Saturday, July 18, 2020

Talk Less: Hamilton Minted Taboos

I am wondering if you are still out there. I am wondering if you are still reading. I am wondering if I am speaking to the void….

I have come back to write this because it’s important. Because I wanted to speak to you about shame, about embarrassment, about perfections.



Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.
-- Vince Lombardi

Brett Vince Lombardi was more than just an assistant Coach for the New York Giants he was head coach of the Green Bay Packers from 1958-1967 and in that time coached the Packers to 5 NFL champions including 3 in a row and also coached them to victories in Super Bowls I and II. He was the first super star coach in the NFL and perhaps the most Legendary name in NFL history in terms of coaching.

The only coach with a bigger name was the late great Knute Rockne who coached the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to Five National College Championships. Unfortunately a plane crash took his life when he was 43. He is still however the standard bearer of FBS coaches with an 88.1 winning percentage.

As Knute said “Courage means being afraid to do something, but still doing it.” Also, “The secret is to work less as individuals and more as a team. As a coach I play not my 11 best, but my best 11.

(via Dov of ABC)



Look around, look around at how beautifully Hamilton shines beyond Broadway - and at how marvelously Thomas Kail captures the stage show's infectious energy.


[BURR]
While we’re talking, let me offer you some free advice
Talk less


[HAMILTON]
What?


[BURR]
Smile more



Description

The original Broadway production of the award-winning musical that tells the story of Alexander Hamilton, first secretary of the treasury, blending hip-hop, jazz, R&B and Broadway styles, filmed from the Richard Rogers Theater in New York.

The story follows Hamilton's rough start in the world as a "bastard, orphan, son of a whore", through his time as George Washington's right-hand man, to becoming the first treasurer of the United States.

People of colour tell the history of America, one built on the back of immigrants, through hip-hop, R'n'B ballads and rap. The single traditional showtune is reserved for the only caucasian role in the show, that of King George.

Hamilton is the perfect introduction to musical theatre, and even if you hate musicals this might get you singing a different tune. It is modern and the sung-through presentation works brilliantly with hip-hop and rap. The show also tells a cracking story which has significant and continuing relevance to our contemporary world.

Initial release: 3 July 2020
Director: Thomas Kail
Budget: $12.5 million (stage production)
Music composed by: Lin-Manuel Miranda

Inspired by the book Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, Hamiltonopened on Broadway in 2015, with music and lyrics by Miranda. It went on to take home 11 Tony Awards, and won a Grammy for its popular soundtrack, which helped to establish cast members like Miranda, Leslie Odom, Jr., Daveed Diggs, Anthony Ramos, and Phillipa Soo as full-fledged music stars.

HAMILTON


After producing over 220 art history videos in 6 years, YouTube channeThe Art Assignment is going to take an extended break to “reassess what educational art content should look like in 2020 and beyond”. 


“Radical Classical Liberals” — a new group political philosophy blog


Masks offer much more protection against coronavirus than many think - LA Times via Yahoo News: “There’s a common refrain that masks don’t protect you; they protect other people from your own germs, which is especially important to keep unknowingly infected people from spreading the coronavirus. But now, there’s mounting evidence that masks also protect you. If you’re unlucky enough to encounter an infectious person, wearing any kind of face covering will reduce the amount of virus that your body will take in. As it turns out, that’s pretty important. Breathing in a small amount of virus may lead to no disease or far more mild infection. But inhaling a huge volume of virus particles can result in serious disease or death. That’s the argument Dr. Monica Gandhi, UC San Francisco professor of medicine and medical director of the HIV Clinic at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, is making about why — if you do become infected with the virus — masking can still protect you from more severe disease…”


Includes symbols otherwise not easily found for: Punctuation, Accents, ligatures & dipthongs, Maths, numbers & units, Emoticons, decoration, UI & miscellaneous, Currency & commercial symbols, Arrows & shapes, Greek, International Phonetic Alphabet, and Fancy Alphabets.


 Anne Tyler Q & A 

       In the New Statesman Leo Robson has a Q & A with Anne Tyler: “I am a seat-of-the-pants reader”


       'Depicting writing' 

       An interesting post at the CREWS Project's weblog, Pippa Steele on Depicting writing -- i.e. depicting the actual act of writing -- in classical times. 

Dragon (Hokusai), Sonnet #519
















The first dragons were fireflies,
Flickering motes of breath made light —
And then a moment of insight:
Great creatures of death must arise
(Like half-seen floating seeds of sun
Grown winged, clawed, fanged, and enormous,
Lungs furnace hot and vaporous),
Monsters from which most men run.

Not all. The dragon was lazy,
And slept for decades in hazy
Caves, dreaming of nothing men dreamed.
Its scales and half-lidded eyes gleamed.
The wisest men approached and stroked
Its face with love. It never woke.