Friday, November 4, 2011

Various & Sundry, November 4

First of all, a head's up: a week from today is Nigel Tufnel Day. Or at least it ought to be. Why? "The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven..."

If you haven't already disposed of your Jack O'lantern, I learned this week that you can donate them to wildlife centers where they can be used to feed the animals. Or maybe they have already been used to feed the local wildlife.

I was sorry to read that Prairie Home Companion sound effects man Tom Keith ("Mr. Tom Keith") died last week.
He was serious about silliness and worked hard to get a moo exactly right and the cluck too and the woof. His whinny was amazing — noble, vulnerable, articulate. He did bagpipes, helicopters, mortars, common drunks, caribou (and elands and elk and wapiti), garbage trucks backing up, handsaws and hammers, and a beautiful vocalization of a man falling from a great height into piranha-infested waters.
He will be a great loss to the show.

On the theme of death, I loved this Flickr feed of Ofrendas, shrines and altars for Dias de los Muertos. Really some amazing pictures. Here are just a couple of examples:                                                              

Dia de los muertos Día de los Muertos Altar 2010

And finally, I got a phone call from my parents last weekend waxing rhapsodic over a concert they had just heard with Philippe Jaroussky. I can see why! Here's a video with the added bonus of being filmed in Versailles:



 A rather autumnal aria for a November evening. Enjoy!

1 comment:

jantoepfer said...

I tell you that Phillipe Jaroussky and the Apollo's fire Baroque Orchestra-don't forget those guys with the dancing violinist-have messed up our concert experience. After hearing them the SF symphonie's concert last night featuring Strauss and Shumann was positively pedestrian. The concert mistress just sat in her chair the whole time-how dull is that? Mom