Lists of Favorites
Jan Dejnožka
updated December 2, 2023
Everything here is a favorite of mine, or was at some point, sometimes many years ago, and I could not think of a better replacement.
Top Ten Favorite Philosophy Works
1. Gottlob Frege, The Foundations of Arithmetic , trans. by J. L. Austin. (original German 1884). This book is too brief and too limited in topic (philosophy of mathematics, and really just philosophy of arithmetic) to be the greatest philosophical work ever written, pace Michael Dummett. But page for page, it might be the best - which is not to say it has the truth. And I can hardly think of a better introduction to philosophy of mathematics, not to mention philosophy of arithmetic. In this regard, it would pair nicely with Bertrand Russell's Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy (1919), which is best read second, both in order of time and of increasing technical advancement, though not of philosophical depth, subtlety, or originality.
2. Panayot Butchvarov, The Concept of Knowledge (1970). This may be the best epistemology since Descartes. Among other things, Butchvarov argues that we have no concept of evidence, though it might be possible to develop one. He was my graduate advisor for six years at the University of Iowa. Here is his university page.
3. Lucian of Samosata, Hermotimus, or The Rival Philosophies (ca. 170 A.D., my guess). This popular essay is better written than most professional philosophy. The question is whether truth is knowable.
4. Aristotle, Metaphysics, trans. by W. D. Ross. For an excellent introduction to Aristotle, see Ross, Aristotle: A Complete Exposition of His Works and Thought.
5. Plato, Parmenides, trans. by Benjamin Jowett.
6. Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, trans. by Norman Kemp Smith. Our sole assignment in Kant I in graduate school was to outline this book. I made an 81 page outline of the first 550 pages or so, which got me an A. That must have been around 1975. I resumed reading the book and finished it around 2010, some 35 years later, though I did not resume the outline. I also liked Kant’s Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics very much.
7. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. This is a “side-by-side” edition prepared by Kevin C. Klement, comparing the original German with the translation by C. K. Ogden, and also with the translation by David Francis Pears and Brian McGuinness.
8. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, trans. text to § 100.
9. Bertrand Russell, “The Philosophy of Logical Atomism.” Reprinted in Logic and Knowledge, ed. by Robert C. Marsh.
10. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Preface to the Phenomenology of the Spirit, trans. and ed. by Walter Kaufmann. For an excellent introduction to Hegel, see J. N. Findlay, Hegel: A Re-examination.
Favorite Music
1. Johann Sebastian Bach, The Art of the Fugue (German: Die Kunst der Fuge; Latin: Ars Fuga). The specific performance I have loved since the 1960s is Art of the Fugue, Part Two: Contrapuncti Twelve through Fifteen by The Fine Arts Quartet and The New York Woodwind Quintet. Concert-Disc Connoisseur Series M-1250. Part One, fugues 1-11. Part Two (playlist), fugues 12-24 (#24 is unfinished), The album also has "Vor deinem Thron (Steh' Ich) (Before thy Throne Stand I)." I bought Part One online may years later. I prefer strings or woodwinds to harpsichord because there is more variety of sound, and because the interplay of voices is easier to follow. (Bach does not specify the instrumentation.) The music is not technically very difficult. I played some of it in high school in the 1960s with some high school orchestra friends, and we were average players at best. Difficult technique is not what the music is about, but spiritual depth. The fugue or flight of the music, meaning the dialogue among its voices, reminds me of philosophical dialectic. I think of it as the musical equivalent of Plato's Parmenides, sometimes called the greatest masterpiece of ancient dialectic.
Favorite Music Performances
1. Bach's Chaconne from Partita No. 2 for violin solo, transcribed for piano by Ferruccio Busoni. Commonly credited as Bach-Busoni. Ferruccio Busoni, piano. Piano roll recording first released November 1925. By a piano roll recording, I mean a paper roll that was (1) cut on a special piano with mercury vials in or under the keys and pedals, electrically sensitive to the slightest motion, while Busoni was playing the piano, then (2) played by a Welte Vorsetzer, a machine designed by the engineer Welte that sits (setz) before (vor) a regular piano and presses the piano's keys and pedals. I imagine a player piano could also be used, probably with inferior results. On Nimbus NI 8810 compact disk.
2. Frédéric François Chopin, Prelude, Op. 28 No. 15, The Raindrop, Ferruccio Busoni, piano, 1906 piano roll recording on Legendary Masters of the Piano, The Classics Record Library, SWV 6633 (stereo record); and piano roll recording first released by September 1923, Nimbus NI 8810 compact disk. Busoni also plays "The Raindrop" on Fone 9013 compact disk, but the Fone sounds inferior to the Nimbus. “The Raindrop” was not Chopin’s own title, but how the piece came to be called, since it is easy to imagine it as representing a few drops of rain gradually increasing to a thunderstorm, which eventually passes and leaves the listener with a few drops of rain again, which eventually stop.
3. Johannes Brahms, Piano Quintet, with all four movements in sequence. The Budapest String Quartet with Clifford Curzon, piano. With poorer sound quality but showing the original album cover, here is the first movement alone: Piano Quintet, movement 1. Odyssey monaural 32 16 0173. Odyssey monaural 32 16 0173. My favorite album for about eight years, ca. 1970-78, and I think still my favorite. Brahms wrote it before he was thirty. It is unbelievable to me that this is still not available on CD. This is one of the two or three albums I have loved the most.
4. Claudio Monteverdi, Vespro della Beata Vergine (Vespers of the Blessed Virgin). Philip Ledger conducts the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge. EMI Classics 723 5 68631 2 5. Truly heavenly music! I once checked out six LP albums and listened to six different performances of Vespro. It’s hard to go wrong performing music like this, and in fact all the performances were good; but I found that Ledger’s was the best. Just so you can see a live performance of Vespro, here are three live versions, all good, all a bit different, but all a bit too slow for me. But often we can bring out the beauty better when it’s slower.
