Everyday Bliss

With thanks to Heather Wibbels, I give you, the Glowing Sheep of  Wales. This is something you’ve got to see to believe. Especially the Mona Lisa and the fireworks bit at the end. Sheer brilliance fellas!

Irreverent comedian George Carlin, author of such famous routines as "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television", "The Hair Piece", and the wildly appropriate consumerism commentary "Stuff", had a terminal episode Sunday at the age of 71.

‘Terminal episode’ refers to Carlin’s observation that due to the cultural death phobia in America, no one in America dies, but is said to have ‘passed away’, or other euphemistic cover phrase. Click play on the above video to hear the whole routine, including the part about Carlin’s views on energy equalling deity, via "The Big Electron". He proposed alternative thinking about spirituality that started me thinking about the energy field in a very similar way to the recent advances in quantum physics, before such ideas were well-known.

Carlin kept me in stitches in high school, college, and through my adult life. His routines last the test of time. If you’re easily offended, don’t listen. George takes on religion, the government, even mom’s apple pie. But his observations are pithy and though often cutting, usually true.

Carlin’s observations on language, particularly his assertion "By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth" greatly influenced me towards a lifetime study of linguistics.

He invited us to "Think off-center" and aptly quipped: "When you’re born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you’re born in America, you get a front row seat."

And don’t forget Carlin’s admonition to "Don’t sweat the petty things and don’t pet the sweaty things". Words to live by.

We’ll miss your clear eyes, acerbic wit and kind heart, George…rest in peace.

LOS ANGELES - George Carlin, who died of heart failure Sunday at 71, leaves behind not only a series of memorable routines, but a legal legacy: His most celebrated monologue, a frantic, informed riff on those infamous seven words, led to a Supreme Court decision on broadcasting offensive language.

The counterculture hero’s jokes also targeted things such as misplaced shame, religious hypocrisy and linguistic quirks why, he once asked, do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?

Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, went into St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain and died later that evening, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He had performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas.

Attended the glorious San Jose Ballet and Symphony Silicon Valley performance of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana last night. I’ve been stuck on this piece of music for years and have performed it as an alto chorus member a number of times. It’s both sweet and bombastic  – the initial movement, "O Fortuna" has been used as a stage-setter in many heroic movie battle scenes.

As you can see from the promo photo at left, the stage was initially set with a giant Wheel of Fortune-cum-altar. No, you who are thinking television game shows, it’s the Wheel from traditional hermetic magic and tarot. With a pentagram in the center. Scattered in the audience, assorted gaggles of  Wiccans and hermetics burst into tears of rapture as the curtain went up. My partner turned to me and said "I’d go back to being pagan if I could get twenty guys to reliably show up and dance like that at rituals…and the set designer as well…."

While parts of the performance dragged, and local dance critic Rachel Howard of the San Francisco chronicle was ever-so (yawn) bored, the majority of the audience remained fascinated to the denouement and gave the cast a resounding standing ovation. 

The opening ballet, Summerscape, while well danced and whimsical, felt like a "cartoon before the feature" in contrast to what followed. Nice and well choreographed, it didn’t merit the endless rounds of standing ovation applause Carmina garnered for its sheer overwhelming technical artistry. Veteran Dennis Nahat ably choreographed both ballets, and the 130 voice chorus with its three featured vocalists, cloaked as monks (oh, the bass soloist! perfection!) contributed equally to Carmina’s soaring spectacle.

Was I alone in observing the deliberate mispronounciation of the lyrics in Carmina? I learned the lyrics while singing with a Cambridge, England church chorus. Our director and music teachers were German and Italian respectively, the languages of the Carmina. (well Latin, but Giovanni was well versed in his high church speak). I’ve never heard the C’s and G’s pronounced in quite the same way as the singers in SJB’s version – it almost seemed like a foreign language.

The fellow next to me had also sung in Carmina and, looking at me perplexed during the interval, said: "Was I hearing aright, or are they misprounouncing the thing?" Check out any CD of Carmina for compares.

I wonder – artistic choice or something else??  Comment, Herr Director?

If you haven’t been to SJB’s Carmina, you’ve already missed it, but do go and see Nahat’s venerable Nutcracker, opening December 9th. Well worth it for an evening’s dress-up and good funtime. Don’t forget dinner after the show at the inimitable Il Fornaio down the street. Best and thickest cappucino’s in San Jo. Tell Edgar and David that I sent you.