I do love reading, but mostly, I am just ignoring you. snort.
A note from Pierce
Author Archives: Dr. Bear
Can you survive without a phone?
New Tech City, a blog/podcast in the WNYC family is gearing up for a challenge week, February 2nd through the 9th, 2015.
Get more information at: http://www.wnyc.org/series/bored-and-brilliant/
Leadership for the 21st Century
Twelfth Night
I have been musing lately upon Umbra Mai Fu, the larghetto short aria which begins George Frideric Handel’s opera Serse.
Yes.
I actually do things like that.
Only Dr Bear.
It is a beautiful piece, although the opera is rather goofy, and was not particularly successful. It premiered on the 15th of April, 1738, in London, with the castrati Caffarelli (Gaetano Majorano) singing the title role. Today, it might be performed by a counter-tenor (Andreas Scholl’s performance is quite good); however, since there are only two dozen or so good counter-tenors out there, it is often performed by a mezzo-soprano.
The twelfth and last night of Christmas is celebrated as epiphany, or as the Feast of the Magi in many countries, but in England, it retains one of the characteristics of the Roman festival Saturnalia, that of turning the social order on its head. Twelfth Night is often marked by amateur theatrics, as well as professional ones, which are “Topsy-Turvy;” traditional roles of master and servant, and of man and woman, are reversed.
This is a beautiful song. It is a song of longing for home and peace.
It is a love song to a tree, written for a castrated man, sung by a woman pretending to be a man, who is a Persian king, although the words are in Italian, and the music is composed by a German composer, who lived in London.
Times and places fade away; gender roles and national identities will always be in flux, but beauty–beauty remains.
Never was a shade
of any plant
dearer and more lovely,
or more sweet.
Imagine that.
This has been an eventful week at the Bistro.
I had to give up the other job, the book-seller one, the one that 
supports me financially(albeit half-heartedly).
It was certainly not the best of situations, but I will miss all the friends I have there, many of whom are incredibly dear to me.
It also means that after Christmas Eve, I will be unemployed. This means that the Bistro will be spending a bit of time on the road until we find out where we are going. If any of you out there knows a business which needs a philosopher, please let me know.
I also am a pretty good baker, and a fine cook, and, yes: the Doctor makes house calls.
Allons!
Secondly, we bid a sad farewell to our interns–although you may still be hearing stories and ideas for a while. I might have more time to write, since I will no longer be choreographing squirrels. How we could get from Lucretius to fainting goats to singing Finnegan’s Wake, all in less than 90 seconds, was mystifying. Still, in spite of all the things Wode says, I will miss them, and the energy they brought with them.
Finally, apparently, if you do a google image search for “mountain walk,” one of the first dozen or so pictures to come up is from the Bistro website.
This week, the publishing house Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore srl. in Milan contacted us, and we have sold the image “Roan Mountain Walk 022” to them to use for the cover of a reprint of Pino Cacucci’s Camminando.
It was a week of sad goodbyes, and of the terror of new journeys, but, on the other hand, it was also the week that Dr Bear became an Italian Cover-boy.
Imagine that.
How have our body expectations for a woman playing a boy changed over the decades?
For a short time last night, I was watching the NBC Live Spectacle which was Peter Pan.
I was struck by how angular Allison Williams looked as Peter Pan.
This is odd, since she is, of course, a woman playing a boy.
Of course, Peter Pan came out of the panto or Holiday Pantomime tradition in England–as did Twelfth Night. Greek drama grew out of religious festivals honoring Dionysius, but British Comedy came out of the Topsy-turvy reversal of roles that was part of Saturnalia.
Because of this, servants playing masters and masters acting as servants, as well as men playing women and women playing men was part of the fun.
Most likely, however, Barrie cast a young woman because the law would not allow a young boy to work at night.
All this aside, I began to wonder if there is an odd cultural expectation of how a woman playing a boy should look. This may shed light on our image of boys, but more likely, it reflects our view of women’s bodies, and the expectation of how curvy or thin they were 
expected to be.
I have seen three different women play Pan on TV, and strangely enough, Ms Williams was the thinnest. Of course, nobody today could imagine a stage or screen or TV Peter Pan who looked like Zena Dare at right, as she looked as Peter Pan in 1907.
