tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post146212379726344015..comments2024-03-29T03:19:09.227-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: THOROUGHLY IDLE MUSINGRobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-51435751687120890272020-08-05T11:33:45.032-04:002020-08-05T11:33:45.032-04:00Sorry, cut and paste messed up the formatting. Her...Sorry, cut and paste messed up the formatting. Here they are:<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvqEg9XbwJA" rel="nofollow">miss otis 1</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP2UypjZbMo" rel="nofollow">miss otis 2</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw1tN0Sm4Rw" rel="nofollow">miss otis 3</a>DDAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04563878282038308662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-1883557166719693462020-08-05T11:26:34.484-04:002020-08-05T11:26:34.484-04:00OK, I couldn't help myself. There are many ve...OK, I couldn't help myself. There are many version of Miss Otis out there. Some are shitty (Nat King Cole's for example), some just OK (Carmen McRae for some reason) and then there are these three:<br /><a href="javascript:void(0);" rel="nofollow">miss otis 3</a><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw1tN0Sm4Rw”>miss otis 2</a><br />DDAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04563878282038308662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-73303380214536700902020-08-05T09:37:01.708-04:002020-08-05T09:37:01.708-04:00My wife and I draw a total blank when contemporary...My wife and I draw a total blank when contemporary cultural icons show up in The NY Times mini crossword. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-45438786934953366812020-08-05T05:58:09.176-04:002020-08-05T05:58:09.176-04:00To lower the cultural level a bit, the worst case ...To lower the cultural level a bit, the worst case I ever had like this was trying to refer to an episode of "Quince: ME" to students in a philosophy of law recitation. This was, I think, in 2003, and Quincy had been off the air for more years than my students had been alive. Still, because I believe that people should respect the classics, I tried to explain the reference and why it was both topical and funny. Alas, this was one of the most complete pedagogical failures I have ever experienced.Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01446428606119200980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-6140040738784785392020-08-05T01:16:53.364-04:002020-08-05T01:16:53.364-04:00well yes Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victor...well yes Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership, so thisthis is rather P.G. Wodehouse. I wouldn't actually mind -- escape has somehow gotten a bad rap. Dannyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11915977609430813824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-35235972112048809272020-08-05T00:01:47.087-04:002020-08-05T00:01:47.087-04:00About thirty years ago, the parents from my son...About thirty years ago, the parents from my son's school class accompanied our children to a weekend at a camp in the mountains. One night, after the younger set had gone to sleep, a father brought out a guitar and a songbook and started playing old folk songs in various languages, Wobbly songs, and German Communist songs from the Spanish civil war. I knew them all and sang with him but we were alone. Then he put that book away and brought out one of Bob Dylan's songs. All of the other parents joined in, and I was completely unfamiliar with them. Then I knew that the "generation gap" of the sixties was not between parents and children but between those who were born a couple of years apart in the 1940s.<br /><br />We knew all of the G&S operettas, too.Peter W Belenkynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-39061098098203985222020-08-04T22:04:25.689-04:002020-08-04T22:04:25.689-04:00A couple of points: (a) In the Guardian John Crace...A couple of points: (a) In the Guardian John Crace has an account of the recent Trump interview that is every bit as delightful as was his weekly accounts of Keir Starmer skewering Boris Johnson at Prime Minister's Questions. (b) Also, on what students haven't heard of: (i) A four years ago I was teaching two composition classes at a major university. Not one out of the 37 students had heard of James Joyce; (ii) A couple of years ago I asked students in several classes, and not one had heard of something called 'Mack the Knife'.--Beat that.jrapkonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-86694404829908101672020-08-04T21:52:22.870-04:002020-08-04T21:52:22.870-04:00@ DDA
Thanks for the link to that Josh White vers...@ DDA<br /><br />Thanks for the link to that Josh White version of Miss Otis, which I've just listened to. It's *very* different from Ella's version, which just goes to show how malleable (in the good sense of the word) songs are...<br />LFCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-38697981840985428542020-08-04T20:53:23.156-04:002020-08-04T20:53:23.156-04:00The Ella rendition of Miss Otis is great. Oddly en...The Ella rendition of Miss Otis is great. Oddly enough, the first version I ever heard was this one: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mlNP06Ygbg" rel="nofollow">Miss Otis</a> , which is very good too. Ella's Harold Arlen Songbook is particularly superb I think. <br />By which I free associate to this: There's a superior Sherlock Holmes "continuation" series by Laurie King one of which (Island of the Mad) is set in Venice at the time that Cole Porter was in residence there and he and his household play a role in the plot; it presents a very sympathetic portrait of his white marriage. DDAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04563878282038308662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-28771887225984271082020-08-04T18:51:31.549-04:002020-08-04T18:51:31.549-04:00Michael,
