What is a concise Latin translation of “Just because someone does bad things doesn’t mean bad things should happen to them”?

Etsi quis mala facit, mala ei ne fiant.

Before you get a tat with it, stay tuned for Alberto Yagos to say Yea or Nay.

What is Jesus Christ’s most embarrassing quote, that everyone avoids?

It’s not canonical, but (especially if you’re a liberal Christian) think about it. Does it not make sense that the Historical Jesus might have said it?

Parable of the assassin – Wikipedia

McKayla? Comment? (Not that I’m necessarily accusing you of being a liberal Christian. 🙂

What do you know about Nikos Skalkottas?

OP, making Michael Masiello PM question to me a public message. Because Sharing and Growing the World’s Knowledge.

Well of course, Nikos Skalkottas – Wikipedia. But let me not look up questions.

Greek composer. Disciple and in fact pupil of Schönberg. Had a measly gig as a second violin in an Athens orchestra, and did not live long. Not widely known in or outside Greece.

I’ve tried, very half-heartedly, to listen to one or two of his large scale orchestral compositions, and I can’t. I don’t grok the language of dodecaphony in big doses, and I don’t find enough rewards to make it worth my time.

(I deeply love Berg’s Violin Concerto, but Berg’s Violin Concerto utterly undermines dodecaphony, by using the most tonal tone row possible. Joachim Pense, I think that’s why you didn’t think much of it: if you wanted tonal music, you know where to find it. It helped that I studied the Violin Concerto in music literature, in high school.)

There are two batches of pieces by Skalkottas that I love.

The 36 Greek Dances, I’m sure, are pieces he hated. They are old school romantic nationalist set pieces. They’re what the mob wanted. But I’m sorry, they are brilliantly, and at times subversively orchestrated.

It helps if you recognise the originals, as I do: he often goes deliberately against the tenor of the original. His Tsamikos, a setting of Ένας αϊτός καθότανε An Eagle Sat, is claustrophobic, not heroic. His final dance is a demonic tarantella; it’s originally a lullaby. His Syrtos is a revelation: what do you get if you combine Greek Middle-Easternish melismata with a Germanic Oompah bass? Klezmer!

For a very long time, the original full-orchestra versions were not widely available: you could only get 5 of the 36 in string arrangements. Not finding the 36 on YouTube; the recording companies have been assiduous.

The second batch are in a tape I got 20 years ago, of piano pieces. Miniatures, dodecaphonic, but witty, expressive, and digestible. Michael said they’re said to be sprightly; yeah, I think that’s a good call. And if I’m saying that, that means they’re really good. I haven’t heard (yet) the 32 Pieces that Michael is practicing. The tape had Suite #3, Suite #4, and the 15 Variations.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=t7T-uYjDljk

https://youtube.com/watch?v=x7wu1ap0bas

https://youtube.com/watch?v=KWJItDCM12Y

They’re that good, Michael. I need some working music today, and haven’t played these for a while. (Tape, after all.) Thank you.

How old aren’t you?

I am not 45.

OK, I *am* 45, but I don’t particularly care to act it. I act either 60, or 20, depending on circumstances. And I suspect it was ever thus.

I mean, do 45 year olds draw this?

Dimitra in the lab by Nick Nicholas on Gallery of Awesomery

Or write this?

Nick Nicholas’ answer to What are your 3 worst mistakes? Would you fix any of them if you could go back in time?

They do, OTOH, write this:

Alas I’m forty by Nick Nicholas on Opɯdʒɯlɯklɑr In Exile

But then again, I was thinking that when I was 20, too.

How many followers would you need to feel you were a prominent Quoran?

I think I may have triggered this question from you, Habib, because it came after I used the phrase in an answer.

I do in fact have a rule of thumb answer. It’s based on Laura Hale’s observation of how many followers and views typically get you Top Writer.

(If only it were that transparent, of course.)