The TV Peter Pans began before I was born, of course, with Mary Martin, first in 1955, then again in 1960. She had originated the role on Broadway–as she had so many.
She took a break from doing The Sound of Music on Broadway to come in and do Peter Pan in 1960.
Next was Sandy Duncan.
I remember being amazed at how thin this woman was. Of course, it was the time of the ultra-thin model Twiggy, and youth was much cooler than looking maternal and curvy.
Being trim and even boyish was pretty sexy, but, strangely enough, she is still more curvy than Ms Williams.
Next was Cathy Rigby.
She may have been shorter than the others. Remarkably, though, she wqas the most athletic of them all, and the most muscular. It is odd: we think of Olympic gymnasts–she was in the 1968 Olympics–as delicate, gossamer things, but she brings the biggest thigh muscles to the role (amazing jumping, too).
I’m not quite sure what to make of Ms Allison’s Peter.
I had thought we had gotten over the ultra-thin ideal, but she is a rather typical TV star. She also appears to go to the gym, because she has very clearly defined arms.
Mostly, she seems skinny to me.
And her teeth are so, so white!
Well: Judge for yourself:
Of course, most of all, I was spoiled because, as far as trouser roles go, Peter Pan could not hold a candle to the youth Cherubino in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro.
Especially, as played by the amazing Isabel Leonard.
That show is further complicated by Cherubino having to dress up as a girl to sneak out of the countess’s bedroom (long, long story–got 3 hours?). This means a woman dressing up as a boy dressing up like a girl.
Of course, in Shakespeare, one of my favorite characters is Rosalind. She would have been played by a boy, but at one point is a girl (Rosalind) pretending to be a boy (Ganymede), who then pretends to be a girl (Rosalind again–the love interest Orlando appears to be as dumb as a bag of hammers). 4 way gender crossing.
Of course, Helen Mirren was pretty good in the role in the day, even if only a 3 way.
Maybe I should have taken those last 3 credits and gotten that Women’s Studies specialization.
Portland Vegan Strip Club Black Friday Riot
I have just always wanted to say that.
http://thatoregonlife.com/2014/11/portland-police-arrest-35-black-friday-vegan-strip-club-riot/
Abby the Spoon Lady
I have no remarkable dexterity–in fact, a history of nerve and other damage to my left arm has left me with little dexterity at all.
I have no remarkable skills–nothing much to show for the last chunk of century.
I have no remarkable musical talent–a good ear and a passable voice that can follow the ear.
I do recognize musical talent, and there is a whole lot of it around me here–maybe there is a lot of music everywhere, maybe all around us, and we should drink our full of it every second.
I do recognize beauty, and Abby the Spoon Lady combines dexterity, skill and music in a way I have never seen before; each time I see her, I sit on the sidewalk amazed, fascinated, unable to tear my eyes from the dancing, flying spoons.
Then, she will always look over at me and grin a knowing grin.
This one just makes me want to ride the rails.
The word of the day is “Murmuration”
Link
Cheaters Chili
Sometimes, you just need something quick to put in a pot to eat. This is a recipe that I explained to my daughter when she was leaving for college. It isn’t fancy, but it will get the job done.
Step 1: bean there: Empty several large cans of beans, especially kidney–dark and light–but also chili or pinto or northern or red or black, into a pot or a slow cooker.
Step 2, done that: add one or several cans of diced tomatoes–generally the ones with peppers in them.
Step 3, improvise: I’ve asked you to do this before. Add whatever else you want–maybe some TVP? Some peppers, either sweet or hot? maybe some onions? maybe some spices–garlic, paprika, cayenne pepper, black pepper, cumin, curry, ras el hanout? something crazy like cooked down pumpkin or sweet potato or dried apricots?
Step 4, stew: cover and cook. A while if on a stove top, longer if in a slow cooker.
When the beans have cooked, the juice won’t be a broth, but more of a stew.
Step 5, serve: just in a bowl or cup? in a bowl over corn chips, tortilla chips or spaghetti? topped with cheese or sour cream? with fresh avocado, green onions or cilantro? Maybe serve with corn cakes or pepper muffins?
