A Journey Begins

As you probably noticed, I sorta didn't make it here on Wednesday.  I had good intentions, but you know how those things go, best laid plans and all that.  Anyway, Thursday was a better day and it marked the of a new journey for me.  

The  day began with new toys, things that I had ordered to further the upgrade of our culinary experience.  I had ordered a whole set  of the Duralon Ceramic Non Stick Stainless Steel Cookware to replace all my less than optimal cookware I have been using.  This stuff is great, made by the NuWave Oven people and nothing sticks to this stuff.  It is the NuWave version of ceramic coating similar to the Calphalon that is the more famous brand of Ceramic Non Stick materials.  

Will has always hated my microwave and has bitched about it for years.  I finally broke down and bought the one that had been on my Amazon wish list for so long.  Will has given it his seal of approval as far as "It cooks well" but he thinks it is a little light (I agree),  so we have to hold it and/or not push the buttons too hard.  We would not want the microwave to go tumbling off into the dining room now would we? 

I have been playing phone tag with the therapist to whom the VA had referred me.  We finally made contact yesterday and unbelievably, I was able to get in for an initial session yesterday afternoon.  It is an old Chinese saying, "the journey of a thousand li begins with but a single step",  that fits here.  I took the first step on a long journey to mental health.  It took years to get this fucked up in the head about a lot of issues in my life and it will be a slow process.  However it is a doable thing and I am hopeful of steady progress as time goes by.  As always I will chronicle my journey as it happens.  I hope you will come along to share in my journey.  

My therapist is a lovely young lady ( young being relative ) who was a consummate professional as well as a compassionate counselor who has designed programs for Veterans at other  agencies and has now started her own non profit service for Veterans.  I will be seeing her on Friday mornings for the time being and will remark on my progress in these pages.  We had a wonderful visit and came up with a plan  to get us started.  I am looking forward to our conversations as she helps me heal my wounds.  

Now because the music I had selected for use on Wednesday was so good, I would hesitate to deprive you  of it so I will not.  Our featured composer for today is Johannes Brahms.  Brahms, among his many talents, had the uncanny ability to take the thematic works of another, compose a set of variations based on that theme and thus create a a piece of music uniquely his own.  I have some excellent examples of this for your listening pleasure today.   

The Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn, (German: Variationen über ein Thema von Jos. Haydn), now also called the Saint Anthony Variations, is a work in the form of a theme and variations, composed by Johannes Brahms in the summer of 1873. It consists of a theme in B-flat major based on a "Chorale St Antoni", eight variations and a finale. The work was published in two versions: for two pianos, written first but designated Op. 56b; and for orchestra, designated Op. 56a.

The orchestral version is better known and much more often heard than the two-piano version. It is often said to be the first independent set of variations for orchestra in the history of music[1], although there is at least one earlier piece in the same form, Antonio Salieri's Twenty-six Variations on 'La folia di Spagna' written in 1815.

Brahms's orchestral variations are scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns (2 in E flat, 2 in B flat), 2 trumpets, timpani, triangle, and the normal string section of first and second violins, violas, cellos and double basses. The piece usually takes about 18 minutes to perform.

The first performance of the orchestral version was given on 2 November 1873 by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Brahms's baton.  This performance of the Orchestral version (56a) is by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Claudio Abbado.   Anastasia and Lyubova Gromoglasova perform the 2 Piano version (56b) at their dual recital in the Small Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire.  Then over on my tumblr, I have Brahms' Variations on a Theme of Paganini performed by Pianist Andrea Bonatta.  

Now it is time for a little fulfillment of our mutual need for beauty in the male form which you willfind amply displayed in this week's edition of Fantasy Fuel posted down below.  Over on my tumblr, Booboo Stewart, Your Hottie of the Day! splashes up a few fantasies of his own for your adoring eyes.  Thanks for the visit, see you again soon.  Until next time as always, Enhiy!

Sunday Morning Concert

Good Morning!  I hope your weekend is as fabulous as ever!  My weekend has finally arrived for however short a period of time that is.  I have some good news about my schedule, they have hired a new girl to take up some of the slack and pretty soon I will at least get my Thursdays off back again after this next one.  I am ready to cut my hours, six days a week is killing me, lol.  It has been good for the budget however, and for that I am grateful as I have had to spend a grunch of money on the car. I also have some other items on my financial agenda.  So it is all good in that $$ department for now. 

Our exploration of Windows 10 continues to be a more positive experience for me than for Will although I do have to correct my post from Friday just a bit.  Xanatos does indeed have issues with the Dolby Surround Sound.  It seems Sony has not licensed it for Windows 8 or 10.  Will has contacted Sony and has even created a Support Topic at Microsoft as apparently he is not the only user to have experienced this particular problem.  So eventually this problem will go away.  It was Will's laptop that had the video driver issue not Xanatos which is where I misinformed you on Friday.  Will did find a work around for that one and is beginning to want to stay with 10 instead of reverting to 7 because he was so pissed at 10.

