January 11, 2008
I’m a Capricorn
…listen
…about the musicMusic for mythical sea goats.
Given my astrological sign, I thought this pic I took of very young goats and their mom at the San Juan County Fair last August was appropriate for today. Although, many say that the constellation– one of the dimmer ones up there– is actually a sea goat. Having neither underwater camera gear, nor faith that sea goats actually exist, I’m opting for their gill-less equivalents. I’m guessing that I could put all these cuties in the water and they’d do their best for the photo shoot, but they wouldn’t appreciate it very much. The water right now hovers at around 50 degrees. So land goats it is, much to their relief.
I didn’t realize female goats had horns, but hey, I was raised in a farm animal-free environment and am still playing catch-up all these years later. And there’s an increasing number of all these years. Today is the demarcation and declaration that my body has completed yet another full orbit around the sun. But the view this January looks a lot different than last, due to my latitudinal shift.
I suspect there’s been an attitudinal shift, as well. I especially noticed this when I was in New York for the conference last week. Yes, I ran around and did a lot of things. Busy busy busy. Fun fun fun. But it was a somewhat shorter, less frenzied list of things than in years past. At first I feared that maybe I’d lost my edge; maybe my endless energy was finally waning a bit. There were even more activities that I could have jammed into any already full day and evening. But when I mentioned this observation to my very dear friend Alvin as I forewent a concert and calmly packed up my exhibit boxes on Sunday, he smiled at me and said, “Editing. It’s just editing.”
And he was right.
There’s something very wonderful that occurs as ones brain gets a little dizzier with each solar rotation. We learn what’s important and what’s less so at any given moment, and yes, we finally learn to edit.
I look forward to becoming an old goat, and one who is as good an editor as she is a spewer of things that need editing.
Today’s audio clip in my continuing pixelsonic presentation is performed by another good friend, clarinetist Gerry Errante, whose orbiting sea goat also aligned itself on this very same day of the month. The farm was busy nursing musicians that day!
ACB said,
January 11, 2008 @ 7:57 am
Happy Birthday!! So great to meet you last week. Hope it’s not the last time!
Glenn Buttkus said,
January 11, 2008 @ 7:59 am
Happy Birthday, dear Island Lady!
Here are some interesting facts about your day, this day.
January 11 is the 11th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 354 days remaining until the end of the year (355 in leap years).
Events
1055 – Theodora is crowned Empress of the Byzantine Empire.
1158 – Vladislav II becomes King of Bohemia.
1569 – First recorded lottery in England.
1571 – Austrian nobility is granted freedom of religion.
1693 – Mt. Etna erupts in Sicily, Italy. A powerful earthquake destroys parts of Sicily and Malta.
1759 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first American life insurance company is incorporated.
1779 – Ching-Thang Khomba is crowned King of Manipur.
1787 – William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.
1794 – Robert Forsythe, a U.S. Marshal is killed in Augusta, Georgia when trying to serve court papers, the first US Marshal to die while carrying out his duties.
1805 – The Michigan Territory is created.
1861 – Alabama secedes from the United States.
1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Arkansas Post – General John McClernand and Admiral David Dixon Porter capture the Arkansas River for the Union.
1867 – Benito Juárez becomes the Mexican president again.
1879 – The Anglo-Zulu War begins.
1880 – A total solar eclipse blackens the sky of San Francisco one day after the funeral of Emperor Norton.
1902 – Popular Mechanics magazine is published for the first time.
1908 – Grand Canyon National Monument is created.
1912 – The Lawrence textile strike begins in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
1917 – The Kingsland munitions factory explosion occurs as a result of sabotage.
1919 – Romania annexes Transylvania.
1922 – First use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient.
1923 – Troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area to force Germany to make its reparation payments.
1935 – Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly solo from Hawaii to California.
1942 – Japan declares war on the Netherlands and invades the Netherlands East Indies.
1942 – The Japanese capture Kuala Lumpur.
1943 – The United States and United Kingdom give up territorial rights in China.
1946 – Enver Hoxha declares the People’s Republic of Albania with himself as dictator.
1949 – First recorded case of snowfall in Los Angeles, California.