5. Julian Bream plays Hans Neusi(e)dler (1508-1563), "Old Airs and Dances," on the lute in 1968.
Favorite Pianists
1. Ferruccio Busoni. Busoni might be best known as a composer, notably of his Faust opera. But he is the greatest pianist I have heard. Nyiregyházi called him "the best." The Legendary Masters three-record album has only two short Busoni performances and has been available only through the Book of the Month Club. The Nimbus NI 8810 compact disk is the single best production, and includes the Bach-Busoni Chaconne and works by Liszt, and Chopin (piano roll cut using a Welte Vorsetzer). Here again is the clip of Busoni playing Chopin, “The Raindrop” (piano roll cut), which is my favorite performance of his. The Fone 9013 compact disk has all 24 Chopin Preludes, but is audibly inferior in quality to the Nimbus, which has the same works as the Fone except for substituting an extra Liszt work for some of the Chopin Preludes. Both evidently use the same piano roll cuts. Here Busoni plays the 24 Chopin Preludes, so it may be the inferior Fone, and in any case is not the Nimbus, which does not have all 24 preludes. Here Busoni plays Bach, Bach-Busoni, Beethoven-Busoni, Chopin, and Liszt in Ferruccio Busoni: His Complete Disc Recordings, February 27, 1922, recorded in the London studios of British Columbia Records (International Piano Archives IPA 104), as I heard it on vinyl LP for many years. The IPA vinyl LP has typically poor 1920s sound quality. On side 2, Busoni’s students play some of Busoni’s compositions and transcriptions.
Edward Weiss, a student of Busoni’s, says on the album cover of Ferruccio Busoni: His Complete Disc Recordings, International Piano Archives IPA 104, “It is hard today for many to imagine what Busoni’s playing was like. I can try to describe it for you, but I could never re-create it. First, he did not know what technical difficulties meant. He rarely made any mistakes - or had any flaws at all. His playing had a sweep and grandeur that would leave you breathless, especially in larger works. He used a different style for each composer he played - he would approach the music of Liszt and Chopin completely differently - and he taught us to do the same. Although he seemed very quiet and reserved at all times, after a recital I once felt his heart and it was pounding so violently that I thought it was going to burst on the spot. He gave everything when he played.”
David Dubal says in the program notes to Ferrucio Busoni: Liszt, Bach-Busoni, and Chopin, Nimbus NI 8810 CD, “Artur Rubenstein... called him ‘The awe-inspiring master!... with his handsome, pale, Christ-like face, and his diabolical technical prowess.. a shining example to all musicians for the noble way in which he pursued his career so uncompromisingly, for the high standards he set for his own compositions and for his general culture’.... Busoni was one of the last great incarnations of Romanticism and his playing projected the feeling that music had no boundaries or limits of expression. As a pianist, Gunnar Johansen recalled, ‘he outshone all others. In Germany, we didn’t speak of Mr. Busoni, we spoke of Der Busoni, as if he were a monument. His presence on stage was immense’. Arthur Loesser who first heard him in Berlin in 1911 performing six monumental all-Liszt recitals called him ‘unforgettable, shocking even... one could never forget his playing’. The element of shock, mystery and awe is documented in most descriptions of his playing. His great pupil Egon Petri thought that in a Busoni performance, ‘The music became dematerialised; he brought it into another sphere. It had a mystical quality’. Richard Chappell wrote of a 1919 London recital that ‘[Busoni is] far and away the greatest musical executant now with us; a commanding figure - more, a well-nigh awful one, a maker of music that is tremendous and statuesque; a steely terrible power that regularly cows you as you listen, leaving you almost too humbled to admire’. Percy Grainger thought [Busoni made] the music sound... grander than itself, more superhuman - I cannot recall ever hearing or seeing Busoni play a wrong note. He did not seem to “feel” his way about the keyboard by touching adjacent notes - he smacked the keys right in the middle.... I admired him without reservation of any kind and revelled in everything he did pianistically’. Busoni’s conceptions seemed to possess a revelatory expressive power and a gigantic sweep. Nadia Boulanger considered him ‘a genius. To say he played the piano in an extraordinary way is to state the blindingly obvious.... He played with air of composing as he played. Busoni’s articulation was perfect, and came not only from the astonishing evenness of his technique, but above all from his prodigious sense of rhythm’.... In his reverence for the piano, he is the true spiritual son of Liszt.”
2. Ervin Nyiregyházi, especially performing Liszt’s March of the Three Kings and Miserere after Palestrina on Nyiregyházi plays Liszt, Columbia M2 34598. The March is Nyiregyházi’s own piano transcription of Liszt's original orchestral composition, March of the Three Magi. It’s part 1, movement 5 in Liszt’s Christmas Oratorio. (The word “miserere” does not mean “I’m in misery,” but “have mercy.”) Another album is Nyiregyházi plays Tchaikovsky / Grieg / Bortkiewicz / Blanchet, Columbia MT 35125, which is currently available only on vinyl LP, though you might also find it on tape cassette in the aftermarket. I used to have the tape. I wish the album were on CD. Here he plays one of the two Tchaikovsky pieces. Here he plays the three pieces by Bortkiewicz, collectively called “Travel Pictures”: : 1. Tempo di Mazurka (Poland). 2. Song of the Gondolier (Venice). 3. Serenade (Spain). Here he plays Grieg. Here he plays Blanchet. Here is the same piece live.There is also the album Nyiregyházi Plays Liszt, International Piano Archives IPA 111, showing how he used to play. His main concert career ended in 1925, but here he is live in Takasaki, Japan on May 31, 1980, and again for a second live performance in Takasaki on June 1, 1980, now no longer pyrotechnical due to age, and in fact a little stiff and slow, but still full of depth and greatness. You can see people helping him to walk. It is wonderful to see a woman from the small audience give him flowers, but almost pitiable that he is walking off and she has to chase after him to give them to him.
In a 1935 letter to the conductor Otto Klemperer, Arnold Schoenberg, the composer who invented 12 tone music, wrote that Nyiregyházi was “a pianist who appears to be something really quite extraordinary. I had to overcome great resistance in order to go at all, for the description I'd heard from Dr. Hoffmann and from Maurice Zam had made me very skeptical. But I must say that I have never heard such a pianist before...First, he does not play at all in the style you and I strive for. And just as I did not judge him on that basis, I imagine that when you hear him, you too will be compelled to ignore all matters of principle, and probably will end up doing just as I did. For your principles would not be the proper standard to apply. What he plays is expression in the older sense of the word, nothing else; but such power of expression I have never heard before. You will disagree with his tempi as much as I did. You will also note that he often seems to give primacy to sharp contrasts at the expense of form, the latter appearing to get lost. I say appearing to; for then, in its own way, his music surprisingly regains its form, makes sense, establishes its own boundaries. The sound he brings out of the piano is unheard of, or at least I have never heard anything like it. He himself seems not to know how he produces these novel and quite incredible sounds – although he appears to be a man of intelligence and not just some flaccid dreamer. And such fullness of tone, achieved without ever becoming rough, I have never before encountered. For me, and probably for you too, it's really too much fullness, but as a whole it displays incredible novelty and persuasiveness. And above all he's only [sc. 33 years] old, so he's still got several stages of development before him, from which one may expect great things, given his point of departure... it is amazing what he plays and how he plays it. One never senses that it is difficult, that it is technique – no, it is simply a power of the will, capable of soaring over all imaginable difficulties in the realization of an idea. – You see, I'm waxing almost poetic .” - Wikipedia, “Ervin Nyiregiházi.”
