From Dusk 'til Dawn

Dallas At Dusk

I have been a lazy slug today, way too lazy.  I did get up around 9 this morning.  I did the preliminary work on this post, putting together the music and the men, but then came an early lunch.  This was followed with a supposed short nap.  Ha!  I woke up somewhat after 5 pm.  Needless to say, productivity was nowhere in the picture.  However as it approaches dusk here in the Metroplex, I still have the main body of the post to write.  Unfortunately I am at a fairly uninteresting portion of My Life (to me anyway).  The last couple of years in junior high school were  a mixed bag of highs and lows where my bi-polareity began to assert itself as I began to realize who and what I was which was in no way what I could be. Talk about sexuality was not allowed, much less discussed in my home.  I got no "birds and bees" talk, in fact the only 'sex ed' we got at the time came from the Southern Baptist Church which was basically don't until marriage.  I never got the premarital speech from Dad because I never married.  I had to discover myself in an age before the internet with precious little valid information available.  Naturally my internal feelings did not match my religious and familial upbringing and the reconciliation of the two polar opposites left me mostly in a quandary. 

When it came time for high school, most of my friends and church mates were going to the school for our district Polytechnic High School.  However both my Mother and Father attended Technical High School which became Green B Trimble Technical High School after the founding principal died the year before my older brother entered studies there.  One interesting note there, my brother's first year was also the first year any school in the Fort Worth Independent School District was integrated and Trimble Tech was the first school to do so.  By the time I arrived two years later it was old hat and just a part of life.  Much like the arguments for Gay Rights today, the arguments against integration evaporated in the reality of life and people being just people, no matter who they were.  We had leaders among the students who were White, Black and Hispanic as well as teachers.  When we had the first male to run for Cheerleader and win, the whole 'he must be a fag' thing went around, but he was really good and he won.   Back to my point, I really did not want to go to Tech, I had no burning desire to learn a trade and I knew virtually no one who was going there.  However there was no choice to be made, my Mother signed me up for Tech and chose business classes for my courses the first year.    I was signed up for  marching band which luckily for me was the only class time I shared with my older brother who was a senior at the time.  I as a sophomore was not allowed into such a high social stratosphere, but I did OK, coming in 2nd for Class Favorite at the end of the year.  However I still felt overshadowed by my older brother.  That was going to end with his graduation which could come none too soon for me.  

I started to come into my own, although I was still very confused sexually and heavily closeted.  At the end of the year I ran for Drum Major and came in Second which made me the Assistant Drum Major.   This bode well for the beginning of my final two years in high school,  a new dawn if you would.  I had made friends as I am basically good being friendly and listening to others while masking  my own inner turmoil.  But I was going to get my moment in sun with out an over shadow for the first time in my life.  I was looking forward to it while living in terror of someone getting to know the 'real me'.  Next week, I will get into my last two years of high school which are a story in and of themselves.

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For your listening pleasure, today's playlist is a review of one of the 19th Century's most prominent Piano Virtuosi and Composer with his most recognized works.  Sigismond Thalberg was believed to be the illegitimate son of the aristocracy born in Switzerland although his birth certificate reads Frankfurt-am-Main.  Whatever the circumstance of his birth, his music is wonderfully melodic and beautifully inspiring.  We begin the review with the piece most often heard on classical stations today, his Berceuse or Cradle Song performed here by Guiseppe Devastato.  From the cradle, we move to the salon with Thalberg's Grande Sonate in C-minor, Op.56 (1844) Dedicated to Charles Louis, Duc de lucques, Infant d´Espagne with a performance by Adrian Ruiz.  Next up is his most ambitious work, the Piano Concerto in F-minor, Op.5 (1830) here wonderfully performed by Francesco Nicolosi accompanied by the Razumovsky Symphony Orchestra.  We stay with Signori Nicolosi for the conclusion to our review with Thalberg's Les Soirées de Pausilippe, Op. 75. A Tribute to Rossini : 24 Musical Thoughts.

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Finally for today are four exquisite photographic portraits from my collection of photographs which most impressed from the Eyecatcher blog.  Each portrait permits the viewer to intimately commune with the subjects who fairly overflow with vibrant life and subtle sensuality.  Thanks for the visit, do come again and as always, Enjoy!

Scenes From A Lifetime Ago

Fort Worth 1950

My life journey began at 12:15 on a sunny spring afternoon May 27,1951.  By all accounts I was a happy child although most of my childhood remains shrouded in fog, there are a few things that stand out.  My earliest memory is of my third birthday party and its just a flash of me running around with the other toddlers at our house on Martin Street.  I got a set of play dishes that I loved.  Back then play dishes were made of metal and not plastic, so I had a whole set of miniature dishware and little mini baking pans.  It must of had a profound effect on me as I still have a flair for things in the kitchen with over 50 years of cooking experience of one sort or another.  The next thing that pops up regularly is from my Beginners Sunday School class when I was around 4 or 5.  We were supposed to sing a song that we knew in the group circle.  When it came to be my turn, the only song that I could remember was Elvis Presley's "You ain't nothing but a Hound Dog'.  Of course this scandalized the church in 1955 as Elvis played that 'devil music' rock and roll.  The two voices I always heard playing in my house were Tennessee  Ernie Ford and Elvis Presley, both favorites of my Mother. I couldn't remember any thing Ernie sang at the time so I went with Elvis.;  The look on my teachers face was priceless and I really could not figure out what all the uproar was about.

As I grew older, I began to notice differences between most other little boys and myself, but it was nothing I could put my finger on.  I got along better with adults and girls than I did with boys.  I also became somewhat of a dreamer, as I read a lot.  I loved reading as it always took me away from where I was and I could become someone who I was not.  Around the age of seven or eight, it became readily apparent that I was not like other boys.  I had my first crush on  a boy in my class named Kirby.  He was the all American boy, good at all the boy things I was not.  I would go over to his house and play on some afternoons.  I loved it when he got on the swing set with his shirt unbuttoned and his tan litheness on display.  I did not equate this with sexuality at the time, I just knew I liked him better than anyone else.  I also became friends with the boy who would become my best friend in elementary school by the name of Neal.  I liked him because he, like me, liked jump rope and dodge ball better than baseball or racing each other all over the field.  

