Opera violations

nothing to do with blog text: sixtos refrigerator art

April 18th: I wrote WRR about the abysmal commercials that disrupt the live feed from New York of the Metropolitan Opera Saturdays during the winter and spring. They drive me crazy. Opera is sacred to my soul. Texaco sponsored this thing for so long, dated back to before I was born even. Mama always said I got my love of music from her: She listened to the opera broadcasts while I was inside her!!!! But I just had to write WRR and let them know they were allowing a scrolled to occur!


April 18th: I wrote WRR about the abysmal commercials that disrupt the live feed from New York of the Metropolitan Opera Saturdas during the winter and spring.

Sirs:
 
I know you have heard this before, but the commercial messages that interrupt the Met Broadcast each Saturday this year are an abomination. Not only does it break the mood of the broadcast, it covers up valuable information that us opera lovers find indispensable. For many this is the most sacred time of all radio that we have. It is a deep annoyance at least, and a most, a slap in the jaw!!!!
 
I am going to pass this message to all those that advertise, even the cultural societies, and the Campbell Art Gallery, to name one I know and love, even, people that ought to know better. They and WRR ought to be ashamed of their insensitivity.
 
Some of us are too poor to ever get to see a Met performance live again (or ever),[sob sob poor me] and this outlet has been a life-long habit for me and many other old and new opera buffs. These wonderful broadcasts should not be ruined with the dead beat commercial distractions. I will never buy another drop of Texaco again, for abandoning us, and not support the companies that demand their commercials to be played while valuable opera programing is in progress. Sometimes even the music is covered over!!!
 
Intolerable, it is, and insulting.
 
Faithful listener, anyway
 
Preston Faggart
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Isaacs reply:


Mr. Faggart,
 
Since Texaco dropped their long-term exclusive sponsorship of the Met, it’s been up to those stations who wish to carry the broadcasts to find sponsors.
 
In perspective, an average four-hour Met broadcast includes about five commercials.  That same four-hour time frame during mid-day Saturday,  with no Met broadcast, would include up to 40 commercials—quite a difference!
 
As we look ahead to next season’s broadcasts, we will certainly evaluate all financial options available to us to fund such broadcasts and keep any commercial interruptions to a minimum.
 
Gary Isaacs
 
Gary M. Isaacs
Sales Manager
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My response:


Thanks Mr. Isaacs,  appreciate your reply, and I do understand the problem.  Last week the broadcast of "Marriage of Figaro" was much better.  Fewer commercials.  Better placed!  Considering the nature of the live feed from New York and all.....  But the intermission features are important to us also. The Met does a complete package.    We were just spoiled by the Texico sponsorship all those years. They understood this.   I wish those wind-fall profits from the high gas prices were put into opera sponsorship.  

Like a lot of your listeners I am a supporter of public radio, and their broadcasts at KERA are to me the golden standard, knowing you cannot do that.  Maybe some of us opera lovers could start a fund to buy commercial time and have anti-commercials... let the streaming feed flow!!!!  That would take a real campaign, of course.

Over all, WRR is still the best commercial station on the air for many of us and long may it live and thrive!!!

Preston

PS.   I wish the Saturday afternoon operas could continue all year.  Guest hosts could present recordings of their favorite classics would be nice....

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Gary’s reply:
 
Mr. Faggart,
 
Believe me….we are VERY open to the concept of a non-commercial broadcast of the Met for this next season---if we can find a company(s) to help underwrite the program.
 
If you know of any firms which love the cultural arts as much as we all do, please advise me and you and I can begin to work out this concept.  Thanks for your loyalty to WRR and thanks for being open to a new idea!
 
