From CNN : Obama knocks Netanyahu comment on Arabs

Obama knocks Netanyahu comment on Arabs
http://www.cnn.com//2015/03/21/politics/obama-netanyahu-comments/index.html

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From CNN : Obama knocks Netanyahu comment on Arabs

Obama knocks Netanyahu comment on Arabs
http://www.cnn.com//2015/03/21/politics/obama-netanyahu-comments/index.html

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From CNN : War protesters drop coffins at White House

War protesters drop coffins at White House
http://www.cnn.com//2015/03/21/politics/iraq-war-protesters/index.html

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From CNN : Judge orders release of detainee photos

Judge orders release of detainee photos
http://www.cnn.com//2015/03/21/us/detainee-photos-lawsuit/index.html

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From BBC news : Go Figure: The week in numbers

Go Figure: The week in numbers http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-31985656

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From BBC news : Leaving Kosovo: Exodus of young people as frustration soars

Leaving Kosovo: Exodus of young people as frustration soars http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-31967471

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From BBC news : The land of trout and gauchos

The land of trout and gauchos http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-31988115

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From BBC news : The men who uncovered Assyria

The men who uncovered Assyria http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-31941827

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From BBC news : Footage shows Tunis museum attackers

Footage shows Tunis museum attackers http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-32005866

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From BBC news : ‘IS online threat’ to US military

‘IS online threat’ to US military http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-32006068

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From BBC news : ‘No bad deal’ with Iran, powers vow

‘No bad deal’ with Iran, powers vow http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-32003852

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From France 24 : The Woman who dared film life under the IS group

Video: The Syrian woman who dared film life under the IS group

http://f24.my/18Pb0IQ

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From CNN : Why Putin’s hosting Kim Jong Un

Why Putin’s hosting Kim Jong Un
http://www.cnn.com//2015/03/20/politics/vladimir-putin-kim-jong-un-russia-north-korea/index.html

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From CNN : Petraeus: ISIS isn’t biggest long-term threat

Petraeus: ISIS isn’t biggest long-term threat
http://www.cnn.com//2015/03/20/politics/petraeus-greatest-threat-iraq-isis-shiite-militias/index.html

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From CNN : Americans increasingly concerned about ISIS

Americans increasingly concerned about ISIS
http://www.cnn.com//2015/03/19/politics/poll-isis-terror-threat-u-s-/index.html

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From CNN : ISIS’ explosive expansion

ISIS’ explosive expansion
http://www.cnn.com//2015/03/20/world/isis-expansion/index.html

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From NPR News

Under ISIS, Life In Mosul Takes A Turn For The Bleak http://n.pr/1BcOZdG

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From NPR News

2 Men Convicted In Canada In 2013 Train Derailment Plot http://n.pr/19bcjBP

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From France 24 :

Pope rails against crime and corruption in Naples

http://f24.my/18OHPWn

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From France 24 :

Armenia’s Sargsyan slams Erdogan’s absence at genocide centennial

http://f24.my/1xo5Z5L

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From CNN : U.S. pulling Special Operations forces from Yemen air base due to deteriorating security.

U.S. pulling Special Operations forces from Yemen air base due to deteriorating security.
http://www.cnn.com

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Today In History. What Happened This Day In History

A chronological timetable of historical events that occurred on this day in history. Historical facts of the day in the areas of military, politics, science, music, sports, arts, entertainment and more. Discover what happened today in history.

