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Flim, a Dresden-based electronic composer, has put out several albums of electronic but frequently classically-inclined music. “Hell 3,” obviously the third in a series of Hells, is, I think, his piano masterpiece. The original “Hell” is also excellent, but I think this one is more refined and more expressive.

He has a way of timing the notes that you hear the first note and get its impression, then the second note both modifies the first and stands on its own. If they were played simultaneously, or a hundredth of a second later, the effect would be lost.

Amazing chart of the electromagnetic spectrum. Looks like it’s probably from the early 80s. I love this stuff – the amount of knowledge summarized in this one illustration is staggering.

“‘For,’ says he, ‘it’s being ground to bits in a slow mill; it’s being roasted at a slow fire; it’s being stung to death by single bees; it’s being drowned by drops; it’s going mad by grains.’ He was as near making away with himself, just where the young lady stands, as near could be.”

We listened with horror.

Bleak House

I have more, Chris. Don’t make me use them.

Words I never looked up from “The Three Musketeers”

  • casuist – apparently one whose reasoning is suspect or false
  • catafalque – no idea
  • sbirri – some sort of authority in France, possibly Huguenot-related
  • exordium – an introductory or explanatory passage?
  • caparison – part of a horse’s decoration
  • caracole – something horses do
  • fauteuil – has to do with fainting, but may be furniture as well
  • carbuncle – a jewel, if I remember correctly… also an esper
  • soubrette – a lady’s personal servant
  • quodlibet – your guess is as good as mine
  • laveer – ditto

I guess I could google these, but I’m busy. Little help?

Let the man who speaks evil of Alexander not merely bring forward those passages of Alexander’s life which were really evil, but let him collect and review all the actions of Alexander, and then let him thoroughly consider first who and what manner of man he himself is, and what has been his own career; and then let him consider who and what manner of man Alexander was, and to what an eminence of human grandeur he arrived. Let him consider that Alexander was a king, and the undisputed lord of the two continents, and that his name is renowned throughout the whole earth. Let the evil-speaker against Alexander bear all this in mind, and then let him reflect on his own insignificance, the pettiness of his own circumstances and affairs, and the blunders that he makes about these, paltry and trifling as they are. Let him then ask himself whether he is a fit person to censure and revile such a man as Alexander.

Arrian