1957 – The African Convention is founded in Dakar.
1957 – Mass-murderer Jack Gilbert Graham is executed via the Gas Chamber.
1962 – An avalanche on Huascaran in Peru causes 4,000 deaths.
1964 – United States Surgeon General Dr. Luther Leonidas Terry, M.D., publishes a report saying that smoking may be hazardous to health. It is the first such statement ever made by the U.S. government.
1964 – The Whisky a Go Go night club in Los Angeles, the first disco in the United States, is opened.
1970 – The Kansas City Chiefs defeat the Minnesota Vikings 23-7 to win Super Bowl IV. Quarterback Len Dawson is named MVP.
1972 – East Pakistan renames itself Bangladesh.
1973 – The Open University, Britain’s distance-learning university, awards its first degrees.
1974 – The world’s first surviving set of sextuplets are born to Susan Rosenkowitz in Cape Town, South Africa.
1986 – The Gateway Bridge, Brisbane in Queensland, Australia is officially opened.
1990 – 300,000 march in favor of Lithuanian independence.
1994 – The Irish Government announces the end of a 15-year broadcasting ban on the IRA and its political arm Sinn Féin.
1996 – Haiti becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
1998 – Sidi-Hamed massacre takes place in Algeria, over 100 people are killed.
2001 – The Federal Trade Commission approves the merger of AOL and Time Warner to form AOL Time Warner.
Births
1322 – Emperor Komyo of Japan (d. 1380)
1359 – Emperor Go-En’yu of Japan (d. 1393)
1395 – Michelle of Valois, Duchess of Burgundy (d. 1422)
1503 – Parmigianino, Italian artist (d. 1540)
1591 – Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, English Civil War general (d. 1646)
1630 – John Rogers, American President of Harvard in the US (d. 1684)
1671 – François-Marie, 1st duc de Broglie, French military leader (d. 1745)
1723 – Prithvi Narayan Shah, began the unification of modern Nepal (d. 1774)
1755 – Alexander Hamilton, 1st United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1804)
1757 – Samuel Bentham, English mechanical engineer (d. 1831)
1788 – William Thomas Brande, English chemist (d. 1866)
1800 – Anyos Jedlik, Hungarian physicist (d. 1895)
1807 – Ezra Cornell, American businessman and university founder (d. 1874)
1815 – John A. Macdonald, 1st Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1891)
1839 – Eugenio Maria de Hostos, Puerto Rican educator, philosopher and nationalist (d. 1903)
1842 – William James, American psychologist and philosopher (d. 1910)
1845 – Albert Victor Bäcklund, Swedish physicist (d. 1912)
1852 – Konstantin Fehrenbach, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1926)
1853 – Georgios Jakobides, Greek painter (d. 1926)
1856 – Christian Sinding, Norwegian composer (d. 1932)
1858 – Harry Gordon Selfridge, American retailer (d. 1947)
1859 – Lord George Nathaniel Curzon, British statesman, Viceroy of India (d. 1925)
1868 – Cai Yuanpei, Chinese educator (d. 1940)
1870 – Alexander Stirling Calder, American sculptor (d. 1945)
1873 – John Callan O’Laughlin, American political and military figure and journalist (d. 1949)
1875 – Reinhold Glière, Russian composer (d. 1956)
1876 – Elmer Flick, American baseball player (d. 1971)
1885 – Jack Hoxie, American actor, rodeo performer (d. 1965)
1885 – Alice Paul, American women’s rights activist (d. 1977)
1887 – Aldo Leopold, American ecologist (d. 1948)
1890 – Oswald de Andrade, Brazilian author (d.1954)
1897 – August Heissmeyer, German SS officer (d. 1979)
1901 – Kwon Ki-ok, first Korean female pilot (d. 1988)
1902 – Maurice Duruflé, French composer (d. 1986)
1903 – Alan Paton, South African writer (d. 1988)
1906 – Albert Hofmann, Swiss chemist
1907 – Pierre Mendès-France, French politician (d. 1982)
1908 – Lionel Stander, American actor (d. 1994)
1910 – Nikos Kavvadias, Greek poet and writer (d. 1975)
1911 – Zenko Suzuki, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 2004)
