Still breaking with tradition by splitting the music selections for 2021 from those for 2022, but first I truly want to thank those who donated. It really made a huge difference because I have been living on the edge for some time. Yesterday, I had fumble fingers, not sure why, but the first to bite the dust was my coffee press but moments later a donation came in and I bought replacement on eBay. I am so grateful for your donations.
Secondly, everyone on the subscription list has now been sent a reminder to use secure e-mail clients which means encrypted and not censored. Yes, I know I am now speaking to the choir because delivery has almost recovered to where it was 18 months ago.
After yesterday’s tearjerker, I want to lighten up a bit. In addition to a mysterious microscopic organism that has never been seen, not even in the best laboratories and research centers in the world, there were some other “issues” that managed to infiltrate our news that are also tangentially related to medicine and science albeit a little more obliquely.
So, please bear with me if I am a little irreverent and use music to address these two issues. Just to remind everyone, I am not a musician, just a music lover, but to be able to communicate through music is a challenge I happily accept.
The first selection is from Tales of Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach. It’s called “Les oiseaux dans la charmille”and is my “contribution” to the controversy over artificial intelligence. Okay, that might be a stretch, but I said I am being tongue in cheek today. There were so many excellent renditions of the aria, but this one was cute and had wonderful audience captures that I felt added to the amusement. The soprano is Carla Maffioletti and the performance was in Brazil.
No comment is actually necessary but what happens to the transhumans when the battery dies or we run out of lithium? or technology has a major version upgrade?
For those who do not suffer from my addiction to opera, I might add that, yes, this aria is actually diabolically difficult, but she really navigated the challenges. I might also take this little opportunity to mention a small matter that is probably never brought up in the game of Trivia. It is that Andre Rieu as well as another famous conductor, Richard Bonygne, are both descendants of those who survived the Albigensian Crusade in the 13th century. Right, no one is going to quiz you, but sometimes there is more for which to live than to die.
I don’t know however if I will survive my next attempt at humor, but I will surely try to make it fun rather than painful. There is probably no way out of this, but in my own defense, I have nothing against anyone’s gender preference so I am just acknowledging that competing in sports with the advantage of more testosterone has generated some pre-Olympic controversy so here is the dance:
Because of the clog dance, I will spare you the traditional polka this year, but the waltz and march are yet to come!
Addio, 2021!
Copyright by Dr. Ingrid Naiman 2021
First Posted to Subscribers on 30 December 2021
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