Today in History
March 21

630		Heraclius restores the True Cross, which he has recaptured from the Persians.
1556		Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is burned at the stake at Oxford after retracting the last of seven recantations that same day.
1617		Pocahontas (Rebecca Rolfe) dies of either small pox or pneumonia while in England with her husband, John Rolfe.
1788		Almost the entire city of New Orleans, Louisiana, is destroyed by fire.
1806		Lewis and Clark begin their trip home after an 8,000 mile trek of the Mississippi basin and the Pacific Coast.
1865		The Battle of Bentonville, N.C. ends, marking the last Confederate attempt to stop Union General William Sherman.
1851		Emperor Tu Duc orders that Christian priests are to put to death.
1858		British forces in India lift the siege of Lucknow, ending the Indian Mutiny.
1906		Ohio passes a law that prohibits hazing by fraternities.
1908		Frenchman Henri Farman carries a passenger in a bi-plane for the first time.
1910		The U.S. Senate grants ex-President Teddy Roosevelt an annual pension of $10,000.
1918		The Germans launch the ‘Michael’ offensive, better remembered as the First Battle of the Somme.
1928		President Calvin Coolidge presents the Congressional Medal of Honor to Charles Lindbergh, a captain in the US Army Air Corps Reserve, for making the first solo trans-Atlantic flight. On June 11, 1927, Lindbergh had received the first Distinguished Flying Cross ever awarded.
1939		Singer Kate Smith records “God Bless America” for Victor Records.
1941		The last Italian post in East Libya, North Africa, falls to the British.
1951		Secretary of Defense George C. Marshall reports that the U.S. military has doubled to 2.9 million since the start of the Korean War.
1963		Alcatraz Island, the federal penitentiary in San Francisco Bay, California, closes.
1965		The United States launches Ranger 9, last in a series of unmanned lunar explorations.
1971		Two U.S. platoons in Vietnam refuse their orders to advance.
1975		As North Vietnamese forces advance, Hue and other northern towns in South Vietnam are evacuated.
1980		President Jimmy Carter announces to the U.S. Olympic Team that they will not participate in the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow as a boycott against Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.
1984		A Soviet submarine crashes into the USS Kitty Hawk off the coast of Japan.
Born on March 21
1685		Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer.
1806		Benito Juarez, President of Mexico.
1869		Albert Kahn, architect who originated modern factory design.
1869		Florenz Ziegfeld, producer, creator of Ziegfeld Follies.
1885		Raoul Lufbery, French-born American fighter pilot of World War I.

– See more at: http://www.historynet.com/today-in-history#sthash.SLpTJQCE.dpuf

today’s image: A Pony Express Rider (because no culture can survive without reliable communication)

A Pony Express rider makes a friendly gesture toward men putting up a telegraph line, in a wood engraving (from a painting by George M. Ottinger) that appeared in the November 2, 1867, Harper’s Weekly. The completion of the transcontinental telegraph on October 24, 1861, actually cost such riders their jobs. – See more at: http://www.historynet.com/picture-of-the-day#sthash.JPdsG59p.dpuf

happy birthday Bach: Concerto for Two Keyboards in C major, BWV 1061, Andras Schiff, Peter Serkin

Bach: Concerto for Two Keyboards in C major, BWV 1061, Andras Schiff, Peter Serkin

MainlyPiano

Published on Jan 12, 2013

I. [Allegro] 0:00
II. Adagio ovvero Largo 7:24
III. Fuga 13:11

András Schiff and Peter Serkin, pianos
Camerata Bern

Happy birthday Bach: Mozart Quartet No 19 K 465 Dissonanze Dissonances Hagen Quartet

Mozart Quartet No 19 K 465 Dissonanze Dissonances Hagen Quartet

La Casa di Davide

x

The String Quartet No. 19 in C Major, KV. 465 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, nicknamed “Dissonance” on account of its unusual slow introduction, is perhaps the most famous of his quartets. It is the last in the set of six quartets composed between 1782-1785 that he dedicated to Joseph Haydn.
According to the catalog of works Mozart began early the preceding year, the quartet was completed on January 14, 1785. As is normal with Mozart’s later quartets, it is in four movements:
1. Adagio-Allegro
2. Andante cantabile – in F major
3. Menuetto. Allegro. (C major, trio in C minor)
4. Allegro molto
The first movement opens with ominous quiet Cs in the cello, joined successively by the viola (on A♭ moving to a G), the second violin (on E♭) and the first violin (on A), thus creating the “dissonance” itself and narrowly avoiding a greater one. This lack of harmony and fixed key continues throughout the slow introduction before resolving into the bright C major of the Allegro section of the first movement, which is in sonata form. Mozart goes on to use chromatic and whole tone scales to outline fourths. Arch shaped lines emphasizing fourths in the first violin (C – F – C) and the violoncello (G – C – C’ – G’) are combined with lines emphasizing fifths in the second violin and viola. Over the barline between the second and third measures of the example a fourth-suspension can be seen in the second violin’s tied C. In another of his string quartets, KV 464, such fourth-suspensions are also very prominent.
The second movement is in sonatina form, i.e. lacking the development section. Alfred Einstein writes of the coda of this movement that “the first violin openly expresses what seemed hidden beneath the conversational play of the subordinate theme.” The third movement is a minuet and trio, with the exuberant mood of the minuet darkening into the C minor of the trio. The last movement is also in sonata form.
—————————————-­————————————-
FREE .mp3 and .wav files of all Mozart’s music at: http://www.mozart-archiv.de/
FREE sheet music scores of any Mozart piece at: http://dme.mozarteum.at/DME/nma/start…
ALSO check out these cool sites: http://musopen.org/
and http://imslp.org/wiki/

Happy birthday Bach: Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050 (Freiburger Barockorchester)

Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050 (Freiburger Barockorchester)

