Marguerite M

An elegantly tapered two-handled water vessel challenges the power of the Empire -

Amphora

Not horrifying at all…

This is what cognitive dissonance looks like.

It would be funny if it weren’t so toxic and unconscionable.

It’s the “I’m so sorry!” afterward that killed me!!

CW: slurs (used by and quoted from Elon Musk)

"They're putting persecuted Christian refugees in camps in the jungle" sounds like something Glenn Beck would accuse the Obama administration of doing and yet now it's a pillar of the Republican agenda.

I think most people are intuitively aware of this but something like the official White House account posting an “ASMR” video of shackled immigrants is not just cruel for its own sake, it’s intentional envelope-pushing to ramp up to desensitization over inhumane detention, camps, and deaths

This is fucking fire but also, amazingly, the judge is doing her damned best to establishing on the record that they don’t have a rational basis for their actions.

May we all Walk in Beauty, Walk in Light together.

If you listen to only one movement, “4. Noises from the Multitudes” is a tour-de-force. Rose uses pauses, counting, sirens, unison, homophony, and frenetic canon alternately to create an incredibly evocative interrogation of the idea that silence is golden.

Okay actually my favorite thing about this piece is the 6th movement, “Hummingbird.” It’s five minutes of pure, unadulterated musical joy.

But my absolute favorite thing about this piece is how she uses canons. This work contains several instances of either canon or fugue that are so beautiful, elegant, melodically simple yet incredibly harmonically rich. It’s like an invitation and a lesson at the same time.

Another hallmark is her ability to write both text and melody together, giving her work an organic feel that is different from typical text setting. Here, the text is a mix of response to the biblical style of Thompson’s piece mixed with conversational real talk.

Rose’s command of harmony, and her particular gift of throwing harmonic curveballs, is a hallmark of her work.

This piece is an absolute masterclass in nuanced harmony, text married to music, and how the seemingly simple canon can deliver unbelievable texture and richness.

The end goal is peace: In Medio sings Randall Thompson and Judy A. Rose • Oregon ArtsWatch The Portland choir celebrated its “third official year” with the Thompson classic “The Peaceable Kingdom” and a commissioned companion piece from Portland composer and educator Rose.

If you want a full description of the process and movements, there was a wonderful piece in Oregon ArtsWatch www.orartswatch.org/the-end-goal...

Rose describes this piece on her website as “an a cappella Cantata to partner with Randall Thompson’s “A Peaceable Kingdom,” with which piece it was originally paired for the premiere performance.

YouTube video by In Medio In Medio: Walk In Beauty, Walk In Light - Judy A. Rose

Another installment of Black History Month for classical vocal/choral music: Walk in Beauty, Walk in Light by living composer Judy A. Rose.

youtu.be/E2p4dsScw9k?...

"Everything is a conspiracy when you don't know how anything works" should have to run as a nonstop chyron on every US news channel.

Important and appropriate A1 play in the NYT print paper today for the story Kirsten Grind and I did on the 11 federal agencies that had targeted Musk companies for investigations/lawsuit that have now been disrupted in a way that benefits Musk. A free link as well.

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/u...

Why did you have to come for me, specially, this hard.

All books are dessert books if they (a) make you happy and (b) you eat them after dinner

collapse came with removal of the fairness doctrine in the 80s and citizens united.

these two things fundamentally must return in order to restore balance.

let’s find a way to get a version of these back.

start local, go state, go wide.

An American flag built on the backs of Black people...

Black music protesting white political terror in registers they never hear; reminiscent of ancestral spirituals embedded with instructions for runaways

All this in New Orleans... What a moment

Colin Kaepernick taking a knee.

This Super Bowl Sunday, here's a reminder of what real courage looks like.

Periodic cooking of eggs - Communications Engineering Emilia Di Lorenzo and colleagues propose an approach to address the energy transport problem of cooking the albumen and yolk of a boiled egg at their optimal temperatures without separation. By altern...

You're cooking your eggs incorrectly 🐣🧪

YouTube video by Music at EasternCT Is There Anybody That Loves My Jesus, arr. Undine Smith Moore

So, please enjoy, and here are the links to two performances of this beautifully simple yet elegant spiritual arranged by “the Dean of Black Women Composers.”

youtu.be/W0PO9-aM4LI?...

youtu.be/W0PO9-aM4LI?...

The words “Is there anybody here…” really spoke to me this week, as we watch craven career politicians foreswear their constitutional oaths AND the tenets of their faith to simper and kowtow to this so-called “leader.”

Smith Moore sets this spiritual with these yummy chords and harmonies in the accompaniment, and a clean voice line.