Happy New Year Jay…and to all my detractors…l shall endeavor to make one think out of one’s mind and, even better, make one laugh….as I won’t make any editing resolutions of my stream of unconsciousness..las I resolve to follow my own grammarly rules…and my fellow real Muericans amuse ourselves to death cheering Presidente Duterte on…BREAKING FOXXXY Super Duper News alert…Zoo York strongman has been captured and wished away to the Rikers Island…I mean, right now Nicolas Maduro is wondering what he did that was so bad compared to “my friend Xi” or Putin…and Trumps fellow mobster is definitely kicking himself that he had made not just made that billion dollar bitcoin transfer to Liberty Financial as The Don is thinking “I told you so”..l got seal team 666 under my thumb…
What is the difference between “common love of good” and “Make America Great Again”…ever read Mein Kampf by Don Trump, I mean ever read the Trump Bible…the criminal master mind had all the love of good passages ripped out of the Good News…just as The Don and his two turd bitcon bros Uday and Qusay laugh off their tax liabilities on the block chain.
A quick pause as I remember the good ole dayz when I ranted on and on about The Clintons…wrong about absolutely everything, but whose crime family was wrong within normal parameters. God help U.S. We the Living in Idiocracy
I don’t know about you Jay, but I think W.W.W.F.B.D. everyday as still give myself a drubbing reading legacy turn into an American Greatness spin online soft political porn sight. One can only help to believe Bill would make like the apprentice star a say to anyone on his writing staff that would pen even an ounce of Trump apologia - YOU ARE FIRED…Speaking of the common good and there the people go, I will be their dear leader, Rich white Trash Lowry reminds me how and why I so despised Preppy Handbook carrying classmates of mine when I was still an idealistic, puritanical Libertarian…I still cannot believe The Don made like Morton Downey Jr at last summers convention, I mean rally…but then again The Dons fellow WWE star Hulk Hogan had a prime time spot at the R.N.C.!!! God help U.S. We the Living in Idiocracy
What do I want out of my life…to be an honorable and decent man like my father…who, barely…survived the Godforsaken Ardennes forest…as a no good Germans full metal jacket just missed his heart….but my Officer and Christian Gentleman’s heart would be broken would burst if he came back from the plot in Robert E Lees backyard and bared witness to a monster, I mean monster in the Bada Bing, I mean Oval Office…as there is no way in hell he would salute a psycho killer, anti Truth Neo Nationalist Sociopath…Presidente Duterte, I mean Trump, would immediately remind him of one Austrian little turd who was literally the most popular German Greatness person for over a decade…until…That is all. God HELP U.S. We the Living in Idiocracy. Gotta run on…happy new year…i guess. Onward and Upward thanks for taking my rant. Peace through superior mental firepower
I was sorry to learn from Jay that Gary Graffman has passed away. While working at Manhattan School of Music (many years ago) in the registrar’s office, I volunteered to deliver a package of school-related materials to Mr. Graffman, a member of the MSM artist faculty who lived at the Osborne on West 57th Street. As soon as I knocked on the door to his apartment, he opened it and I handed him the package. Years later, recalling this polite but perfunctory exchange, I wish I had taken advantage of the opportunity to tell the world-renowned pianist that his recording of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, which he made with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra in 1966, was my favorite recording of that concerto.
I’m not certain when I first listened to Graffman’s superb recording of Prokofiev’s third piano concerto, but it was probably in 1970, shortly after my piano teacher at Sacramento State College, Thomas Gentry, asked me to turn pages for him when he performed the work on April 14, 1970, with the SSC orchestra under the baton of John Lewis (an exceptional conductor).
In his review of the college concert, published the next day, the Sacramento Bee’s music critic noted Gentry’s “calm, steady, and gorgeous tone,” and speculated that “Perhaps his great size, virtually overpowering the piano, makes his playing seem effortless.” (Gentry was six feet and seven inches tall.) The critic went on to say “the orchestra, too, seemed responsive to Prokofiev’s constantly shifting moods of repose and agitation, grandeur and the grotesque, joy and pathos.”
Every time I listen to Graffman’s singular recording of this wonderfully engulfing masterpiece, I remember the remarkable performance of this work I witnessed at SSC more than 50 years ago—by an outstanding teacher, college orchestra, and conductor.
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26, by Sergei Prokofiev
Gary Graffman, pianist, and the Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell, conductor
Note: Thomas Gentry earned his master’s degree in music at the Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington, where he was a student of the highly distinguished (and diminutive) pianist and teacher, Sidney Foster.
Happy New Year Jay…and to all my detractors…l shall endeavor to make one think out of one’s mind and, even better, make one laugh….as I won’t make any editing resolutions of my stream of unconsciousness..las I resolve to follow my own grammarly rules…and my fellow real Muericans amuse ourselves to death cheering Presidente Duterte on…BREAKING FOXXXY Super Duper News alert…Zoo York strongman has been captured and wished away to the Rikers Island…I mean, right now Nicolas Maduro is wondering what he did that was so bad compared to “my friend Xi” or Putin…and Trumps fellow mobster is definitely kicking himself that he had made not just made that billion dollar bitcoin transfer to Liberty Financial as The Don is thinking “I told you so”..l got seal team 666 under my thumb…
What is the difference between “common love of good” and “Make America Great Again”…ever read Mein Kampf by Don Trump, I mean ever read the Trump Bible…the criminal master mind had all the love of good passages ripped out of the Good News…just as The Don and his two turd bitcon bros Uday and Qusay laugh off their tax liabilities on the block chain.