Neal and I also enjoyed another of my interests that I usually did not get to indulge in.  When I was smaller I enjoyed playing dress up with the other  little girls, but that became taboo as I got a little older.  Neal though reveled in pretending to be a beauty queen and I played along as Miss Congeniality.  Neal also taught me how to masturbate.  Physically, puberty had already hit him and I was still not there when in the 5th grade I had my first sexual experience with another boy, Neal.  I thought I had died and gone to heaven, but I knew instinctively this was not something I could share with anyone.  It was to be our secret and I kept that secret for many a year before I could tell anyone.  

I did the Cub and Boy Scout thing, although I was never very good at it like my older brother.  I was more interested in rushing home from school to catch the original Mickey Mouse Club.  It seemed the meetings were always on the days that featured the Hardy Boys adventures on the MMC.  I thought they were the coolest guys who could figure out any mystery around.  They or there type usually figured into my fantasy scenarios as someone I wanted to be.  

From Top Left, Me at 6 months, 3 years, Second Grade, High School Senior, and Standing Watch at Boot Camp.

My fantasy life began as early as the first grade.  I used to daydream I was someone else with a different name.  I did not particularly like my given name, so I would think of a name I might like and create a 'personality' around that name.  It kept me from hurting from dislike of who I was.  I knew I was different but I could not figure out how or why and as I approached  puberty, bouts of depression began appearing  in opposition to my usual manic happiness.  My Dad had me figured out long before I figured my self out.  he used to tell me I could do most of the things I liked to do and still be a boy.  He recognized that I was happier in my feminine and emotional side than with my rough and tumble side.  

I generally excelled in school until junior high when puberty hit and I could not understand all the many things happening in my mind and body.  It really confused me when boys started noticing girls.  I could never figure what the big deal was.  I continued to have crushes on boys, but had not yet equated that with  sexuality.  Sex education was not present in our home, the most information I got was from a boy scout film dad took us too when I was 12.  It explained all the physical changes.  But it gave me nothing to deal with the emotional part of coming of age.  

I have always had a face that says talk to me and people do.  Other kids w3iould come to me and I could listen and figure out solutions for their problems whereas I had no clue how to solve my own.  I was wracked with guilt and despair over my secrets, and it had become clear to me it was not something I could discuss with anyone at my church or school.  Depression, despair and anxiety started making regular appearances, however I was usually a good enough actor to pull off semi happy to happy for the most part.  Religion had introduced guilt and condemnation and at times these feelings were overwhelming.  Yet I could not get solace from the church, because my secrets were anathema to religious folks of the time and even so today with some of the more fundamentalist of various religions.  

The things I heard a bout people like me were horrendous and scary.  It was also pounded from the pulpit and reinforced by rote.  I got so confused, I was not any of those things, but I was one of those people.  It was also about this time that I realized that the person I most admired and wanted to be, my Mother, was not something I could ever be. That was a big mind fuck.  My mother had always been a leader in the church and community and was well respected by those in the religious and political communities.  My Mother and I are very similar in personality although I carry a healthy portion of my dad in my personality too.  I had always felt that I was in some way a disappointment to my Mother and I finally figured it out, I was not her little girl and never could be.  Whenever my efforts would fall short in some way,  it seemed always that I was compared to the girls my Mother worked with in the church.  "My girls can do such and such, why can't you?" was a recurring theme.  I had begun to hate who I was because I could never be who my Mother had wanted me to be.  I excelled in my studies up to this point and was a leader in my Sunday School classes.  Yet I was strangely depressed about who I was and there was no one who I could think of who could or would understand.  

When  Junior High came around, Neal and I were in different classes and lived around the corner from each other.  I would go visit and we would play our games and then I would come home.  One day when I was coming home, my older brother and some of his friends were sitting on the curb when they observed  me coming home from Neal's house.  They asked why I was visiting with him and did he do things to me.  I was horrified that they had somehow figured out that we played our games and my brother and his friends made fun of me mercilessly.  I never returned to Neal's house after that and we grew apart.  Then he moved to Dallas with his family before high school and I never saw him again.  

In those days there was no Internet and school libraries did not carry books on sexuality.  There was no sex ed at home or school and I was adrift in a world that confused and frightened me.  Yet there was no one which to turn.  Religion for all its promise of peace and happiness brought guilt and pain, excruciatingly so.  I kept all these things hidden in my heart where no one could find them.  However all this secrecy would take a toll on me that I am still paying today.  Thanks to therapy, one day soon hopefully,  I can tell the toll taker to fuck off, but for now I am still paying the toll for holding all these things in so tightly all these years.  

Next week, puberty with all its surging hormones and emotional traps and pitfalls of one sort or another.  Junior High was a desolate place for me the inadequate younger version of one of the most popular boys in school.  Another comparison I was destined to loose.  But more on that next week. 

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For your listening pleasure today, I have my favorite of Ludwig von Beethoven's Piano Sonatas, the Number 8 in C Minor, Opus 13 "Pathetique".  The recording I have in the car is by Dubravka Tomsic, a protegee of Arthur Rubenstein and I love it.  I first became aware of this piece when I began listening to "Adventures in Good Music" with Karl Haas.  He introduced his program each night by playing the  first section of the Adagio cantabile before going into what he was going to relate to us that evening.   I now keep the Adagio cantabile on repeat in my car as my zen peace for when I need 5 minutes of beautiful peace.  However, Venice Classic Radio plays a different rendition done by Radu Lupu, who won the prestigous Van Cliburn International Piano Competition here in Fort Worth when I was a sophomore in high school (1966).  What is the difference in the interpretations, you say?  Ms Tomsic plays the peace at the standard tempo beautifully whereas Mr Lupu plays the same piece at a slightly slower tempo throughout.  This lends a hauntingly beautiful effect on all three movements as opposed to the more manic standard tempo, most notably in the adagio cantabile.  I have included both versions for you in the playlist with Ms Tomsic going first followed by Mr Lupu.  Mr Lupu concludes his video with Beethoven's 32 Variations in C Minor WoO 80.  Listen for yourselves and decide which version you like best.