3. Teresa Carreňo. I fell in love with her playing on the 1970s Book of the Month Club three record album, Legendary Masters of the Piano. From that album, a magical Liszt, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6, and Chopin’s quieter but no less beautiful Nocturne No. 12. Both are Welte-Mignon piano roll recordings, the first from 1905. By comparison, Martha Argerich plays Hung Rhap 6 in 1966 here. Excellent, but not quite as magical. In fact, a bit pedantic and by the book. But at least you can see a live performance. Carreňo is legendary, all right! When she was only ten, she played before President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. Here’s a children’s story book about that.
Favorite Violinists
I give them their own page here. My favorite instrument for playing is the violin. My least favorite instrument for playing is the guitar. There are too many strings, and they are all tuned wrong. They are not even all tuned to the same interval! The fingerboard is flat, so you can’t really use a bow. And there are all these frets that keep getting in the way. They must be for people who don’t know how to place their fingers to produce a pitch. But I love it when other people play the guitar. I guess they have it figured out. And Paganini took a four year sabbatical playing the guitar, so what can I say? Outvoted by the violinist in chief.... Ukelele, anyone?
Favorite Singers
1. Karlinda Dejnožka Caldicott. I love these recordings of my sister from her sound cassette, Happy Birthday, Jan. Harp and vocals by Karlinda Dejnožka (Caldicott is her married name). It was recorded at home by our father, Ladislav Dejnožka, on my 30th birthday, December 20, 1981. She was 21 and in the middle of her senior year. She was conservatory trained in voice for two years and on harp for four years at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Her harp teacher was Alice Chalifoux, principal harpist of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra and principal exponent of the Carlos Salzedo school of harp training. It was the best birthday gift I have ever received. Her senior recital on harp was on May 7, 1982, almost five months later. She played harp and sang professionally for a few years after graduating, but has devoted herself to harp for the last thirty years or so of her performance career.
I confess I’m partisan, since I’m her brother; but I love her voice more than any I have ever heard. It’s a beautiful and very sweet soprano.
Karlinda Dejnožka sings: 1. I Gave My Love A Cherry. 2. O Come, Little Children. 3. Tumbalalaika. 4. I Wonder As I Wander. They should show up in your download tray, and you can open them from there. All are from Happy Birthday, Jan. Recorded by Ladislav Dejnožka in Niskayuna NY on December 20, 1981. Digitized by Jan Dejnožka on December 28, 2012. Appearing with the kind permission of Karlinda Dejnožka Caldicott. Again, these were student performances recorded at home. They were never intended for the public, or really, for anyone but me. Here you can see videos of her playing harp with Jan Vinci on flute in 2017 on Youtube, and with the Antioch Chamber Ensemble in 2009, also on Youtube.
2. Hans Hotter. I love his Seraphim 60025 album of Schubert, Schumann, and Strauss songs, above all, the Schubert. Gerald Moore, piano. I believe this performance of Schubert's An die Musik is from that album, and also this performance of Schubert's Im Abendrot. Here is a live performance of Schumann's Die Beiden Grenadiere. That song is on the album too, but in a studio performance. It’s not my favorite composition, but I include it so you can see him singing. Hotter is the most mature, intelligent, and sensitive singer I have ever heard. And now, some special treats. Here Hotter, accompanied by Michael Rauscheisen, sings Schubert’s entire Winterreise (Winter Journey) song cycle in 1942 at the height of World War 2, when Hitler’s own Winterreise into Russia was starting to go (thankfully) wrong. It certainly was a Winter Journey for the Nazis, especially at the Battle of Stalingrad, and for Napoleon before Hitler. And here is Hotter’s best, or at least my favorite, Winterreise in 1954 with Gerald Moore accompanying him. Finally, I don’t care much for opera in general, or for Wagner in particular, and I even wrote a humorous spoof of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, which I called Das Nibbleungenlied; but to be fair, Wagner did write great music, and it is worth seeing at least a little of how Hotter sings Wagnerian opera.
3. Fritz Wünderlich. Again, I normally don't like opera or operatic voices, but I love his Seraphim 60043 album of selections from various operas, including Mozart's The Magic Flute. Here is a live performance of Tamino’s aria in The Magic Flute). Here is a 1965 recital performance of the same aria with piano. His singing is so pure. In fact, I love his doing everything I usually hate about opera because his belief in it and love for it shine through. Here he sings Schubert's An Die Musik in studio, and also live. You can hear him talking in English at the start. Here he sings Nessun Dorma in German. By comparison, here is a less pure but more emotional Luciano Pavarotti singing Nessun Dorma.
4. Kathleen Battle. I loved her in a televised Carl Orff, Carmina Burana. Seiji Ozawa conducted the fine performance. The other main singers were fine, too. The entire performance is here, but without the English subtitles of the original showing.
I recommend these particular performances even for people who don't like voices, because I often don't like classical vocal music either.
Favorite Czech Folk Songs
Sirotek Valčík (Orphan Waltz). I sing this one myself. It’s a childhood favorite. I’m singing on July 2, 2008 in a restaurant in Providence RI for our cousins visiting from Slovakia. They understood it easily because Czech and Slovak are almost the same language. Julie and Marina were there, and Julie camcorded the song. Then Marina sang a song. Then our cousins sang a Slovak song for us. Then Marina sang another song.
Song from Moravian Wallachia. This is a Moravian love song. It’s over 200 years old, judging from the quaint dialect per a Prague friend. The photos are merely meant to show the cultural background. They have no specific relation to the song, But if you are curious about the mountaineer with the mountain axe in one of the photos, here is the story. Klemens Bachleda was a Polish orphan and living on his own at age 12. He eventually became a mountain guide and mountain rescuer in the Tatra Mountains, the highest range in the Carpathian Mountains. He was said to have great courage, great kindness, vast experience, and a phenomenal ability to orient himself in the mountains. He died at the age of 59 in a heroic rescue attempt on the northern wall of Little Jaworowy Summit in 1910. A mountaineer had notified Bachleda’s rescue ambulance that his fellow climber had been badly injured. The rescue group started up the northern wall, but soon turned back due to the storm and lightning striking the wall. Only Bachleda kept going. He would not stop. He was swept off the wall by a rock avalanche. The climber they were trying to rescue was dead when a rescuer reached him two days later. Bachleda’s body was found a week later in the gully below.