1915 – Robert Blair Mayne, British soldier, co-founder Special Air Service (d. 1955)
1916 – Bernard Blier, French actor (d. 1989)
1917 – John Robarts, Canadian politician, Premier of Ontario (d. 1982)
1921 – Juanita M. Kreps, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce
1921 – Gory Guerrero, professional wrestler (d. 1990)
1923 – Carroll Shelby, American race car driver, automobile designer and businessman
1924 – Roger Guillemin, French neuroendocrinologist, Nobel laureate
1924 – Sam B. Hall, American politician (d. 1994)
1924 – Slim Harpo, American musician (d. 1970)
1924 – Don Cherry, American singer and golfer
1925 – Grant Tinker, American television executive
1926 – Lev Demin, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 1998)
1928 – David L. Wolper, American television producer
1930 – Rod Taylor, Australian actor
1932 – Alfonso Arau, Mexican film director
1934 – Jean Chrétien, 20th Prime Minister of Canada
1935 – Ghita Nørby, Danish actress
1938 – Fischer Black, American economist (d. 1995)
1938 – Arthur Scargill, Socialist Labour Party (UK) leader
1939 – Anne Heggtveit, Canadian alpine skier
1941 – Gérson, Brazilian footballer
1942 – Clarence Clemons, American musician (E Street Band)
1943 – Jim Hightower, American radio host and author
1944 – Shibu Soren, Indian politician
1944 – Mohammed Abed Elhai, Sudanese writer and academic (d. 1989)
1945 – Samdech Preah Sanghareach Bour Kry, Supreme Patriarch of the Cambodian Dhammayutt Order
1945 – Christine Kaufmann, German-Austrian actress
1946 – John Piper, American theologian
1946 – Naomi Judd, American singer
1946 – Tony Kaye, British keyboard player (Yes)
1951 – Willie Maddren, English former footballer (d. 2000)
1952 – Ben Crenshaw, American golfer
1952 – Lee Ritenour, American musician and composer
1953 – John Sessions, Scottish actor
1956 – Robert Earl Keen, American singer
1957 – Bryan Robson, English footballer and manager
1958 – Vicki Peterson, American musician (The Bangles)
1958 – Diego León Montoya Sánchez, former Columbian crime boss
1959 – Rob Ramage, Canadian ice hockey player
1961 – Jasper Fforde, British author
1962 – Susan Lindauer, American peace activist and accused spy
1963 – Dean Reynolds, English snooker player
1965 – Roland Scholten, Dutch Darts Player
1966 – Marc Acito, American novelist and humorist
1966 – Kelley Law, Canadian curler
1968 – Tom Dumont, American musician
1968 – Anders Borg, Swedish politician
1969 – Manny Acta, Dominican baseball player
1969 – Kyle Richards, American actress
1970 – Chris Jent, American basketball player and coach
1971 – Mary J. Blige, American singer
1972 – Marc Blucas, American actor
1972 – Amanda Peet, American actress
1973 – Joanna Brodzik, Polish actress
1973 – Rahul Dravid, Indian cricketer
1973 – Rockmond Dunbar, American actor
1974 – Jens Nowotny, German footballer
1974 – Cody McKay, Canadian baseball player
1975 – Rory Fitzpatrick, American ice hockey player
1976 – Efthimios Rentzias, Greek basketball player
1977 – Shomari Buchanan, American football player
1977 – Nadia Turner, American singer
1978 – Emile Heskey, English footballer
1978 – Michael Duff, Northern Irish footballer
1979 – Darren Lynn Bousman, American film director
1979 – Siti Nurhaliza, Malaysian singer
1980 – Mike Williams, American football player
1980 – Deanna Wright, American actress
1981 – Jamelia, English singer
1981 – Tom Meighan, British singer (Kasabian)
1982 – Son Ye-jin, South Korean actress
1982 – Ashley Taylor Dawson, British actor and singer
1983 – Adrian Sutil, German racing driver
1983 – Matthew Palleschi, Canadian soccer player
1985 – Rie fu, Japanese singer
1985 – Kazuki Nakajima, Japanese racing driver
1987 – Scotty Cranmer, American professional BMX rider
1993 – Flora Cross, American actress
Deaths
314 – St. Miltiades
705 – Pope John VI