EuroArtsChannel

Published on Sep 17, 2014

From the “Spiegelsaal” Castle Cöthen (Schloß Köthen)
Freiburger Barockorchester

Soloists / Solisten:
Karl Kaiser: transverse flute / Querflöte / flûte traversière
Gottfried von der Goltz: violin / Violine / violon
Michael Behringer: harpsichord / Cembalo / clavecin

Recorded at the Hall of Mirrors, Palace of Cöthen, 23-26 March 2000
Directed by Hans Hadulla, Produced by Isabel Iturriagagoitia
Executive Producers: Paul Smaczny & Bernd Hellthaler

Happy birthday Bach! Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048 (Freiburger Barockorchester)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLj_gMBqHX8

Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048 (Freiburger Barockorchester)

EuroArtsChannel

Published on Sep 2, 2014

From the “Spiegelsaal” Castle Cöthen (Schloß Köthen)
Freiburger Barockorchester

Recorded at the Hall of Mirrors, Palace of Cöthen, 23-26 March 2000
Directed by Hans Hadulla, Produced by Isabel Iturriagagoitia
Executive Producers: Paul Smaczny & Bernd Hellthaler

today’s holiday: Bering Sea Ice Golf Classic (2015)

Bering Sea Ice Golf Classic (2015)

This golfing challenge, played on a six-hole course with bright orange golf balls, takes place on the frozen Bering Sea off Nome, Alaska, at a time when the winds can be gale-strength. Par is 41, but winners have claimed scores as low as 23. Entry fees benefit the Lions Club. The tournament, not a wholly serious affair, coincides with the final days of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race that starts about the first of March and ends in Nome about two weeks later. More… Discuss

happy birthday Bach: Willem van Twillert plays Bach, Dorische Toccata BWV 538, Deaken/Marcussen-organ Goes [NL]

happy birthday Bach!

Willem van Twillert plays Bach, Dorische Toccata BWV 538, Deaken/Marcussen-organ Goes [NL]

Willem van Twillert

Willem van Twillert plays Bach, Dorische Toccata BWV 538, at the Deaken/Marcussen-orgel, Magdalena church, Goes [NL]
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_v…
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_v… [Auf Deutsch; German Text]

 

quotation: Sir Walter Scott

There is a vulgar incredulity, which in historical matters, as well as in those of religion, finds it easier to doubt than to examine.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) Discuss

today’s birthday: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685) Willem van Twillert plays Bach, Ich ruf zu dir, [BWV 639] Garrels-organ, Purmerend

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685)

 

Willem van Twillert plays Bach, Ich ruf zu dir, [BWV 639] Garrels-organ, Purmerend

Willem van Twillert

Uploaded on Jun 3, 2011

Willem van Twilllert plays Johann Sebastian Bach, Ich ruf zu Dir [BWV 639]
Willem van Twillert plays the Garrels-organ in the Sint Nicolaaschurch at Purmerend [NL]
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_v…
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_v…
Buy this and other DVD’s with Dutch organists on Dutch historical organs produced by Willem van Twillert at: http://www.bol.com/nl/s/dvd/zoekresul…
Willem van Twillert (1952) studied organ at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam with Piet Kee as his Organ professor, with whom he also studied improvisation and composition. In 1975 he began 3 years of orchestral conducting studies with Anton Kersjes. In 1976 he obtained the diploma for Church Music and in 1978 the diploma of Performing Musician cum laude, with a teaching-endorsement for improvisation. A scholarship afforded him the opportunity to specialise in old music between 1978 and 1981, including studies with Gustav Leonhardt.
In 1976, van Twillert was the first Dutch organist to reach the final of the Grand Prix de Chartres in France.

As an organist he has become a well-known performing musician both at home and abroad, thanks mainly to his concerts in the Netherlands, as well as in the U.S.A., Italy, Germany and England
See for more addresses and details: http://www.willemvantwillert.nl

“To strip human nature until its divine attributes are made clear, to inform ordinary activities with spiritual fervor, to give wings of eternity to that which is most ephemeral; to make divine things human and human things divine; such is Bach, the greatest and purest moment in music of all time.”
– Pablo Casals

“And if we look at the works of JS Bach – a benevolent god to which all musicians should offer a prayer to defend themselves against mediocrity – on each page we discover things which we thought were born only yesterday, from delightful arabesques to an overflowing of religious feeling greater than anything we have since discovered. And in his works we will search in vain for anything the least lacking in good taste.”
– Claude Debussy

“Bach is the beginning and end of all music.”
– Max Reger

“…the greatest Christian music in the world…if life had taken hope and faith from me, this single chorus would restore all.”
– Felix Mendelssohn (On the “Gloria in excelsis Deo” from Mass in B minor)

