OUTSOARING THE RING
I HAVE FOUND something more outre than Wagner’s Die Ring des Nibelungen. True, The Ring Cycle is 17 unique hours filled with Valhalla’s Gods and Goddesses, the Nibelung underground’s evil … Continue reading
THE GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK CLICKS ITS HEELS PART 2
TODAY IN PART 2, we pick up our Great American Songbook celebration of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in two more of their musicals from the mid-1930s. We’ll also encounter … Continue reading
THE GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK CLICKS ITS HEELS PART 1
A RECENT London Review of Books article celebrates Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in three of their ten classic movies: Top Hat, 1935; Swing Time, 1936; and Shall We Dance, … Continue reading
HURRAH FOR PIGEONS!
PIGEONS HAVE made their mark here at SimanaitisSays, in the figurative sense, that is. One pigeon was cited as Nikola Tesla’s close friend: Tesla was quoted as saying, “I loved … Continue reading
MEDIEVAL STUDIES HIJACKED
EVEN MEDIEVAL STUDIES has been caught up in a commentary involving our contentious times. Jennifer Schuessler reports “Medieval Scholars Joust with White Nationalists. And One Another,” in The New York … Continue reading
KNOXVILLE: SUMMER OF 1915 PART 2
TWO AMERICAN cultural heroes, author James Agee and composer Samuel Barber, and their Knoxville: Summer of 1915 were celebrated yesterday in Part 1. Today, we continue with Chris Myers’ notes … Continue reading
KNOXVILLE: SUMMER OF 1915 PART 1
THERE’S A GENTLE affirmation of life in Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, a piece for voice and orchestra that this composer called a “lyric rhapsody.” Lyrics of this 1947 … Continue reading
CELEBRATING PEGGY WEBBER
WHAT DOES JOE FRIDAY’S mother have in common with Orson Welles’ Lady Macduff? They were portrayed by the same talented actress, Peggy Webber. What’s more, she’s founder and continues to … Continue reading
MOVING THE WATER FOR FUN AND PROFIT PART 2
THIS ALL started yesterday with my watching the Jack Nicholson/Faye Dunaway movie Chinatown and Wife Dottie’s photo of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. Here in Part 2, we’ll see whether the flick … Continue reading
TRUCK DRIVERS’ DESK SET PART 2
YESTERDAY IN Part 1, we considered a link between drivers of diesel rigs at the modern Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and a 62-year-old Katharine Hepburn/Spencer Tracy comedy. … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 