I have the Pennsylvania Polka, which was “popularized” in Groundhog Day and performed by Frankie Yankovic, still as my wake-up alarm ringtone. Jankovic was, you won’t believe it, born to Slovene immigrant parents! It all comes around…
He was considered the premier artist to play and rarely strayed from Slovenian-style polka. At his peak, Yankovic traveled extensively and performed 325 shows a year. He sold 30 million records during his lifetime and won the first Grammy awarded for a polka album in 1986!
I’m reminded of an interview I saw, where the head of Fender pointed out that the best-selling musical instrument in America was, until the 1960s, not the guitar, but the accordion.
Speaking of, while Americans watch paint dry on public TV to relax (Bob Ross), we here in my neck of the woods have Alpenpanorama. Every morning, two hours of live web-cam footage from the alps accompanied by light instrumental polka music, very relaxing. The alps are the highest and most extensive mountain range that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately 750 miles across eight countries: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Slovenia, and Switzerland. There is nothing better to have playing in the background, white noise indeed! Here is a massive 100 item YouTube playlist with that.
And it gets better! Frankie the polka king enlisted in the armed forces in 1943, and cut numerous records while on leave prior to his departure for Europe. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge where a severe case of frostbite nearly required the amputation of his hands and feet. Fortunately, he was able to beat the gangrene before that became necessary, and was awarded a Purple Heart. The doctors urged him to have his fingers amputated, but he refused, as that would have ended his music career. After getting out of the hospital, he and four other musicians were assigned to special services to entertain the troops, including General George Patton and his Third United States Army.
Isegoria: I think The Dracula Tape is moving up in the queue.
Bruce: “Medicine in the 19th century was in a Hell of a state.” — Dracula in Saberhagen’s The Dracula Tape, where Dracula says Lucy was killed by van Helsing’s bungled blood transfusions.
Isegoria: I felt the same way about Dumas: Reading The Count of Monte Cristo in 11th grade clarified just how derivative most of the entertainment we consume really is — everything has been done better by Dumas, and he did it over a century ago — and it got me wondering why we don’t regularly enjoy the pop classics.
Isegoria: Apparently Saberhagen’s Dracula Series goes on for nine books!
Bruce: The Dracula Tape and The Holmes-Dracula File by Fred Saberhagen are extremely good, and Saberhagen knew the source material very well.
Benjamin I. Espen: Dracula is like the still center around which a whole constellation of pop culture orbits. You can see a lot of things that were clearly derived from it, yet returning to the original is a shocking and even a refreshing experience. None of the derivatives have its power and gravity.
Isegoria: When I read Frankenstein years ago, I immediately realized how little resemblance it bore to the version of the story I’d osmotically absorbed through the culture.
Phileas Frogg: I’ve returned to Dracula many times throughout the years, and I’m always amazed that each time I pick it up I become more and more aware of the genuine horror of the story. My most recent re-read a few months ago elicited the willies on several occasions, a phenomenon that I really only experienced a handful of times while reading. Excellent novel, and far superior to, Frankenstein, despite the fact that they are paired together so often, and the latter seems to be preferred...
Gaikokumaniakku: I got up this morning planning on having a productive and diligent day, but now that I have seen a single mention of skeleton, I suppose I will spend the next sixteen hours watching Alessia Crippa videos. Che ci vuoi fare? Così è la vita.
Gaikokumaniakku: 1961: The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded. 1971: Federal funding becomes normal. 1981: Defense funding becomes foundational. 1991: Dependence survives the Cold War. 2001: No civil rights for “enemy combatants” or “terrorists.” ; 2011: Grant-seeking becomes institutionalized. 2021: Government influence over entire economy is semi-concealed...
Phileas Frogg: The cost of civilization is the vicious, perpetual, and unapologetic enforcement of civilization. The refusal to pay that cost by our leaders is their insistence that we must forego the laws of civilization and be subject to the laws of the jungle once again. While the American experience of this seems to still be at the stage where institutional efforts could, maybe, still reverse our descent, in Europe, and the UK in particular and in light of the Belfast situation, it appears that they...
