Your “Senor’s To-Play List” Saturday Evening Open Thread

Evening lizard people. It’s your friendly neighborhood Senor Weaselo getting to throw it back just a little to the “bands we like” genre of the usual Saturday Evening Post threads. Because fuck it, it’s Saturday night, let’s listen to some tunes! Well, except it’s not bands we like. Or bands I like. Actually, it’s “here’s a bunch of shit that I want to play with people.” So I give you Senor Weaselo’s To-Play List, chamber music edition.

This all started because we were writing about favorite Georges in music or entertainment, or something like that. And I posted this.

This is George Crumb’s Black Angels, for amplified string quartet. One of contemporary composer George Crumb’s most famous works, it is, for lack of terms, pretty fucking cool. First off, as I said, amplified string quartet, all four players have mics or pickups on their instruments. And if you look at the score, it gets pretty loud and screechy. So it gets really loud and screechy. There’s also a bit where the quartet has to play wine glasses filled with water to certain pitches, tam-tam, the violins and violists play their instruments like a cello and everyone bows at the nut (the end of the fingerboard) and fingers the notes essentially backwards, and the overarching theme of the piece is 7s and 13s. I first heard it freshman year in undergrad (I think) and thought it was the coolest thing, and I definitely would like to play it. Mr. Crumb is still alive, and my teacher gave me a notable story when he played in Mr. Crumb’s ensemble. They were on tour and stopped at a rest stop. Everyone got off and got whatever knick-knacks, and Crumb got a spoon and a plate. When my teacher asked why, it was because he liked the sound when he hit the plate with the spoon. So, as my teacher said, “He bought a sound.” Which is pretty cool.

Yes, there’s a fair bit of contemporary chamber music that only rarely you get to play. Or maybe one group plays every several years. Such as this:

Messiaen’s Quator pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time) was written in 1941 in a concentration camp. S0 to them it could have been the end of time, the end of the world. Messiaen was a religious man (later working as an organist in Paris) and the “end of time” he references in the work is the Apocalypse. His use of time, of rhythm, and of unison, like in the sixth movement, drives the work, and I could probably use the last movement, “Louange à l’Immortalité de Jésus” (“Praise to the Immortality of Jesus”) as a solo work, as it’s written for violin and piano. The instrumentation for the quartet is for the musicians who were at the camp: piano, violin, cello, and clarinet.

Let’s get all the dark stuff out of the way then. Like Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” quartet.

It’s one of the staples, I haven’t played it. Kind of as simple as that. There are other staples that I haven’t played, or only played a snippet of, like the Schumann Piano Quintet (I really like the second movement, but I’ve only played the first), or the Brahms B Major Piano Trio (I’ve only played the C Minor). Schumann’s the most famous of the piano quintets I haven’t played, since I’ve played Brahms, Dvorak, and Shostakovich.

Do you know what’s surprising? I haven’t played much Beethoven. Like almost any of the quartets—I played one of them and I learned an important lesson to not start it on an up bow. But there are others I want to play like the Razumovsky Quartet, especially the last two movements. But I am a fan of the late quartets, and among them two in particular.

From the Op. 132 quartet, there’s the third movement, “Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der Lydischen Tonart.” (“Holy song of thanksgiving of a convalescent to the Deity, in the Lydian tonality.) It’s a movement that basically says “thank God I didn’t die,” as Beethoven had an intestinal disorder the prior winter and didn’t die. It’s lengthy, but it’s also absolutely gorgeous.

On the other side of the late Beethoven spectrum, there’s the Grosse Füge. Originally the last movement to the Op. 130 quartet, Beethoven ended up spinning it into its own thing and adding a different finale to the B-flat Major Quartet. That finale is actually the last completed piexw Beethoven wrote.

Lastly to finish off the quartets with something completely different. The Helicopter String Quartet!

That’s right. String quartet, four helicopters with pilots, audio and video equipment, and technicians. It’s a silly piece that I have no chance of performing, which is why I would love to do so! Also, it’s technically a scene from an opera, which I’m not even going into but you can read about here.


Wait, there’s still sports on, right?

Yes there are! All times Eastern.

X Gonna Give it to Ya-FL
LA (Who are we? Who are we gonna beat?) Wildcats vs. Houston Renegades Roughnecks (in progress), FOX—Way to go, Menafee.

