Against the ingrained, elitist tendency to assume that “high culture” belongs to folks with academic or artistic credentials living in urban areas, it’s always useful to be reminded of the contrary.
I bumped into Mr. B*, the local jeweler in our new town – a rural cowboy Texas town of 6000 (where the nearest Starbucks is 30 miles away). Mr. B* was taking trash out to the dumpster in the alley between the back of his shop and the back of my office. “Pardon me, but you’re the new music lady, right?” he asked. He recounted hearing the overture to Wagner’s early opera Rienzi on the radio over the weekend. The announcer had noted that, according to the liner notes, the opera had been pared down significantly to its present length. “That overture has always been one of my favorites,” Mr. B* sighed wistfully. “So where is all that missing music?”
We proceeded, trash bags in hand, to ponder the likelihood of excised measures of Rienzi still existing in manuscript, and what they might sound like. After about ten minutes of discussing Wagner’s early style (right as I was about to propose looking more seriously into the matter), Mr. B*’s cell phone rang. He apologized, excused himself, and went back into his jewelry store.
Back-alley Wagnerism is alive and well, at least here!
February 22nd, 2008
Posted by
Professor Carol |
Music |
no comments
It’s Friday, and time to close up shop and take more pragmatic steps in the interest of cultural preservation. Nothing gets a good debate going like the subject of martinis. Today I link to a cogent article that speaks volumes in three words: Vodka be damned.”
There has, over the years, been a perverse crusade to kill the Martini. Egged on by vodka factory owners and aided and abetted by know-it-all bartenders, gin has been tossed aside, vermouth has been given leper status, and all the science and ceremony of mixing the perfect Martini has been abandoned.
I’m not saying I agree with the recipe, but I like the writer’s bluntness.
February 22nd, 2008
Posted by
Fitzroy |
Leisure |
no comments
George Washington’s birthday continues to be watered down into a lifeless celebration of “Presidents’ Day.” You may be interested in reading that the federal government did not callously mandate this name change and that the designation stems more from public inattention. Even if “Presidents’ Day” is taken to refer to the two presidents, Washington and Lincoln, whose actual birthdays slightly precede and follow the third Monday in February, the depersonalization inherent in this appellation contributes to our collective loss of memory. Thus, the culture withers.
Presidents like Washington and Lincoln are not honored for the considerable achievement of being elected to the presidency, but for making a distinct and lasting contribution to the ethos of the nation. They have a cultural significance beyond that of, say, Franklin Pierce or Warren Harding. Disassociating Washington’s name from the holiday, however, has the unfortunate effect of causing us to view Washington as just another president.
Today, numerous bloggers will recall Washington and praise his accomplishments. A few small-minded bloggers may complain that his America fell short of utopia and point out some of his human flaws.
Let’s take a glass-half-full approach. One of Washington’s accomplishments has received too little attention:
George Washington operated one of the largest whiskey distilleries in early America, producing 11,000 gallons in 1799. After almost 10 years of archaeological excavation, documentary research, planning, and construction, the distillery was authentically rebuilt on its original foundation and opened to the public in 2007. It is the only distillery in the nation to demonstrate the process of whiskey making as it was carried out in 18th-century America.
When I visited Mount Vernon last summer, the distillery was nearing completion and the The History Channel was busy filming footage. All of the information, including the video, is here. As the good folks at The Distilled Spirits Council remind us:
From the colonial era, where Whiskey had an important economic and social function in the fabric of the community, to the Whiskey Rebellion, through Prohibition and into modern times spirits have played a sometimes controversial but always fascinating role in our nation’s history.
Washington may deserve the distinction of being the only president to have produced more whiskey than he consumed. So let’s toast the president who ended his term with a surplus.
February 22nd, 2008
Posted by
Fitzroy |
Politics |
one comment
