needed nap before heading out to do the dreaded laundry chore!  Until next time as always, Enjoy!