Když jsem koval koníčky. Rozmarýnek.
Dobrú noc, má milá. Lullaby. Nora Naščaková.
Dobrú noc, má milá. Piarissimo. Slovak school choir.
1, Dobrú noc, má milá. 2. A Pair of Black Horses. 3. I Saw My Country Die. Jarmila Novotná, voice. Jan Masaryk, piano. Songs (1) and (3) have been favorites of mine for about fifty years. Novotná sings them with deep emotion and great lyrical beauty. Song (2) is just a cheerful little ditty sandwiched in as dramatic relief.
1. Ej, padá, padá rosenka. 2. Za tú horú. Jožka Černý. Note the cymbalom, which is much like a zither or a hammered dulcimer.
Christmas with Jožka Černý (2001). 43 minute concert.
Beautiful Songs of Moravia. The green of the meadows is almost exactly the same as in the paintings from memory by my Moravian Czech grandmother Anastazie, and the elaborate floral embroidery on the blouses in the black and white photo is almost exactly the same as the embroidery she sewed on blouses when I was young, except that hers was in bright color.
Favorite Ukrainian Singers
My favorite Ukrainian singer is Ivan Kozlovsky. I’ve loved his singing since high school. Here he sings three Christmas songs in duet. Recorded with background chorus in 1947.
My favorite singing group, Ukrainian or otherwise, is Bozhychi (Божичі).
Bozhychi:
QUICK LOOK - 5 songs
1. “Think, people, all the time about death”
LONGER LOOK - many songs, much reading
I’ve been a nonbeliever for over half a century. But in March or April of 2021, I fell in love with Bozhychi, a religious folksinging group based in Kyiv (Kiev), Ukraine. They mostly sing folksongs called “psalms” (singular “psalma,” plural “psalmy”). These are not psalms from the bible, but just what Ukrainians call their religious folksongs. Psalms usually have several stanzas, and can last up to about six minutes. Some of the Bozhychi have folklorist degrees and make field trips looking for psalms. They sometimes use small boats on Ukraine’s rivers to get to remote villages. Then they video the music and transcribe it in a way the group can sing. They sing in churches, on TV, and at folk festivals. They also play instruments for folk dances and at weddings, and they dance and teach folk dancing.
The psalms sound like the great eastern Orthodox choral tradition, and that’s not wrong. But where did that tradition come from? Probably from psalms like these. None of the psalms were composed by church musicians. All of them came from villages, and became church hymns later, if at all.
Bozhychi was co-founded in 1999 by Ilya Fetisov (folklorist, accordionist, dance instructor) and Susanna Karpenko (violin, tambourine-drum, often lead singer). They met doing a Christmas performance, and still lead the group today.
The name “Bozhychi” (or Bozhichi) comes from “Bog” or “Boh,” the usual Slavic word for God. The “o” is pronounced as in “hope” or “hold.” “Bozhychi” means God-people, God’s People, or God Ensemble. “Bog” is a word you can look for in their singing, so you can say hey, I know that word! In Ukrainian, Bog or Boh is nominative case (God). Boga or Boha is both genitive case (of God) and accusative case. Bogu or Bohu is dative case (to God). Bozhe is vocative case, meaning you are talking to God. Other Slavic languages are similar. In some psalms, the word occurs rather often!
You may wish to skip about, and to skip past any talking. Ilya often likes to introduce the songs at length. Also, you’ll hear some songs several times. I myself like the various performances, and hope you will too. All information is to my best knowledge, or should I say to the best knowledge of Google Translator.
PART 1. Four psalms
These four psalms were recorded in the church of Vilshansky convent. They are Quick Look (1)-(4).
1. “Think, people, all the time about death.” Folk psalm from the village of Boguslav (hey, I know that word! - “Bogu slav” means “to God glory”), Pavlograd district, Dnipropetrovsk region.
2. “We sit at the tables.” The notes say it’s a funeral wake folk psalm, performed at the funeral dinner on the 40th day and the anniversary of death. From the village of Mezhyrich, Pavlograd district, Dnipropetrovsk region.
3. “The Cherubim Psalm.” Folk psalm from the village of Boguslav (!), Pavlograd district, Dnipropetrovsk region. Bozhychi’s co-founders, Ilya and Susanna, are on the far left.
4. “The Sorrowful Mother.” Folk psalm from the village of Kotelva, Poltava region.
PART 2. More on “The Sorrowful Mother”
This is a Good Friday or more generally Lenten psalm about the death of Jesus. It became a popular hymn in both the Ukrainian Orthodox and Catholic churches, and is also sung outside Ukraine.
1. In Slovakia. Sung (from left to right) by the popular singer Stefan Stec (pronounced Shtefan Shtets) and friends Maria Mamrillova and Dominik Korytko. (This particular recording was made in Luhansk region, Ukraine.)
2. Studio recording with English subtitles. The lyrics are also under the “show more” tab. The notes say, “A well known Ukrainian hymn in both Catholic and Orthodox Churches in Ukraine and abroad. This version is sung by the Vydubychi Church Chorus, and is from their album ‘Sing Praises To Our God, Sing Praises!’”
3. A reconstruction of the original folksong. Sung by Iryna Baramba, Daryna Saliy, and Vasylyna Tkachuk of the Center of Folklore and Ethnography IF KNU.
4. Bozhychi again. Here the group appears to be performing under another name. The notes say, “Psalm ‘Suffering Mother’ performed by the folk ensemble ‘Christmas’. Solo concert of the ensemble at the National Philharmonic of Ukraine, Holy Monday 2014.”
PART 3. Psalms from Bozhychi’s 2014 CD
The CD is called “Think, man” / “Think, people.” The group was apparently calling itself “Christmas” that year.
1. “People are sitting at tables.” Apparently a funeral wake psalm quite different from the one we heard before. “People are sitting at tables, Mother of God among us. / People are sitting at dinner, And the Savior stands with bread. / People pray to God - The soul stands at the table. / People prayed to God - The soul goes on the road. / As the soul goes out of the house, And opposite the Mother of God. / Where did you go, darling, What in the world have you earned?” The full lyrics are in Ukrainian under “show more.”