802 – St. Paulinus II of Aquileia
812 – Staurakios, Byzantine Emperor
844 – Michael I Rhangabes, Byzantine Emperor
1055 – Constantine IX Monomachos, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1000)
1083 – Otto of Nordheim, Duke of Bavaria
1494 – Domenico Ghirlandaio, Italian artist (b. 1449)
1495 – Pedro González de Mendoza, Spanish cardinal and statesman (b. 1428)
1547 – Pietro Bembo, Italian author, literary theorist, and Catholic cardinal (b. 1470)
1641 – Juan Martínez de Jáuregui y Aguilar, Spanish poet (b. 1583)
1696 – Charles Albanel, French missionary explorer in Canada (b. 1616)
1703 – Johann Georg Graevius, German classical scholar and critic (b. 1632)
1713 – Pierre Jurieu, French Protestant leader (b. 1637)
1762 – Louis-François Roubiliac, French sculptor (b. 1695)
1763 – Caspar Abel, German theologian, historian, and poet (b. 1676)
1771 – Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d’Argens, French writer (b. 1704)
1791 – William Williams Pantycelyn, Welsh hymnist (b. 1717)
1801 – Domenico Cimarosa, Italian composer (b. 1749)
1836 – John Molson, Canadian brewer (b. 1763)
1843 – Francis Scott Key, American lawyer and writer of the American national anthem (b. 1779)
1882 – Theodor Schwann, German physiologist (b. 1810)
1901 – Vasily Kalinnikov, Russian composer (b. 1866)
1902 – Johnny Briggs, English cricketer (b. 1862)
1905 – Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter, Hasidic rabbi (b. 1847)
1914 – Carl Jacobsen, Danish brewer and patron of the arts after whom the Carlsberg brewery was named (b. 1842)
1923 – King Constantine I of Greece (b. 1868)
1928 – Thomas Hardy, English writer (b. 1840)
1931 – James Milton Carroll, American Baptist pastor, leader, historian, and author (b. 1852)
1941 – Emanuel Lasker, German chess player (b. 1868)
1952 – Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, French general, posthumous Marshal of France (b. 1889)
1952 – Aureliano Pertile, Italian tenor (b. 1885)
1954 – Oscar Straus, Austrian composer (b. 1870)
1958 – Edna Purviance, American actress (b. 1895)
1966 – Alberto Giacometti, Swiss sculptor (b. 1901)
1966 – Hannes Kolehmainen, Finnish runner (b. 1889)
1968 – Isidor Isaac Rabi, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1898)
1970 – Richmal Crompton, British author (b. 1890)
1978 – Ibn-e-Insha, Pakistani humorist and Urdu poet (b. 1927)
1979 – Jack Soo, American actor (b. 1917)
1980 – Barbara Pym, English novelist (b. 1913)
1981 – Beulah Bondi, American actress (b. 1888)
1983 – Shri Ghanshyam Das Birla, Indian industrialist and educator (b. 1894)
1988 – Gregory “Pappy” Boyington, American WW II Marine aviator (b. 1912)
1988 – Florence Knapp, American, one-time oldest person in the world (b. 1873)
1991 – Carl David Anderson, American physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1905)
1994 – Helmut Poppendick, Nazi physician (b. 1902)
1998 – Klaus Tennstedt, German conductor (b. 1926)
1999 – Fabrizio de André, Italian singer (b. 1940)
1999 – Brian Moore, Irish-born writer (b. 1921)
2000 – Ivan Combe, American inventor (b. 1911)
2000 – Bob Lemon, American baseball player (b. 1920)
2001 – Sir Denys Lasdun, English architect (b. 1914)
2002 – Henri Verneuil, French playwright and film director (b. 1920)
2003 – Mickey Finn, English drummer (T. Rex) (b. 1947)
2003 – Maurice Pialat, French actor and director (b. 1925)
2003 – Richard Simmons, American actor (b. 1913)
2005 – Spencer Dryden, American drummer (Jefferson Airplane) (b. 1938)
2005 – James Griffin, American musician (Bread) (b. 1943)
2005 – Miriam Hyde, Australian composer (b. 1913)
2005 – Fabrizio Meoni, Italian motorcyclist (b. 1957)
2006 – Markus Löffel (Mark Spoon), German DJ (b. 1966)
2006 – Nixzmary Brown, American child abuse victim (b. 1998)
2007 – Robert Anton Wilson, American author (b. 1932)
2007 – Solveig Dommartin, French-German actress (b. 1961)
