RoR: Forum

Joe,

Thanks so much for your post on rock music :-) I am a fan of both Lanza and Rand-influenced progressive rock group Rush. The apparent* inability of certain individuals on SOLO to understand the difference between groups such as Rush and nihilistic groups such as the Ramones is becoming a tad tiresome, though it is kinda cute ;-)

Btw, I am presently reading Armando's Lanza bio, which looks to be a cracking good read!

MH

* ever optimistic, I still hope for a breakthrough in that regard ;-)

Post 21

Thursday, June 3, 2004 - 4:38am

I know all too well what you "rail" against, Linz. Like Ayn, I both love and hate you. I would have slapped Ayn a real good one in many situations. You're a male, so watch out. LOL

Post 22

Friday, June 4, 2004 - 10:48pm

Here's a link to a pic of the Mario Lanza Mural in a South Philly neighborhood that I used to pass:
http://www.mario-lanza-institute.org/mariolanzamural.htm

Post 23

Saturday, June 5, 2004 - 12:53am

Thanks Joe. I made a point of visiting the mural before SOLOC 3 in Philadelphia. I thought the likenesses were not especially good, but it was still a huge thrill to see the boy writ large in his own neighbourhood, as he is still before the world.

Linz

Post 24

Monday, June 7, 2004 - 12:47am

Regi, I have no idea what "Ergitandal" means. Sorry.

Barbara

Post 25

Monday, June 7, 2004 - 12:57am

Joe, you wrote, << First, I don't think that Barbara is saying that all rock is angst and rage. >>

No, I wasn't saying that. Jonathan had written that << I think there's something very wrong with an ideology. . . which reserves its moralist vitriol for rock-and-rollers because their works include honest expressions of angst or rage... " Among other things, it was this statement to which I was responding.

Barbara

Post 26

Monday, June 7, 2004 - 9:04pm

Barbara wrote:

Joe, you wrote, << First, I don't think that Barbara is saying that all rock is angst and rage. >>

No, I wasn't saying that. Jonathan had written that << I think there's something very wrong with an ideology. . . which reserves its moralist vitriol for rock-and-rollers because their works include honest expressions of angst or rage... " Among other things, it was this statement to which I was responding."

Oh, I know that, Barbara. I was responding to an idea you expressed later:

"And precisely where do you stand to have any idea of what pressures Lanza endured, or what what 'greater" pressures your rock and rollers faced? Lanza was not "defeated."Those who have only angst and rage to express are the defeated ones. Lanza never let pain corrupt his music, and it is difficult to imagine a greater triumph."

I was fascinated with the line about angst and rage,
and felt compelled to add something; but wanted to make it clear that what I was writing was not a criticism of what you said, but an exploration of the idea about the"defeated ones." As a long time rock music fan, it hit hard, as I know many people who buy into the rock as rebellion idea, yet don't realize how much of it is prepackaged. And I know too many people who have this "Byronic" view of life that is fed by some of their musical choices.

Post 27

Tuesday, June 8, 2004 - 6:53am

Okay, so I checked out some Lanza. There's a site that offers six or so free full-length songs
by him. Which you should go and listen to if you know nothing of the man, as I didn't until hearing what I just did.

I've heard "La Donna e Mobile" before, but not for a while. And yes, I'm moved. The guy is trying to reach a sky. No, he has the sky and is speaking about it. As a rule, I don't listen to this kind of music, but man, I can't deny that this man, while in song, strokes anything less than freedom. It's beautiful. And would be even more so if he knew english. Grrr.

I'm a bit of a visual person, so forgive me this next vision.

While listening to "La Donna..." I couldn't help but see sights far off, and in those sights a man of near-burst. A monster that, exploding suddenly before my eyes, began flinging songs off his chest as if in fear of remaining just a self.

Another sight I saw while listening to Lanza was this: A stunned crowd, then a not-sure crowd, then a perplexed crowd. I saw a crowd that became more and more removed from Lanza the more and more he took his song out of reach. Maybe he was speaking on behalf of the universe. I didn't see it.

-D

Post 28

Wednesday, June 9, 2004 - 5:39am

Darin: If you listen to some of the other downloadable numbers on that site, I suspect you'll have even more extraordinary visions! :-) I'd play the stirring Addio alla Madre from Cavalleria Rusticana ("sharp by a country mile at the end," as Linz observes, but still amazing stuff), and for complete contrast the immortal Serenade from The Student Prince. The site is: http://www.rense.com/excursions/lanza/1music/sing.html . Bear in mind that this is not the Lanza site that Linz & I are involved with (that's http://freeradical.co.nz/lanza), but I hope the day will come when we can offer downloadable recordings as well.

Darin: Since you like Lanza's La Donna e' Mobile so much, I'm sure you'll be amazed to learn that he actually topped that performance on several occasions!

And in case you weren't aware: Lanza did sing in English on many occasions (he was American, after all), and -- as the Serenade movingly reveals -- with superb diction.

