Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Everlasting Enjoyments 8/18/09

We need to open up the future. We also need to keep everything valuable from the past.

John Easton
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Shalom
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Hurry and get your note book ready because September is coming....
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Once upon a time thee was a great Russian singer named Alexander Kipnis. He was a bass who sang opera and liturgical music. The only recordings of his music were made in Russia and rarely found their way out. But one record some how got to a classical music station I was working for in New York City. It was an old, scratchy record. That was before the days when they learned how to enhance old recordings to remove the background and surface noises. One day the music director scheduled one of the Kipnis songs for my program.

The station had a new general manager, a young man from out of town. He came into the studio while the record was on the air, leaned over and looked at it as it spun around on the turntable and said "Well, we'll have to get rid of that one." I wanted to hide the record in my locker so he couldn't get his hands on it.

To throw out that rare record, with its sublime perfromance, because it was scratchy would be the same as trashing a Rembrandt painting because the surface was soiled, or tossing away the Venus De Milo because she lost her arms, or not performing Shakespeare because it's written in an arcane language that people have trouble understanding.

There are a lot of people who have that attitude. "It's a new world, Let's get rid of the old stuff." It's a good thing to toss out old, worn out ideas and theories, and adopt new ones. But some of those new ideas come from very old sources. People are still quoting Aristotle, for example, and discovering, or rediscovering new ideas.

Today we produce a massive number of things: literature, music, entertainment, inventions and designs. And let's face it, most of it is wrathless junk. It's very difficult to see the treasure from the trash. Thank heaven there are libraries, museums and memories to preserve the best of what has been in order to point the way toward the best of what can be.

DB - The Vagabond
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Put a drop of courage in the mix today.
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SUMMER QUIZ

This is not a contest.



A young man out west just took home 88 million dollars from the lottery.



Whether you play the lottery or not, if you suddenly had 88 million dollars, or the equivalent of whatever your currency is, what are the first three things you would do with it?



You have all summer to answer if you wish.

19 responses so far.



DB

5 comments:

Rose~* said...

Good morning, DB - enjoyed your post. Was admiring a lot of automobiles from the past this Sunday at a local car show and marveled at their beauty. How simple their engines were, without all the fancy doo-dads that modern cars have and I sure miss the old white-walled tires. They just seemed to add such class to the entire package. I'll post some pictures later, if I can manage a few decent ones.

Beth said...

I think one of the most dismaying things about our society is that it's a disposable one. Built-in obsolescence, a constant need to buy the newest and best and most up-to-date. It's sad. Hugs, Beth

Ken Riches said...

The key going forward is to figure out how to make the gems rise to the top and to ignore the trash :o)

Linda S. Socha said...

I have always had a need to salvage sort organize and resave for another day

I am one of those people who have picked up discarded furniture off the street meant for the trash and re created it because of the wonderful lines. the wood trim etc etc.

Once my mother inherited a 1930's sofa and chair she intended to discard. I drove 500 miles to take it and give it a new home. I still have it 20 years later. I might comment that it is often still seen as new with the refinished wood trim and lolvely covering.

I love the reinvention of all that has beauty and or utility. I cannot let go of that which still is pleasing, needed or useful...Ah well. As you can see i related to this post:>)
Linda

Inday said...

The antiques to my knowledge are now overvalued. There are many collectors of old stuff these days who are too willing to pay the price of something old that modern humans deem useless. I hope you have kept that record which is very precious to you.