2. “The Lord descended from heaven.” This is a Resurrection psalm. The first lyrics are, “The Lord came down from heaven, From heaven to earth. / From heaven to earth, And he began to reign. / Angels from heaven[,] They blew the trumpets. / They got up from the graves[,] All dead souls. / All dead souls The Lord will judge. / What are righteous souls - Stand to the right. / And sinful souls - Stand to the left.”
3. “Red Viburnum.” The first lyrics are, “Oh, my dear God, from heaven Hear my prayer. Take my soul to heaven, And the body in the damp earth. / Pour a high tomb on me - It will be overgrown with grass. You plant a red viburnum on it - It will bloom in the spring.”
PART 4. Bozhychi more in person
1. Two Christmas carols. I can identify the second carol as “Baby firstborn.” Their performance was at the two hour point of a standup service that went on almost two and a half hours, and everyone looks tired. Over 27 groups sang. The notes say, “Performance of the ensemble ‘Bozhichi’ at the Christmas carol festival in the Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Lavra on January 12, 2018. Introductory speech of the Governor of the Lavra Metropolitan Arseniy of Svyatogorsk and caroling in the Holy Dormition Cathedral.” Here is the full 2018 Christmas song festival. It has better quality visual and sound because it’s the original video. I like the last half hour. Don’t miss the rousing finale when the whole church sings, led by the Men in Black! (Is that Liam Neeson in there?)
2. Later that day, Bozhychi performed again. First they play some instrumental dance tunes without dancers (compare Mendelssohn’s songs without words). Ilya’s accordion is called a “vienka,” literally “dear little Vienna,” meaning made in Vienna style, though it was probably made in Ukraine. Then they sing three songs, starting about twelve and a half minutes in. The second song, the serious “The nightingale does not sing,” is flanked by two humorous songs. Many singers from the other groups are in the small audience.
3. On Ukrainian public TV. This is “The nightingale does not sing” again. The notes say, “Folk romance in the words of the 19th century poet, Victor Killed.” Co-founders Ilya and Susanna are on the far left.
4. Outdoors at the Baltic Festival, in Riga, Latvia, on July 16, 2015. Two songs, starting about 50 seconds in. The notes say, “The premiere of the historical song ‘And for two hundred years as a Cossack in captivity’ [that’s a long time to be in captivity!] from the village of Ivano-Mykhailivka, Novomoskovsk district, Dnipropetrovsk region, as well as the merry-sad song ‘Oh, the gray goose’ from the village of Osokorky, Kyiv.”
5. Outdoors in the woods. The notes say, “’Oh, something is turning black over the water’ (lyrics by T. Shevchenko).” Further notes say, “A song based on the words of Taras Shevchenko (excerpt from the poem ‘Causal’; folk version) from the village of Vodiane, Kamyansko-Dniprovskyi district, Zaporizhia region.... September 12, 2020.” Shevchenko is considered the father of modern Ukrainian poetry. He spent four years in a prison camp for advocating Ukrainian freedom from the Tsarist Russian Empire. See Wikipedia on Taras Shevcheno.
6. Eine Kleine Tanzmusik (a little dance music).
7. Eine Kleine Nachttanzmusik (a little night dance music).
8. On TV again. The notes say, “Christmas carol ‘Baby-firstborn’ from the village of Pekariv, Sosnytsia district, Chernihiv region.”
9. In concert. The notes say, “Folk song ‘I am a small bird’ from the village of Pusta Hreblya, Korop district, Chernihiv region. Performed by the folk ensemble ‘Bozhichi’. Solo concert at the National Philharmonic of Ukraine on January 12, 2013.”
PART 5. Full concerts
Lots of talking to skip over!
1. Quietly and unassumingly beautiful. I like this video the best. The notes say, “Songs of Lent.... Psalm concert of the ensemble ‘Bozhichi’ on the Feast of the Annunciation, April 7, 2019.” The ten psalms are: (#1) “Paradise children,” (#2) “Chiloviche divine,” (#3) “The Lord descended from heaven,” (#4) “About the prodigal son,” (#5) “Lazurya,” (#6) “The Suffering Mother,” (#7) “Lyrical psalm (Oh you Peter, oh you Paul,” (#8) “We are sitting at tables,” (#9) “Orphan (Sad hour of the world has come),” and (#10) “Think, people.” The final song, (#11) “Mnohaya Lita,” literally meaning “many summers,” means “we wish you many years of life.” It’s not a psalm, but a short traditional song for farewells, birthdays, and other occasions of well wishing. Here they sing Mnohaya Lita at the end of another concert. See Wikipedia on Mnohaya Lita.
2. My second favorite full concert. The notes say, “Christmas concert of the folk ensemble ‘Bozhichi’ at the Ivan Gonchar Museum on January 20, 2019.” This concert, too, ends with “Mnohaya Lita,” right after the Eine Kleine Tanzmusik song.
PART 6. Dancing!
1. But isn’t this just another dance without dancers? Wait, I see one small dancer about three minutes in!
2. A few dancers come into view now and then.
3. And now a steady stream in the back.
4. Oh, there are all the dancers! Say, this must be the Dance School of the Ensemble Bozhychi on July 17, 2019! There’s even a caller. The dances and their start times in the video are: Krakow (00:00), Potatoes (01:27), Box (07:22), Shakhtar (11:58), Karapet (16:15), Polka (21:47), Flower (25:28), Suffering (29:59), Mistress (35:01), Karelian Polka (38:25), Chumak (42:15), Padespan (46:40), Grechaniki (50:26), Polka “Rizuha” (55:03), Pancakes (59:37), and Waltz (01:03:33).
5. Ilya’s School of Traditional Ukrainian Folk Dance, part 1. It’s almost 71 minutes with a lot of talking, so you may want to just skip around. The “show more” tab lists 30 dance step units. New Ukrainian dance steps are invented all the time.
6. Ilya’s School of traditional Ukrainian folk dance, part 2. It’s almost 74 minutes. The “show more” tab lists 43 dance step units.
7. Ilya explains how to play the vienka. He’s speaking in Ukrainian, but you can more or less get the idea. Again, “vienka” means dear little Vienna-style accordion. Diatonic scales were mainly popular in ancient Greece, the Middle Ages, and eastern Europe. The Greek influence on eastern Europe mainly came from the Byzantine Empire through the great Christian missionaries, Cyril (Kyril) and Methodius, to the pagan Slavs. But there was also much cultural interaction well before that. Also, eastern Europe didn’t leave the Middle Ages until modern times. There was no Renaissance to speak of, but instead a regression back to medievalism. And the further east you went, the more medieval things were. The Tsar finally abolished serfdom on the great feudal estates of Russia in 1861.