Piano Sonata No.18 op.13 in C minor 'Pathétique'
1. Grave - Allegro di molto e con brio
2. Adagio cantabile
3. Rondo, Allegro
Dubravka Tomsic, Piano
00:00 1. Grave - Allegro di molto e con brio
10:13 2. Adagio cantabile
17:17 3. Rondo. Allegro
22:23 32 Variations in C minor WoO 80
Radu Lupu, Piano

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Finally here is a selection of handsome young Men in Jeans for you to peruse.  Thanks for the visit, do come again.  And as always, Enjoy!

Hope Arises With Romo's Return

For the first time in 8 weeks a lot of good things happened for the Dallas Cowboys yesterday.  The long awaited return of Quarterback Tony Romo to the starting lineup was certainly the most welcome news of the weekend.  The day also marked the return of both Sean Lee and Rolando Blackmon to the defensive lineup.  The trio's return sparked a revitalized Cowboys team forward to victory over the Miami Dolphions, 24-14.  Yes they actually won the game!!!!  To be sure, it was not a perfect outing, Tony threw 2 interceptions to go with his two touchdowns.  However as great players always do in any sport, Tony made everyone around him better just by being there.  

The defense got the ball rolling after Tony's 1st interception when Roloado Blackmon stepped in front of a Miami pass and did not stop running until he scored giving the Cowboys the early lead.  A lead they never relinquished all day.  They let the Dolphins back in the game toward the end of the first half after their 2nd Touchdown by way of a penalty and a short kickoff.  That resulted in a Miami TD to close the half.  

The Dolphoins tied the game early in the third quarter but never managaed to mount anything after that as the Dallas D got tough and snuffed out any whiff of a drive the rest of the day.  The Cowboys did not answer the Miami score until the opening moments of the 4th quarter via a Romo to Dez Bryant thing of beauty that ended in the End Zone.  The Cowboys ran the Dolphins in the ground for the rest of the day and they also tacked on an insurance FG to salt away their first win since week 2 and Romo's injury.  The next test comes in 4 days and it is a gargantuan one as the undefeated Carolina Panthers come to the table for Thanksgiving.  Should be a great game to fill my  afternoon while preparing our ham and turkey feast for consumption.  Hope for a better 2nd half of the season springs eternal with Romo's return and none are more glad to see it than I.   (I must be a real optimist to think we stand a snowball's chance in hell of getting to the play offs, but stranger things have happened in the NFL.  We shall wait and see.  

Your Monday with Mozart features a 1994 recording by the Japan Shinsei Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Rudolph Barshai.  Their performance is of the Piano Concerto Number 18 in B Flat Major, KV 456.  The Soloist for this performance is Sviastislav Richter.  Over on my tumblr I have another classic recording, this one from 1974 with an augmented Grumiaux Trio performing Mozart's String Quintet Number 3 in G Minor, KV516.  

To wrap up today's post (or unwrap as the case may be),  I have some lovely, lanky lads lounging about in their supremely sexy skivvies in this week's edition of Monday's Undies posted  down below.  Meanwhile, over on my tumblr, Your Hottie of the Day!, Favian, will make you rethink your aversion to kinks and fetishes.  Thanks for the visit, see you again real soon.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!

 

New Adventures in Good Music: Sergei Rachmaninoff

Happy Hump Day and welcome to this edition of New Adventures in Good Music.  Our featured Composer today is one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music, Sergei Rachmaninoff.  I did not have time for a lot of research to develop a narrative for today, however, I did find some excellent source material available to you at Wikipedia and/or Rachmaninoff.org.  

For our purposes here today, we will explore the progression Rachmaninoff makes from his Piano Concerto Number 1 and each successive Concerto though his 5th and final Piano Concerto.  The Finale of our exploration is Rachmaninoff's last completed work, the 30 Variations on a theme of Paganini.  To further illustrate his creative process, I have a treat over on my tumblr.  There you will find Rachmaninoff's Piano Sonata Number1 and two versions of Piano Sonata Number 2.  The original Composition of Sonata 2 from 1913 and his own revision from 1931.  

As this is Hump Day also, I have a scorching selection of lanky and lithesome lads in their finest examples of modern swimwear.  You will find them all in this edition of Wet Wednesday splashing about down below.  Over on my tumblr, Your Hottie of the Day!, Matthew Williams is making quite the splash himself.  Thanks for the visit, see you again on Friday as we prepare for the weekend.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!    

Mid Week Mixed Bag

Today has a number of elements to it.  It is Wednesday of course, among other things like Hump Day and Veterans Day.  The day began with good News also.  Before I left work this morning the boss informed me of  a promotion and raise coming my way.  My elevation is due to his pending trip to visit his Mother in Bangladesh.  I am to assist his wife in the operation of the business while he is away.  More money is always nice and it not a salaried position so I will get paid fo rall the time I put in.  A definite win for me!

I had a really good Veterans Day moment this morning when I was sitting out on the patio in front of the store.  A handsome young man came up who was a regular customer approached the store.  The difference this morning  was that he was in the uniform of the a Navy ROTC cadet.  I had noticed his chevrons were of a Naval variety and had asked him to verify that it was Navy ROTC.  I mentioned that I like his branch of ROTC because I was a Navy Veteran.  He immediately thanked me for my service and I asked him about his goals and aspirations military wise.  He wants to be a pilot and as I served on an Aircraft Carrier in wartime, we had a lot to talk about.  It always gives me great pleasure to see a handsome young prospective Naval officer, dedicated to his goals,  So many of our young men have no direction, it is nice to see one who knows wherein  his path lies and a real pleasant way to begin my Veterans Day.  If you are a Veteran, Thank You for Your Service.  If you know a Service Member or Veteran, take a moment to say thanks today.  It will be so appreciated.  

Wednesday is also the usual day for New Adventures in Good Music, and I shall not disappoint there today, either.  I ran across a couple of fabulous recordings by Canadian Pianist Glen Gould.  I also found a couple of short documentaries that I want to share with you today.  