Gary
 

events

I heard the plaintive cry of what I thought to be a Mourning Dove, but guess what? it was a roadrunner perched atop my house, crying his heart out. Boy did he fool me. Hope this will get him a mate. Do male birds get blue balls?
ROADIE


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Lord, what has happened? Went to the the Main Street Art Festivities with Debbie and Brandon. What could I have been thinking!! But it turned out OK. Here is D.'s report:

Greetings!!!!! Hope all is well. We are all ok. Nothing much really going on. Just thought that I'd give you an update on how not smoking is going. Day 12 and counting. I want one so bad that my teeth hurt, but it would taste awful like it did two weeks ago. And I'd feel as though I'd licked an ashtray. It is nice not having to worry about when I can smoke and stuff. I'm much more patient now. And I'm not out in the heat and I think that my house is cooler since I'm not always opening the door to go out and puff. And I can breathe. Many reasons. But I still want one. Whine, whine.

Preston took his friend and I to the Main Street Arts Festival today and we had a blast. We went in my car with Preston driving because he knows directions and I don't. He's a better driver. It was free to go and there were wall to wall people. We saw some neat art, although it seemed as if the mood of most of it was dark and foreboding. Of course it was all priced way out of my league so I wasn't looking to buy. I did get a T-shirt and two iced coffee drinks from the Starbucks stand. We heard some good music. One group had an electric harp and they were quite interesting. I wouldn't mind having one of their CD's.

Then I had a special treat. We came back Camp Bowie in search of food. I didn't want to eat at the festival because it was just too expensive. Preston got us to Zeke's where I had a famous fish burger and mushrooms. I haven't been there in 26 years. And it's the first time that I've ever been there straight. Amazing to me. And the kitchen people weren't stoned either like I remembered. They've remodeled too. The restroom is still the pits though. So it was a very good day and I think that I've had my daily workout. And no one tried to rip off my purse either. Granny warned me and warned me. She's quite paranoid about things like that.

It was pretty warm again today, upper 80's. It's supposed to be 90 tomorrow and then Tues there is a chance of rain and cooler temps. I forgot to stop by Target today and get a coffee pot. I guess I'll go by Walmart tomorrow and get one. I wanted to see if T had anything different. The water here is so bad that it just kills coffee pots. I clean and clean with vinegar, but after a while they just bite the dust. And my WW diet has just gone out the window. I'm working out. I spend nearly an hour at the gym doing all kinds of different things. I'll just have to eventually face the fact that I'm old and will never have a hard bod again. Reality sucks.

I guess this is all that's going on. Not really much of anything. Now I want to go to Mayfest, but Preston won't take me. He will take me to the flower show in Richardson whenever that is. I think in May. I got tired today walking and we didn't see every booth that they had. We saw most of it though. And I only saw one person smoking. Everyone has quit it seems. Nasty habit. I've turned into a radical ex-smoker. A man came in the meeting this morning with a cig and I banished him to the porch. Well, I gotta go rest my brain. Too much stimuli today. Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!! Hugs

High Holy Day of EASTER 2006

This image is from Friday, Good Friday. Now is Sunday, the day of resurrection. The spring flowers are a bit spotty this year. We had a drenching rain three weeks ago now, and nothing to speak of since! The Blue Bonnets are noticeably missing. Only in ditches, so far, mostly where a little more water has collected. Some flowers came out more abundantly, like a lot of Foxgloves over on Pathfinder Rd. Also there seems to be more Engleman Daisies than ever, and Paralena. The Paintbrushes are fading already and not many. Few and far between. Thelsperma and Storkbill are not abundant as usual.


Ah, so pure
But something very interesting happened at Zack's. A banana plant came through with a bloom stalk before a leaf appeared. You can see how the pistils are are turning into bananas, a whole ring at a time. When the petals of one bloom die, another forms inside with another ring of pistils and so on to eventually form the big bunch.....
Banana Love

I know of no other fruit that forms this way. I have only seen the blooms high up on plants in the Ft Worth conservatory. Or fully formed bunches still on the trees in Mexico. This is a rare treat.

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Yesterday, went to Hico with Alice after our walk. She needed to buy a pie at the Koffee Kup Kafe. Voted best in Texas by some mag or other. We did this once before back some 5 or 6 years. Decided to eat lunch there since it was after eleven AM. This happened before. A mistake like last time: her BLT was less than great, and service was slow. Under the old faded photo of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. My cheese burger was ok, saved by piles of lettuce and tomato! The place was full of bikers out for the good weather. These were the yuppie bikers, not the bandana bart gang crowd. No noticable colors or costumes. Maybe the KKK still meets there, and keeps the town ethnically pure, such is the bad rep this place has. But there were two Hispanic waitresses, never-the-less. The Wiseman House Chocolate works was open for business. We declined. I sold some pictures there once.

