April 22, 2014
This morning listened to Mahler’s 8th. This afternoon was about to watch an episode
of Rocky & Bullwinkle, and turned to grab the remotes, doing so recalling that I’d last used them
when listening to Mahler; I then thought of Elaine Stritch’s anecdote about
thinking “a piece of Mahler” from the Sondheim song referred to a Viennese
pastry, that’s how ignorant she was. In
the Aesop & Son installment of R&B there was a sheepdog/wolf
fable: the sheepdog was named “Mauler” –
which, of course, is not how I heard it at first. Just now reading a Michael Musto article on the “10 Gayest Movies Ever
Made”. The final one No. 10 was “Death
in Venice” which not surprisingly mentioned Mahler (and the equally ignorant WB
brass wanting to track the composer down).
On the following page Musto changes the subject to the new “Bullets Over
Broadway” musical, but segues into it with:
“Let’s slice up a piece of Mahler’s and keep the nostalgia coming.”
April 23, 2014
Another uncanny Rocky & Bullwinkle
related coincidence… On the bus ride tonight remembered Bob’s joking suggestion
on Sunday that I take part in liturgical dance.. I thought that I should have
answered that I had two left feet, and then recalled Eugene Levy in “For Your
Consideration” playing a character who actually had two left feet and to
demonstrate that was wearing two left shoes.
… On R&B the Fractured Fairy Tale was The Shoemaker and the Elves…
the Elves end up making all left shoes…
April 28, 2014
Mr. Peabody and Sherman visited James
McNeil Whistler today, to see him paint the famous portrait of his mother.
After the usual misadventures, Peabody
closed the episode by referring to
another Whistler painting that had been
confused with the famous one – a horse running through the rain, which was
called – “Whistler’s Mudder”. I didn’t
recognize the reference to “mudder”, so looked up the word on Google: came up with a slew of references to a “Tough
Mudder” competition, which is apparently a kind of army-style brutal obstacle
race that people are putting themselves through lately. The top reference referred to such a
competition in – of course – Whistler B.C.
Not such a huge coincidence, perhaps. Given that there is a competition punningly
called “Tough Mudder” it’s inevitable that Whistler would become one of the venues
for it.
