Yearly Archives: 2025

Hunchback of Notre Dame and the power of pianissimo   Recently updated !

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The showing on October 28 where I accompanied the 1923 Hunchback of Notre Dame drew the biggest crowd I’ve had yet for a silent film, and I got lots of compliments afterward. With every movie, I try to improve my technique. The innovations for this show worked, as far as the audience and I were concerned.

There are many approaches to accompanying a movie. Some accompanists try to capture the sheer excitement, fear, and passion in each scene. My style is more introspective. I try to underscore what the characters are thinking and feeling. I go for excitement where it’s called for. In this movie, the siege of the cathedral, with Quasimodo conducting a one-man defense against a vast mob, called for thrilling music. But there are many scenes about what Quasimodo, Esmeralda, Phoebus, and other characters are experiencing. They call for more subtle music: contemplative passages, dynamic contrasts, and sudden accents and dissonances.
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The cowardice of Portsmouth’s Music Hall

This entry was posted in Commentary News and tagged censorship liberty New Hampshire on by

Last weekend I attended a concert by the Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra in the Music Hall, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The audience seemed smaller than usual. There could be several reasons, but one possible explanation is a recent act of cowardice by the Music Hall’s management.

Earlier in October, the Music Hall unilaterally cancelled a scheduled event by the Lovering Center of Greenland, NH. The stated reason was security concerns. What terrified Music Hall president Tina Sawtelle was news that a peaceful protest was planned outside the venue. There was no suggestion that violence or disruptive activity would happen, but the Music Hall management thought that a simple protest placed the theater in too much danger. I wonder if they barricaded their doors and windows during the October 18 “No Kings” protest in Portsmouth, which was vastly bigger. The description of the planned Music Hall protest said it was “to hold signs, pray, fill the sidewalks with chalk messages of hope and truth, and enjoy each other’s fellowship.” You don’t have to agree with their cause to recognize that it’s legitimate activity under the First Amendment.
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Bothsidesism now   Recently updated !

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged history liberty on by

In a world dominated by political tribalism, you’re expected to condemn things the other group does while excusing your group for doing the same thing. If you apply the same standards to both, you’re mocked for “bothsidesism.” Hypocrisy is an obligation.

Many of the things which Trump has done have precedents in previous administrations; he’s just carried them to their outer limits. Democratic and Republican presidents alike have conducted wars not declared by Congress. After a mysterious meeting in the Biden White House, Amazon put some books on the “Do Not Promote” list. The ACLU actively supported Biden’s attempt to write off student loans, which would have been a federal expenditure by executive decree.
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“Fascism” as a coded term   Recently updated !

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged fascism language usage on by

In my early college years, I was basically conservative in my political views. As a result, I got called a “fascist” or “fascist pig” on a lot of occasions. In one memorable moment, people who were blocking the entrance to MIT yelled “Fascist!” at me as I tried to get past them.

The term is still used as a general-purpose smear, with little regard for the actual meaning of Fascism. The history of this practice goes back a long way and has its roots in Marxism, especially the Soviet variety. Stalin said in 1924: “Fascism is the bourgeoisie’s fighting organisation that relies on the active support of Social-Democracy. Social-Democracy is objectively the moderate wing of fascism.” During World War II, the USSR often characterized its fight as one against “fascism,” even though its battles were with Germany’s Nazi government and not Italy’s Fascist government. ……
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The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Plaistow, October 28

This entry was posted in Movies and tagged music New Hampshire silent movies on by

It’s time for another classic silent movie! On Tuesday, October 28, at 6 PM, I’ll accompany the 1923 film The Hunchback of Notre Dame at the Plaistow, NH Library. Nearly half the available spaces have already been reserved, so be sure to sign up in advance. The film, based on Victor Hugo’s novel Notre-Dame de Paris, highlights Lon Chaney’s makeup skills and his ability to win empathy for a deformed-looking character.

Hugo’s novel has been adapted many times for film. There were at least four before the Lon Chaney film. Charles Laughton, Anthony Quinn, and Anthony Hopkins are among the actors who have played Quasimodo. Disney turned it into a cartoon and compounded the blasphemy with a sequel where Quasimodo and Esmeralda are still alive. The 1923 version is widely considered one of the best adaptations.

Just by the way, I’ve noticed that the emailed version of these posts delivers the text only to the “More” marker and gives no clue that it’s incomplete. From now on, I’ll add an indicator that there’s more to the post, like this:

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A week in Germany   Recently updated !

This entry was posted in Personal and tagged conventions Europe Germany music spohr on by

On Wednesday I returned from an eight-day trip to Germany, one day longer than planned. I was nervous about leaving and re-entering the US, and if I’d known when I made my reservations how fast things would get worse, I might have changed my mind. The US border has long been a Fourth Amendment-free zone, but now it’s First Amendment-free as well. Fortunately, I seem too obscure to bother with.

Delayed flights have become common. The closest airport to my destination was Hannover, which is relatively small, so I had to change flights both ways within Germany. In retrospect, I should have found a direct flight to a major city and taken the train the rest of the way. Trains are also horrible for delays, but there’s almost always a next one the same day if you miss a connection. If there’s an ICE train (Inter-City Express, no relation to the US gang) to your destination, it will get you there quickly without airport annoyances. Fortunately, there were no problems with changing planes in Munich.
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ICEBlock censored from Apple Store

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The US government has crossed yet another red line, pressuring a company into removing an application that provides legitimate information to Americans. The ICEBlock account on Bluesky reports:

We just received a message from Apple’s App Review that #ICEBlock has been removed from the App Store due to “objectionable content”. The only thing we can imagine is this is due to pressure from the Trump Admin.
 
We have responded and we’ll fight this! #resist

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Gaggle: Censorware for the 21st century

This entry was posted in Commentary News and tagged education Gaggle journalism Kansas privacy on by

For many years, schools have used “censorware” to suppress dirty words, threats, and other undesirable communication on their data networks. The results have sometimes been comical and usually bad. In some versions it’s known as the “Scunthorpe problem,” referring to software that finds dirty words in substrings of harmless ones, such as “Matsushita” and “cockle.”

As technology advances, these tools don’t get better, only more intrusive. A lawsuit filed by students in Lawrence, Kansas has brought one of them to public attention. It’s called “Gaggle,” perhaps a portmanteau word for “gag Google.” An attorney representing the students says, “Students’ journalism drafts were intercepted before publication, mental health emails to trusted teachers disappeared, and original artwork was seized from school accounts without warning or explanation.”
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Discovering my past

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This post deals with old events, almost as old as I am, but I hadn’t known some key facts about them until a couple of weeks ago. They’d been kept secret from me. I was deceived without actually being lied to. I still don’t know all the parts of the history, and maybe I never will.

Several years ago, I went searching for information about my father. He died in 1954 in a traffic accident, or so I was told. I was less than three years old at the time, but that’s not the only reason I have no memory of him. My surname is rare, making an Internet search easier. It wasn’t too hard to find confirmation of his date of death. The surprise was that he died in Shasta, California. I grew up in Manchester, New Hampshire, and my mother always lived there. He might have been there on a business trip, I thought. His family was from the west coast, so maybe he was visiting a relative.
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