Today's play list explores the life and music of Gould, with two short documentaries and his most famously identified work, the Bach Goldberg Variations.  The first short documentary follows Glenn Gould to New York City. There, we see the renowned Canadian concert pianist kidding the cab driver, bantering with sound engineers at Columbia Records, and then, alone with the piano, fastidiously recording Bach's Italian Concerto.  In the second  short documentary, Gould enjoys a respite at his lakeside cottage. This is an aspect of Gould previously known only to the collie pacing beside him through the woods, the fishermen resting their oars to hear his piano, and fellow musicians like Franz Kraemer, with whom Gould talks of composition.

Glenn Gould's debut album of Bach's Goldberg Variations was recorded in June 1955. The Columbia LP quickly became one of the most revered piano recordings ever made and Gould became the most famous classical artist of the day. His exciting, unorthodox new way of playing Bach left listeners awestruck and critics around the world hailing him as a genius. But until recently this iconic album was limited by the dated recording technology of its time.

On September 25, 2006, history was made again. Zenph Studios recorded its debut re-performance® to standing ovations in the CBC's famed Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto. The date would have been Glenn Gould's 74th birthday, and what a gift Zenph created to give his fans.

The Zenph re-performance is a revelation in its clarity, depth, and vibrancy. Gould seems to play at an almost inhuman speed and yet with complete accuracy. The 30 variations dazzle the listener with their inventiveness and variety. As music historian and Gould biographer Kevin Bazzana writes in the CD's liner notes, "Here, albeit with his trademark vocalizing no longer accompanying the performance, Gould's musical personality is unquestionably present..." 

The companion piece I have chosen to share with you on my tumblr is a gem also.  Gould's memory capacity was legendary. Both his mental and finger memory made it possible for him to reproduce and play music literature many years after his last practice and performance of the same. A famous illustration of this statement would be an event that occurred in 1970, when the renown Italian pianist, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, was unable to go through with his performance of Beethoven's Concerto No.5, Emperor, in Toronto. Gould was given a telephone call on Thursday evening. The problem was explained, and he was asked to substitute for Michelangeli the next morning, on Friday, when the Toronto Symphony and the conductor, Karel Ancerl, were scheduled to work with Michelangeli. Gould's answer was affirmative and good-spirited. In the space of the next few night hours, Gould rehearsed the Concerto he had not touched in four years. The program was televised and, subsequently, aired on September 12, 1970. To everyone's amazement, Gould played Beethoven's Concerto in front of the camera flawlessly and by heart.

Now it will be hard to top those performances, yet a little icing or 'candy' to add to the mix should tie things up nicely.  As it is Hump Day, the splash fest known as Wet Wednesday is filled with skimpily clad lads lounging about the page down below.  Over on my tumblr, Your Hottie of hte Day is the flawlessly beautiful Sins-Asian, Andy Honda.  Thanks so much for the visit, see you again soon.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!

Sunday Morning Concert

Hello and welcome to the first Sunday Morning Concert in November!  Things yesterday did not always go according to plan, but I did manage get a lot accomplished.  Sadly, I am still woefully behind on my backlog of TV episodes.  However all in good time, so they say.  Before we get into the concert proper, I thought I would share the latest video from the Piano Guys.  The Piano Guys, Peter Hollens, David Archuleta, and The Mormon Tabernacle Choir get together to sing "Angels We Have Heard On High"as the anthem for the #share the gift hash tag campaign.  I know it is still a little early for Christmas songs, but this is a really beautiful rendition which immediately took me back in time.  I remembered the first time I ever sang this song in public.  I was in the Junior Choir at the church and we sang this  as the processional hymn as we entered the sanctuary.  The only lighting visible during the processional were the candles we were all holding as we came down the aisle and lit the candelabras at the front.  Take a moment to enjoy this marvelous recording.  

Now as to today's fabulous live performance, I am in a fairly mellow mood, so I thought a little Beautiful Baroque would be in order.  And who better to carry the Baroque Banner than Johann Sebastian Bach as the featured composer.  The video posted below is of the Piano Recital by Vyacheslav Gryaznov performing 10 Fugues from Art of Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bachas well as  24 Etudes by Frederic Chopin as a bonus. Included in this play list are Contrapuncti 1, 3, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14. with the last unfinished fugue completed by Vyacheslav Gryaznov. His encores are : Bach-Prelude 1 from WTC(book 1); Chopin-"Minute Waltz", op. 64, 1 and Chopin-Prelude 7 op. 28. Recorded live in the Malyi Hall of Moscow's Tchaikovsky Conservatory, March 18, 2012.  Over on my tumblr, I have the 2010 live London recording of Bach's Partita No. 3 in E Major for Solo Violin, BWV 1006 by Soloist Julia Fischer.  

To add a little visual enhancement to your aural experience, I went back quite a ways into my 118 folders of male art, stopping at folder number 69.  From there, with lasciviousness in mind, I made today's selections.  I think you will be well pleased with the results of my search for sexiness au natural in this edition of Naked or Nearly So! posted down below.  Meanwhile, over on my tumblr, Your Hottie of the Day!, 'Vice Mike, the Enchanter' will charm you out of your clothes with his eyes alone before you even get to his magnificent, sculpted body.  Thanks for sharing part of your Sunday with ame, tune in again tomorrow as we begin another week of Music, Men & More!  Until next time as always, Enjoy!

What's Up for Friday and the Weekend?

By the time I returned home from work yesterday, I was completely exhausted from a week of burning the candle at both ends and the middle.  So I napped most of the morning, did some running around in the afternoon, and watched a couple of my backlog of TV shows. Then I took a Klonopin a customer had given me and two over the counter sleep aids and slept for about 10 or 11 hours.  I awoke fairly refreshed and ready for today.  Of course, it is Friday and truck night, but I can do one 10 hour shift standing on my head because I have the whole weekend to recover.  

I put the weekly shopping of until tomorrow morning, then I plan a video marathon in the afternoon and evening .  Hopefully I will be able to clear my backlog of TV episodes I have not seen yet this season.  I keep track of what I have and have not watched with a site called TVMaze which is and interactive TV guide and social media site that makes keeping up with what you have missed easy and gives you an outlet to discuss you favorite shows with the TVMaze community.  Will turned me on to this site and it has been a wonderful tool to keep the video portion of my life organized.  Then on Sunday it is an NFL marathon.  So I should have fun this weekend

After nearly a week on the new computer, I continue to be amazed at the ease and speed with which I can accomplish things.  The HD video is absolutely stunning on the new monitor, and posting to my blog and tumblr is really a snap.  The only thing I can think of tho improve my computing platform would be new, larger faster HDDs, like the 1TB 7200 RPM  Western Digital ones I put on my Newegg.com Wish List.  But there are a couple of other priorities that will come before that purchase.  However, it will all come in good time with the appropriate diligence and patience as Will and I work toward our goals.  

