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Follow this category via RSSTravels with Rechtal Turgidley, Jr:
Some have wondered if my old roommate had been successful in helping define new classifications for the Hungarian Philatelic Society regarding items issued under various provisional governments in the aftermath of WWI. I am happy to report he was completely successful!
In celebration of his work and to recognize my modest efforts as his secretary, we spent a day in Vac, Hungary, particulary to visit the wonderful post-Baroque Cathedral of Mary’s Ascension designed by the Viennese court architect Isidore Canevale.
It was a hot day on first of June. Rechtal was ready for a cocktail by 5:30. And a Negroni was the order of the day. I was dispatched to make this happen. The picture illustrates my efforts at making a breakthrough . I supervised at the bar and personally cut the orange zest.
I write to extol the restorative powers of the Negroni, to say as an aside that flexibility is needed to be a successful secretary, and that the production of Handel’s Xerxes (1738) at the State Opera was amazing in the setting in today’s Iran replete with a freeway interchange, Xerxes singing in a small plane flying around the stage, hoodies, ipods, breakdances, a tank, walls of air conditioners and the felling of Xerxes’ beloved tree (Platanus orientalis) by a sports car!
Rechtal joins me in wishing a Glorious Fourth to one and all.
Journey to the tri-state point
Last weekend found me in Northfield, MA, helping out at a race (where I saw Ross Smith ‘05), so after the successful completion of said race, my boyfriend and I naturally drove over to Williamstown. Had I thought to pack a camera, I could have taken pictures to populate another hundred Photo IDs, but I didn’t, so you’ll have to settle for narrative (with one photo, below).
I decided that we would run along the Taconic Crest Trail and find the tri-state marker where MA, VT and NY come together. Though I had run the Taconic Crest Trail with the cross country team many times, I had never been to the tri-state point, which I had heard was not far off the trail. Since my boyfriend enjoys bushwhacking and county high-pointing, it seemed like the ideal afternoon adventure / long run.
MA-VT-NY tri-state marker
We first went to the Mountain Goat, where we purchased the WOC guide to hiking around Williamstown, and the excellent WOC map of the area. The man working there was very chatty, and we left much more informed about long-distance biking journeys than we had been when we entered. (As we drove through the College, I also saw many more white-haired, purple-shirted men than I expected. Williams was deep into Reunion season. David Kane was there, but I didn’t know it until I got back.) We then proceeded to Petersburg Pass, where we parked, crossed the road, and began the run along the crest trail.
Iran election… Continued (2)
Shameless Self Promotion (with a Williamstown connection)
I started a new podcast back February about biographies, cleverly called The Biography Podcast. It comes out twice a month a focuses on recent biographies. I wanted to have multiple episodes out before I started to do some promotion, but the most recent one has (kind of ) a Williamstown connection. It is with Shawn Levy, the film critic for The Oregonian, talking about his latest biography, Paul Newman: A Life. I am not sure if Paul ever did the Williamstown Theater Festival, but I know his wife, Joanne Woodward, appeared in several plays there. Previous shows have focused on everyone from the Victorian architect Auguste Pugin to the strip tease artist Gypsy Rose Lee to the guiding force behind The Wall Street Journal, Barney Kilgore.
Anyway, hope you like it. Tell your friends!
The Biography Podcast: Paul Newman
Thank you
I don’t think about this often enough, but I know there must be a lot of behind the scenes technical work to make this site work. I wanted to thank the technical team which stands behind Ephblog, which includes Ronit, Ken, and others whom I don’t know (and anyone who does should feel free to edit this post and add them in). There is little or no remumneration for the work they put into to making this a site we can love or hate, and yet I know they put in a great deal of time for all of us.
Thank you again.
Memorial Day
The Man in the Arena
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
President Theodore Roosevelt
Speech at the Sorbonne Paris, France
April 23, 1910
The Washington Post has a good tribute.