PART 7. Three final songs
1. “Lazurya.” (Latin: “Lazarius.” English: “Lazarus.”) This psalm is not about the Lazarus Jesus raised from the dead, but the poor beggar Lazarus whom the rich man would not help. Lazarus went to the bosom of Abraham in heaven when he died, while the rich man went to the fiery place, and begged for water from Lazarus in heaven. Bozhychi’s performance is illustrated by photos of a performance of a stage play of the story. In the photos, the parts of Lazarus and Abraham appear to be played by women. The notes say, “Psalm ‘Lazurya’ from the village of Vodiane, Kamyansko-Dniprovskyi district, Zaporizhia region performed by the ensemble ‘Bozhichi’. Record from the concert ‘Songs of Lent. Alone with yourself’ March 18, 2019. Photographs by Juozas Valius[h]aitis from Andriy Prykhodko’s play ‘AZ’ (NaUKMA Apiary Theater Center) with the participation of the folk ensemble ‘Bozhychi’ (2009) were used.” I read somewhere that Prykhodko’s play was inspired by an anonymous Russian stage play from around 1710, and that stage plays of the story were popular in eastern Europe going back to medieval times. But 1710 was medieval times in most of Russia! Anyway, in the play “AZ,” you can feel the trouble and loneliness of Lazarus in this life, and his surprise when he finds himself in heaven with Abraham and the angels, and the peacefulness and goodness of heaven. You can also feel the rich man’s pleasure in lording it over Lazarus in this life, and the trouble and fiery heat of his afterlife. The photos end with a visual depiction of the “bear your cross to the end” moral message of the story.
2. “Mnohaya Lita” (again). An unusually cheerful and casual version. The transliteration of the Ukrainian shows that the “g” in the English “Mnogaya” is an erratum. You can even hear them singing “Mnohaya.” The notes say, “Final [song] ‘Many Summers’ [of the] solo concert of the folk ensemble ‘Bozhichi’ at the National Philharmonic of Ukraine, January 12, 2013. ‘Many Summers’ was recorded in the village of Boguslav [To God glory, not Bogus lav!], Pavlograd district, Dnipropetrovsk region.”
3. William Byrd. “Ave verum corpus.” (English: “Hail true body.”) A famous motet by the English composer. Motets are polyphonic and noted for their subtlety and variety. The main differences between motets and madrigals are that motets were sacred, in Latin, and more formal, while madrigals were secular, in a vernacular language, and more freewheeling. But Monteverdi used madrigals in his sacred music, famously in his Vespers of the Blessed Virgin (Vespro della Beata Vergine) (1610). And some madrigals were sung both ways, but with very different texts and expression. Thus while motets and madrigals are different, there is no hard and fast line between them. The notes under “show more” are interesting. Here is the “Ave verum” text in both Latin and English. BTW, when they keep singing “Miserere, miserere,” they’re not singing “Misery, misery,” but “Have mercy, have mercy.”
PART 8. About Bozhychi
Two links may say they are not secure.
1. Overview.
2. A 2009 article on Bozhychi. Mentions the vienka, among other things. The Ukrainian Weekly, Sunday, April 12, 2009, vol. 77, no. 15, page 10, continued on page 19. This page might be under attack by the Russian invasion.
3. A 2007 article on Bozhychi. Scroll down past the red block of machine language. Mentions the vienka and the “tambourine-like drum.” This page might be under attack by the Russian invasion.
4. Names and photos of the current singers. Scroll down.
5. Documentary about Bozhychi. 22:59.
6. Bozhychi’s Youtube channel. With more videos.
Favorite Korean Music Group, Singer, Song, and Full Concert
The group is Baraji, its principal singer is Kim Yul-Hee, and my favorite song by them is Chugwon. But Baraji does far more than that, as you can see in the full concert at the end.
바라지축원Baraji Chugwon / The Baraji’s Wishes for You All. Arirang Odyssey, Episode 8. Go in 15m, 56s - with small English subtitles. Principal singer: Kim Yul-Hee. Ensemble: Baraji. (“Baraji” means care for, compassion.) S(h)inawi (shaman) music is the main (though not the only) origin of p’ansori (outdoor, literally “open space” singing) storytelling music. In fact, the singing style of sinawi and p’ansori is basically identical. In sinawi, the shaman priest or in this case priestess (mudang) intercedes between humanity and (usually ancestral or nature) spirits, or in this case, the gods. The Baraji ensemble focuses on “trying to help the weary and discouraged.” I think that both sinawi and p’ansori are a thousand times better and more beautiful than K-pop. They are also far harder to sing. They are almost operatic, requiring a strong vibrato and great vocal control.
바라지 THE BARAJI 바라지축원 Baraji Chugwon, The Baraji’s Wishes for You All.
Here is my favorite full concert by Baraji, with a fourth Chugwon: [국악무대] 바라지 음반발매 공연 '비손'.
Favorite Indian Music and Performer
I love Indian music so much! My favorite album is India’s Master Musician, Ravi Shankar (RA-vee SHON-kar per an Indian friend), sitar, with Chatur Lal, tabla, and N. C. Mullick, tamboura. World Pacific EALP 1283. The selections are in my own order. First, the second (and my favorite) vinyl side: 1. Kafi-Holi (Spring Festival of Colors). 2. Dhun (Folk Airs). 3. Mishra Piloo (Mixed Piloo / Piloo Medley) performance. Then second, the first side, the longer, slower, and more contemplative pieces: 4. Raga Puriya Dhanashri. 5, Raga Churu Keshri performance at I think the album would have been better with the two sides switched around like this. I had about ten of Shankar’s albums, and I think this one is by far the best. It is his first, and is the showcase album which establishes his mastery of his instrument. In that respect it is much like Leo Kottke's 6 and 12 String Guitar performance excerpted here; see the playlist to the right for more. The album was originally released on vinyl in 1959. It was remastered in digital by Squires Productions, then released as a digital CD by Angel Records forty years later in 1999. I have loved the album since the early 1970s. I also enjoyed hearing Shankar play live outdoors in Syracuse NY in the early '70s. Music was already a Shankar family tradition when Ravi started, and his daughter Anoushka is carrying it on.
Shankar in live performance at the 1967 Monterey Festival. Shankar’s full performance at Monterey. Shankar in live performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival. Shankar’s full performance at Woodstock.