Post 29

Tuesday, June 15, 2004 - 5:28am

Derek, excuse this delayed response. I've been busy over the past week or so writing a letter to novelist Clive Barker so an overseas friend of mine could print it off at her end and hand it to him at an upcoming book signing she was going to. Okay, so I didn't really need to say that. I was just showing off. It's the first letter I've ever sent to a novelist, after all. Hence why it was 10,000 words long, maybe. Which is no lie. And since you're now interested (yes, you are), I should add that the letter was indeed given to Clive Barker at that overseas signing a few days ago, and that he said he'd definitely read it. What? Why did I send it? Well, a rather amazing and harrowing series of incidents that happened to me a few years ago involving the law became connected with certain emails and such about Clive Barker that I'd sent one particular person. If you want to know more, which you do, wait for my biography to come out. It'll hit stands in about 30 years.

All of which has nothing to do with Lanza, being the man I'm here to talk about.

Derek, thanks for your link. I'll definitely check it out. And yes, I am amazed to hear that Lanza topped La Donna e' Mobile, because when I heard it a couple of weeks ago (being many moons after the time I heard it before this), I was really, really swept away. He lets himself go in that song. He lets fly out whatever there is in him to fly free.

Having a brilliant voice is one thing, but giving it as many wings as possible with which to fly - that's another. He's a loving monster, and a monster of love, as are all impassioned people who inspire my imagination, including that man in Hamlet as he bellows forth deeply-felt invocations across an open plain (I can't think what movie, what thing, what ever), and Moses as he booms out over the sea or whatever in the movie The ten Commandments. I love big, fantastical, energy-filled, rapture-gripped souls such as these. If only I had the memory to, er, remember what, where, who properly, so as to make of my posts a more qualified explanation. Grrrr.

Anyway, if I happen to envision Lanza again while listening to your recommendations, Derek, I'll report back. Unless, of course, it's sexually explicit, and includes Janis Joplin. I mean, in one of my last fantasies while listening to Lanza, songs were able to fling out directly through someone's chest, so I dread to think what they'd fling out through in a pornographic vision.

SOLO, Sense Of Life Orgasms

-D

Post 30

Tuesday, June 15, 2004 - 6:10pm

Darin, your reaction to Barbara's response reminds me of "The Adventure of the Two Collaborators," a parody by Sir James M. Barrie of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Click on the link, you'll be glad you did. It's short.

There's a connection to opera, by the way. Here's a quote:
I [Watson] happened to look out of the window, and perceiving two gentlemen advancing rapidly along Baker Street asked him who they were. He [Holmes] immediately lit his pipe, and, twisting himself on a chair into the figure 8, replied:
"They are two collaborators in comic opera, and their play has not been a triumph."
The heading to this parody reads:

Written on the flyleaf of a book given to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle commemorating their failed opera, Jane Annie; Or The Good Conduct Prize, 1893

(By the way, I've now listened to Lanza and think he's an excellent tenor, in the mold of Nicolai Gedda! I prefer operetta--has he done any that I can hear online?)

(Edited by Rodney Rawlings on 6/15, 7:16pm)

Post 31

Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 12:13am

Rodney, I wasn't sure what on earth you meant until I clicked your link. Well done. I was laughing my ass off most of the time. Especially at this point:
"That Tommy-rot is all very well for the public, Holmes," said he, "but you can drop it before me. And, Watson, if you go up to the ceiling again I shall make you stay there."
On a related note, I often find it really difficult understanding the language used in certain classics. Sometimes I can go through whole pages before I get a grip on what's being said, and occasionally I even have to go back and re-read what I misunderstood up until then. Strangely though, diction such as this does always lend the fiction an air of exotic authority for me, which in turn forces out feelings that I wouldn't have felt were I well acquainted with such word usage. I've never read any Sherlock fiction before, but after reading the contents of your link, I suspect that much the same would occur if I did. It was awkward to read, but intriguing as a result. Although, the humor was quite clear. And made even more humorous due to the fact it was similar to what I said in an earlier post here.

Which reminds me of something. It's not quite the same thing, but similar. I once read some letters online by James Joyce, a past writer. And due to the fact they were serious, due to the fact no one but his wife was ever meant to read them, they were ever so goddamn hilarious. I mean, they were totally dirty, even disgusting. It was the type of talk that, if a fiction, would be simply funny. But as a fact, it was fall-off-the-chair hilarious. One could easily write similar stuff as a joke and post it online (well, talented comedians could), but as a mere joke it would be, well, just that. It would lack reality. Unlike these letters. They were real.

And as it turns out, I have the link to these letters.

Read them if you have a sick sense of humor.

http://www.arlindo-correia.com/joyce.html

-D

(Edited by Joseph Rowlands on 6/29, 5:44pm)

Post 32

Thursday, June 17, 2004 - 8:18pm

Whenever I try editing a post of mine that's already been posted, which I've done with two of my posts now, why does it say that I've edited the post but not feature the actual editing? In my last post above, I decided that the link I gave was maybe a bit too sexual (I mean, are children in this forum?), but my attempt to edit it away seems to have failed. And when I go to delete the entire post using the option that suggests I can do so, a page appears saying that this is a function available to moderators alone or something. Not to worry though; children probably aren't in here, or seldom happen upon this site in passing.

-D

Post 33

Friday, June 18, 2004 - 5:38am

After editing, you have to click Post/Preview of course, but then on the next screen you have to look for the button called Post and hit it.

Post 34

Wednesday, July 30, 2008 - 8:10pm