Bob Sykes: So, this yet another benefit of open borders and free migration. Evidently, this is an unintended (?) consequence of the wholesale, heavily subsidized transport of illegal aliens into the US by the Biden administration. Or did the anti-red meat crowd piggy-back a pet project on the Biden scheme?
Isegoria: Apparently “Descendant“ appears in his The State of the Art collection.
Bill: Eventually, the US Army will get to the logical conclusion of this line of development, namely, the smart suit from “Descendant” , a 1987 short story by Iain Banks. After a bad crash, the protagonist is badly injured; can he walk back to base? The suit stands up and starts walking, gripping me round the calves and waist, taking the bulk of my weight off my throbbing feet. The suit walks faster than I do. It reckons it is only twenty percent stronger than the average human. Something of...
Isegoria: I’m reminded of Feynman’s anecdote, in Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!, about struggling to speak Portuguese: Now I wanted to say, “So, I learned Portuguese,” but I couldn’t think of the word for “so.” I knew how to make BIG words, though, so I finished the sentence like this: “CONSEQUENTEMENTE, aprendi Portugues!” When the two men came back with the baggage, she said, “Oh, he speaks Portuguese! And with such wonderful words: CONSEQUENTEMENTE!”
Phileas Frogg: I had no clue Murakami used this method. Honestly my prose can get a bit purple at times, I should try it out. Now I just have to learn enough to write in another language.
Gaikokumaniakku: It is very hard to give honest and constructive feedback on complicated student projects that might prove a student has skill. If it were easier to give feedback, training desired skills would be much easier. Whether any form of training can really imbue a student with skill is questionable. Skill is like a delicate seedling: the teacher can try to provide the right conditions and after that everyone can HOPE that the student manifests skill by mysterious processes. Of course,...
Gaikokumaniakku: There are top-down and bottom-up approaches. In the hard sciences and engineering, we sometimes try to induce parents to send their bright 14-year-olds for special programs that could be called “baby’s first internship.” These top-down programs may or may not inculcate some detectable level of professionalism. These programs certainly are not common enough, or effective enough. But the scientific community is aware that more high-quality personnel are needed. Some...
Isegoria: I see that Swift’s knowledge engine has an entry in Technovelgy.
I have the Pennsylvania Polka, which was “popularized” in Groundhog Day and performed by Frankie Yankovic, still as my wake-up alarm ringtone. Jankovic was, you won’t believe it, born to Slovene immigrant parents! It all comes around…
He was considered the premier artist to play and rarely strayed from Slovenian-style polka. At his peak, Yankovic traveled extensively and performed 325 shows a year. He sold 30 million records during his lifetime and won the first Grammy awarded for a polka album in 1986!
I’m reminded of an interview I saw, where the head of Fender pointed out that the best-selling musical instrument in America was, until the 1960s, not the guitar, but the accordion.
Speaking of, while Americans watch paint dry on public TV to relax (Bob Ross), we here in my neck of the woods have Alpenpanorama. Every morning, two hours of live web-cam footage from the alps accompanied by light instrumental polka music, very relaxing. The alps are the highest and most extensive mountain range that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately 750 miles across eight countries: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Slovenia, and Switzerland. There is nothing better to have playing in the background, white noise indeed! Here is a massive 100 item YouTube playlist with that.
And it gets better! Frankie the polka king enlisted in the armed forces in 1943, and cut numerous records while on leave prior to his departure for Europe. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge where a severe case of frostbite nearly required the amputation of his hands and feet. Fortunately, he was able to beat the gangrene before that became necessary, and was awarded a Purple Heart. The doctors urged him to have his fingers amputated, but he refused, as that would have ended his music career. After getting out of the hospital, he and four other musicians were assigned to special services to entertain the troops, including General George Patton and his Third United States Army.