2007 – Puchi Balseiro, Puerto Rican singer & songwriter
2008 – Sir Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer, the first person to climb Mt Everest in 1953 (b. 1919)
Holidays and observances
Albania – Republic Day (1946)
Morocco – Independence Resistance Day
Nepal – Unity Day
Puerto Rico – Eugenio Maria de Hostos Day
Roman Empire – First day of Carmentalia in honor of Carmenta
Religious feast days
Paulinus of Aquileia
Theodosius the Cenobiarch
January 11 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
And of course, it can not be left out that Alex Shapiro Day is a feast of the heart and mind throughout the San Juan Islands and County. Many happy returns there, “young lady”. One nice thing about being an old fart [I am 63+] is so many critters become younger than you every year. I am a Gemini and am overjoyed at being the earthly intellectual.
Sounds like your friend Alvin is also a wise man, and a kind man. Yes, editing, prioritizing, gauging our energies, watching the seasons come and go at cyber speed, piling emotions and experiences away in memory boxes within us that color our Art and our life. Yes, Nanny goats also have horns, as do cows if you do not cut them off. Goats make good pets, if you have the room for them. They follow you like a dog, wagging their tale and talking to you; and they are very smart, and quite affectionate. Maybe Rancho Shapiro needs a goat to keep the weeds down, and protect the premises.
Glenn
Doug Palmer said,
January 11, 2008 @ 10:43 am
Happy demarcation and declaration day to you.
Congrats on completion of another solar lap.
Doug Palmer said,
January 11, 2008 @ 11:06 am
By the way, it’s not a funk, it’s a fugue
“Fuga Petrum”;
A fugue especially designed for stone hall made of several sub-halls of varying lengths tuned for specific echo delays so that one need only play the first subject on the organ and the various halls will echo in at the proper intervals and create not only the answering counterpoint but even create new subjects.
Grants are being sought as we speak.
Glenn Buttkus said,
January 12, 2008 @ 1:03 pm
Folks need to check out Palmer’s blog, FEEL FREE TO LAUGH, where he describes in detail his three imaginary creative compositions, and then check out my comment regarding the opening of the PALMER PALACE OF THE ARTS on the hill overlooking Madrona. This is pure theatre of the mind, and a rib tickler, and an ode to everything. I even included Alex as an audience member; which I’m sure she would be. Palmer got money (in his mind) from Bill Gates to spite Paul Allen, and then he contacted Norman Langill (an old college theatre and acting buddy of mine) to include his performers from Teatro Zinzani, and then he contacted Arne Zaslove, our old director and teacher from the 70’s who is still working and teaching in Seattle, to do some directing and designing of sets. This event would set the cultural soothsayers and critical cretins on their ears. Good stuff, the theatre of the mind. A lot of good musical compositions come from there as I understand it.
Glenn
John said,
January 13, 2008 @ 12:22 pm
Happy Birthday (belated!)!
So great to catch up with you – until next time!
JC
Barry said,
January 14, 2008 @ 4:56 pm
Oh Alex,
Happy Mucho Belated BD!
That you were born – wonderful!
That you travel this terrestrial ball – marvelous!
That you share yourself, your musings, melodies, rhapsodies and rapier wit – absolutely awesome!
You Rock!
Just glad to know you,
Barry
Kyle said,
January 17, 2008 @ 6:49 pm
Happy (very late) birthday from a fellow Capricorn (1/3). I haven’t posted much, but I do read and listen to everything you post. It’s fascinating, especially the music. Keep it up!
Alex Shapiro said,
January 17, 2008 @ 11:17 pm
Thanks for the great wishes, everyone! You make getting older even more fun than it already is
(and it IS fun).
🙂