Now, I have some great Music lined up for your listening pleasure today as well as a few visual delights to feed your over active imaginations.  Today's featured composer is Edvard Grieg (1843-1907).  Grieg produced only one complete mature string quartet, the String Quartet in g minor, Op. 27 dating from 1878 when he was 35. The historical record indicates that it was a challenge for Grieg, a composer who was perhaps more accustomed to writing in smaller forms such as his celebrated art songs and Romantic piano miniatures. Yet his remains one of the most original and influential string quartets of the late 19th century, approximately contemporaneous with the first important quartets from Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Borodin and Dvořák. It was written in the same year as César Franck's piano quartet with which it shares some prominent elements of innovative cyclic design. Grieg's quartet even managed to impress the aloof Debussy who, fifteen years later wrote his only quartet in the same key, with more than a few striking similarities. 

Like many composers (notably Schubert, Mendelsohn and Shostakovich), Grieg borrows from his own music for the main theme of the quartet: a portion of his somber song Spillamæd (Minstrels). The icy theme is announced in unison by the quartet right at the beginning, the emphatic slow introductory andante before the bristling allegro. Almost all of the musical material in the first movement is derived from it including several creative variations of the full theme itself in a wide range of expression and affect. There are at least eight clear permutations for the listener's delightful discovery. But like the cyclic designs of Franck and, later, Debussy, the theme extends beyond the bounds of the first movement to obliquely influence the second, reappear in the third and frame the fourth including a nearly literal restatement of the quartet's beginning just before the final conclusion. Though the complete work comprises a four-movement design with a great variety of music, it is fused together with a rare artistic unity.  Today's performance was recorded in the 1960 by the Copenhagen String Quartet.

Over on my tumblr, I have Grieg's Piano Concerto In A Minor, Opus 16 which was initially panned in the reviews at the time, but has gone on to become one of the most often performed Concerti in the modern Classical repertoire.  That performance is by the Danmarks Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Thomas Dausgaard with Alice Sara Ott as you Piano Soloist.  

As for the visual delights to feed your  imaginations, I have an eclectic collection of handsome hunks ranging from the innocence of youth and young love to the more mature and somewhat more intriguing flights of fancy in this week's edition of Fantasy Fuel posted down below.  Over on my tumblr Sasha Kosmos, Your Hottie of the Day!, seeks to entice you into his bed for what would surely be one intense encounter.  Thanks for the visit, see you again on Sunday for the Morning Concert.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!

Sunday Morning Concert

Hello!  Welcome to your Sunday Morning Concert coming to you today from the new turbo charged Nichevo 2.0!  As you have surmised from the opening line, the building of my new computing platform is complete and running on all cylinders.  Ain't technology wonderful?  After the many days filled with equal parts of anticipation  and trepidation, the end result of Nichevo 2.0 is more wonderful than I had imagined and so much faster than anything I have ever had the pleasure of owning.  And it all started with this pile of parts:

And here is a first look at the new monitor and a close up of my new (Will's former) processor:

The only thing not shown in these two photos that became necessary was the video card which, at the time I took the photos, I did not know I needed. It turns out the Asus Motherboard Will had been using did not have integrated graphics so there was no video port on the board.  This made the addition of a video card necessary to be able to take advantage of all the features of the monitor.  Luckily, Will had retained his original  Nvidia Geforce GTX560 Ti when he went to his present graphics card.  The wow factor of the display went up about a 1000 % with its installation.  I can also watch video in full HD for the first time and boy that is a vastly improved and incredibly beautiful experience!

The process did present its challenges as I had only ever modified an existing build.  I had never taken an empty box and turned it into a working, viable computing platform.  The experience was definitely educational.  It was also stressful, volatile, emotional, frustrating, joyful, sometimes tearful and yet ultimately satisfying at the end of the more than three hours it took to accomplish.  The end result was this sleek, powerful platform sitting at my side, ready to do my bidding:

The Fractal R4 Scandinavian designed, German engineered case is minimalist, beautiful and contains many hidden and some readily apparent features.  

The front panel opens to reveal two DVD burners and the pop out front fan module that has space for two fans although only one is installed.  There is also a rear fan, a fan on the power supply and one on the CPU.  The only fan not behind a removable filter is the one on the CPU, but it only moves already filtered air so one there is not really necessary:

The side of the case has a window through which to observe the inner workings of Nichevo 2.0 which has room for up to 10 HDD or SSD easy out trays in two cages that can be removed or rearranged to support various configurations: 

Thus we have Nichevo 2.0 Unleashed on the world: 

I am still discovering the many wonderful aspects of having a computer that accomplishes what you want almost simultaneously with the thought to do so.  The real estate available on my desktop allows me to multitask with ease with and see what is happening in both tasks at the same time.  

The operating parameters as recorded by Speccy as I am writing this look like this: 

I can put my hand on the window on the side and it feels cold which means the temperatures inside the case are well within established the safe operating limits. The most amazing thing so far is the speed at which tasks are accomplished. Web pages render almost before the thought to open them is completed, uploads and downloads a blindingly fast and the visual experience is marvelously magnificent. I also will not have to upgrade for my computing needs for quite some time into the future.  Of course my requirements are much less demanding than Will's as he Games and I generally do not.  Although, now I could if that was what I wanted to do.  However, I think I already have quite enough activities to keep me more than occupied.  Adding Gaming to the mix would probably cause a meltdown of my inner core causing massive damage to my psychological capacity to generate rational thought.  