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/fallen/?hpid=topnews
Marine 1st Lt. Nathan M. Krissoff is there…
Keeping the Record in print
Hello, I’m Daniel Bornstein, a junior at John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore, New York who is new to this blog. There’s been a lot of discussion here about the Record going fully online, and I’d like to weigh in.
I think the loss of the print edition would mean a crushing blow to a vital part of campus culture. With the newspaper being the only student organization that is independently financed at many colleges, the paper is symbolic of the student voice. And in this dire time for newspapers–as metro dailies fall deeper into a hole–I’ve been hearing that local weekly papers are the ones filling the void. To me, that suggests a greater role for papers like the Record.
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof writes an excellent post on his blog explaining how the loss of the print newspaper would mean the loss of a community watchdog. What Kristof writes is also applicable to college newspapers, whose editorial boards expect accountability from the school administration.
Check it out: http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/the-pain-in-the-papers-and-the-search-for-a-business-model/
Thank you, Dick Swart
…and I very much hope you will return.
For those of you who have not realized it, Dick has resigned as President of EphBlog. He was generous with his time and was truly committed to trying to make this site a sort of Log House for the whole Eph community. He brought much to us, including his signature sometimes goofy and always thought-provoking Photoshop art. He also helped link many of us to earlier times at Williams and in commerce and the arts, and to the northwest. Dick reached out and tried to encourage new voices. He fought to maintain standards of collegiality, a fight that was difficult and that I particularly appreciated.
I mourn the loss of Dick from this place. I’ve benefited from his voice and his efforts.
I want to scream “Have you no decency?” to those who haven’t even bothered to thank Dick for all he has tried to do for EphBlog.
We should all be trying to get him back.
I will start: Dick, if you are reading this, please come back. I miss, and deeply appreciate, your voice, your contributions, your standards, and your aspirations for the Williams communities (including this one).
Johanna Justin-Jinich (Wesleyan ‘10)
(Since this story has been extensively covered in the national media, I won’t add any links. I just wanted to acknowledge the severe pain it brings, not only to the Wes community but also to many of us in Wes’s sibling communities.)
Johanna Justin-Jinich, a junior at Wesleyan, was murdered last Wednesday while working at her campus job in the Wes bookstore cafe. A young man who knew her — but who was not a member of the Wesleyan community –and who is believed to have stalked her, turned himself in and is being held for the murder.
From all the reports, Ms. Justin-Jinich was a wonderful, vibrant, engaged Cardinal. As far as I can tell, the Wes administration and faculty and the local and state police acted promptly, wisely, and caringly, just as one would hope.
Please keep all of those affected in your thoughts and in your hearts and honor Ms. Justin-Jinich by turning to those around you with respect, affection, and the appreciation that awareness of the fragility of all our lives can nurture. May something good somehow come out of this horror.
“Enough is Enough” – RTJr …
I should have known something was up when a booted and visored bicyclist arrived at the house with a special delivery letter. I tipped him 25¢ and took the letter. He seemed to leave in a huff, but never mind.
I knew from the blind embossed outline of Chapeaux Panama on the heavy cream paper and Spencerian hand in his custom blue ink that that it was a letter from my old roommate Rechtal Turgidley, Jr.
Swart (it began),
Enough is Enough! While I am pleasantly surprised that EphBlog is performing a v worth-while service and that four essays have appeared on opera, I am dismayed that you have built up yet again, the frequency of your inane utterings to the undoubtedly stunned readers.
And this obsession at the expense of your duties as my editor of both A Man, a Plan, Panama and Growing up Turgidley. My publisher is breathing fire down my neck, while you are blithely on-line. I have checked with your signal supplier, the Chapter 11 Charter Communications, to find an exorbitant amount of hours spent on this ‘blog’ and Bassoon Babes: Double Reed, Double Fun, what ever that is and I do not wish to know!
