My grandmother got so excited when the Walt Disney Concert Hall opened 20+ years ago in downtown Los Angeles. Somehow she got tickets to see the LA Philharmonic during that premiere season and invited me along. Unfortunately I was out of town and couldn't go. She passed away in 2015. I promised myself that someday I'd bring her to a concert in spirit. On Valentine's Day I finally did. We watched one of Gustavo Dudamel's last performances as conductor of the LA Phil.
And, for the nth time, I watched in amazement as history repeated itself.
When I was young, maybe six or seven years old, I started reading the books on my grandmother's bookcase. It was quite the ride, from cookbooks to Erica Jong's Fear of Flying (!). But one book intimidated me.The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer was a large, thick, black tome full of evil that towered over the other books, dominating the space like Darth Vader. With a swastika on the spine. A swastika! In my Holocaust-surviving grandmother's apartment? When I finally got the courage to pull it off the shelf, the words of George Santayana's epigraph immediately and permanently tattooed my brain: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
I asked my grandmother why she had a book about Nazi Germany. She told me that to defeat the enemy, you had to understand the enemy, and that the real enemy wasn't Nazism, but the forces that created Nazism and all other forms of fascism and oppression. So imagine my surprise when I realized that the concert I finally bought tickets for featured Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil presenting music that Beethoven composed to accompany a play by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, inspired by Shakespeare, about...
[And now a word from The Simulation Is Getting Sloppy Department: My Dad dropped out of UC Berkeley and enrolled at California State University Sacramento. My Mom attended Valley State (later renamed California State University Northridge). For bizarrely different reasons, they both decided to learn German and enrolled in an exchange program that took them to Heidelberg, Germany, where they studied, met, and fell in love... at the Goethe Institute.]
...Egmont.
"Who?" I wondered as I read the program. "And why is Cate Blanchett narrating this performance?"
Oppression breeds heroes. This is true throughout history, for people all over the world, from the beginnings of civilization in Africa and Asia to the Middle East to Europe to right here in North America, right now.
Egmont was news to me because my schooling didn't focus on the details of the Eighty Years' War or the liberation of the Netherlands from Spain. Reading about it now, the origins of the Eighty Years' War make Game of Thrones seem almost realistic. (You may have heard of the Duchy of Burgundy, or the House of Hapsburg, but did you know how their marriages and conquests affected the Seventeen Provinces, which arose from the Burgundian Netherlands and later – the ones that seceded, that is – became known as the Dutch Republic? Yeah. Me neither.)
It turns out that Goethe was moved to write about Egmont because Egmont was an idealistic hero who trusted the goodness of those around him. The real life Egmont was a count whose quiet dignity and beheading in 1568 sparked the national uprising that eventually led to the independence of the Netherlands. In the play, Egmont confronts the authority of a duke with integrity. He calls for a fight for independence. And he is sentenced to death, which he accepts with grace. Goethe depicts Egmont as a martyr who was betrayed and abandoned by the cowards he advocated for.
During the performance at Disney Hall, a spotlight showcased Cate Blanchett speaking as Egmont between movements of the incidental music that Beethoven composed to accompany the play in the early 1800s.
But Blanchett's words were updated from Goethe's original by Jeremy O. Harris to include references to our situation here in the United States at the present moment. At one point Blanchett, as Egmont, says, "That's fine, dude. I'm not mad at you." Renee Good's last words.
Goethe was moved to write about Egmont because he was inspired. Beethoven was moved to write music for Goethe's play about Egmont because he, too, was inspired. Dudamel was moved to update Goethe's words and Beethoven's music for this moment in history because he felt compelled to share a dose of that inspiration with us all. So that we don't abandon each other to silence or martyrdom, but continue to support each other and defend a way of life grounded in liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
My grandmother would have been glad he did.
_________________________
Did you know that classical music is arguably more punk than... punk? Do you have a favorite piece of classical music that inspires you? Drop me a line – I’m curious!
_________________________
Open-Source Learning is yours. Free. Get the white paper here. Use what works and customize whatever you need, however you want. I’m here to help.
_________________________
Curiosity is worth practicing. That’s how we get better at it. When it’s done particularly well, curiosity can be elevated to an art form. Curiosity makes life worth living. I am literally Curious AF. And now you can be too! Click HERE to unlock your free membership subscription.
Here is a taste of what I’m doing, reading, watching, and thinking about.
