With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.
I enjoy paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.
February 01, 2008 - 12:10 p.m.
I'm making a rare morning update to Wise Madness. By the time I'm finished it might even be an afternoon entry.
Yesterday was a long fun day. The early class went well. Some of the students seem to think that when I do a problem at the board that I need for them to give me the answers. It gets hard to talk sometimes when they are half a beat ahead or behind me. I don't want to say something because they are being enthusiastic and participating and I don't want to embarrass them. I hoped they'd get the message from my attempts to not miss a beat and just keep talking. I will have to speak up if it continues.
I did my first dressing down of the semester. Last week I gave the big speech about how if they are going to miss a quiz or test that they have to let me know in advance if possible and that day if not. I have that written out in the outline I gave them. A student missed the quiz on Tuesday and came to me yesterday and said, "I missed the quiz on Tuesday." I told him that I was aware of it and reminded him that he was supposed to let me know that day no exceptions. He then asked if he could make it up and I told him no. He knew the rule and simply chose to not follow it. I said that it was his decision to get a zero on the quiz and I'm abiding by it. So he said, "but can I take the quiz?" He just didn't like my answer. I know I am being harsh but if I am not everyone who isn't prepared for he quiz just misses it and takes it the next time. This way the class knows I'm serious. It's a good lesson. At some point he has to learn that the world change to suit his needs. I should charge him extra tuition.
After class I went straight home. I had just about enough time to have lunch and talk to Lena on the phone then I headed back into the city to pick up Jessica. I actually drove in to meet her at Penn Station. I made good time and beat her there by a few minutes. I didn't attempt to park, we made plans for her to meet me outside. I had to circle the block about three or four times, which isn't too bad. The reason I drove was because she had her bag for the weekend and we didn't want to carry that around all day. This way we could keep it in my car. I drove up to school and used the lot we have the discount with. I used that about once a year. I had less trouble getting there than usual. There are a lot of one-way streets that are not part of the regular pattern and streets that don't go through in the neighborhood. As I rarely drive I don't really know them.
After we parked we took a walk through Central Park and watched the Ice Skaters. Then we headed back to my office. I did a little prep for class and left Jess there while I taught. I set her up on my computer and had it play WFUV for her.
I shortened the class so we'd have time for dinner before we went to see Richard Thompson. The concert was the point of Jess's visit. For dinner we walked down to the Stage Deli. I gave her some choices and that was what she wanted. It is a real New York experience so I'm glad she chose it. I haven't eaten there in ages even though it is only ten minutes from school. It is a bit pricey so I only go there with on special occasions.
We then walked down to the Nokia Theatre in Times Square for the show. We went to will call where they had my name down as "George." They gave me the tickets anyway. I hope they were my tickets.
I've never been to the Nokia before. It was interesting. The physical space outside the auditorium is really nice though the actual performance space is bland. It is very well designed though. There is stadium seating and based on our seats great acoustics. Even though we were about three quarters of the way back we could see and hear great. We were in the first row of the mezzanine right by the sound booth.
This wasn't a regular Richard Thompson show, he did A Thousand Years of Popular Music. I think the earliest piece he did was from 1190 and was written by Richard the Lionhearted. Whenever I think of Richard I I don't think of Robin Hood I think of The Lion in Winter. That portrays him as blustering macho warrior so it is hard to picture him writing a song in the style of the French troubadours.
The show was great as always. If you haven't seen him live you'd never imagine how funny and downright silly Richard Thompson is. His songs are so dark but he's is positively puckish.
He was accompanied by Judith Owen on piano and vocals and Debra Dobkins on percussion and vocals. I never saw Debra before. She was great. What is it with all the female percussionists? It used to be a male preserve. I'm not complaining, I'm pleasantly pleased by the change.
On the way to the show we passed the theater where Mama Mia was playing. When I gave my usual anti-Abba rant Jess explained to me why she liked them; She was basically imprinted with their music as a baby by her parents. Richard must have overheard us as he one of their songs to represent the seventies. Was it called Money. I try to keep myself in ignorance of all things Abba.
One piece they performed was a setting of a William Butler Yeats poem to music. It is hard to think of something that would more remind me of Carey. We saw RT together many times and Yeats is her favorite poet. I gave her a first edition of his poems for her graduation.
The last song before the encore and the most recent was something by Nelly Furtado. Just to make things fun he had part of it translated into Latin and he sang that part in the style of fourteen-century church music. Have I mentioned that I love Richard Thompson?
As the show neared the end I realized that I forgot to get my parking ticket validated. Without my school discount the price of the parking would be exorbitant. Instead of walking back to school we took the subway back so we'd get there before eleven. I was pleased that the building was still open and the security desk still manned so I got it validated then. Strangely enough we go back to my house at exactly the same time we would have if we had taken the Long Island Railroad.
Today Jess had plans to meet friends in the City so I drove her to the LIRR. Before I did that I made her a matzoh brei breakfast. I didn't bother getting dressed. I just drove her to the station in my sweats. I value that extra sleep.
One of these days I'll write about outside events again. I just don't know when. I have a great musical weekend. Last night was Richard Thompson. Tonight it is Red Molly, and tomorrow The Roches and We're About 9. I'll be merching both of those shows.
It is time for me to shower then have lunch.
The International Jewish Banking Conspiracy - October 07, 2008
On the Road to Westchester County - October 06, 2008
Inside the Madison Square Studio - October 05, 2008
I'm a Bosniac and I'm debating like I've never debated before - October 03, 2008
Islands in the Stream of Consciousness - October 02, 2008
Email me: GordonLew at gmail
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Horvendile February 01, 2008
