81st entry to the Colonel´s Scrapbook Birthdates on December 16:
1485 Catherine of Aragon Spanish princess/1st wife of Henry VIII,involuntary mother of the Anglican church because her husband Henry VIIIth was in such a hurry to legitimize Anne boleyn´s supious belly that he had to break with Rome
1770 Ludwig van Beethoven Bonn Germany, composer (Ode to Joy, Fidelio) The most colossal of composers1775 Jane Austen England, novelist (Pride & Prejudice), few men can write beeter than this lady1775 François-Adrien Boieldieu composer,love his harp concerto but the rest of his production….ok let´s leave it there
1882 Zoltán Kodály Kecskemét Hungary, composer (Psalmus Hungaricus),great folklorologist too along with his buddy Béla Bartók
Deaths which occurred on December 16:
0714 Pippin II of Héristal, Duke/prince of France, dies, how brief was he really?
0999 Adelheid the Saint German empress of Otto I/saint, dies at about 68,mmmmm,saint and crowned head, let´s try not to go into details
events
1773 Big tea party in Boston harbor-Indians welcome (Boston Tea Party)and the tax on tea just watered off into something else
1877 Anton Bruckner's 3rd Symphony in D, premieres,big deal,because I have never liked this child molester´s noise
1884 Great Britain recognizes King Leopold II's Congo Free State, did the Lords and Commons also get buttered hands?
1997 President Clinton names his Labrador retriever, "Buddy", the eternal shadow of the cat Socks
DEMOCRACY IN CULTURE,THE IDEAL OF BEETHOVEN
It is sad to realize that the elite has never been cultured nor thinking properly. True, the church and nobility, now also joining into this elite the great capitalists, love to pose as patrons of the arts. It is fashionable, like a young girl who loves to preen in front of the mirror while spraying on herself the latest fragrance launched by Paris Hilton. ON a day like today came into a valley of tears a man whose ideal of the total democratization of knowledge and culture I respect so much: Ludwig van Beethoven. Okay,I wont lie to you,dearest reader. Not all German things or people are yucky. He isn´t my absolutely favorite composer because I had previously given my ear and heart to a redheaded horny priest from Venice who is Vivaldi. Nut Old Deaf-as-a-wall, as his nephew called him, was someone to be reckoned with.
The midwife who would later bring him into this world of struggles had recommended his mom to abort him, because there were nuts and people with syphyllis in his family tree and his dad was a slattern. Thank life the lady in question didn´t listen to such absurd advice, or we would have missed the honor of having the most human of composer´s music.
Curiously, in capitalism the one who consumes most of the fine things of art is usually the filthy rich capitalist who thinks paintings ought to be bought by the meter. Owning objets d´art for them is another way of bragging to others how much they own. The more you own and boast to others, the less gray matter there is inside your skull,used to say Karl Marx, who really knew what he was talking about. Inversely proportional relationship would have said to me that wonderful blond peasant from Englad,Sir Isaac Newton.
Cultural expressions are born from the people, and it should be the people who shall enjoy them. Beethoven came from a humble family, yet nobles and kings vied for his attentions. He couldn´t care less. How disappointed he felt when the dwarf Napoleon Bonaparte not only refused to help his rocky isle to become independent(that is why he is hated there, their heroine is Letitia Casta ,the sexy top model) but also, forgetting his mom Leticia had borne him on a worn sofa in the living room of their house in Ajaccio, got himself a crown atop his head to be called emperor. No wonder Beethoven erased the dedication to Napoleon and replaced it with the epitaph like phrase “ to the memory of a man who could have been. “ Beethoven refused to bow to anyone. I agree. We all should bow to him. It is the bad habit of the tycoons to try to steal the proletarian aspects of any bright mind who may leave poverty aside to produce masterpieces. We can never forget where people come from, many times for our benefit.