What I’m Listening To –
Joni Mitchell's The Circle Game
What I’m Watching –
I loved Game of Thrones until I didn't. In fact, in the end that show turned so sour for me that I didn't bother watching House of Dragons, and I only begrudgingly tuned in for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. I was rewarded. From The Guardian: "(A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is) a smaller, smarter, funnier and more charming glimpse into George R.R. Martin‘s bigger-is-better realm. It isn’t so much a Game of Thrones series for people who hated Game of Thrones, but it’s a Game of Thrones series for anybody who has ever wondered what, say, a Richard Linklater version of Game of Thrones would be. It’s a loose hangout comedy, with a tightly contained six-episode narrative arc and episodes generally running under 40 minutes. True to its source material, it’s the TV equivalent of a novella instead of an epic tome."
Quote I’m pondering –
Well, technology is a glittering lure. But there's the rare occasion when the public can be engaged on a level beyond flash, if they have a sentimental bond with the product. My first job, I was in-house at a fur company, with this old pro copywriter. Greek, named Teddy. And Teddy told me the most important idea in advertising is "new". Creates an itch. You simply put your product in there as a kind of... calamine lotion. But he also talked about a deeper bond with the product: nostalgia. It's delicate... but potent. Teddy told me that in Greek, "nostalgia" literally means, "the pain from an old wound". It's a twinge in your heart, far more powerful than memory alone. This device (the Kodak slide carousel) isn't a spaceship. It's a time machine. It goes backwards, forwards. It takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It's not called the Wheel. It's called a Carousel. It lets us travel the way a child travels. Around and around, and back home again... to a place where we know we are loved.
- Jon Hamm as Don Draper in Mad Men
Thank you for reading! This publication is a lovingly cultivated, hand-rolled, barrel-aged, ad-free, AI-free, 100% organic, anti-algorithm, zero calorie, high protein, completely reader-supported publication that is not paid to endorse any political party, world religion, sports team, product or service. Please help keep it going by buying my book, hiring me to speak, or becoming a paid subscriber, which will also entitle you to upcoming web events, free consultations, discounted merchandise, and generally being the coolest person your friends know:
Best,
Know someone who is also Curious AF? Please share this edition with them!
David Preston
Educator & Author
Latest book: ACADEMY OF ONE
My grandmother got so excited when the Walt Disney Concert Hall opened 20+ years ago in downtown Los Angeles. Somehow she got tickets to see the LA Philharmonic during that premiere season and invited me along. Unfortunately I was out of town and couldn't go. She passed away in 2015. I promised myself that someday I'd bring her to a concert in spirit. On Valentine's Day I finally did. We watched one of Gustavo Dudamel's last performances as conductor of the LA Phil.
And, for the nth time, I watched in amazement as history repeated itself.
When I was young, maybe six or seven years old, I started reading the books on my grandmother's bookcase. It was quite the ride, from cookbooks to Erica Jong's Fear of Flying (!). But one book intimidated me.The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer was a large, thick, black tome full of evil that towered over the other books, dominating the space like Darth Vader. With a swastika on the spine. A swastika! In my Holocaust-surviving grandmother's apartment? When I finally got the courage to pull it off the shelf, the words of George Santayana's epigraph immediately and permanently tattooed my brain: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
I asked my grandmother why she had a book about Nazi Germany. She told me that to defeat the enemy, you had to understand the enemy, and that the real enemy wasn't Nazism, but the forces that created Nazism and all other forms of fascism and oppression. So imagine my surprise when I realized that the concert I finally bought tickets for featured Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil presenting music that Beethoven composed to accompany a play by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, inspired by Shakespeare, about...
[And now a word from The Simulation Is Getting Sloppy Department: My Dad dropped out of UC Berkeley and enrolled at California State University Sacramento. My Mom attended Valley State (later renamed California State University Northridge). For bizarrely different reasons, they both decided to learn German and enrolled in an exchange program that took them to Heidelberg, Germany, where they studied, met, and fell in love... at the Goethe Institute.]
...Egmont.
"Who?" I wondered as I read the program. "And why is Cate Blanchett narrating this performance?"
Oppression breeds heroes. This is true throughout history, for people all over the world, from the beginnings of civilization in Africa and Asia to the Middle East to Europe to right here in North America, right now.
