Sunday, March 3, 2024

MUSIC HAS CHARMS, SOMETIMES


We have all, I imagine, noticed that it is the custom for many stores to play music for the entertainment of patrons. Not only stores are so afflicted. Places where one would especially expect and wish for quiet also play music. Recently, as I sat in the vast waiting room of the Allina Clinic, I could not help but notice some wretched tune being piped in–fairly softly, fortunately; but after one notices it one cannot easily ignore it, like a stone in one’s shoe. I once had to sit through “music” not only in the waiting room but also in the examination room of a dermatology clinic.


The sounds chosen for our delectation range from so-called “classics” (dating back perhaps as far as twenty or even thirty years) to “contemporary” cacophonies. When the entertainment is a song, it is invariably “sung” by some troubadour with no musical training who wails and chants gibberish or platitudes.


I do not know what marketing studies indicate that people–at least those with IQs in three figures–are pleased to be captive audiences to sounds at best trivial and at worst repellant. It does surprise me that cultivated ladies and gentlemen do not grab the nearest heavy objects and demolish the ceiling speakers.


But I do not wish merely to carp or cavil. One should offer an alternative, and I herewith do. In fact, I offer two alternatives. The first is to stop playing music in stores, clinics, and similar places. Silence has a charm all its own. But, if silence is inconceivable, incredible, here is another idea: play good music. I  do not advocate piping Mahler, Bruckner, or Wagner into public spaces, I do not want Handel’s oratorios booming out. But we have an enormous repertoire of exquisite, beautiful, soothing material by various Baroque and Classical geniuses that would serve the purpose very well. Georg Philipp Telemann wrote myriad  sonatas. Vivaldi wrote over 500 string pieces. Haydn composed 104 symphonies If the works of just these three masters was placed on a loop, one could captivate the captive customers/patients with different works–no repetitions–for well over a year. And maybe some people would realize that their musical horizons should extend beyond their lifetimes.

Thursday, November 9, 2023

Still Here

I don't post much, do I?   I do intend to start a publicity campaign for my books, someday. In the meantime, they are all available still, and I am yet extant. If you have somehow found this modest blog, I encourage you to peruse the previous entries. You will find information on my books and many essays that, though not recent, yet have some value. 

Monday, April 10, 2023

NICE DAYS FOREVER!

 

Many years ago, so far as I can recall, when one purchased something, the clerk would say “thank you” and one would reply “you’re welcome”.

For quite some time, however, one has often heard “have a nice day” instead of “thank you”.

   Just lately a variant of “have a nice day” has somehow appeared: “Have a nice rest of your day”.

   I do not know how this latest phrase originated or why anyone would say it. Besides being awkward and ungrammatical–surely the best way to express the felicitous thought would be “May the rest of your day be nice”--it seems quite limited. What about tomorrow? Don’t you want my tomorrow to be nice, o solicitous clerk? Or are you acknowledging the fairly obvious fact that you cannot wish me to have had a happy previous portion of my day?

   Why not go even further?  Why not say “have a nice life” or “may you be happy until you die, and then go to heaven”? Perhaps we could venture into fairytale phraseology: “May you live happily ever after.”

   Or maybe we could just return to “thank you” or “thanks for your patronage”, and reply “you’re welcome”?

 

–Brian A. Libby, 2023  

Sunday, September 11, 2022

Vollendet das ewige Werk!


When Valhalla was completed, Wotan said "The eternal work is finished." I doubt my works will be eternal--but then neither were Wotan's, as things turned out. At any rate, the revised edition of The Free Lands is now published on Amazon KDP, both in paperback and ebook form. For just$18, or $4 on Kindle, you can acquire a 2.5 pound, 655-page tome that completes the saga of the Pelicans Mercenary Regiment (unless I keep writing them, which will happen only if some people start reading them.)

Of course, before reading The Free Lands, you should read the first three volumes, also now available in final revised form. 

I'm well aware that this announcement will not cause cries of joy throughout the world of fanrasy-adventure aficionados, but I hope now to begin some sort of publicity campaign to revive interest in my Mercenaries series. (I have sold a few hundred copies in the past several years, but it has lain fallow for a while.) Any suggestions?

The new book's ISBN is 979-8848976-816. The old edition is still listed on Amazon; I hope to find a way to eliminate it (and the other old editions) so readers will not be confused.



Sunday, July 31, 2022

SIZE MATTERS

 


Europeans say that everything is bigger in the United States. (French and Saunders had a very funny skit about this.) But nowhere, I think, is this truer than in the cereal aisle of the local supermarket, as I noticed while shopping the other day.


Would you like some Fruity Pebbles? You may choose among three sizes: the Large Size box is 15 ounces. The Family Size box is 20 ounces. The Mega Size box is 27.5 ounces. If you want only a small size box, you will have to buy the Large Size, which is the smallest available.


Other cereal manufacturers use the term Giant Size (apparently instead of Mega Size). 


I do not know if even more enormous sizes exist. Perhaps there is, in the storeroom, a Colossal Size box that must be winched into your trunk. 


Whatever happened to Small, Medium, Large? These words are directly related. But there is no way intuitively to know the relative dimensions of things labelled Mega, Giant, or Family. (How big is a family?) 


Monday, August 16, 2021

Why Not Investigate?

Here are some addresses useful for learning more about my books: three Youtube videos and my Facebook page.

Storm Approaching:    https://youtu.be/GjlyGbBkTbc    

And Gladly Teach:     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IukjbheqL7g&t=13s  


Hodgepodge:     https://youtu.be/mHgsTL-wWzA 


Facebook:  www.facebook.com/blibby600    

Tuesday, June 22, 2021

A New Edition

 


The new (and final) edition of Part Three of the Mercenaries series is now available at Amazon in both print and ebook versions. The ISBN of the print version is 979-8520689188. The old edition will still be on the Amazon site for a while since it takes time to get rid of such things.