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“The tight place, the dark pit in which I am now lying, of what bird is it the talon? When the design of my life is complete, shall I, shall other people see a stork?”
Played by Julian Bream at the 10th-century Moorish fortress-palace the Alhambra, overlooking the old Andalusian city of Granada.
“Then taking up his Oedipus at Colonus, which he had lately written, but had not yet brought out, he read from it a beautiful passage, with which the judges were so struck that they at once dismissed the case.”
In 1912 the London publisher rejected Stein’s manuscript of The Making of Americans with a perfect sendup of her style.
He who binds himself to a joy
Does the wingèd life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity’s sunrise.
“It is instructive to think that there is not a single person in this room, or for that matter in any room in the world, who, at some nicely chosen point in historical space-time would not be put to death there and then, here and now, by a commonsensical majority in righteous rage. The color of one’s creed, neckties, eyes, thoughts, manners, speech, is sure to meet somewhere in time or space with a fatal objection from a mob that hates that particular tone.…”
…and takes a vow of silence: he’s allowed to say two words every seven years...
You have come to my rescue again & again
in my impassable, sometimes despairing years.
You have allowed my brilliant friends to destroy themselves
and I am still here, severely damaged, but functioning…
“Corcovado” (known in English as “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars”) is a bossa nova song written by Antonio Carlos Jobim in 1962. The Portuguese title refers to the Corcovado mountain in Rio de Janeiro.
Emily Dickinson: “If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.”
Wiig spoofs the TODAY show host in a pitch-perfect Saturday Night Live sketch.
James Brown and the Famous Flames pull out all the stops—including a frantic, electrifying “Night Train”—on a bill that included Marvin Gaye, The Rolling Stones, Smokey Robinson, the Beach Boys, Chuck Berry and The Supremes. According to Rick Rubin, Prince kept the performance on loop at Paisley Park.
“There is not one time in a hundred spins of the gut-wrenching ‘Three Babies’ that chills don’t shoot through my nervous system as she clutches the high notes for ‘The face on you / The smell of you / Will always be with me.’ It may be the most haunting eight seconds ever recorded…”—James Campion
While she’s living like a queen on alimony
I’m working two shifts eating baloney,
Asking myself “Why didn’t you just learn how to cook?”
Reed’s last #1 country hit, written—fittingly—by Certified Public Accountant Tim DuBois.
Robert Schumann: “I received a new Ballade from Chopin. It seems to be a work closest to his genius…”
Billy Bragg on the most influential record in U.K. history:
“The song begins slowly, with a spoken intro, then picks up until it flies along. Donegan's incendiary delivery is like a spark in a forest of dry timber….The Beatles, the Stones, the whole supernova of the Swinging Sixties and their lasting effect on our culture can be traced back to that moment.”
From the 2000 album Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump. With a cameo by Sopranos actor Frank Vincent.
Exhilarating performance from the first season of American Idol.
“Unusually haunting singing by Dylan and some superbly dramatic harmonica work.”—Sean Egan
Elegant, aching middle movement of Bach’s masterpiece, performed by Trevor Pinnock and The English Concert.
“Since the groove was so absolutely contagious, it took the nation by storm: People in the street would put on a blank stare and walk with hands affront proclaiming ‘Zombie!’ whenever they would see soldiers.”—Sam Samuelson
“A nod’s as good as a wink to a blind bat.”
Elvis’s favorite Python sketch.
Cain slew Abel. Seth knew not why,
For if the children of Israel were supposed to multiply,
Why should any of her children die?
So he asked the Lord. And the Lord said…”
“The simple two-tone design—a subtle nod to the classic horseshoe magnet—says ‘hipster’ more in a whisper than a shout.”