Years ago I worked at a garage university where the rectress, a poor woman who hid so much ignorance and folly under démodé turbans, taught the students to hate our poet Ruben Darío instead of contributing to the real popularization of his verse. Not having a single degree to her name, and lots of uppity attitudes at which her own sottish husband laughed when he was drunk off his ass, she called her Darío hating class Ruben Dario Master Lesson.For the final circus at the end of the quatrimester, she would demand her students(mostly from working class extraction) to spend loads of money on suit and tie, blazers, manicures, stockings, high heeled shoes and cufflinks for the final presentation,as if Darío had ever voluntarily dressed thus or even had the money to do so. The suit in which we see him in his portrait as diplomat was rented at great sacrifice for the occasion.Sorry,folks,Darío was an American Indian who taught Spaniards to better use their own language by founding modernism, but he wore caites(the open faced sandals from Monimbo). Darío doesn’t belong to the ignorant and cruel “so called high class” of Nicaragua, with their fake surnames of Lacayo(the servant),Chamorro(shaved head) and Cuadra(the Negroes´ work squad). Darío belongs to our working class, for he had always been exploited by the rich and filthy politicians. He, like Beethoven in music, was great with his pen and protested against the exploitation of men at the hands of other men. But now it is fashionable for those who have monopolized hunger and misery with their blood money to pose as gentle patrons of the art.
Illiterate beasts loaded with money have never been able to truly sing, write poetry or really know what a sculpture is about. Sorry, and I won´t recant about what I am saying. Time has shown us how cruel the church, nobles and even kings have been in their effort to play at the role of patrons of the arts. How many backaches curved Michelangelo in pain while he finished the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel for the sodomite Pope Julius II who was always yelling at him? Was empress Isabella of Spain, the alluring yet unfaithful consort of Charles I, always in a good mood for Tiziano, although she loved posing naked for him when her libido was up? History does teach us useful lessons, maybe sometimes we are too blind to see them and learn from them. Even though my feet are firmly anchored to the ground, a little dreaming of the day when art be destined for the self same people who created it makes life easier. Meanwhile,we will always run up against mercenaries like the blond idiot from a funeral parlor who said he was “helping me charitably” by giving me a little monetary push, and Beethoven will still be crawling, tossing and turning in his grave in Vienna.
1485 Catherine of Aragon Spanish princess/1st wife of Henry VIII,involuntary mother of the Anglican church because her husband Henry VIIIth was in such a hurry to legitimize Anne boleyn´s supious belly that he had to break with Rome
1770 Ludwig van Beethoven Bonn Germany, composer (Ode to Joy, Fidelio) The most colossal of composers1775 Jane Austen England, novelist (Pride & Prejudice), few men can write beeter than this lady1775 François-Adrien Boieldieu composer,love his harp concerto but the rest of his production….ok let´s leave it there
1882 Zoltán Kodály Kecskemét Hungary, composer (Psalmus Hungaricus),great folklorologist too along with his buddy Béla Bartók
Deaths which occurred on December 16:
0714 Pippin II of Héristal, Duke/prince of France, dies, how brief was he really?
0999 Adelheid the Saint German empress of Otto I/saint, dies at about 68,mmmmm,saint and crowned head, let´s try not to go into details
events
1773 Big tea party in Boston harbor-Indians welcome (Boston Tea Party)and the tax on tea just watered off into something else
1877 Anton Bruckner's 3rd Symphony in D, premieres,big deal,because I have never liked this child molester´s noise
1884 Great Britain recognizes King Leopold II's Congo Free State, did the Lords and Commons also get buttered hands?
1997 President Clinton names his Labrador retriever, "Buddy", the eternal shadow of the cat Socks
DEMOCRACY IN CULTURE,THE IDEAL OF BEETHOVEN
It is sad to realize that the elite has never been cultured nor thinking properly. True, the church and nobility, now also joining into this elite the great capitalists, love to pose as patrons of the arts. It is fashionable, like a young girl who loves to preen in front of the mirror while spraying on herself the latest fragrance launched by Paris Hilton. ON a day like today came into a valley of tears a man whose ideal of the total democratization of knowledge and culture I respect so much: Ludwig van Beethoven. Okay,I wont lie to you,dearest reader. Not all German things or people are yucky. He isn´t my absolutely favorite composer because I had previously given my ear and heart to a redheaded horny priest from Venice who is Vivaldi. Nut Old Deaf-as-a-wall, as his nephew called him, was someone to be reckoned with.