You are coming with me at once as my secretary. I have been invited by the Belyegmuzeum in Budapest to assist them in the cataloguing of their extensive collection of Hungarian postal material used by the Romanian administration in Banat and Transylvania after 1919. We will have time for the theater and the Opera and the Bauhaus private residences so well described by William Pierson.
I will then be sharing these important findings and other matters having to do with maintaining the standards for perforation quality with the Royal Philatelic Society in London.
‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’, as someone once remarked. And so I have arranged scholars’ passes for us to the Bodleian Library in Oxford so that we may continue our joint research into chained books.
I am leaving immediately. In order that you are not distracted I am having Charter stop service as quickly as they can. You are to pack. Your itinerary and passages are in this envelope. I believe it will be warm when we are there, But under no circumstances are you to pack those patchwork Madras shorts you were so happy to purchase when we were in Grand Cayman this winter. And you are to bring along a decent dinner jacket. I was embarrased to tears by that green mildewed rag you packed last time.
We will meet at 2pm Monday, 4 May at the Belyegmuzeum.
Rechtal Turgidley, Jr
Boy, I knew he was mad and I know he has my best interests at heart, but when am I ever goi
Chrysler: The Grand Tour …
“If it’s Thursday, this must be Italy”.
STOP PRESSES
This just in from Brother Spotless -
Corinne Ball, ‘75 and Phi Bete, to handle Chrysler Chapter 11
Story here
Ball bio here
Thank you, Brother Spotless, for keeping EphBlog more current than that 1948 Chrysler Town and Country!
Götterdämmerung: The Deal Goes South (Part IV)
Parent ‘12 has written three previous essays on the experience of attending Wagner’s Ring Cycle after winning the ticket lottery. This is the concluding essay and ends with a comparison to our present times. Thank you, Parent ‘12, for these excellent contributions.
Twilight of the Gods, at last! When I won this drawing, I thought the opportunity to see the Ring would be an adventure, watching a saga unfold. It’s 4 long operas of varying length: Das Rheingold (3 hours), Die Walkure (5+ hours), Siegfried (5 1/2 hours), & Gotterdammerung (6 hours!). Granted, the last 3 each have 2 intermissions, which are also long, typically 30 minutes, so it’s not sitting forever… but, still this would be a commitment for all my senses.
I’ll admit that I did check the time a few times while watching Siegfried up until the last act. I think Wagner “got it” by the time he composed Gotterdammerung. Those six hours passed quickly because he was able to combine music and drama to create, at least in the MET version, a spectacle. (For one scene there was a male chorus of at least 100 men walking on the stage & carrying spears.) Each enhanced the other, propelling the audience forward, as they wondered what would bring about the Twilight of the Gods.
*
To make this final entry more Eph-relevant, I’d like to imagine that other Ephs, besides Dick Swart & a couple other alumni commenters, would give opera a go. Opera is not that far removed from seeing a movie. And, is a precursor to musicals, remember West Side Story & Sondheim’s other work.
If you are aware of the importance of music in movies, then you’re on your way to opera. If you like foreign films, that’s even better, because there are sub-titles to follow along. At some houses super-titles run above the stage so that one can follow the lyrics & dialog. At the MET there are optional subtitles on the seat backs. As you look at the stage, you can glance down to the top of the seat in front & read the subtitle.
From watching the Ring, I realized how critical the production, the actual experience of watching & listening, is to not only appreciate, but also enjoy Wagner. I also began to understand how an audience not steeped in classical music could enjoy it. At least in this production, & many of the MET productions, there’s a lot of “eye-candy” or pyrotechnics, both literal & conceptual. For example, I’ve seen revolving stages, where scene changes involve singers walking to the next arc as the carousel turns; stages that move horizontally for a scene change; & animals, which, if I remember correctly, might have included a procession with an elephant. There definitely have been horses & dogs on stage. These productions are complicated. And, particularly here, the singing is gorgeous & the orchestra in top form. With that in mind, I’ll try to describe some sets from the Ring so you can see how fantastic, with the emphasis on fantasy, it is.