Dhun (Folk Airs) includes popular melodies. Popular melodies are often found in Western classical music as well. But unlike Western classical music, Indian classical music is very improvisational, and much more like jazz in that one respect.
Among other Indian musicians, I am very partial to Nikhil Bannerjee, sitar; Ali Akbar Khan, sarod; and Hariprasad Chaurasia, flute. I used to have records of all three, and many more. Three of my favorite records were: (1) Call of the Valley (showing the original album cover); (2) Sri Ganesh Mahotsav (order page showing the original album cover) with Amin Sangeet (“Musical duo... consisting of Arun Amin & Sangeet Amin”), Anhurada Paudwal, and Anup Jalota, Music India 2393 838, a devotional album; and (3) Song of God - Bagavad Gita (spelled that way as shwon on the original album cover here, but wretched sound), World Pacific Records WPS-21466, Aashish Khan (son of Ali Akbar Khan), sarod, narrated by Ravi Shankar. Here is a four minute segment with better sound quality.
Favorite Poets
1. Percy Bysshe Shelley. Favorite poem: "Epipsychidion" (the book includes the poem).
2. John Keats.
5. John G. Neihardt. Favorite American epic poetry: A Cycle of the West. Best known for his popular book Black Elk Speaks (original edition; complete edition; annotated edition; premier edition with audiobook version).
Favorite Author (since I was age 15)
Favorite Books
1. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment. Trans. by Constance Garnett.
2. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov. Trans. by Constance Garnett. The newer translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky looks excellent, but I’ve had no time to read it.
3. Ivan Turgenev. 1862. Fathers and Sons. Trans. by C. J. Hogarth. New York: E. P. Dutton. I read the translation by Bernard Guilbert Guerney, New York: Random House, The Modern Library series.
4. Maxim Gorky. 1907. Mother. I read the translation by Margaret Wettlin. Moscow: Progress Publishers. Soviet Novels Series. As a disclaimer, I’m not a Communist or Socialist. I’m a middle of the road pragmatic centrist. I don’t belong to any political parties, and I just hope that all the ideological extremists on both sides of the aisle can learn to get along and get things done that most people can agree with. I don’t really have any political views beyond egalitarianism, environmentalism, and democracy, and even those are not logically necessary absolutes for me. There are infinitely many logically possible worlds in which they are a bad idea! But I was very moved by the hopes and emotions expressed in the book. It’s a very moving and well written book.
Igor Stravinsky once asked, “Why is it that whenever I hear a piece of music I don’t like, it’s always by Villa-Lobos?” I might ask, “If there is a novel that immediately becomes a favorite of mine, why is it always by a Russian author?” In my case, the answer is easy. Everyone knows these are very great writers, and that they have great things to write about. Beyond that, it is just individual chemistry. I read the first three books while in high school in the 1960s, starting with Crime and Punishment in the 10th grade. In contrast, I finished the fourth book, Mother, some fifty years after high school, on August 2, 2018, about half a year after I retired from work. Mother differs from the other books in several ways. The other books offer religion as the answer and were written in the 19th century. Mother offers socialism as the answer and was written in the early 20th century. The book is a beautiful window into the ideals that eventually motivated the Russian Revolution. It is a window into how the Socialists (not: Communists) saw and understood things. Granted, the Revolution went wrong, and the Communists who eventually took power were even worse than the Tsarists they replaced. But the ideals, which millions of downtrodden muzhiks (“muzhik” is literally ‘little man’, the diminutive of “muzh,” meaning ‘man’), that is, peasants, who for many centuries were serfs, a form of slaves legally bound to the estates of the nobility) and others came to believe in, were wonderful. Wettlin’s English prose is truly excellent and truly beautiful. It is plain and simple, and very well done. It is the feather in the arrow, not the feather in the hat. The story and the message are what count, and the writing style is in the background. Many contemporary writers would do well to emulate it, instead of being flashy show-offs with feathers in their hats. There are a few clerical errors, and surprisingly many sentences are missing periods at the end, but to me it only makes the edition more charming and authentic. I felt I understood the pre-Revolutionary situation in early 20th century Russia much better because of this book. The book is mild in tone and has little physical action. I read it much more slowly than the other books. I don’t know to what extent that is because I was about fifty years older when I read it, or because the book is so thoughtfully written it has to be read slowly, nor to what extent it is because I was older and had to read more slowly due to lack of energy, or because I was older and read the book in a deeper and more experienced way. I suppose I could go back and read the other three books again, and see if they read more slowly now too, but I won’t. They are great works and very much worth reading again, but my plate is full of other projects.
If you are wondering why Tolstoy is not on the list, that’s because I read the first thirty pages of War and Peace and I didn’t like it. It was taking forever to go anywhere. (Yes, I know, the action is stately and later, but it was still too slow for me.) And there were too many long and complicated names. I was lost on who was who only thirty pages in! Beyond that, there was no personal chemistry for me. In fact, I found War and Peace (or at least the first thirty pages) really boring. But I do greatly admire a religious essay by Tolstoy in which he disavows the miracles but upholds the ethical and spiritual ideals of the Christian Gospels. As an agnostic and skeptic about the miracles myself (they violate the basic laws of physics), I was very sympathetic to the essay. And it was really well done. Beyond that, they say there are those who prefer Tolstoy and those who prefer Dostoyevsky.
Turgenev is a beautiful and sensitive writer. I fell in love with his book easily. He is milder than Dostoyevsky and has great clarity.
If you want a short, quick, exciting book full of action, drama, and strong emotions, try Taras Bulba by Nikolai Gogol, translated by Peter Constantine. Wow! I gave this one to my daughters Julie and Marina. They both loved it, and Marina lists it as one of her favorites on Goodreads.
Favorite Painter
Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Favorite Painting: "Two Sisters," popularly called "On the Terrace."
Favorite Pen and Ink Artist
Favorite Movies
1. The King of Hearts / Le Roi du Coeur (1966). A romantic comedy and both literal and allegorical anti-war story. The French version subtitled in English is earthier, but the version dubbed in English is funnier. After I recommended it to my sister, she said it was her favorite movie too. Full movie (no subtitles for the French or German, and you may have to go through a couple of steps).
2. Ugetsu / Ugetsu monogatari (1953) (black and white, English subtitles). A heartfelt morality story from feudal Japan. Moments of stunning beauty. The larger the screen, the better, and a movie theater screen is better than any TV. Slow but beautiful story, beautiful casting, beautiful directing. You have to be patient through the first twenty minutes or so. Here is the full movie in Japanese without English subtitles.