The midwife who would later bring him into this world of struggles had recommended his mom to abort him, because there were nuts and people with syphyllis in his family tree and his dad was a slattern. Thank life the lady in question didn´t listen to such absurd advice, or we would have missed the honor of having the most human of composer´s music.
Curiously, in capitalism the one who consumes most of the fine things of art is usually the filthy rich capitalist who thinks paintings ought to be bought by the meter. Owning objets d´art for them is another way of bragging to others how much they own. The more you own and boast to others, the less gray matter there is inside your skull,used to say Karl Marx, who really knew what he was talking about. Inversely proportional relationship would have said to me that wonderful blond peasant from Englad,Sir Isaac Newton.
Cultural expressions are born from the people, and it should be the people who shall enjoy them. Beethoven came from a humble family, yet nobles and kings vied for his attentions. He couldn´t care less. How disappointed he felt when the dwarf Napoleon Bonaparte not only refused to help his rocky isle to become independent(that is why he is hated there, their heroine is Letitia Casta ,the sexy top model) but also, forgetting his mom Leticia had borne him on a worn sofa in the living room of their house in Ajaccio, got himself a crown atop his head to be called emperor. No wonder Beethoven erased the dedication to Napoleon and replaced it with the epitaph like phrase “ to the memory of a man who could have been. “ Beethoven refused to bow to anyone. I agree. We all should bow to him. It is the bad habit of the tycoons to try to steal the proletarian aspects of any bright mind who may leave poverty aside to produce masterpieces. We can never forget where people come from, many times for our benefit.
Years ago I worked at a garage university where the rectress, a poor woman who hid so much ignorance and folly under démodé turbans, taught the students to hate our poet Ruben Darío instead of contributing to the real popularization of his verse. Not having a single degree to her name, and lots of uppity attitudes at which her own sottish husband laughed when he was drunk off his ass, she called her Darío hating class Ruben Dario Master Lesson.For the final circus at the end of the quatrimester, she would demand her students(mostly from working class extraction) to spend loads of money on suit and tie, blazers, manicures, stockings, high heeled shoes and cufflinks for the final presentation,as if Darío had ever voluntarily dressed thus or even had the money to do so. The suit in which we see him in his portrait as diplomat was rented at great sacrifice for the occasion.Sorry,folks,Darío was an American Indian who taught Spaniards to better use their own language by founding modernism, but he wore caites(the open faced sandals from Monimbo). Darío doesn’t belong to the ignorant and cruel “so called high class” of Nicaragua, with their fake surnames of Lacayo(the servant),Chamorro(shaved head) and Cuadra(the Negroes´ work squad). Darío belongs to our working class, for he had always been exploited by the rich and filthy politicians. He, like Beethoven in music, was great with his pen and protested against the exploitation of men at the hands of other men. But now it is fashionable for those who have monopolized hunger and misery with their blood money to pose as gentle patrons of the art.
Illiterate beasts loaded with money have never been able to truly sing, write poetry or really know what a sculpture is about. Sorry, and I won´t recant about what I am saying. Time has shown us how cruel the church, nobles and even kings have been in their effort to play at the role of patrons of the arts. How many backaches curved Michelangelo in pain while he finished the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel for the sodomite Pope Julius II who was always yelling at him? Was empress Isabella of Spain, the alluring yet unfaithful consort of Charles I, always in a good mood for Tiziano, although she loved posing naked for him when her libido was up? History does teach us useful lessons, maybe sometimes we are too blind to see them and learn from them. Even though my feet are firmly anchored to the ground, a little dreaming of the day when art be destined for the self same people who created it makes life easier. Meanwhile,we will always run up against mercenaries like the blond idiot from a funeral parlor who said he was “helping me charitably” by giving me a little monetary push, and Beethoven will still be crawling, tossing and turning in his grave in Vienna.
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