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Saturday, January 19th, 2008
This afternoon is the first meeting of the chamber music workshop for the spring. In the fall, we played Corelli's Concerto Grosso Opus 6 #7 -- and I've gotta say, I don't think too much of it as a piece of music. It is in 6 movements; and none of the movements individually nor the group of them considered together feels like a song to me. There are interesting bits and pieces but it seems like they could be rearranged in a different order or portions cut out, without materially affecting the experience of the piece. I find this to be true both of playing the concerto and of listening to it on tape. This term we are playing Holst's Brook Green Suite and at least from listening to the tape, I think it is going to be a lot more fun -- its three movements taken together really form an organic whole that I can identify with. The pause between the second and third movements holds as much suspense as the pause in the opening of "The Yip Song". I'm looking forward to playing it. I am playing viola this time! I'm very excited about that. I've been practicing the viola part to the first movement and it seems like it will be within my ability, though the reading is going to be a bit of a stretch. I'm having a hard time hearing the viola part on the tape -- I guess my ears are more used to listening to the melody.  (What I mean, I guess, is that the Holst is definitely something I would recommend to a friend for listening; the Corelli, not. But Mike tells me other songs by Corelli are very good, so I should reserve judgement on the composer.)
posted afternoon of January 19th, 2008: Respond
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Friday, January 18th, 2008
I still have not gotten to the beginning of the inner story of The White Castle and already the layering of fictions is seeming intensely complicated. The book is dedicated to "Nilgun Darvinoglu: a loving sister (1961 - 1980)" -- I read this when I first opened the book and thought, Pamuk's sister lived such a short life! Then I started reading the preface (in which the outer story is begun), and leafed to the end of the preface to see it was signed "Faruk Darvinoglu". Hmm, think I, he attributes the preface to his brother-in-law. Perhaps that is meant as further tribute to the lamented sister. But then I read, at the end of the last paragraph of the preface,
Readers seeing the dedication at the beinning may ask if it has a personal significance. I suppose that to see everything as connected with everything else is the addiction of our time. It is because I too have succumbed to this disease that I publish this tale.
That totally knocked me for a loop. Does Pamuk have a sister who lived for the stated dates, who he is dedicating the book to? And if so, is that her name? Or is the dedication completely part of the fiction, the outer story -- or indeed part of the inner story that has taken over the life of the narrator, extruding itself into the outer story?
 Update: more info here.
posted evening of January 18th, 2008: Respond
➳ More posts about The White Castle
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Thursday, January 17th, 2008
At first I didn't quite know what I would do with the book, other than read it over and over again. My distrust of history then was still strong, and I wanted to concentrate on the story for its own sake, rather than on the manuscript's scientific, cultural, anthropological, or 'historical' value. I was drawn to the author himself.
Like The New Life, The White Castle opens with its narrator finding a book to which he reacts strongly, and reading it over and over. It looks like this book is going to move in a very different direction than that one did; but it seems worthwhile just to note this commonality. Running through Pamuk's work you see a mystical importance attached to books and to stories.
posted evening of January 17th, 2008: Respond
➳ More posts about Orhan Pamuk
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This is the epigraph in front of Orhan Pamuk's The White Castle:
To imagine that a person who intrigues us has access to a way of life unknown and all the more attractive for its mystery, to believe that we will begin to live only through the love of that person -- what else is this but the birth of great passion?
Marcel Proust, from the mistranslation of Y.K. Karaosmanoğlu
This seems really intriguing to me: Pamuk is quoting a mistranslation into Turkish of a French text (and presumably a real, historical mistranslation), which has subsequently been (who knows, possibly mis-?)translated into English! (This book is translated by Victoria Holbrook, a new name to me -- it will be interesting to see how her rendering of Pamuk's work compares with that of Maureen Freely and of Erdağ Göknar.) I'm not familiar with Proust and have no way of knowing what the correct translation of the quoted bit is -- not really something I can look up via Google. I wonder...
posted afternoon of January 17th, 2008: 1 response
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No posts for a couple days now, that means my mind is slowing down, that means I need to find another book to get the gears rolling again.
posted morning of January 17th, 2008: Respond
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Tuesday, January 15th, 2008
Here are two records that would be sure-fire gift ideas: The Music Of Kentucky: Early American Rural Classics 1927-1937, vol. 1; and The Music Of Kentucky: Early American Rural Classics 1927-1937, vol. 2. Update: Also this one would be most welcome: Blue Grass Favorites by the Scottsville Squirrel Barkers.
posted evening of January 15th, 2008: Respond
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Monday, January 14th, 2008
It's worth pointing out just how great the bonus tracks on the CD of Black Snake Dîamond Röle are. I wrote a couple of months ago about how much I like "All I Wanna Do is Fall in Love" -- "A Skull, a Suitcase, and a Long Red Bottle of Wine" and "It Was the Night" are similarly great (although "It Was the Night" seems like a lousy title to me). And there's much more! The take #2 of "I Watch the Cars" (take #1 is maybe my favorite song on the original record) is not so good however.
posted evening of January 14th, 2008: Respond
➳ More posts about I Wanna Go Backwards
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I was just looking at the jacket of While Thatcher Mauled Britain and noticed a cartoon of Hitchcock's. A little bit hilarious in the context of these past few days. 
posted evening of January 14th, 2008: Respond
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No snow... They said there would be snow... Where's my snow damn it? Well, the weather people still think there is going to be snow today and tomorrow, not sure I trust them at this point though. Update: (this evening) -- seeing a little slush now, which is not a satisfactory substitute for snow. Quite the contrary.
posted morning of January 14th, 2008: Respond
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Sunday, January 13th, 2008
Hmm, so I was walking along today and realized there's only one track out of 24 on my mix tape that's by a female artist, and two more with female backup musicians. That seems kind of improperly balanced, I ought to make an effort to listen to more women musicians.
posted evening of January 13th, 2008: Respond
➳ More posts about Mix tapes
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