Ouvertüre zum “Fliegenden Holländer”, wie sie eine schlechte Kurkapelle morgens um 7 am Brunnen vom Blatt spielt

Translated: Overture to the Flying Dutchman as Sight-read by a Bad Spa Orchestra at 7 in the Morning by the Well. Two amusing things happening here. Paul Hindemith wrote this as a comic work, which its title makes clear. Yet observe the audience. None of them even cracks a grin, which suggests they are either tone-deaf or, moreContinue reading “Ouvertüre zum “Fliegenden Holländer”, wie sie eine schlechte Kurkapelle morgens um 7 am Brunnen vom Blatt spielt”

Get happy music.

Paul Schoenfield’s Café Music. There’s something infectious about these beautifully crafted compositions. While there are certainly jazz idioms throughout, your Tatler’s ears tell him Schoenfield’s oeuvres are more a hybrid of classical and jazz; jazzy compositions using classical forms and nomenclature, i.e, presto, andante, etc. There is also an element of what might be calledContinue reading “Get happy music.”

Nicholas von Hoffman on Joe Biden.

Not really, Mr von Hoffman has been dead these six years, and is no longer well known, but he was most certainly well known 50 years ago when he got into huge trouble for his utterances on CBS Television over the collapsing presidency of Richard Nixon during the height, or depths, of the Watergate scandal.Continue reading “Nicholas von Hoffman on Joe Biden.”

A voice from the past . . .

Why hello, are you still checking into this moribund blog? Your Tatler is tickled pink there are a precious few still interested in it. Grateful thanks to you few. Your reward for such loyalty is, for what it’s worth, this blog’s revival, but taking a slightly different editorial tack. Critical essays on the mess thatContinue reading “A voice from the past . . .”

Give me the man and I will find the crime.

–Attributed to Lavrentiy Beria, Chief of Josef Stalin’s Secret Service. A similar but more detailed offering was given by Robert Houghwout Jackson, Attorney General of the United States and Assosociate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. If the prosecutor is obliged to choose his cases, it follows that he can choose his defendants. ThereinContinue reading Give me the man and I will find the crime.

A Modest Proposal.

Since this writer alluded in his last post to the College of Cardinals and the future of the Papacy, the thought occured to him future outcomes of conclaves might produce different results, were membership in the College determined by the process of competitive examination, as with the peerage in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe. How anContinue reading “A Modest Proposal.”

Cardinal Nichols of Westminster forbids the Triduum in London.

More to come? It no longer comes as a surprise when an outrageous action is perpetrated by a high-ranking Church official against Traditional Latin Mass adherents. Those acts have become so frequent many have become resigned to them, and other horribilia emanating from highly placed liberals [sic] in the Holy Catholic Church. That is theContinue reading “Cardinal Nichols of Westminster forbids the Triduum in London.”

Y noou think our Holy C atholic f. Be v be Church has her troubles?

Our eastern correspondent provides us with this news item. WOODBURY, Connecticut (WFSB) — A reverend [sic] in Woodbury was arrested and charged with dealing crystal meth, among other crimes. Herbert Irving Miller, 63, was arrested on Feb. 9, according to Connecticut State Police. Woodbury Police officers recently got a tip that Miller was allegedly dealing drugsContinue reading “Y noou think our Holy C atholic f. Be v be Church has her troubles?”