The Redemption: Sunny Days
Today is my bright sunny day
from whence does my sunshine come
Is it from some shiney tiara
from a gambling ladys golden crown
But you are not the casino snowqueen
In Ontarios frozen tundra breeze
Youve always been an angel in the snow
Its your halo that brings my sunshine to me
her wooly hood is her tiara
Her royal gowns a pair of jeans
As she plays all the courtly jesters
Wink and say "god save the queen"
She accepts every offered token
from each jester she has found
And when she hits a jackpot
one lucky jester takes the snow queen home
Now she wasnt always this wild snowqueen
Whose laughter fills the gambling place
No once she was an ice princess
filled with style and filled with grace
Adminred throughout both Niagaras
Boys begged her just to share her kiss
She outshined the falls itself
The lovely maid of the rainbows mist
With childlike anticipation
she gave the winter its special glow
No snowqueen of the tundra gambling
was this lovely angel in the snow
Going to Japan
(I left on a Sunday, when I arrived it was almost Tuesday
--Where oh where did Monday Go?)
Silver Wings crossed over the dateline
High above blue waves and brine
Speeding somewhere with indifference
In this silly game that we call time
I didn't notice missing Monday
I missed not one single minute
Would have been just another day
Another lonely day without you in it
So I flew on to the Asian shores
Where I just bowed and made some funny grins
Cause I didn't understand barely a word
Then I flew back home again
Flying Home
Two Saturdays to home, too many days, and extra one to miss you
Getting Home
Ah! I know why I will miss Mondays from now on!
* * *
Its between me and ATT, If you don't mind
It is cheaper than therapy
its less expensive than pills
when I hear your voice
It damn near cures all my ills
doctors arent socialized in
our good ole US of A
whatever medicine we have to take
ole number one has to pay
The shrink cost two dollars a minute
Each pill three dollars or four
Your voice just costs pennies
But it is worth so very much more
Your voice makes breathing come easy
It brings my cholesterol down
Honey you calm all of my nerves
you make my heart beat strong
Hilary's health plans are contentious
the politicians cant seem to agree
But our national crisis would be solved
If everyone could just talk with Honee
Lucky me....oh deposit another....poem
...William Thompson writes from Las Vegas, Nevada. He teaches at UNLV.
The Issue with No Name
Discourse du Wagner
One thing however is wanting to these gentlemen, without which they cannot be expected to achieve the needful reconstruction of the orchestras, nor to enforce the needful reforms in the institutions connected with them, viz., energy, self-confidence, and personal power. In their case, unfortunately, reputation, talent, culture, even faith, love and hope, are artificial. Each of them was, and is, so busy with his personal affairs, and the difficulty of maintaining his artificial position, that he cannot occupy himself with measures of general import--measures which might bring about a connected and consistent new order of things. As a matter of fact, such an order of things cannot, and does not concern the fraternity at all. They came to occupy the position of those old fashioned German masters, because the power of the latter had deteriorated and because they had shewn themselves incapable to meet the wants of a new style; and it would appear that they, in their turn, regard their position of to-day as merely temporary--filling a gap in a period of transition. In the face of the new ideals of German art, towards which all that is noble in the nation begins to turn, they are evidently at a loss, since these ideals are alien to their nature. In the presence of certain technical difficulties inseparable from modern music they have recourse to singular expedients. Meyerbeer, for instance, was very circumspect; in Paris he engaged a new flutist and paid him out of his own pocket to play a particular bit nicely. Fully aware of the value of finished execution, rich and independent, Meyerbeer might have been of great service to the Berlin orchestra when the King of Prussia appointed him "General Musikdirector." Mendelssohn was called upon to undertake a similar mission about the same time; and, assuredly, Mendelssohn was the possessor of the most extraordinary gifts and attainments. Both men, doubtless, encountered all the difficulties which had hitherto blocked the way towards improvements; but they were called upon to overcome these very difficulties, and their independent position and great attainments rendered them exceptionally competent to do so. Why then did their powers desert them? It would seem as if they had no real power. They left matters to take care of themselves and, now, we are confronted by the "celebrated" Berlin orchestra in which the last trace of the traditions of Spontini's strict discipline have faded away. Thus fared Meyerbeer and Mendelssohn whilst at Berlin: what are we to expect elsewhere from their neat little shadows?