An old log cabin close to the Wiseman House was open and we walked through. Probably someone had in mind making it a visitor attraction, but all inside was some rustic chairs and a dirty table which could be intended for an information desk....We took Levi and went shopping, past the ugliest sculpture in Texas, of Billy the Kid in flight. He was from that town, and a local hero, if he can be called that.....

Alice bought a small school desk, one of those with the big fan writing area from long ago..... Going back home through the prairies and hills... Chalk Mountain, Flat Rocks, river crossing....

Confusion

money... da da da... I guess it all started Thursday night at Aimee and Brittni's birthday bash at the skating rink. It was Aimee's birthday, but Brittni's in July, and Odel ("Peanut"), their mom, let them both celebrate together to avoid the inevitable ego crises. Those girls might be joined at the hip, or at least indenticals, they are so close to each other!!!! And the party worked out fine. Aimee was set up with cake and snacks at one end of the party room and Brittni at the other. A lot of kids showed, friends of both 9 year old Aimee and 10, going on 21, Brittni, for the occasion. Skating madly on the big rink floor with music and fun songs, and finally: limbo!!!! I just took pictures. Did not want to bust my old ass like that. Never been much of a skater, sadly.

Cutting cake and opening presents finally. Much money was raked in!!! It just kept falling out of cards!! They each made upward of 50 or 60 bucks.... A good time was had by all, as the paper said.

Brittni, who has her own cell phone, called Friday night to ask me to take her to Volleyball, games are on Saturday Morning. And the answer to a child is always "yes". Ronnie had to work, Peanut had to work. What is the surrogate grandpaw to do? So I picked her up and then Aimee, who was spending the night with a friend, all of a sudden, and had to be taken some clean clothes. Of course, they were not the ones she wanted, so there were tears. And a tantrum, for emphasis. But somehow they calmed down enough to continue. The Gym. Another crisis: A. wanted to carry a toy into the game, B. put a stop to it. A. cried and pouted. Got them calm and we went in. B. was not to play because of a hand injury, someone had dislocated her thumb a bit and she had bruises to prove! But the game was fun, good crowd, enthusiastic cheering, with these half-pint girls getting the ball over the regulation high net! I was impressed, but the Amazing Aces, her team, lost by a little.

We went to McDonalds. It was 10:20AM. Not quite in time for the lunch meal to roll down, so B. and I got biscuit big somethings but A. only wanted chicken nuggets. Not yet ready. But I read the riot act: no more tears or tantrums or we go home, and then it was 10:30 and A. got her nuggets!!!! They played on the slides.

Their birthday money still with them and they want to go to the Square and "shop". Oh Lord, I thought. Waste of money on toys they do not need. First, they bought a big chocolate muffin at the Coffee Grinder. I needed caffeine at that time too. Bad! We went to Pamala's. Free fudge. Yum. On down to the a couple more places, then the Books on the Square. There, Aimee found a cute golden little football with a zipper. Unzip to find a cute little mouse. Actually a Christmas tree ornament. Cute. It cost 4 bucks, but she bought it, and then, to my surprise presented it to her sister! Pure love! Joined at the hip Siamese!!! So on around the square, B. found a surprise at another shop for A. Cats Meow was the last place visited, then back through the Grinder to refill my cup, to the parking lot. By that time, it was 3:00, time for Peanut to be home. They were still excited, I was pooped.

