Several years ago, Pierre Long Tang, then a Pepperdine faculty, told me with a touch of despair that undergraduates couldn’t listen to Bruckner because his symphonies are too complex and too long for their attention span. I’d imagine they felt somewhat the same about Mahler. We live in an age of minuets and scherzos apt for TikTok, not oratorios and concertos. And certainly not symphonies from late romanticism that rack up an hour’s time on average.
Continue reading “Commute listening: Mahler’s first five symphonies”It has happened twice. In winter 2008 I drove from South Bend to the Twin Cities for a few days visiting my family. I learned that Art Spring, the founder and former director of the honors program at my alma mater, had died. His funeral took place on the same day that I learned about it, and it was too late to drive up to St. Cloud. I learned the news from Joe Tadie, who added that Pat Costello, who had retired from decades of teaching English, drove up from Winona for Art’s funeral.
Continue reading “Pat Costello: a life well lived”I didn’t think a lot about the uses and misuses of AI during 2024-2025, but they were somewhat in the back of my mind. Then a month ago, I decided to use AI (mostly ChatGPT) in my classes during this semester (mostly Great Books I with first-year students). I am happy to report that so far, it has gone well enough.
Continue reading “Using ChatGPT in my classes: Part 1”
A coincidence of two horrifying events occurred this month. On July 16, a Wednesday, it was announced in Minnesota that David Brom would be released to a halfway work house after 37 years of incarceration. Brom had been convicted of murdering his parents and two younger siblings in the early hours of February 18, 1987 while they were sleeping. Sixteen years old at the time of the familicides, he was sentenced to four life terms with the possibility of parole after some 50 years.
Continue reading “Two murders of 4 persons each in their sleep 37 years apart”Last week was the first time that I set foot in Central Texas, flying into Austin for archival research at several depositories in Austin and Waco. I spent two afternoons at the Briscoe Center for American History, and had a chance to visit the museum at the LBJ Presidential Library right next door.
Continue reading “Two surprises during a visit of the LBJ Library”That is, in Western-style music and not traditional music. There are many tragic stories in cải lương. For example, Chuyện Tình Lan và Điệp has been compared to the story of Shakespeare. Truth be told, I’ve never found the romance of Lan and Điệp to be like Romeo and Juliet at all (and vice versa), but it’s another discussion for another time.
Continue reading “The most Romeo-and-Juliet song in Vietnamese music”
I ended my last post stating that the album Tiếng Hát Chế Linh 1 (1972) is a masterpiece of Vietnamese bolero. Not only there isn’t a single bad song, but also outstanding are at least three-quarters of the songs, including all six that Chế Linh wrote or co-wrote under the name Tú Nhi. Let me tackle one more tune from this album, partially because of the song itself and partially because of a recording by Trường Vũ that may have surpassed Chế Linh’s original recording.
Continue reading “Vietnamese bolero and the pain of love: Đoạn tái bút”
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