Bur before proceeding with further explorations into the world of modern computing, I guess I had better get on to this morning's concert lineup and the male art you have come to expect before it becomes afternoon.  I am in a deeply satisfied and mellow mood this morning so I thought I would go with a little Johannes Brahms to ease our way into Sunday.  Posted down below is his Piano Concerto Number 2, Opus 83 with today's performance coming to you from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and was their Sunday Morning Concert on January 16, 2011 in the Great Hall.  On stage is the Radio Chamber Philharmonic under the baton of Michael Schønwandt with Ronald Brautigam as your Piano Soloist.  Over on my tumblr is a beautifully intimate performance of Brahms' Piano Trio Number 1, Opus 8 coming to you from the Jurriaanse Doelen Auditorium in Rotterdam.  That performance is by Hagai Shaham on Violin; Arnon Erez on Piano and Raphael Wallfisch on Cello.

Your fine male art selection this morning come from deep in the Nichevo archives for these smoldering studs who are Naked or Nearly So! which you will find posted down below.   Over on my tumblr, Aden and Jordan are your intimately  entwined double play Hottie of the Day!  Thanks for sharing part of your Sunday with me, tune in tomorrow as we began another week of Music, Men & More! powered by Nichevo 2.0!!  See you then, until next time as always, Enjoy!

Friday

Not in the Mood. 
Fantasy Fuel
Hottie of the Day!
Brahms' Cello Sonata

Sunday Morning Concert: Wild About Liszt!

If you look at the time stamp on this post (14:30 or 2:30 PM), you will know I am a little late in getting it up.  I started this process about 5:30 this morning, yet here I am and its lateish and I still have not got this done.  I have been dealing with various challenges on multiple fronts including Internet, cell phone apps and the phone itself.  so I decided to say fuck it and just sit down to write and deal with all the  shit later!  Now on to your Concert:

Our featured composer this morning is he under appreciated Franz Liszt.  Liszt was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, teacher and Franciscan tertiary.

Liszt gained renown in Europe during the early nineteenth century for his virtuoso skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age, and in the 1840s he was considered to be the greatest pianist of all time. Liszt was also a well-known and influential composer, piano teacher and conductor. He was a benefactor to other composers, including Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz, Camille Saint-Saëns, Edvard Grieg and Alexander Borodin.^[4]

As a composer, Liszt was one of the most prominent representatives of the "Neudeutsche Schule" ("New German School"). He left behind an extensive and diverse body of work in which he influenced his forward-looking contemporaries and anticipated some 20th-century ideas and trends. Some of his most notable contributions were the invention of the symphonic poem, developing the concept of thematic transformation as part of his experiments in musical form and making radical departures in harmony.  He also played an important role in popularizing a wide array of music by transcribing it for piano.

Our concert footage is a marvelous one from 1986 from American Pianist Earl Wild in an intimate chamber setting in the country home of Lord Londonderry:

Royland Earl Wild was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1915. Wild was a musically precocious child and studied under Selmar Janson at Carnegie-Tech University there, and later with Marguerite Long, Egon Petri, and Helene Barere (the wife of Simon Barere), among others. As a teenager, he started making transcriptions of romantic music and composition.

In 1931 he was invited to play at the White House by President Herbert Hoover. The next five presidents (Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson), also invited him to play for them, and Wild remains the only pianist to have played for six consecutive presidents.

In 1937, Earl Wild was hired as a staff pianist for the NBC Symphony Orchestra. In 1939, he became the first pianist to perform a recital on U.S. television. Wild later recalled that the small studio became so hot under the bright lights that the ivory piano keys started to warp.

In 1942, Arturo Toscanini invited him for a performance of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, which was, for Wild, a resounding success, although Toscanini himself has been criticized for not understanding the jazz idiom in which Gershwin wrote. During World War II, Wild served in the United States Navy as a musician. He often travelled with Eleanor Roosevelt while she toured the United States supporting the war effort. Wild's duty was to perform the national anthem on the piano before she spoke. A few years after the war he moved to the newly formed American Broadcasting Company (ABC) as a staff pianist, conductor and composer until 1968. He performed many times for the Peabody Mason Concert series in Boston, in 1952, 1968, and 1971 and three concerts of Liszt in 1986. Wild was renowned for his virtuoso recitals and master classes held around the world, from Seoul, Beijing, and Tokyo to Argentina, England and throughout the United States.

Earl Wild created numerous virtuoso solo piano transcriptions: 14 songs by Rachmaninoff, and works on themes by Gershwin. His Grand Fantasy on Airs from Porgy and Bess, the first extended piano paraphrase on an American opera, was recorded in 1976 and had its concert premiere in Pasadena on December 17, 1977. He also wrote Seven Virtuoso Études on Popular Songs, based on Gershwin songs such as "The Man I Love", "Fascinating Rhythm" and "I Got Rhythm",[8] and Theme and Variations on George Gershwin's "Someone to Watch Over Me" 

He also wrote a number of original works. These included a large-scale Easter oratorio, Revelations (1962), the choral work The Turquoise Horse (1976), and the Doo-Dah Variations, on a theme by Stephen Foster (1992), for piano and orchestra. His Sonata 2000 had its first performance by Bradley Bolen in 2003 and was recorded by Wild for Ivory Classics.

Wild recorded for several labels, including RCA Records, where he recorded an album of Liszt and a collection of music by George Gershwin, including Rhapsody in Blue, Cuban Overture, Concerto in F, and "I Got Rhythm" Variations, all with the Boston Pops Orchestra and Arthur Fiedler. Later in his career, Wild recorded for Ivory Classics.

Under his teacher Selmar Janson, Wild had learned Xaver Scharwenka's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, which Janson had studied directly with the composer, his own teacher. When, over 40 years later, Erich Leinsdorf asked Wild to record the concerto, he was able to say "I've been waiting by the phone for forty years for someone to ask me to play this".

In 1997 he was the first pianist to stream a performance over the Internet.

Wild,, lived in Columbus, Ohio and Palm Springs, California[ with his domestic partner of 38 years, Michael Rolland Davis. He died aged 94 of congestive heart disease at home in Palm Springs.

Wild's memoirs A Walk on the Wild Side were published posthumously by Ivory Classics. (Wikipedia)

The Companion Concert over on my tumblr has Daniil Trifonov performing Liszt's Trancendental Etudes Live in Lyon, France.  