Egmont was news to me because my schooling didn't focus on the details of the Eighty Years' War or the liberation of the Netherlands from Spain. Reading about it now, the origins of the Eighty Years' War make Game of Thrones seem almost realistic. (You may have heard of the Duchy of Burgundy, or the House of Hapsburg, but did you know how their marriages and conquests affected the Seventeen Provinces, which arose from the Burgundian Netherlands and later – the ones that seceded, that is – became known as the Dutch Republic? Yeah. Me neither.)
It turns out that Goethe was moved to write about Egmont because Egmont was an idealistic hero who trusted the goodness of those around him. The real life Egmont was a count whose quiet dignity and beheading in 1568 sparked the national uprising that eventually led to the independence of the Netherlands. In the play, Egmont confronts the authority of a duke with integrity. He calls for a fight for independence. And he is sentenced to death, which he accepts with grace. Goethe depicts Egmont as a martyr who was betrayed and abandoned by the cowards he advocated for.
During the performance at Disney Hall, a spotlight showcased Cate Blanchett speaking as Egmont between movements of the incidental music that Beethoven composed to accompany the play in the early 1800s.
But Blanchett's words were updated from Goethe's original by Jeremy O. Harris to include references to our situation here in the United States at the present moment. At one point Blanchett, as Egmont, says, "That's fine, dude. I'm not mad at you." Renee Good's last words.
Goethe was moved to write about Egmont because he was inspired. Beethoven was moved to write music for Goethe's play about Egmont because he, too, was inspired. Dudamel was moved to update Goethe's words and Beethoven's music for this moment in history because he felt compelled to share a dose of that inspiration with us all. So that we don't abandon each other to silence or martyrdom, but continue to support each other and defend a way of life grounded in liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
My grandmother would have been glad he did.
_________________________
Did you know that classical music is arguably more punk than... punk? Do you have a favorite piece of classical music that inspires you? Drop me a line – I’m curious!
_________________________
Open-Source Learning is yours. Free. Get the white paper here. Use what works and customize whatever you need, however you want. I’m here to help.
_________________________
Curiosity is worth practicing. That’s how we get better at it. When it’s done particularly well, curiosity can be elevated to an art form. Curiosity makes life worth living. I am literally Curious AF. And now you can be too! Click HERE to unlock your free membership subscription.
Here is a taste of what I’m doing, reading, watching, and thinking about.
What I’m Listening To –
Joni Mitchell's The Circle Game
What I’m Watching –
I loved Game of Thrones until I didn't. In fact, in the end that show turned so sour for me that I didn't bother watching House of Dragons, and I only begrudgingly tuned in for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. I was rewarded. From The Guardian: "(A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is) a smaller, smarter, funnier and more charming glimpse into George R.R. Martin‘s bigger-is-better realm. It isn’t so much a Game of Thrones series for people who hated Game of Thrones, but it’s a Game of Thrones series for anybody who has ever wondered what, say, a Richard Linklater version of Game of Thrones would be. It’s a loose hangout comedy, with a tightly contained six-episode narrative arc and episodes generally running under 40 minutes. True to its source material, it’s the TV equivalent of a novella instead of an epic tome."
Quote I’m pondering –
Well, technology is a glittering lure. But there's the rare occasion when the public can be engaged on a level beyond flash, if they have a sentimental bond with the product. My first job, I was in-house at a fur company, with this old pro copywriter. Greek, named Teddy. And Teddy told me the most important idea in advertising is "new". Creates an itch. You simply put your product in there as a kind of... calamine lotion. But he also talked about a deeper bond with the product: nostalgia. It's delicate... but potent. Teddy told me that in Greek, "nostalgia" literally means, "the pain from an old wound". It's a twinge in your heart, far more powerful than memory alone. This device (the Kodak slide carousel) isn't a spaceship. It's a time machine. It goes backwards, forwards. It takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It's not called the Wheel. It's called a Carousel. It lets us travel the way a child travels. Around and around, and back home again... to a place where we know we are loved.
- Jon Hamm as Don Draper in Mad Men
Thank you for reading! This publication is a lovingly cultivated, hand-rolled, barrel-aged, ad-free, AI-free, 100% organic, anti-algorithm, zero calorie, high protein, completely reader-supported publication that is not paid to endorse any political party, world religion, sports team, product or service. Please help keep it going by buying my book, hiring me to speak, or becoming a paid subscriber, which will also entitle you to upcoming web events, free consultations, discounted merchandise, and generally being the coolest person your friends know:
Best,
Know someone who is also Curious AF? Please share this edition with them!
David Preston
Educator & Author
Latest book: ACADEMY OF ONE
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