Bach had a lot of mouths to feed – twenty children or so?  He wrote this concerto (probably by the light of burning Vivaldi manuscripts – he emulated a lot of earlier composers) as a violin concerto first, if memory serves, then transposed it down a key to D major and sold it off as a keyboard concerto.  This is the first movement, could not find a video of Gould doing the third movement, my favorite.

We had intended to write a clever little post about how the U.S. Department of Labor’s History of Labor Day page neglects to mention the inspirational role of the Pullman Strike of 1894 in establishing the federal holiday that year.

But we ran into a glitch.

Read more »

Used to be able to get thru the first Goldberg Variation … not so much anymore. Gould’s 1981 taping of the Goldberg Variations is still the most staggeringly impressive thing I’ve ever seen done on a keyboard. And he was using a beat-up Yamaha concert grand (instead of his usual Steinway).

The New York Times has a story today on the hottest new trend in Emergency response: fee for service.

ABOUT a year ago Cary Feldman was surprised to find himself sprawled on the pavement in an intersection in Chicago Heights, Ill., having been knocked off his motor scooter by the car behind him. Five months later he got another surprise: a bill from the fire department for responding to the scene of the accident. Read more »

Title: “A Journey: My Political Life”

Author: Tony Blair

Rank: 7

Blurb: “In frank, unflinching, often wry detail, Tony Blair charts the ups and downs of his career to provide insight into the man as well as the politician and statesman.”

Review: “Perhaps we were all fooled to some extent by the young, pretty boy, self assured image — although it is an image that has now also caught on in other parties!”

Customers Also Bought: “Our Kind of Traitor,” by John le Carré.

Footnote: “Tony Blair pelted with eggs at book signing in Dublin” [BBC]

A Journey [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon kickback link]

However bad traffic gets this holiday weekend, just remember: It could be worse. It could be China’s latest 75-mile instant trailer park.

Bumper-to-bumper as epic China traffic jam returns [AFP/Yahoo]

This is the Times Square shuttle – takes you to Grand Central. Not only did they do the outside of the cars, they put decals on the inside.

Read more »