Then adding Braun as well as Beauty to the already Beautiful Music is this week's sublime edition of Naked of Nearly So! taken from my archives for your viewing pleasure.  Your will find them adorning the page below this post.  over on my tumblr you will find Brad Patton is Your Hottie of the Day!  Thanks for the visit, now maybe I can enjoy the Cowboy Game. See you again soon.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!

Lady Luck is a Fickle Bitch!

Really, she is.  After smiling all evening on Eli Manning and the New York Giants, she gave one last smile before turning her back on them completely.  On a night when Tony Romo and the Cowboys did everything in their power to loose the game, 3 turnovers added to stupid penalties and dropped passes, Lady Luck for the 24th time smiled down on Tony Romo and blessed the Cowboys with a most improbable victory before 93,579 fans and a nationwide television audience on Sunday Night Football.  Trailing by 13 points at 26-13 with 8 minutes to play Romo and the Cowboys scored 14 points in the final 5 minutes to pull out an amazing victory, 27-26.

The final score shown in the photo above was a classic Romo to Witten 11 yard slant to the goal line where Jason Witten refused to be denied, waltzing into the End Zone for the winning TD.  This sent a heretofore rather despondent crowd into a delirious frenzy of celebration which could be heard for miles around the stadium in Arlington.  Even with the roof closed!  What a way to start the defense of the NFC Crown returned to the Cowboys last year after so many years without.  I hope all the games are not this much of a nail biter, but as they say "...on any given Sunday..." anything can happen.

The Cowboys schedule is OK except for a killer December, 3 road games to cold weather cities with outdoor stadiums,  Green Bay, Washington and of all places, fucking Buffalo two days after Christmas.  This is in addition to hosting the Jets and closing the season at home against the Redskins.  Could this be the Cowboys year? Only the passage of time will tell, but hopes springs eternal.  Especially when that fickle bitch, Lady Luck, decides to smile in your direction.

Your Monday with Mozart once again features the beautiful and talented Anne-Sophie Mutter and her frequent collaborator, Lambert Orkis, as we join them for disc 3 of their recording of all of Mozart's Sonatas for Piano and Violin.  Today's play list includes the Sonata for Piano and Violin in C, K.296; the Sonata for Piano and Violin in E flat, K.380; the Sonata for Piano and Violin in F, "für Anfänger", K.547 and the Sonata for Piano and Violin in D, K.306.  To complete your Monday with Mozart, join Martha Argerich and Daniel Barenboim over on my tumblr for their performance of Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianosin D Major, K448 recorded live at the Philharmonie in Berlin just last year.

Finally for Monday, we have our weekly indulgence in our mutual underwear fetish with this delicious collection of yummy dudes decked out in their sexiest skivvies found in this edition of Monday's Undies posted down below.  Then over on my tumblr, Your Hottie of the Day! is 'Scruffy and Sculpted'.  That too is a delicious combination, makes my tongue hard just thinking about it... but I digress, lol.  Thanks for the visit, see you again soon.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!

Yummy Weekend!

Happy Labor Day to those of you in the US celebrating the holiday and Happy Monday to the rest of you folks out there.  I have had a good weekend so far, trying a lot of new things out with my new kitchen toys.  All of which have been imminently successful I might add.  Over the last few days I have baked a chicken ( see On the Menu! from last Friday for details), banana bread with pecans, and cod with a 4 cheese topping.  Then last night I really tested my skills and the new oven after I got home from working so a coworker could have the day off.  

I came home from work to 3 frozen pork chops and a pound and a half of little round red potatoes and one hungry Will.  Here is what I did to solve the challenge before me.  Kroger sells a pork chop seasoning mix an cooking bag that I like a lot so I took the seasoning packet and sprinkled it on the frozen pork chops after rinsing them in cold water.  I sprinkled both sides, making sure each side got a healthy coating of spice then placed them on the 3 inch grill in the NuWave Oven.  I had the extender ring in place as this was going to be a dual layer cook.  I took the remaining seasoning mixed with a little water, poured that over the chops and left that in the liner tray to add some steam effect, maybe.  I then placed the 2 inch grill atop the 3 inch grill and went to the next step.  

I quartered the potatoes, rinsed them and set them aside for a moment .  I then mixed a 1/4 cup olive oil with 1 teaspoon of ground thyme, 1 tablespoon ground rosemary and  2 tablespoons oregano and stirred them together I then tossed the potatoes in this mix then layered them skin side up on the 2 inch grill.  I put on the dome and power head, set the cook temp at 350 and the cook time at 10 minutes.  When the oven beeped after 10 minutes I turned the chops over and the potatoes skin side down, then cooked the whole thing for another 10 minutes at 350.  When the oven beeped again, the potatoes and the chops were done to perfection with correct internal temperatures in both meat and potatoes.  The chops were moist and flavorful and the potatoes were crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside and very flavorful.  Total time including prep time of 15 minutes from frozen to table of only 35 minutes.  Awesome does not begin to describe how pleased I am with this new machine.  

Tonight I take on a sacred cow down  here in the South.  Up North you all know it as 'country fried steak'.  Here in the South it is know as Chicken Fried Steak and it is becoming increasingly hard to find a good one anywhere.  There is a recipe for Country Air Fried Steak at NuWaveCookingClub.com that I looked at for a basis in comparing my own recipe.  I then decided to take the best of both and try that on for size.  I will try that out tonight and tell you about that tomorrow when chicken enchiladas are On the Menu!  Suffice it to say I am well pleased with my little investment and the results have spoken for themselves.  We will keep you posted as we try more and more new things.

Now it is time for your Monday with Mozart which this week features concerti written for 2 different instrument groupings.  Beginning with Mozart's Keyboard Concerto In F Major, Kv 459.  That performance is by  Viviana Sofronitzki at the Piano accompanied by  Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense conducted by Tadeusz Karolak.  We conclude with Mozart's Concerto for Flute and Harp, Kv 299.  That performance is by Samuel Coles on Piano, Naoko Yoshino on Harp and the English Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Yehudi Menuhin.  Over on my tumblr, Sir Neville Marriner leads the Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields in their performance of Mozart's Concerto for Basson and Orchestra with Klaus Thunemann as the Bassoon Soloist.