I'm not a philosopher and I don'...Michael,<br /><br />I'm not a philosopher and I don't know much about analytic philosophy, but in continental philosophy at least Sartre is, I believe, the last philosopher with an explicit system that explains "almost everything", Being and Nothingness, a system like that of Heidegger or Hegel or Spinoza. <br /><br />I myself am not a systems-lover, so I'd say that Foucault, who doesn't have an explicit system, is as interesting as Sartre and for me at least more relevant in 2020.<br /><br />s. wallersteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17448905469871566228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-56432187707588176202020-08-04T18:25:48.603-04:002020-08-04T18:25:48.603-04:00Still remember sitting in a philosophy class on Kr...Still remember sitting in a philosophy class on Kripke in the late 80's---talk about a mid-lecture slumber (previous ingestion of a quaalude notwithstanding). The Professor got round to discussing Warren Goldfarb's review of Kripke's book on Wittgenstein. Rousing it was, galvanizing, inspiriting even. This Goldfarb fellow seemed to nail all of Kripke's mistakes spot on---just after the manner of my own private critique! Sadly, however, the lecture pivoted abruptly into a fulsome defense of Crispen Wright's review of the book. Such are the hazards of a Community College education.....Just to be serious for a moment. Really respect all of Warren Goldfarb's work in defense of gay rights.jeffrey g kessennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-19096351715175908002020-08-04T18:18:02.516-04:002020-08-04T18:18:02.516-04:00In my early 60s, I have a good friend in his early...In my early 60s, I have a good friend in his early 80s. When young, he was a Shakespeare scholar and he remains a Shakespeare idolater. Several years ago, we (my wife and I invited) his wife and him for dinner and to view the delightful (very spare) <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=stratford+canada+festival+mikado&" rel="nofollow">Stratford Festival 1982 production of the Mikado</a>. From his reaction, I think he may have heard of G&S but it had never occurred to him to bother with their oeuvre. I was stunned, thinking they were as much a part of elite culture as Shakespeare & Mozart.* Clearly, G&S is as much an acquired taste as, say, Shakespeare (or Hegel).<br /><br />*This is not to imply that he is pretentious or a snob. He loves the Yankees and baseball and based on evidence from our readings aloud, takes as much pleasure in Shakespeare's bawdier passages as he does in S's high prose.marcel proustnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-18768010433526546902020-08-04T17:41:27.924-04:002020-08-04T17:41:27.924-04:00Ella's rendition of "Miss Otis Regrets,&q...Ella's rendition of "Miss Otis Regrets," accompanied only by a piano (and an unobtrusive one at that), is also just about perfect. LFChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13551197682770555147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-46760740077284745562020-08-04T16:48:13.798-04:002020-08-04T16:48:13.798-04:00@ Warren Goldfarb
So the next class session you c...@ Warren Goldfarb<br /><br />So the next class session you could have brought in the CD "Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook" or "Ella F. Best of the Song Books", thereby increasing your students' cultural literacy (to not coin a phrase) and giving them the pleasure of hearing e.g. "Miss Otis Regrets," "Love for Sale," "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye." Her rendition of the last of these is esp. good. I'm listening to it right now!! (Thought my ancient CD player was broken but apparently there's still some life in it.)<br /><br />P.s. I like Gilbert & Sullivan just fine as well (esp Pinafore), but for students, presumably most of whom (?) were brought up in the U.S., not to have *heard* of Cole Porter is, like, criminal. LFCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-14563733739087719662020-08-04T15:25:43.105-04:002020-08-04T15:25:43.105-04:00"Camus can do, but Sartre is smart-re!" ..."Camus can do, but Sartre is smart-re!" - Me, teaching PHIL 101, quoting a Jay Sherman line from a classic (i.e. mid-'90s or so) episode of The Simpsons.<br /><br />Needless to say...it did not manage to shake anyone from their mid-lecture coma.<br /><br />Speaking of (and speaking of your being unimpressed with contemporary philosophy), I used to be acquainted with a guy, whose background was linguistics rather than philosophy, who just happened to remark one day, "Philosophy hasn't been interesting since Sartre." I wasn't sure how to respond; I'm hardly the best person to speak, since I'm forever in catch-up mode, and most of my studies don't go past the early 20th century.<br /><br />I guess the question is, what might a philosophy student be most notably missing out on, if he or she never/rarely got around to looking past the early- or mid-20th century?Michaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-6484105186185703882020-08-04T14:20:25.529-04:002020-08-04T14:20:25.529-04:00And they can't enjoy the references to G&S...And they can't enjoy the references to G&S in Frasier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbDYi8IIxEkAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-45833158134300704652020-08-04T13:46:07.199-04:002020-08-04T13:46:07.199-04:00But did they know Ratman and Little Hans and Shreb...But did they know Ratman and Little Hans and Shreber?Howiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12474061778220524205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-35155499606217018482020-08-04T12:56:36.313-04:002020-08-04T12:56:36.313-04:00My mother was a huge fan of Gilbert and Sullivan, ...My mother was a huge fan of Gilbert and Sullivan, so I grew listening to all their operettas. I know many of their songs by heart. She was 100% anglophile, so naturally, I learned "For he is an Englishman", which was her favorite. My favorite is<br />"he's got a little list, he's got a little list and there's none of them be missed". That song could be updated for the Trump era by someone more creative than myself.s. wallersteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17448905469871566228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-21878227444420086612020-08-04T12:53:51.008-04:002020-08-04T12:53:51.008-04:00Sigh, I am afraid, Warren, we are past our time. ...Sigh, I am afraid, Warren, we are past our time. But then, I could not tell you a single thing, beyond their names, about Beyonce and Kanye West. Which makes me a total dork.Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-82470425176610398722020-08-04T12:16:34.197-04:002020-08-04T12:16:34.197-04:00I had the same blank reaction from my students whe...I had the same blank reaction from my students when I mentioned Cole Porter. Warren Goldfarbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16147625273565962476noreply@blogger.com