Songs of Ordinary Time

Miscellaneous thoughts on music(ology), gender, politics, religion, and tea.

[capturetheatre]

the 2002 broadway revival of into the woods was so unnecessarily extra lmao

[elphabelle-of-the-ball-deactiva]

Watch this whole thing omigosh

[tastefullyoffensive]

“Not use collective punishment as it is not fair on the many people who did nothing and under the 1949 Geneva Conventions it is a war crime.”

[nu11-pointer]

Wait it’s a fucking WAR CRIME?!?! I mean that might not be 100% accurate but now I gotta know

[tlitookilakin]

holy crap, collective punishment is a war crime.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Geneva_Convention#Collective_punishments

and according to the exact legal phrasing-

No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.

This technically counts, as students are civilians, and thus considered a “protected person”. So yes, collective classroom punishment breaks the fourth Geneva Convention, and she should be rewarded for standing up for human rights and doing her research.

[josephhaydn-official]

[sweaterfemme-deactivated2025081]

i feel like we dont talk enough about how two of the most decorated female hockey players ever, one a former captain for team canada and the other for the usa, fell in love and had a baby together 

[sweaterfemme-deactivated2025081]

small gay sports baby

[hotcommunist-deactivated2019032]

[positive-lesbian-vibes]

Ok but where is my cheesey lesbian rom-com about them falling in love while playing against each other

[chrisharnick]

the superhero we need and deserve

[mezzosopranosunshine]

A Convalescent's Holy Song of Thanksgiving to the Divinity, in the Lydian Mode

The music: Molto Adagio; Andante ("Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart"), from Beethoven's String Quartet Op.132. Pl...

[mezzosopranosunshine]

Beethoven’s 200-Year-Old ‘Fidelio’ Enters Today’s Prisons

Heartbeat Opera is presenting a new version that updates its setting, employs a largely nonwhite cast and features Midwestern prison choirs.

[mezzosopranosunshine]

Monday Pomodoros

*6 hour work-day and

1: Finalizing proofs for a journal volume/e-mails to press/typesetting.

2-5: Thesis reading, research notes for future projects that came out of the thesis reading/support for dissertation idea.

[mezzosopranosunshine]

Wagner

Found this in my Drafts folder. I wrote it four years ago in my very first semester of grad school, and I feel some of the questions still hold up (especially that last one!):

___________________________

I'm currently enrolled in a Wagner seminar, and at the moment, we're analyzing Tristan und Isolde. The biggest thing I'm learning in this Wagner seminar is that I will always have more questions about Wagner than answers. 

- Dramatic realism: in Act II, why are they standing in front of each other singing about Schopenhauer, alongside music that directly mimics sensual arousal? 

- In Act III, does the shepherd represent something? Kurwenal? The love between Tristan ind Isolde? Was Donnington right? Are these people characters, or are they abstractions of something deeper? Are they Jungian archetypes, long before Jung organized the archetypes? Do Tristan and Isolde represent parts of the collective unconscious?   

- Is the opera, in fact, a love story? Since I encountered the opera for the first time four years ago, I've always assumed it was. But this seminar is turning all of my assumptions on their head, and I'm starting to think it's more about love as mirror of the (selfish) self than eternal, sincere, selfless, monogamous love of another person.  

- What is the significance of having Tristan hallucinate for an entire act? This must tie into Schopenhauer, and The World as Will and Representation somehow, but it's not clicking in my mind...

- Also, what was going on in Ponnelle's head with his Act III staging? 

[mezzosopranosunshine]

Audra McDonald "It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got That Swing"

Audra McDonald sings "It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got That Swing" (Ellington) on the Carnegie Hall's 120th Anniversary 120th Anniversary Gala Performer...

I defy anyone who is a musician to watch Audra McDonald having a ball onstage and not remember why we love what we do so damn much. :) 

[mezzosopranosunshine]

Sunday Pomi (1/2 hour each)

1 and 2: Prep materials for the ESL book club I’m running.

3 and 4: Libretto analysis; plot summary chart for my thesis. 

5: Thesis readings

[mezzosopranosunshine]

Productivity

I’m back on Tumblr, trying to track my productivity levels while I balance three very different hats and need to think REALLY wisely about when I work on what as I:

1) teach ESL in a Francophone high school five days a week, six hours a day.

2) finish my Master’s thesis on Haydn and eighteenth-century music.

3) give multiple conference presentations on being an indigenous scholar of Western art music, and theories/methodologies of using WAM performance to increase and raise awareness of the importance of indigenous decolonization. Which, casually, no one has ever done yet. So that’s terrifying.

oh, and:

4) try not to freak out while waiting to hear back from the doctoral programs I applied to. 

oh, and:

5) When 2) is done, hammer out the three publications I need to revise and submit to academic journals. 

So, for a while, my blog is going to become a storage space of time management and study efficiency notes, and me tracking the mother-lode of pomodoros I’m going to have to complete in the next five months. Lord help me. ;-) 

[ambidisastrous]

I made these in response to hate crimes in my community. They are full size and free to download and print if you’d like to use them, too.

[ambidisastrous]

Since these are going around, I wanted to fill in some of the gaps! Here are seven more posters for communities under threat. As with the first set, these are completely free to download, print, share, repost, etc with no credit needed. This is open source activism.

[changelingfangs]

I was about to be so upset that disabled people weren’t included… And then there’s not only the disabled included, but the chronically ill. I’m fucking crying. Thank you.

[black-to-the-bones-deactivated2]

Black girls deserve to learn free from bias and stereotypes.

