tingilinde

mezzo-sopranos

The NY Times music appreciation section features them today.

 

recipe cards

Frightening meal suggestions from the 40s through the early 70s mostly driven by women's magazines and processed food companies. 

Vintage Recipe Cards collects some of them.

A period song comes to mind

the archive grows

A lot of "lost to copyright" music is in the public domain starting today. 

The Archive is a great resource and worthy of support.

 

 

the story behind white christmas

Irving Berlin's most famous composition.

snip

...

“White Christmas” was the brainchild of one on America’s greatest songwriters. Born Israel Beilin in western Siberia in 1888, Irving Berlin grew up on the mean streets of the Lower East Side of New York City. As a child, this son of an Orthodox rabbi learned about Christmas from an equally poor Irish Catholic family, the O’Haras. Young Izzy, as his childhood companions called him, was welcomed into their home, where they introduced him to what could best be described as a Charlie Brown tree. It left a lasting impression.

...

 

 

on the douglas adams number

More than you probably imagined.

 

lobachevsky

Yesterday was the birthday of the mathematician Lobachevsky.  I first heard of him in a Tom Lehrer song, later learning he was a great mathematician.  Lehrer later said he didn't want to slight him, but the name just worked out for a song.  The song is a lot of fun.

a completely arbitrary ranking

Of Christmas songs so you don't have to.  Seriously I dislike most of the genre - perhaps online shopping is one of the few silver linings of the pandemic.

 

 

if your audience is made up of competent musicians

multiphone

A 1950 era jukebox in the cloud

a tip of the hat to Sukie

 

music the heart and more..

An interesting SciAm piece.

snip

...

This is but one of multiple reasons music should be part of every heart physician’s toolkit. Music and the heart have been romantically linked in popular consciousness due to their shared connections to human emotions and the brain. History is replete with examples of emotionally charged events followed almost immediately by the death of the person. The surgeon John Hunter famously pronounced, “My life is at the mercy of any scoundrel who should put me in a passion,” before collapsing and dying after a heated board room meeting.

...