I have found I do not like the native screen saver programs as they are slightly different than on 7.  I have always used the bubble screen savor as it lets the underlying wallpaper show while still protecting the monitor.  In W10 though, it throws up a blank screen behind the bubbles and all the great wallpapers I rotate through do not show through.  So I tried their pictures option, and it has a tendency to hang up and leave just a black screen up.  So I activated the screensaver option in Picasa3 and it works just fine allowing me to select the source folders which I want it to rotate through.  I chose all my photos of places and things rather than my man art so that any innocents that happen to observe my screensaver will not suddenly be confronted with a ginormous dick in their face by surprise.  And I still can't get the alarm to make any noise.  However my computer usage differs vastly from Will's and my less advanced technological needs due to my usage, and the fact that most of my stuff is not overly complicated has eased my transition to the new OS.  As everyone is eventually going to have go to W10, I am glad that it works for me with out too much BS.  We will keep you posted on the experience. 

Now for your Sunday morning Concert I have selected some most tasty works by Johannes Brahms for your listening pleasure.  Posted down below is a wonderful interpretation by the young Georgian violinist now living in Germany, Lisa Batiashvili. Her playing is quite unique - I would be very interested to hear what viewers think of her exceptional technique and magnificent sound. The very unusual kettle drum cadenza accompaniment is very dramatic.  As far as I can make out the cadenza is by Busoni.  Unfortunately the orchestra, conductor and venue are not listed but that will not detract from your listening pleasure as this is a most excellent performance all around.  Over on my tumblr I have Ivo Pogorelich playing Brahms' Variations on a Theme of Paganini, Opus 35, recorded live in Rotterdam in October 2014. The Variations were the fourth and final piece in his wonderfully performed recital.

Then to open your eye this morning I have a bevy of beauties gathered for this week's edition of Naked or Nearly So! that is sure to have something for everyone.  They are waiting for your cruise and peruse down below.   Meanwhile over on my tumblr, your Hottie of the Day! is serenading you with "I want you to want me...".  Thanks for sharing part of your Sunday with me, see you again soon.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!

Christmas Wish Granted!

Christmas came early for the Dallas Cowboys and their fans when the Washington Redskins defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 27-24 on Saturday Night.  Santa then left the brightly wrapped NFC East Crown under the Cowboys Christmas Tree that was theirs for the taking.  All they had to do was win the game against the AFC South Division Champion Indianapolis Colts at the Taj Ma Jones in Arlington on Sunday.  A home win has not always been easy to come up with this season, as their four losses all came at home.  But win they did and in a very convincing manner.  In what was their most dynamic and dominating performance of the season, the Cowboys scored a season high point total when they throttled the Colts before a crowd of 90,000 people 42-7.

The only thing that went right for the Colts yesterday was the Coin Toss to start the game which they won.  They deferred receiving the kickoff to the second half and the game plunged over a cliff for them soon afterwards.  The Cowboys opening possession stalled around mid field when the Colts stopped the Cowboys with a loss on third down.  However he Colt that made the tackle got flagged for taunting which cost the Colts 15 yards and gave the Cowboys a new set of downs.  The Cowboys finished the drive with a Terrence Williams TD reception to go up 7-0, having run nearly 8 and a half minutes off the clock in the process.  The Colts then ran 3 plays and got zilch for yardage.  On Fourth Down the Colts pulled off a perfectly executed Fake Punt only to have the wide open receiver drop the ball that did everything but hit him in the hands.  The Cowboys took over at the Colt 19 yard line and one play later Dez Bryant was leaping high in the End Zone to grab TD number 14 for him this season and up the Cowboy lead to 14-0.  

After the Colts again went 3 and out, the Cowboys opened the second quarter with another TD, this one a nifty catch and run by Cole Beasley who slipped 3 tackles and scampered into the End Zone for a 21-0 lead.  After yet another 3 and out by the Colts, the Cowboys scored again to go up 28-0.  The route was on and the Colts had not yet even registered a first down.  The Colts then mounted a drive that took them all the way down the field before the Cowboys JJ Wilcox intercepted the ball in the End Zone and ran it back out 36 yards to preserve the first half shut out.  The Cowboys had 5 possessions in the first half, scoring on the first four and punting once.  An almost as perfect half of football as I have seen the Cowboys play in many a year. 

