Holiday Gift Ideas

As many of my blog posts tend to be somewhat… ahem… esoteric in their subject matter, I thought I’d do something a little more helpful for the Holiday Season. So, with a mere 10 days to go until the big day, here are some (not quite) last minute suggestions for gift-giving for all those naughty or nice folks on your shopping lists!

For the Existentialist Who Has Everything

Everybody knows that George Jones has the greatest voice ever given to a male country singer. But who knew he was also a disciple of Jean Paul Sartre? His song, “Choices”, just about says it all in the personal responsibility department. You can hear it here:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5EUKP-l80M

You can also buy the album featuring this tune for that hard-drinking-SUV-crashing- Gospel –shouting-come-to-Jesus-special-someone in your life here:

http://www.amazon.com/Cold-Hard-Truth-George-Jones/dp/B00000JC6B/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1323114507&sr=8-2

It also includes the wonderful title track, "Cold Hard Truth," as an extra bonus!

If the lucky recipient of your Holiday generosity wants their angst straight from the Parisian source, however, you can give them a DVD of Godard’s wonderful “Vivre Sa Vie” (“My Life to Life”). It stars the matchless, magnetic Anna Karina as your typical chain smoking French intellectual hot chick who spends her days vacillating between turning tricks, dancing in pool halls, having machine gun battles with pinball playing thugs, and hanging out with saggy old philosophers talking some heavy, heavy Existential doo-doo!

For a flavor of the film, you can check out her wonderful “Je suis responsable” speech.  Sad to say for you non-French speakers, I couldn’t find an English subtitled version. But I did find this one in Spanish which pretty clearly gets the point across:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY5An_X7o4o

If that hooked you, you can buy the DVD here:

http://www.amazon.com/My-Life-Live-Alfred-Adam/dp/6301883047/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1323114558&sr=1-2

Viva Montenegro

A long, long, long time ago, in a century far away, my grandparents came to the United States from the tiny Balkan country of Montenegro (population 600,000 which makes it two-thirds the size of San Jose). At the time they left, it was still part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, which is why my Granddad had “Austrian” as his nationality on his immigration papers. Usually, there isn’t that much about Montenegro in the daily news or percolating around in world culture. In fact, all I can remember is:

1.      The fictional detective Nero Wolfe came from there.

2.       We almost qualified for the Euro 2012 soccer tournament only losing out to Czechoslovakia in the final match of qualifying. (But we did tie England in a match at Wembley Stadium which is quite an accomplishment for such a tiny land.)

Now we have something else to truly proud of! It’s the emergence of the stunning new classical guitarist, Milos Karadaglic. He combines incredible technique and talent with some serious “bad boy” good looks. That can be a dangerous combination, integrity-wise, but hopefully he’ll keep playing good music and won’t go all PBS-fund-raising-drive-Andre-Rieu-Yanni on us.

You can learn more about Milos in this article:

http://www.salon.com/2011/12/03/quick_hits_milos_karadaglic_plays_live/singleton/

If that grabs your attention, you can buy his album here:

http://www.amazon.com/Mediterraneo-Milos-Karadaglic/dp/B004PKOKU2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323113675&sr=8-1

 A Horse of A Different Color – A Play in One (Very Short) Act

 Scene 1: San Jose, the present day

 Scott: Honey, what are you reading?

Beatrice (reading): Seabiscuit: An American Legend.

Scott: You mean… like about the race horse?

Beatrice (reading): Hmmm…..

Scott: That’s funny. I never knew you were interested in horse racing.

Beatrice (reading): Hmmm…..

Scene 2: Same setting, several hours later

Scott: You want to go for a walk?

Beatrice (reading): No, I’m reading.

Scott: But it’s a beautiful day.

Beatrice (reading): Hmmm….

Scott: How about a movie?

Beatrice (reading): Hmmm….

Scene 3: Same setting, several hours later

Scott: But you don’t even like sports books!

Beatrice (reading): Hmmm….

Scott: What’s so special about this one?

Beatrice (reading): Hmmm….

Scott: If it’s so great, how can I get a copy?