“I had no idea of the historical evolution of the civilized world’s music and had not realized that all modern music owes everything to Bach.”
– Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

“Not Brook but Ocean should be His name.”
– Ludwig Van Beethoven

“Now there is music from which a man can learn something.”
– W. A. Mozart (on hearing Bach motets in Leipzig)

“Study Bach: there you will find everything.”
– Johannes Brahms

“Whether the angels play only Bach praising God, I am not quite sure.”
– Karl Barth

“Bach is Bach, as God is God.”
– Hector Berlioz

“O you happy sons of the North who have been reared at the bosom of Bach, how I envy you.”
– Giuseppi Verdi

“…the most stupendous miracle in all music!.”
– Richard Wagner

“Bach is a colossus of Rhodes, beneath whom all musicians pass and will continue to pass. Mozart is the most beautiful, Rossini the most brilliant, but Bach is the most comprehensive: he has said all there is to say. If all the music written since Bach’s time should be lost, it could be reconstructed on the foundation which Bach laid.”
– Charles Gounod

“The poetry, the atmosphere, the intensity of expression, the beauty of the preludes and fugues grip, overwhelm, and stimulate us. Let us not be afraid of the supreme contrapuntal science of the fugues, nor be overawed by the stern appearance and heavy wig of Father Bach. Let us gather around him, feel the love, the noble goodness that flow from each one of his phrases and that invigorate and bind us by ties strong and warm.”
– Carl Friedrich Zelter (letter to Goethe, 9 June 1827)

“Bach is the supreme genius of music… This man, who knows everything and feels everything, cannot write one note, however unimportant it may appear, which is anything but transcendent. He has reached the heart of every noble thought, and has done it in the most perfect way.”
– Pablo Casals

“Any musician, even the most gifted, takes a place second to Bach’s at the very start.”
– Paul Hindemith

“If one were asked to name one musician who came closest to composing without human flaw, I suppose general consensus would choose Johann Sebastian Bach…”
– Aaron Copland

“In Bach, the vital cells of music are united as the world is in God.”
– Gustav Mahler

“If Bach is not in Heaven…..I am not going!”
– William F. Buckley

“I have this to say about Bachs works; listen, play, love, revere – and keep your trap shut”
– Albert Einstein

One of the greatest and most influential composers of the Western world, Bach created masterful works in almost every musical form known in his period. During his lifetime, Bach was better known as an organist than as a composer, and his works, which include the Brandenburg Concertos, four orchestral suites, and more than 200 church cantatas, were not fully appreciated until long after his death. Bach is the most represented composer on the Voyager Golden Record, which is what? More… Discuss

Why IS wants to expand into Yemen

Why IS wants to expand into Yemen http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-31998682

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10 things we didn’t know last week

10 things we didn’t know last week http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-31951844

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France polls: A step closer to power for the National Front?

France polls: A step closer to power for the National Front? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-31981555

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this day in the yesteryear: Who Shot J.R.? (1980) (remember Dallas?)

Who Shot J.R.? (1980)

The 1980 season finale of the popular prime-time soap opera Dallas ended with the show’s central character—J.R. Ewing, a greedy, scheming oil baron—being shot by an unknown assailant. The cliffhanger left viewers wondering for months whether he would survive and which of his many enemies had pulled the trigger. The episode that revealed the culprit became one of the highest rated television shows in history, drawing an estimated 83 million viewers. So, who shot J.R.? More… Discuss

Migraines

Migraines

A migraine is a headache characterized by recurrent attacks of severe pain, usually on one side of the head. It may be preceded by flashes or spots before the eyes or a ringing in the ears, and accompanied by double vision, nausea, vomiting, or dizziness. It affects women 3 times as often as men and is frequently inherited. Although the exact cause is unknown, evidence suggests a genetically transmitted functional disturbance of cranial circulation. What is the origin of the word “migraine?” More… Discuss

word: dichotomy

dichotomy

Definition:	(noun) Division into two usually contradictory parts or opinions.
Synonyms:	duality
Usage:	One of the novel’s themes is the dichotomy of Eastern and Western culture. Discuss.

From France 24 : tide of the century

In pictures: ‘Tide of the century’ brings thousands to Mont Saint-Michel

http://f24.my/18OAFS4

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From NPR News

Why Los Angeles’ Fast Food Ban Did Nothing To Check Obesity http://n.pr/1AHxKlv

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From NPR News: A year of Ebola

A Year Of Ebola: Memorable Moments From Our Reporters’ Notebooks http://n.pr/1EAwVyR

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From BBC : The ancient city that’s crumbling away

The ancient city that’s crumbling away http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-31984489

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