Most black girls experience this hatred at schools. And classmates are not the only problem, there is no support from teachers, too. That’s why they get so affected by their school experiences. Black kids deserve to be treated just like everybody else, they want to study, they want to learn something ,too. However due to prejudice they are 5 times more likely to be suspended than their white peers and it can ruin their lives forever.  National Women’s Law Center created this video to change the situation. Join the movement to help black girls feel normal and get the same opportunities everybody else has.

Source

[polishingmirrors]

[wonderful-language-sounds]

Free Online Language Courses

*UPDATED* Here is a masterpost of MOOCs (massive open online courses) that are available, archived, or starting soon. Some are short, some are very interactive, some are very in-depth. I think they will help those that like to learn with a teacher or with videos. I checked each link to make sure they are functioning.

Spanish

Beginner 

AP Spanish Language & Culture

Basic Spanish for English Speakers

Beginner’s Spanish:Food & Drink

Fastbreak Spanish

How to Self-Study Spanish

Preparing for the AP Spanish Exam 

Spanish for Beginners

Intermediate 

Spanish:Ciudades con Historia

Spanish:Espacios Públicos 

Advanced

Corrección, Estilo y Variaciones

La Innovación Social  (Check under Translation)

Leer a Macondo (Taught in Spanish)

Spanish:Con Mis Propias Manos

Spanish: Perspectivas Porteñas

Reading Spanish Literature

French

Beginner

AP French Language and Culture

Basic French Skills

Beginner’s French: Food & Drink

Diploma in French

Elementary French I

Elementary French II

Français Interactif

French in Action

French Language Studies I

French Language Studies II

French Language Studies III

French:Ouverture

French Through Stories and Conversation

Improving Your French

Mastering French Grammar and Vocab

Intermediate

French: Le Quatorze Juillet

Passe Partout

Advanced

Fantasy, de l'Angleterre Victorienne au Trône de fer

La Cité des Sciences et de Industrie

Les Chansons des Troubadours

Reading French Literature

Portuguese

Brazilian Portuguese for Beginners

Curso de Português para Estrangeiros

Italian

Beginner

Beginner’s Italian: Food & Drink

Beginner Italian I

Introduction to Italian

Oggi e Domani

Survive Italy Without Being Fluent

Intermediate

Intermediate Italian I

Advanced 

Advanced Italian I

Italian Literature 

Italian Novel of the Twentieth Century 

L'innovazione Sociale (Check language under translation)

Reading Italian Literature

Catalan

Intro to Catalan Sign Language

Latin

Latin I (Taught in Italian)

Russian

Beginner

Basics of Russian

Easy Accelerated Learning for Russian

Russian Alphabet

Russian Essentials

Russian for Beginners

Russian Level I

Russian Phonetics and Pronunciation

Reading and Writing Russian

Travel Russian

Advanced

Business Russian  (must register)

Let Us Speak Russian  (must register)

Reading Master and Margarita

Russian as an Instrument of Communication

Siberia: Russian for Foreigners

Ukrainian

Read Ukrainian

Ukrainian Language for Beginners

Kazakh

A1-B2 Kazakh (Taught in Russian)

Chinese

Beginner

Basic Chinese

Basic Mandarin Chinese I

Basic Mandarin Chinese II

Beginner’s Chinese

Chinese for Beginners

Chinese Characters

Chinese for Travelers

Chinese is Easy

Chinese Made Easy

Easy Mandarin 

First Year Chinese I

First Year Chinese II

Learn Oral Chinese 

Mandarin Chinese I

Start Talking Mandarin Chinese

UT Gateway to Chinese

Intermediate

Intermediate Business Chinese

Intermediate Chinese

Intermediate Chinese Grammar

Japanese

Beginner’s Conversational Japanese

Genki

Japanese JOSHU

Learn 80 JLPT N5  Kanji I

Learn 80 JLPT N5  Kanji II

Learn 80 JLPT N5  Kanji III

Learn 80 JLPT N5  Kanji IV

Korean

Beginner

First Step Korean

How to Study Korean

Pathway to Spoken Korean

Intermediate

Intermediate Korean

Dutch

Introduction to Dutch

German

Beginner

Basic German

Basic Language Skills

Beginner’s German: Food & Drink

Conversational German I

Conversational German II

Conversational German III

Conversational German IV

Deutsch im Blick

Diploma in German

German A1 Grammar

German Alphabet

German Modal Verbs

Present Tense German

Rundblick-Beginner’s German

Study German Language from Native Speakers

Advanced

German:Regionen Traditionen und Geschichte

Landschaftliche Vielfalt

Reading German Literature

Norwegian

Learn The Norwegian Language

Norwegian on the Web

Swedish

Intro to Swedish

Finnish

A Taste of Finnish

Basic Finnish

Finnish for Immigrants

Finnish for Medical Professionals

Frisian

Introduction to Frisian  (Taught in Dutch)

Icelandic

Icelandic 1-5

Arabic

Arabic for Global Exchange (in the drop down menu)

Arabic Language for Beginners

Arabic Without Walls

Conversational Arabic Made Easy

Intro to Arabic

Lebanese Arabic

Madinah Arabic

Moroccan Arabic

Read Arabic

Hebrew

Hebrew Alphabet Crashcourse

Know the Hebrew Alphabet

Hindi

A Door into Hindi

Business Hindi

Virtual Hindi

Indonesian

Learn Indonesian

Nepali

Beginner’s Conversation and Grammar

Welsh

Beginner’s Welsh

Discovering Wales

Irish

Introduction to Irish

Multiple Languages

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/global-studies-and-languages/ : MIT’s open courseware site has assignments and course material available.

I’ll keep an eye out for new courses and if you know of any, let me know so I can update this list.

Last updated: February 19, 2016

[studyybri-deactivated20161220]

god bless whoever made this 

[magicfolk]

I think I’m a tiny bit like Harry ‘cos I’d like to have an owl. Yeah, that’s the tiny bit, actually.