Beatrice: Easy! Http://www.amazon.com/Seabiscuit-American-Legend-Laura-Hillenbrand/dp/0449005615/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323121715&sr=8-1

Curtain. End of Play.

Just Something Beautiful

Erich Wolfgang Korngold was an Austrian composer born early in the 20^th century. No less a light than Gustav Mahler himself pronounced Korngold a “wunderkind” and predicted a glorious future for him.  After some initial success, however, Korngold’s lushly romantic writing fell out of favor with the Viennese classical music crowd who were eagerly flinging themselves down the rat hole known as atonal music. So Korngold emigrated to Hollywood where he ended up writing sound tracks for movies like “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” “Captain Blood,” and “The Sea Hawk.” This may have won him several Academy Awards but did nothing for his… ahem…. critical street cred amongst the long-haired crowd. And thus he sank into oblivion reserved for most “movie music” composers.

Recently, however, EWK has been enjoying something of a Renaissance. It’s been mostly thanks to the efforts of several enlightened performers who love to do his music and totally leave it all on the concert floor when they perform it.  As an example, check out Anne Sofie von Otter doing “Marietta’s Song” (“Gluck, das mir Vierlieb”) from “Die Todt Stadt” (The Dead City). BTW, EWK wrote this little ditty at the ripe old age of 23. I hate people like that (even though I love their music!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN_vsAUEE8s

If you like what you heard here, Anne Sofie has released a two-CD set of Korngold’s “serious” music. You can find it at:

http://www.amazon.com/Anne-Sofie-von-Otter-Rendezvous/dp/B00000HY3U/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1323115754&sr=1-1

One thing that haunts me is that Korngold died in North Hollywood just as I was wandering around there as a tyke. It makes me wonder if I ever ran into him at the “Dales’ Jr” (our “7-11” back in the day). Maybe I stood next to him in the checkout line while he was picking up the latest copy of “The Hollywood Reporter” while I was out buying kilos of root beer popsicles for my poor drug-addicted stepmom.  

For Classical Free Market Economists Who Think They’ve Just About Got It All Figured Out

I recently stumbled on a book at the San Jose library called, “Debt: The First 5000 Years.” And, no, it isn’t about how long it takes to pay off your Visa bill making minimum payments. It’s by David Graeber who, according to his Amazon page, is an American anthropologist and anarchist who currently holds the position of Reader in Social Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London.

The book examines how the concept of debt has evolved and changed as human needs and relations have themselves evolved and changed. In particular, it applies actual anthropological data to several “facts” that classical economists routinely posit about human nature without a shred of evidence to support them (Are you listening, Adam Smith?) For example, did money and debt evolve from a barter economy in primitive humans or was it the other way around? Is “enlightened self-interest” really the driving force behind how we behave? And how much do economic ideas about debt and collateral and payment obligations feature into our religious views (which allegedly pre-date our notions of economics.) You may not “buy” it all, but it’s a fascinating book and sure to spark some interesting conversations over the egg nog and gingerbread (especially if you bought them on credit.)

http://www.amazon.com/Debt-First-5-000-Years/dp/1933633867/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323119918&sr=1-1

 

For All Those Blogging Playwright/Clarinetists on Your List

Well, we wouldn’t want to forget these folks would we? The poor darlings! All they do is give and give and give! So here’s an ideal stocking stuffer for them. It’s the new revolutionary clarinet created by the good folks at Backun Music. It’s designed to solve scads of technical problems that plague the old style instrument and make even the… err… amateur clarinetist sound sooooo much better.

You can check it out here:

 http://www.backunmusical.com/clarinets.html

At a mere $8,000, the Backun B-flat with gold-plated keys is practically a steal! And it's the perfect size for slipping into someone’s stocking by the old Yule tree!

Well, that brings us to the end of this blog post. I hope I haven’t been too materialistic here! After all, it isn’t just about collecting loot, is it? It’s really about the experience, right? Of course it is! And in that spirit, I’ll leave you with the following clip which just about says it all when it comes to gift-giving and presents and all that Yuletide jazz:

 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHi9bCjbu20

Ho, ho, ho, everybody! And merry, merry, merry!