I may misremember, but I think she said it was at least 300, and my own rule of thumb has been 500.

Yes, yes, I have 650.

How are men with goatees perceived, and how do they think they are perceived?

The goatee, of which I am a proud if unkempt bearer, is a GenX thing. I adopted it in 1995, when they were everywhere, and I have stubbornly held on to it since—although by default it is nowadays surrounded by 9 pm stubble.

1995

2009

2016

“Disaffected Gen-X’er” and “goatee” go together in the Googles, though they used to go together more.

Western Vernacular Music: what I do and don’t know

Stuff I want to know more about in boldface

  • Dixieland Jazz
  • Country Blues
    • I got 7 CDs of anthologies, just need to rip them now
  • Grateful Dead, Phish, those kinda guys
    • I don’t think I’ll get it, but humour me
  • James Brown
  • Hendrix
  • Chicago before they turned into mush
  • Pink Floyd, Pink Floyd
    • Love the Wall and Dark Side, need to know what else they did
  • 80s crap
  • 90s crap
  • 90s good stuff
    • Loved Nirvana. What happened next?
  • What happened after I stopped listening to Western Vernacular Music? (It was when I started the PhD, ’95)

Musical Theatre: what I do and don’t know

Stuff I already know:

  • West Side Story. Not quite a musical, is it.
  • My Fair Lady. Perfect musical, and astonishingly faithful to the play.
  • Sweeney Todd. And Assassins. I don’t know other Sondheim pieces, but I’m sure they are excellent as well.
  • Wicked. My wife’s fave, and I did not expect to fall in love with it, but hey, we don’t always disagree! I did fall in love with it. Never got around to buying the German recording, so I’ll need to put *that* in the list too: Willemijn Verkaik is astounding.
  • Chicago. It’s an encyclopaedia of ’20s music, and wickedly biting.
  • South Park Bigger Longer and Uncut. So totally counts as a musical, and one that adheres very closely to the form.
  • Godspell. Meh. Jesus Christ Superstar is better.
  • Jesus Christ Superstar.

Classical Music: what I do and don’t know

As a guide to contributors, this is what I already know in music, and what I’d like to know more of. The latter is in boldface.

Classical Music.

  • Perotin
  • Stuff between Perotin and Ars Subtilior
  • Ars Subtilior
  • Stuff between Ars Subtilior and Corelli
    • Liked Byrd. Freaked out by Vincenzo Galilei. Liked Schutz.
  • Corelli
  • Bach, Bach, Bach
  • Mozart, Mozart
    • Love the Clarinet Quintet, the Requiem, the last symphonies, the Violin Concertos. Liked the operas, need to revisit. Need piano concertos. Needs to be convinced everything else is not fluff
  • Beethoven, Beethoven
    • Love the symphonies. Challenged by the Grosse Fuge. Know very little else.
  • Anything between Beethoven and Wagner
    • Love Berlioz Requiem and Symphonie Fantastique, enough not to call him French. Will gradually make peace with Chopin
  • Wagner
    • Have heard the Ring once, and that was 30 years ago
  • Brahms
    • Love the 4th. That’s all I know.
  • Mahler, Mahler, Mahler
  • Berg, Berg
    • Love the Violin Concerto and Wozzeck. Not sure I’d love anything else
  • Shostakovich, Shostakovich
    • Love the symphonies, the preludes & fugues, the cello concertos, and the 8th string quartet. Am OK with Rayok, but it’s not as subversive as he thought it is. Need to know more.
  • Stravinsky, Stravinsky
    • Know the standard Stravinsky Mark #1 stuff; fascinated by Les Noces. Loved Pulcinella, Symphony of Psalms and Oedipus Rex, need to know more Stravinsky Mark #2 stuff. Doubtful will like Stravinsky Mark #3, but I’m OK with the Requiem Canticles.
  • John Adams
    • I think I’ve tuned out of what he did post-Klinghoffer though.