I recently saw someone on Instagram compare Pasolini’s Salò to Cheaper by the Dozen and feel like that lens carries over watching this weekend’s protests across Europe vs the clips from today’s No Kings marches in the US.
Olivia Giovetti
@oliviagiovetti.bsky.social
When I was 4, I dressed up as Mephistopheles from Faust for Halloween and corrected each of my grandparents' friends when they thought I was the devil. Now I'm a cultural critic. Web: oliviagiovetti.com Substack: criticaldrift.org
“I don’t know what’s more unforgivable: that conductor and long-serving Bard president Leon Botstein accepted money from Jeffrey Epstein, or that he put me in the position of agreeing with American conservative outrage-monger Dinesh D’Souza.”
“There Is a Reason You Are Still Struggling and it Is Not Your Talent”
What the latest Epstein documents reveal about his relationship with Leon Botstein
criticaldrift.org
I don't care what a bunch of Swedes say, Anne Carson won the Nobel for her Rosalía essay.
Anne Carson · On Rosalía
We require heroism of our entertainers. We want them sacrificing themselves to a certain ultimate degree of input. No...
lrb.co.uk
Cutting this joke (about the idea of "La donna è mobile" being played at a POTUS inauguration) for several reasons, and I now truly understand what it is to kill one of your darlings.
Is there anyone with OUP access who can help me with accessing a book chapter?
Hot take: Azucena knew exactly what she was doing her baby was just really annoying
I know this is only episode 13, but so far one of my fav conversations for Decanonized. Discussing Four Saints in Three Acts with Stephanie DePrez, a triple-threat of soprano who has sung Thomson/Stein, taught theology at a Jesuit high school, and is also a standup comedian. 100/10 energy + insight.
Episode 013: Four Saints in Three Acts with Stephanie DePrez — Decanonized
Pigeons on the grass, alas.
decanonized.com
Highly recommend Jens Ibsen's piece on the article by the 43-year-old bass who's retiring from staged opera for more. jensibsen.substack.com/p/yeah-i-rea...
“Don’t show this letter to anyone, because everybody would say that I can’t write and don’t know anything about politics.” — Chopin in a 1923 letter to Eustachy Marylski
Barney Miller which was oddly intersectional for a 70s sitcom about cops.
petey@peteypayless.bsky.social · last mo.33⅓ but it's for TV shows: which one are you writing? (you're allowed to mention some runner[s]-up)
I like the evergreen specificity of the first two, but the third one feels like it says the most with the least amount of words
There may also be a bonus episode covering a specific genre of Così interpretations coming soon…
So glad to be back up and running with Decanonized and to have the first episode post-herniatus be with @akseltoll.bsky.social discussing Così. Additional topics include Bessel van der Kolk, John Cage, and Nathan Fielder orchestrating Enlightenment-era experiments.
Episode 012: Così fan tutte with Aksel Tollåli — Decanonized
Do you want Albanians? Because that’s how you get Albanians.
decanonized.com
My Ukrainian classes are often interrupted by air raid sirens on my teacher’s side. Forgot Germany was testing its warning systems today & we were interrupted by sirens on MY side. Strangely reassuring to realize both countries remain committed to maintaining the conversational rhythm of my lessons.
Found this guy at the flea market today for 20€. Named him Rahul because he has two pheasants and realized that cycle of GBBO was a decade ago
The marketing for Coyote vs. Acme is insane
slate@pleasebegneiss.bsky.social · 2mo agohe got him. he finally fucking got him
Somehow the painkillers I'm on for my herniated discs have made my writing ability go down to 0, but my Instagram posting ability go to 11. The dichotomy is staggering.
Marvellous photo of Tim Curry as Mozart, McKellen as Salieri
Had an MRI this week and was diagnosed with two (2) literal slipped discs and a pain that isn‘t responding to opioids and I can now officially confirm this is still preferable reading Sl*pped D*sc.
Moments in music I think about a lot: The way Paul Simon grunts "pull it" in "Can't Run But" (original Rhythm of the Saints recording)
Can't Run But
YouTube video by Paul Simon - Topic
youtu.be
Which opera director is going to be the first to realize that Pinkerton’s ship in Madama Butterfly is also the USS Abraham Lincoln?
My god, what an image. Dead kings in a plastic box, carried off as the world burns.
Reuters@reuters.com · 2mo agoSpain removes remains of 11th century kings from monastery as wildfire rages reut.rs/4zAAN4r
If you saw The Galloping Cure this week in Edinburgh, you may have seen an essay from yrs truly in the program. I have some additional thoughts on the work and the hazy question of how opera "works" here:
Ghosts in the Machine
On The Galloping Cure and the question of how opera works
criticaldrift.org
But it is, now. (Though as Brecht didn’t quite say, let nothing be called normal in an age of bloody confusion, ordered disorder, planned caprice and dehumanised humanity, lest all things be held unalterable.)
Thomas Fortenberry@thomasfortenberry.bsky.social · 2mo agoAveraging over 104 F per day is not in any way normal.
Spent the entirety of my last therapy session discussing whether to accept an arbitration bureau's recommended compromise for a @deutschebahn.com issue I had in Jan (one that led to me getting unnecessarily kicked off a train during a blizzard), only for *DB* to be the ones to reject the offer.
Girl Hit by Toy Train Derailment
ALT: Girl Hit by Toy Train Derailment
static.klipy.com
Doing this because as much as I hate these things I also love talking about books so here we are.
Yip Yip Mo 🎃📚@moplayspoke.bsky.social · 3mo ago1 like = 1 book question 📚💙