 The Cowboys intercepted a pass on the first play of the second half and immediately marched to another score to go up 35-0.  Towards the end of the quarter, the Cowboys missed a Field Goal, which is the only thing that did not go the Cowboys way all day.  The Cowboys opened the fourth quarter with another score to go up 42-0.  Coach Jason Garrett then sent the second team in to finish the game.  The Colts pulled their first team also as there was no point to them continuing to play in a very definitely lost cause.  The Colts backups did manage to score a TD against the Cowboys backups with 5 minutes left, but it did not change the outcome of the game.  The Cowboys gained their first NFC East Crown since 2009 and the  number 3 seed in the NFC Playoffs with one regular season game remaining next Sunday against the Washington Redskins in DC.  If the Cowboys win that one, they will have gone undefeated in December for the first time in so many years that I cannot remember when that was (it must have been back when Troy, Emmit  and Michael were still playing).  It is still 3 days before Christmas, but I don't think Christmas could get any better for the Cowboys or their fans at this point.  Congratulations to the 2014 Dallas Cowboys, NFC East Division Champions for the 22nd time in franchise history.  

A couple of weeks ago, I featured Ronald Brautigam's recordings of the complete Mozart Piano Variations (Volume I here and II on my tumblr).  I said at the time I would bring volumes III and IV the next week.  I then promptly forgot about them until I went to clean out the Temp folder in my Bookmarks and found them queued up there.  So you Monday with Mozart today features Volume III of Mozart's Piano Variations as performed and recorded by Ronald Brautigam.  Volume IV may be heard over on my tumblr. 

 Then to decorate all our lives is another collection worthy of an Erotic Christmas Wish List.   This time of course they are all adorned in their sexiest skivvies for this edition of Monday's Undies.  Additional inspiration may found in the Strong and Flexible Hottie of the Day! over on my tumblr.  Thanks for kick starting your week here at Nichevo, see you again tomorrow.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!

Notes on the News

I had a pretty good day off yesterday, taking care of some things that needed it and catching up on my rest.  I caught up on some of my reading also and I ran across some things I thought I would share with you today.  From The Daily Dot come the story '5 Things you can do to counter protest Michael Sam trolls'.  When the Dallas Cowboys signed Michael Sam to their practice squad, there was a lot of positive feedback.  There was also a lot of negative feedback from Internet trolls, homophobes and red neck assholes.  Author Samantha Allen discusses this and then gives some really good recommendations for actions anyone could take to combat the trolls who would otherwise cast severe shade over the Cowboys in general and Michael Sam in particular.  There are some people around here we are going to have to drag kicking and screaming into the 21st century.  (either that or just kill em all and let God sort them out, lol!)

Then there was the story on Mind Body Green, 'I'm An Otherwise Straight Man (Who Fell In Love With His Best Friend)'.  Author Mike Iamele tells the story of how he, an ordinary yet open minded straight man, suffered a debilitating illness only to be nursed back to health by his roommate and best friend.  In the process, somewhere along the way, he fell in love with his best friend.  He goes on to relate how they both worked to build a relationship that would weather the storms of life together.  Interesting and romantic, you will be glad you read this one.  

The final story I would like to share with you today is from the current issue of Rolling Stone: 'The Forsaken: A Rising Number of Gay Teens Are Being Cast Out by Religious Families'.  Through a series of interviews with homeless Gay Teens, Rolling Stone shines a much needed spotlight on this growing problem.  As the love and dogma fight it out in the hearts and minds of many religious families when confronted with the inconvenient truth of their child's Gayness, a great many Gay Teens are cast out of their homes and left to their own devices for survival.  There are some success stories of youth who have made it off the streets and into a better life, there are far, far too many stories of neglect, abuse, drugs, violence and even murder of those who really are to young to be where they are.  The sad truth of the matter is summed up in the concluding paragraphs by one of the interviewees who put it this way:

"(She) doubts she'll ever speak to her family again, though it's still hard to think of holidays spent without them, of childhood stories that will remain untold, of the jarring lack of continuity between her existence then and now. "I spent the past four years paying for that one sentence I uttered," she says quietly. "People ask me all the time if I hate my parents for everything they've put me through, but I really don't. If anything, I just feel sad for them because I'm sure it hurts so bad to have chosen their religious values over their child. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, they suffered through it just as much as I did, just in different ways." She sighs and looks out the window to where the shadows will soon lengthen into night. "I think, in the long run, no one won.""

A sober but important story to which we all need to pay more attention, if we don't take care of our own Gay Youth, who will?

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Your Tuesday Musical Moment features the Music of Giuseppe Tartini.  Tartini took a gavotte written by Arcangelo Corelli and wrote 50 variations on Corelli's theme.  Today's featured works are those 50 Variations for Violin on a Gavotte by A. Corelli written by Tartini with a marvelous performance recorded in 2005 by Nikos Karagiannis.  You may also hear Tartini's Concerto for Cello, 2 Horns, Strings and Basso Continuo with a performance by Ensemble 415, on period instruments featuring Roel Dieltiens as the Cello Soloist over on my tumblr. 

To accompany the musical variations as you scroll down the page are this set of virile variations on the male theme all of whom wish to lead you down the garden path in this week's edition of Tuesday's Temptations.  You may also appreciate the Red Knight who is your Hottie of the Day! over on my tumblr.  Thanks for the visit, see you again real soon.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!