 Down below I have your weekly dose of lithesome lads in "lingerie" as the strut their stuff in the finest Monday's Undies for your visual appreciation down below.  You may also want to take a peek the fine ass belongig to Jayden Tyler, Your Hottie of the Day! on display in that pretty white jockstrap over on my tumblr.    Thanks for the visit, see you again soon.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!

Happy Birthday, Lenny!

Today is the 97th Anniuversary of the Birth of Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990).  Leonard Bernstein was an American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer, and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the USA to receive worldwide acclaim. According to music critic Donal Henahan, he was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history." 

 

His fame derived from his long tenure as the music director of the New York Philharmonic, from his conducting of concerts with most of the world's leading orchestras, and from his music for West Side Story, Peter Pan,^[3] Candide, Wonderful Town, On the Town, On The Waterfront, his Mass, and a range of other compositions, including three symphonies and many shorter chamber and solo works.

Bernstein was the first conductor to give numerous television lectures on classical music, starting in 1954 and continuing until his death. He was a skilled pianist, often conducting piano concertos from the keyboard.

As a composer he wrote in many styles encompassing symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and theater music, choral works, opera, chamber music and pieces for the piano. Many of his works are regularly performed around the world, although none has matched the tremendous popular and commercial success of West Side Story.

I could think of no better way to describe Bernstein than in the words of his  brother Burton who wrote the following tribute shortly after Leonard's death in 1990.  It is permanently posted at the Leonard Bernstein website:

"My Brother Lenny by Burton Bernstein

 My brother Lenny, who was always larger than life, turned out to be smaller than death. Amazingly – just like that! – he is no more. It seems impossible. 

Those of us who were closest to him, who knew him best and longest, who loved him most, we – such lucky ones we are! – we somehow assumed that he would go on forever, like time itself, that he was somehow immortal, not just perishable matter like the rest of us. 

There would, we felt, always be our Lenny doing what he did so passionately, so brilliantly, so charmingly, so originally, so lovingly, and, yes sometimes so excessively – always so full of life and so much larger than life.

 All the world knows what he did: 

Teaching people – his favorite occupation, really. Descended from rabbis, he was a rabbi at heart, a master teacher. Just listening to Lenny was an education. (I know this better than because I was taught by Lenny from just about my first day on this earth.) There was nothing he'd rather do than stimulate new thoughts for, especially, young minds. 

 Making history. He was the living precedent for American music – the first American to be taken seriously on the concert stage. I think it can be said that he made it possible for any talented American kid to follow in his footsteps. 

 Experimenting with the new, even though he was a hopeless traditionalist. He welcomed the avant-garde, but he cherished the pristine, lovely tune – the simple song. 

Revivifying the old – which I believe was his greatest gift as a conductor. How often have we heard, as if for the first time, an echt Lenny rendition of, say, Tchaikovsky's Fifth or Brahms's First, and marveled at all the nuances we had missed over the years? How often have we seen and listened to him draw, through sheer love and musicianly example, unforgettable performances from orchestra – performances the musicians would later admit that they never knew they had in them? His very last concert – conducting Beethoven's Seventh at Tanglewood – was only one case in point. 

 Preaching love and peace. Naively, he wanted the whole world to love itself into one big happy family, and he took it as a personal affront when the world refused to comply. He maintained unflinching optimism and religious trust in the ultimate improvability of man, despite all the hard evidence to the contrary. Lenny was in love with love.

 Helping young talent and his less celebrated, less lucky contemporaries, some of whom responded to his kindnesses with rank envy and disloyalty, which typically, Lenny was quick to ignore or forgive. 

And for those of us who were his nearest and dearest, there will always be the special memories:

 His love of games, and particularly, his infuriating success in trouncing us at anagrams – the game of games, at least to him. And then there were tennis and squash and skiing and swimming and sailing and touch football – the last featuring the annual Thanksgiving classic, called the Nose Bowl [note spelling correction: not "Nose Ball"], in the backyard of his house in Fairfield, Connecticut.

His grand generosity with his worldly goods and with his loving spirit. No one in Lenny's company was ever left wanting. And a compliment from Lenny was like no other compliment; it was total, absolute, and thoroughly thrilling for the fortunate recipient. (Of course, he could also be occasionally tactless. Shirley once said that if you happened to have a pimple on the end of your nose, Lenny would lose no time in pointing it out to you – and perhaps the entire world. He was an enfant terrible to the end.) 

His happiness at others' happiness. He really did share in others' joy, and also in their grief. 

 His "obliging at the pianoforte," as he would put it – at Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays, Passover, whatever, whenever, great occasion or not. 

His humor, which so often went with the "obliging." A great joke was a great performance for Lenny. He could laugh – and make us laugh – in a dozen languages, including our very own private family language called Rybernian. Language: To Lenny, words were mysterious, astonishing creatures – to be scrutinized and analyzed like cells under a microscope. Words were the equals of musical notes for him, and he loved them with equal fervor. 

Just as long as people care a damn about something finer in life than power and money and their imagined superiority over others there will always be Lenny around to educate, entertain, edify, move and inspire – to change us all in some wonderful, subtle way"

In celebration of this momentous occasion I have posted down below is Howard Goodall's Twentieth Century Greats profile of Bernstein that presents a great overview of his life and legacy.  Then the year before his death, Bernstein conducted a Christmas day concert celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall in the former East Berlin with an international Superstar Cast.  The cast included the Symphonieorchester des Bayerisches Rundfunks and members of Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchestra of the Leningrad Kirov Theatre, London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and Orchestre de Paris.  The video of that historic celebration, one of Bernstein's finest performances as a Conductor follows the documentary footage.  The celebration continues on my tumblr with a marvelous live performance from the Konzerthaus in Vienna. Leonard Bernstein conducts the venerable Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in Piano Concerti Numbers 1 & 2 by Johannes Brahms.  The Piano Soloist is Krystian Zimerman.   

Finally for today, I have gathered a comely collection of Random Hotness which you will find posted down below.  Also on my tumblr, you will find your Hottie of the Day! who is all 'Buff in Blue!'.  Thanks for the visit, be sure to tune in tomorrow for this week's edition of New Adventures in Good Music when we travel to Paris to discover something about this week's Featured Composer.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!