Positively Puzzled

The day began with Julian still asleep, With thirteen minutes till his bus was due. I thought, because his slumber was so deep, Attempts to get him up just would not do. And, being one who likes to take his time To shower, dress, and look his very best To send him out unkempt would be a crime: Perhaps I’ll let him sleep and get his rest. But no, I said, “Wake up!” and gave a poke Then went to brew some coffee for us two, While he, my son once bidden to awake, awoke; His preparations in a flash were through.    "So I don’t miss the bus, Dad, would you drive?”    Well played, he was the first one to arrive. This actually happened this morning, every word is true, except some of the quotes aren't strictly verbatim.  Julian, who is 14 and has recently developed a taste for black coffee in the morning, has to get to the bus stop by 7:00.  I woke up at 6:44 a.m. I woke him up at 6:47.  I googled for a clock reading that time. Found a...

Fill thy dishwasher while ye may,  Old dishes molder green:  And these same saucers that smell today  Tomorrow will shine clean.   I'm going to be late for work, but at least I'll come home to clean dishes and counter space. I poked n stroked till my wrist got numb An you know I heard some dish-washer humm

Recently something has changed and the data for our playlists is not being updated to appear in Google Search. I noticed this because it's handy for me to check to see whether or not Meera or me have played a piece recently.  I don't know what has changed.  The link to our playlist has been kind of buried several levels downs in the (fairly) new KUSP blog pages as part of the web presence remodel.  Maybe if I put the link here, the search crawler won't miss it, so here is the main playlist page for Musica della sera: Voila!  This year's playlists for Musica della sera Thursday evening classical radio show on KUSP Radio : http://www.kusp.org/playlists/mds/index.html Come and get it, web crawler!  We're here, we're here! The Musica della sera blog page is here: http://blogs.kusp.org/musicadellasera/

Announcement to Musica Della Sera listeners! Meera Collier-Mitchell and I host Musica della sera, a classical music radio show heard Thursday nights 7-9:30 Pacific on KUSP , Santa Cruz.  I'm pleased to announce that the show now has a regular blog presence on the KUSP Blog Page . Please bookmark the link to the new location: Musica della sera Music Blog .  You'll find a link there to our playlists, as well as posts with information about the music we play, and also music video clips related to the programs. See you there! ─Nicholas Mitchell Nota Bene Comments, requests, suggestions, and feedback are encouraged and appreciated, especially during this launch period.  You can comment on individual blog posts, or tweet me at @puxxled or Meera at @MeeraHyphenated , or "friend" us on Facebook at Nicholas Mitchell and Meera Collier-Mitchell . (With the advent of the Musica della sera blog on KUSP , I will no longer post program notes for ...

Program Notes for Musica della sera broadcast of Thursday, November 29, 2012.  (Available for streaming until 12/6/12 on the KUSP Music Show Player .) This week's program of Musica della sera opens with a keyboard composition of Manuel Blasco de Nebra (1750-1784).  He, like his father, was organist for the Seville Cathedral. He died young, and only a fraction of his compositions have survived─but enough to show his expressive talent. The influence of Domenico Scarlatti is immediately noticeable, but more the introspective sweetness than the dazzling virtuosity.  I only recently discovered this composer from this Harmonia Mundi recording that KUSP possesses  It features Spanish pianist Javier Perianes , also new to me. The virtuosity and sweetness of Domenico Scarlatti follows in a performance of Georgian-American pianist Eteri Andjaparidze . I discovered Scarlatti in my young teens through the wonderful recordings of Vladimir Horowitz, so I'm quite at ho...

Eating my linner on West Cliff in Santa Cruz just now I was blessed to watch a porpoise leisurely playing among the slow, low rolling waves. It reminded me of the times I've watched from a lawn chair a slightly younger Gabriel entertaining himself quietly and contentedly at a corner of the pool, engaged with pool toys and hydrodynamics, a moment of solitary peace between the raucous splashy times he'd have with other kids.

The fundamental problem with the American economy is that corporations as a rule do not consider a decent standard of living for their employees to be a worthwhile expense. They do not as a matter of policy take any role in improving the communities in which they operate when they could make a really big difference. They do not recognize that their focus on the bottom line in the long run works against their interests. They do not see the intrinsic value and humanity of bolstering the morale of their employees with decent pay, good benefits, and incentivizing profit shares. They do not see the obscenity and recklessness of CEO salaries that are hundreds, even thousands! , of times higher than the average pay rate of their workers. They do not see thriving lives of the individuals they employ as a damn fine accomplishment, an end in itself. They reject the notion that the fundamental American value, the pursuit of happiness, and not the one-dimensional obsession of the p...