3. Svengali (1931) (black and white, English subtitles). Does the hypnotist find redemption in the love of his hypnotized subject? John Barrymore, Jr.'s best acting I know of. The century of hypnotic exploitation behind the story is terrible. Beautiful story, beautiful casting.
4. Ivan the Terrible Part 1 (1944) (black and white, English subtitles). Sergei Eisenstein, writer and director. Sergei Prokofieff, music. Iconic in approach, appearance, and result. Here is Part 2 (mostly black and white, English subtitles). Stalin didn’t like Part 2 for political reasons and basically cancelled it. I think it’s not as great as Part 1, but it’s still a very good movie. Here is the ballet performed by the Bolshoi Ballet of the USSR. Here is the other main Eisenstein-Prokofieff collaboration, Alexander Nevsky (1938) with English subtitles.
Just for fun, I’ll throw in The Scarface Mob (3m 55s of highlights) starring Robert Stack as Eliot Ness. It was the pilot for the TV series, The Untouchables (1m 43s introduction to a 1959 episode). Playlist of 121 full episodes.
Favorite Romantic Comedies
1. The King of Hearts -- Alan Bates, Geneviève Bujold. Whimsical story, perfect casting. My favorite movie, and my sister’s too. Full movie (no subtitles for the French or German, and you may have to go through a couple of steps).
2. Howl’s Moving Castle -- Studio Ghibli. Beautiful anime. Disney did a beautiful job dubbing it into English. I would not have seen such a beautiful story in the book. Trailer.
3. Bell, Book, and Candle -- James Stewart, Kim Novak (1958). Romantic comedy. Fun story, zany. Perfect casting and pretty much perfect acting. Trailer. Compare the romantic comedy I Married a Witch, starring Frederic March and Veronica Lake (1942).
4. Whisper of the Heart -- Studio Ghibli. Officially for the teen set, but rewarding even for adults. Beautifully done. Amazon order page for the Disney voice dubbing in English.
5. Windstruck -- Korean with English subtitles. The first half hour is priceless. The rest of it is good but too long. Full movie with English subtitles.
6. Baby Boom -- Diane Keaton. Slow and dated, but amiable fun. Trailer.
Favorite Science Fiction Movies
1. Doctor Who. A series of many movies done over a period of over fifty years. Not all are favorites, nor are all the actors who play the lives of Doctor Who my favorites. At first I hated it and thought it was stupid. The actors were ridiculous and the sets almost as cheesy as those of Plan 9 from Outer Space. But about six months later, I tuned in again and this time I loved the show. I loved Tom Baker, and he came to be my favorite Doctor Who. I learned to play along with the cheesy sets and corny humor. I guess my mind needed time to adjust. While I like Tom Baker the best, my favorite single Doctor Who movie is Enlightenment, starring Peter Davison. Baker and Davison play older regenerations of Doctor Who from the 1970s and 1980s. I like them, and the two Doctor Whos that came after them, the best. In the decades after them, the movies had better production values, became too complicated and busy. Today the most recent movies are too contrived, and the older movies seem too slow.
Here are a few favorites:
With Tom Baker as the 4th Doctor Who: Talons of Weng-Chiang
With Peter Davison as the 5th Doctor Who: Enlightenment: Episode 1. Episode 2. Episode 3.
With Sylvester McCoy as the 7th Doctor Who: Greatest Show in the Galaxy (with free Windows Media download button).
In a parallel development, I loved the original Star Trek TV series, which attracted a large crowd in the TV lounge in my dormitory at Syracuse University in the early 1970s. The first time I saw the second series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, I thought it was beyond ridiculous: I thought it was a travesty. The actors and their costumes looked weird and repellant. They looked weirder than the aliens. Everything about the show was incredibly bad. But about six months later, I tuned in again, and this time I really liked the show. I watched every episode I could. It’s a great show. The actors are perfectly cast, and the story plots are excellent. I would call it family entertainment at its best, for families with high school or perhaps middle school children. I guess my mind needed time to adjust from the original series. However, I never did like the third Star Trek TV series. The mental adjustment never came. The best description I can find for the show is annoying. Some of the Star Trek movies are not bad if you are in an indulgent mood. They have their moments.
2. Dune (1984). (You my have to take a couple of steps to get to the movie.) A long, slow three hour movie. It’s undeniably tacky or cheesy, especially at times; but it has good, classical dramatic pacing with a good, classical, almost iconic, even biblical (perhaps the best word is epic) style. It's a cult movie based on the fine and famous first Dune novel by Frank Herbert. (The sequel novels are worse.) My daughter Julie watched it with me in 2012, and she complained about how slow it was, but she couldn’t stop watching. I haven’t seen the new version that came out in 2021.
3. Serenity (2005). The link plays straight through with no fast forward or rewind, and no subtitles for the occasional Chinese language. Fresh and fun. I’ve found it watchable many times. It’s based on a very creative and inventive TV series called Firefly, which was eventually shut down for being too risqué; the main actors are the same. This is the main actor Nathan Fillion’s best work that I’ve seen. He’s unfortunately worse in the TV murder mystery series Castle, but it’s not his fault. It’s not because he’s older, either. It’s because has to play a much more restricted role for a mainstream audience. Perhaps that is due in part to the Firefly shutdown, but it is also simply a more mainstream show. The humor is still there, but it’s subdued too.
Favorite Fairy Tales of my Youth
1. Thor's Visit to Jotunheim. In Thomas Bulfinch, The Age of Fable Or Stories of Gods and Heroes (1855). English and Korean link.
2. Childe Rowland. In Joseph Jacobs, English Folk and Fairy Tales (1897). The Oxford English Dictionary says of "child," B. I. †5, "A youth of gentle birth: used in ballads, and the like, as a kind of title. arch. When used by modern writers, commonly archaically spelt chylde or childe, for distinction's sake;" and says of "burd," "A poetic word for 'woman, lady'...."
3. The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh. In Joseph Jacobs, English Folk and Fairy Tales (1897).
Favorite Fairy Tale Novel
James Stephens, The Crock of Gold (1912).
Favorite Book on Mythology
Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God (vol. 1, 1959, 1969 rev. ed.; vol. 2, 1962; vol. 3, 1964; vol. 4, 1968).
Favorite Short Stories of my Youth
1. Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon
2. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Rappaccini's Daughter
3. Kurt Vonnegut, Harrison Bergeron
4. Saki (H. H. Munro), The Storyteller
5. A. E. van Vogt, The Monster
6. A. E. van Vogt, Enchanted Village