A quick pause as I remember the good ole dayz when I ranted on and on about The Clintons…wrong about absolutely everything, but whose crime family was wrong within normal parameters. God help U.S. We the Living in Idiocracy
I don’t know about you Jay, but I think W.W.W.F.B.D. everyday as still give myself a drubbing reading legacy turn into an American Greatness spin online soft political porn sight. One can only help to believe Bill would make like the apprentice star a say to anyone on his writing staff that would pen even an ounce of Trump apologia - YOU ARE FIRED…Speaking of the common good and there the people go, I will be their dear leader, Rich white Trash Lowry reminds me how and why I so despised Preppy Handbook carrying classmates of mine when I was still an idealistic, puritanical Libertarian…I still cannot believe The Don made like Morton Downey Jr at last summers convention, I mean rally…but then again The Dons fellow WWE star Hulk Hogan had a prime time spot at the R.N.C.!!! God help U.S. We the Living in Idiocracy
What do I want out of my life…to be an honorable and decent man like my father…who, barely…survived the Godforsaken Ardennes forest…as a no good Germans full metal jacket just missed his heart….but my Officer and Christian Gentleman’s heart would be broken would burst if he came back from the plot in Robert E Lees backyard and bared witness to a monster, I mean monster in the Bada Bing, I mean Oval Office…as there is no way in hell he would salute a psycho killer, anti Truth Neo Nationalist Sociopath…Presidente Duterte, I mean Trump, would immediately remind him of one Austrian little turd who was literally the most popular German Greatness person for over a decade…until…That is all. God HELP U.S. We the Living in Idiocracy. Gotta run on…happy new year…i guess. Onward and Upward thanks for taking my rant. Peace through superior mental firepower
Happy new year, Benjy!
By “The Skin of Our Teeth”, or a Banana Republic…if we don’t get rid of the G.O.P. Crasher…W.W.W.F.B.D. is the question
I was sorry to learn from Jay that Gary Graffman has passed away. While working at Manhattan School of Music (many years ago) in the registrar’s office, I volunteered to deliver a package of school-related materials to Mr. Graffman, a member of the MSM artist faculty who lived at the Osborne on West 57th Street. As soon as I knocked on the door to his apartment, he opened it and I handed him the package. Years later, recalling this polite but perfunctory exchange, I wish I had taken advantage of the opportunity to tell the world-renowned pianist that his recording of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, which he made with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra in 1966, was my favorite recording of that concerto.
I’m not certain when I first listened to Graffman’s superb recording of Prokofiev’s third piano concerto, but it was probably in 1970, shortly after my piano teacher at Sacramento State College, Thomas Gentry, asked me to turn pages for him when he performed the work on April 14, 1970, with the SSC orchestra under the baton of John Lewis (an exceptional conductor).
In his review of the college concert, published the next day, the Sacramento Bee’s music critic noted Gentry’s “calm, steady, and gorgeous tone,” and speculated that “Perhaps his great size, virtually overpowering the piano, makes his playing seem effortless.” (Gentry was six feet and seven inches tall.) The critic went on to say “the orchestra, too, seemed responsive to Prokofiev’s constantly shifting moods of repose and agitation, grandeur and the grotesque, joy and pathos.”
Every time I listen to Graffman’s singular recording of this wonderfully engulfing masterpiece, I remember the remarkable performance of this work I witnessed at SSC more than 50 years ago—by an outstanding teacher, college orchestra, and conductor.
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26, by Sergei Prokofiev
Gary Graffman, pianist, and the Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell, conductor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSrlrcpNu7o
Note: Thomas Gentry earned his master’s degree in music at the Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington, where he was a student of the highly distinguished (and diminutive) pianist and teacher, Sidney Foster.
How beautiful, all of it. Thank you.
Thank you ... and Blessings in '26
Thank you, my man.
Thank you and Happy New Year!
You too!
Happy New Year!
Hope you can pay a visit to Northwest Louisiana in 2026.
Me too! Thx.
A great way to start the new year. Thanks, Jay!
My great pleasure -- thx.
That picture is awesome, is that a wolf? My eyes couldn't decide if it was or another predator.
I was wondering that too!
Ha, glad it wasn't just me...lol
Voces8 is glorious. What is it about the British Islands that produces such amazing choral talent?
An excellent question, which would be an excellent subject for an article.
The fine choral music goes so far back, too. English music history is odd.
Thank all the heavens for all your postings in 2025: such a w i d e variety: a pleasure. And we look forward to all of them in 2026.
Thx so very much!
What a solo !!
It played like a story,a beautiful one !