And then scheduled to drive to Fort Worth for movie and hearing Matt at a Coffee house. Brandon went along, with his Pizza delivery money, and we picked up Sixto and headed to the dollar movie. Nothing started at that time, and Brandon wanted us to go to his Grandma's, but she could not be reached. To the My-Lan. Favorite wonderful cheap Viet-Nam food was what we wanted next. But the place was packed and the kitchen slow, and the waitress got our order mixed up, with Sixto's 105, Chicken with Lemon grass on rice, came out first after a long wait, and the wrong stir-fry bowl for me, sent to the right table by the frustrated head waitress... and finally, it seems they lost our ticket, the kitchen in chaos, we got the spring rolls and my number 32, made with egg rolls instead of pork, which I shared with Brandon.... Poor Brandon had to pay as Sixto just got his truck fixed from a wreck, to the tune of 600 bucks!!!! Went to hang at Borders Books for a while, killing time before Matt performed. After we could not find the coffee house, Berry street was torn up and I had not written the address or anything like the name of the place down, we compromised again by ice cream at Brahms, a block from Six's place. This after Brandon had called his Mom on my phone to tell her that he was getting sick. Sick. Yeah. Hypochondria, is the name of the disease!!! I got mad at that, read him the RA too late, about how dumb it was to worry his mon, when all he needed was a coke and some desert. Well it fixed him up, said good night to my beaner friend, and headed back to Granbury. I went home, fed the dogs, slept like a log.

Farewell and welcome!

Tom Delay!!!! @#%@&*!! Bon chance. Bye Bye to pie in the sky.... Oh frabjous day, callou! callay! The fruminus bandersnatch is gone (from the halls of congress, at least!!) Guess he needs that huge campaign war chest to fight Ronnie Earl!!!!




Rare sighting of the beautiful Celestial. Of all places, in Zack's drive!!! These beautiful little lilly iris things are only in bloom a few hours. I spotted one near his parking spot the other day, and did not have my camera, or was too tired to bother that day. Went out looking for it the next day, and it was gone. Then at quitting time, I discovered a bunch of them, some growing right up through gravel! Charateristics: lavender blue, out of a center circle of white, with yellow/orange tri-partite stamen over the pistil. about 2 inches across, 6 petals, overlapped in the above example. Long skinny leaves..... nimastylis geminiflora.... for those of you who speak Latin.

Splendor in the Grass

Oh yes, my heart leaps up too, William.




"I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o're vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodil's;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze."

Alice came over early, brought a bag of food, odds and ends, and we walked the hills of Cliffs of the Brazos. About three miles, a loop with Pathfinder Rd. With her Dashhound Levi, and my Sally and Iago. Trying to keep the bods strong and the useless fat down. I love to see the flowers pop up so regularly after rains in March, April adds showers (sometimes!) and in regular procession, the spring beauties open up to the sun and the bees and butterflies. This area is barely developed. We make fun of most of the houses, so inappropriate for these rural, wild settings. Sales are slow, it seems. And the most beautiful site will soon be crowned by a clumsy, ugly mansion. One of the few "Cliffs", actually, the lot has the most spectacular view. But the land is supported by some of the weakest, most fragile rock, which keeps sliding down the cliff onto the road below. Does not bode well.

I took some flower pictures, put them together hastily, in Mac Works, came up with the above. Caught as it were, in a matrix of wild mustard, are evening primrose, fringed piccune, on top, and fresh, green oak gauls, and Englemann Daisies, on bottom. There were the beginnings of paintbrush too, which I must go back for, as my picture did not pan out very well. We were sore from the second day of walking after a winter break.

I looked in the bag she brought, and there was sausage, mushrooms, red bell pepper, an avocado yet. Stir fried these up with garlic, herbs from the garden like oregano, garlic chives and rosemary. I even found a small onion. It looked pretty good. I took it out, put in a couple spicy red corn tortillas, Alice gets from somewhere like San Antonio, then poached a couple eggs my chickens laid. Cut the avocado into chunks, seasoned with Louisiana style hot sauce, et voila: breakfast, washed down by some Mexican roasted coffee. Who could ask for anything more????? God is great!





Wordsworth is the ultimate nature poet. "Intimations of Immortality" is one of the greatest poems to live close to. It has something for your intire life. Now that I enter dotage I revel in such:

"What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now forever taken from my sight.
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;
we will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
which having been must ever be;
in the soothing thoughts that spring
out of human suffering;
In the faith that looks through death,
in years that bring the philosophic mind...."