In Das Rheingold, the opening scene is under the Rhein, the MET’s was atmospherically magical. The stage is Read more
The Last Hundred Days: Be very proud …
My fellow EphBloggers,
In these last 100 days, we as EphBloggers have made 453 posts to this site, and have responded with comments over 6000 times!
This feat and its’ effects can be measured on a national scale, certainly in the improvement in the quality of life for countless readers and the better understanding of issues as varied as the economy and the economy!
But most important, and I want you to take pride in this, my fellow EphBloggers, by publishing as we do in the spare ether of the bloggosphere, we have saved the wanton destruction of the trees so necessary to the process of photosynthesis and its’ contribution to our very existence here on Earth!
Please take pride in these accomplishments of the past 100 days and Dave bless this great URL!
(I think there is something else about the first 100 days going on, but what the heck … we’re right in there!)
Carpe Diem !
... or Carpe Davem.
President Schapiro? You don’t know me, but …
My name is Michael Anthony and I have a check from an anonymous donor for one million … what? You’re not President Schapiro? Well, if I’m in Hopkins Hall, can you point out his office?
Parent ‘12 and The Ring Cycle (Part III) …
Going to the Met is not just the opera, there’s intermission. So, for Part III, a pause to look around while at the Saturday matinee.
It was a gorgeous day– sunny, west coast weather. We spent both intermissions outside, which led me to realize, as I was looking at Lincoln Center’s plaza & the Met, that I hadn’t described the opera house other than to say it’s enormous. The building’s footprint is more than 400 feet deep and about 150 feet wide. This includes the lobby, seating area, stage & backstage. The front of the stage is near the middle of the building. And, to give this an Eph connection, the Met Opera House sits where West Side Story (lyrics by Stephen Sondheim) takes place. As part of urban renewal in the sixties, this part of the West Side was demolished in order to create Lincoln Center.
As we leave the plaza & enter the Met, we walk between two Chagall murals, nearly the height of the lobby, that face the plaza. We descend into the lobby under a Swarovski chandelier that was recently refurbished in honor of the Met’s 125th anniversary season. Continuing through the lobby to get to our seats, we pass a large bar where you can have a flute of champagne, other beverages, sandwiches, & dessert. Entering the back of the orchestra section, where the standing room area is, the first thing one sees is the enormous curtain, a square of gold damask that is about 6 stories high. (The proscenium is 54′ x 54′. Read more
A question also only some two-hundred years old …
as is pointed out in the ‘Bible Eph’ post below in reference to a different question, may have another application
The latest EphNotes shows two pictures, that while not in juxtaposition, do raise a question and the perhaps particular need for the those of us in the family to have a better understanding and perspective of the times in Western Massachusetts.
I give and bequeath unto my beloved brothers, Josiah Williams, and Elijah Williams, and the heirs of their bodies my homestead at Stockbridge, with all the Buildings and Appertenances therunto belonging, with all the Stocks of Cattle and Negro Servants now upon the place, to be Equally Divided between them upon the following Conditions and not Otherwise.
http://www3.amherst.edu/~rhromer/MISC/JBHE-final-Slavery.pdf
I’d never read the will before.
Spring Family Days
I noticed, with great nostalgia, that Spring Family Days are about to begin in Williamstown. In one way, it seems eons ago that I was packing a bag for my trip this time last year, and in another way, it’s hard to believe that my son is already nearing the end of his sophomore year.
Williamstown is a fun place to visit. I have been there several times now, but it was particularly memorable during Family Days. There’s an interesting energy in the air, no small part of which is the campus-wide excitement that the late Berkshires spring has finally begun to break.
Finding the Bloat in the Budget?
The True Cost of College Tuition Inflation?
Congratulations to all on their dorm draws …
The introduction of steam heat, indoor plumbing, and electricity has made all the difference in campus life!
(photo courtesy of Rechtal Turgidley, Jr from his family albums)
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