Maison Licorne

Pretty sure they targeted a girls' school for a reason...these useless wars for profit are just an excuse to exacerbate necrocapitalism. As I've said, capitalism's logical endpoint, if taken far enough, is extinction.

I was going to post a weekend jam, but the gravity of this world being held hostage by sociopaths with too much power and wealth is hitting hard right now. Maybe we'll be back next week.

A melon with a hole?

Drove into work last week and heard on NPR an interview with his parents. I obviously knew Keith was a shithead, but the Mrs. totally gave Mrs. Cartman "boys will be boys" shitass boy mom vibes.

🟨 For Information: Known ICE Vehicles Observed in Chicago area today

🟨 Información: Vehículos conocidos del ICE observados en Chicago hoy

Music major here. My favorite undergrad classes were more history and lit oriented than theory & composition oriented. My private lessons were meh and I would spend hours in a darkroom instead of practicing. I'd say grad school (Musicology) helped set me up for the legal work I do now WRT research.

This is why you call these fuckers anti-autonomists and not pro-lifers. They need to be painted with negative sounding terms.

YouTube video by Funkadelic - Topic Everybody Is Going To Make It This Time

Missed the weekend due to some winter fun, but since tonight's the SOTU, here's a little Funkadelic ditty for anyone who needs to hear it...

youtu.be/ITYf0dPLWeY?...

Henceforth, I will be describing the way that U.S. men’s hockey spectacularly squandered good will, brand recognition, and fan loyalty as “pulled a Target.”

They pulled a Target.

We'll be joining in a few...

Prince Andrew to join Harvard's Institute of Politics.

YouTube video by Ornette Coleman - Topic What Reason Could I Give

WEEKEND JAMS

Happy Valentine's Day! Here's a jam from Ornette Coleman!

youtu.be/ZK0-mZVJYgY?...

The 2026 Primary Edition of ##GirlIGuess is now live!! You can find the Guide and other election-related resources at girliguess.com. I don't want to even THINK about Congress again until November. Happy voting!!

We're in early voting season in Illinois. I'm planning on voting during lunch at my neighborhood library within the first week of in-person.

Why do I get the feeling that if he came up 10 years earlier than he did, he would have gotten an invite to the island?

It’s fucking heartbreaking watching the pleas from MN residents start echoing the pleas from Gaza residents

YouTube video by Jamila Woods - Topic MUDDY

WEEKEND JAMS

It's Black History Month, so let's kick off this weekend with one of my favorite Jamilla Woods tunes:

music.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp20...

There's part of me that feels like I dodged a bullet by not becoming too entrenched in the scene, but there are definitely young women and girls that aspired to be classical musicians that did not. This story really brings this Epstein shit too close for comfort.

That and knowing that a lot of success in the classical music world is heavily influenced by networking, attending programs that entail being sent away from home, even abroad, it feels like that system is a perfect storm for monied predators to abuse, as it relies a lot on power and wealth.

The classical music ecosystem is also small as hell. People would know people to the point that I used to joke there should be a Friendster for classical musicians that shows how inbred those scenes are (again Y2K).

Even though my time there ended nearly a decade before Botstein's daliances with Epstein (or what we of know rn), this shit's a bit unnerving, especially since it was not that uncommon for teenagers to participate at the institute.

I may have been just barely an adult at the time I was there (circa Y2K), but there was occasionally a teenage child that would be invited to play in the orchestra due to their talents.

I remember some sexist jokes bantered about during the sessions about composers' wives or whatnot, but I don't remember anything that could be construed as pedo-ish. That said, I'm going on twenty-something-ish year old memories and could be blocking out some shit.

My personal interactions with him were not much beyond cordial hellos and such. My first year, he and the other panelists did give me a nice pep talk when I was struggle bussing on a piece. The next year, he complimented me on how much I improved as a player. But again, not much beyond that.

I recall Botstein was egotistical and bombastic as all hell. He still had some hair at time, but it was quite unruly looking. That paired with the bow ties he wore all the time, led me to give him the nickname Leon the Clown in my head.

Some contemporary composers of international repute would also show up to the panel to critique the conductors, give pointers, etc. Anyway, in order to do this, you need an orchestra, and I got the gig for about 4-5 years, alongside legit professionals.

I remember the conductors who participated ranging in age from college/grad school aged to middle aged. Many of them were middle/high school band/orchestra teachers or students that were trying to make a name for themselves in the classical world.

For context, Bard Conductor's Institute is/was a summer session where conductors from across the country would attend to get training on their conducting technique. There were two four week sessions, though there were many that would attend the full eight weeks.

HOLY SHIT. In my college years, I played in the Bard Conductor's Institute during the summer. That was one of Leon Botstein's pet projects, and he ran that show with another guy that looked like a Santa Claus at the time.

I cannot stand Ballerina Farm and her Marie Antoinette peasant village cosplay horseshit. You know she has undocumented, exploited labor doing the heavy lifting. May she burn her hand on her Aga range that is always on.