JV Hoops
Duke at U*NC (in progress), ESPN
BDSM State at Baylor (in progress), ESPN2—The battle of clear consent vs. none!
Kansas State vs. Iowa State, 8:00, ESPN2
Providence vs. Xavier, 8:00 FS1
Gonzaga vs. St. Mary’s, 10:00, ESPN
UCLA vs. Fat Dog for Midterms (Arizona), 10:00, ESPN2
USC vs. Arizona State, 10:00, FS1

Face-Punchin’
UFC Prelims, 8:00, ESPN
UFC Main Card, 10:00, ESPN+ streaming

Lastly, a BattleBots Byte: Season 5 is confirmed! Filming will be in April, tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday. Get someone you love (me?) robot combat tickets!

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Senor Weaselo
Senor Weaselo plays the violin. He tucks it right under his chin. When he isn't doing that, he enjoys watching his teams (Yankees, Jets, Knicks, and Rangers), trying to ingest enough capsaicin to make himself breathe fire (it hasn't happened yet), and scheming to acquire the Bryant Park zamboni.
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Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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litre_cola

senor if you read aftermath, this was a superb post.

yeah right

Senor, I have to ask. Is there a classical instrument that makes you bleed like a guitar can make you bleed?

Just wondering because I bled all over a really nice guitar tonight.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh
BC Dick

The orchestra sings to your mind. The guitar talks To your heart. Maggot Brain is my best example.

yeah right

You’re a goddamn inspiration Senor!

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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Col. Duke LaCross

UCLA is flat smothering Arizona.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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Rotostar; a jaucouzi for your tit.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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Brick Meathook

Here’s another photo of my sandwich:

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yeah right

Smoked meat!

litre_cola

Schwartz deli, superb. Their mustard blend is so good. I am very jealous.

Brick Meathook

Langer’s Deli in Los Angeles makes the best pastrami sandwich ever. This sandwich is its equal, yet they are different. As explained to me by the guys at Schwartz’s, their smoked meat is brisket from the chest of the cow, which is spiced and smoked overnight. The smoked briskets are steamed before serving. Pastrami, as they explained it, is a brisket from the leg meat.

Langer’s pastrami and Schwartz’s smoked meat are both fucking amazing.

JerBear50

I think you got fed some bullshit. There is one full brisket on a steer consisting of a point cut and a flat cut if you separate them. There is no such thing as leg brisket. They may be using clod which is similar but cut from the shoulder, and are just describing it badly.

herodotus450

Eulers have 43 PP goals on the season, pretty sure that’s more than the total Red Wings goals for the season.

herodotus450

OK it’s like 50% as many goals.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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Gratliff

I always forget that James Adomian has a podcast where he just does impressions for the whole thing, but that’s what you get when you don’t use soundcloud.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agDyxmKITbQ

herodotus450

The Documents!

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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Gratliff

Holtby’s given up 7 goals on 18 shots. Seems bad.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

He’s drunk; it’s okay.

Gratliff

Flyers legit blowing the Caps out of the water at 6-1 now

Mr. Ayo

Didn’t you predict 10-0?

Basically nailed it.

Gratliff

The metro division has been consistently dumb this season, except for the hilariously bad Wings

herodotus450

More like the LOiLers amirit

Doktor Zymm
Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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Doktor Zymm

It’s all good until some ass sticks a dick in your mouth

Viva La Tabula Raza

No one could be cruel and heartless enough to do something like that!
— Jeffrey Epstein

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

Three sheets to the wind.

The Right Reverend Electric Mayhem

See, I interpreted the push-forward-with-surprised-look as someone giving her a bit of a how’s-your-father from behind

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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Horatio Cornblower

On the one hand Duke won due to, yet again, two brutally bad calls that benefited them, which is an outrage.

On the other hand, UNC and world-class hypocrite Roy Williams lost because of those calls so really, life goes on.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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ArmedandHammered

https://youtu.be/VExw77xJsBQ

Another great George

Gratliff

Every time an Eli Valley piece makes it to my timeline, I’m both amazed by what he can do and concerned with maintaining my sanity while staring directly at his eldritch terrors.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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Mr. Ayo

That’s a weird toilet.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

We are not here to judge your fetish.

scotchnaut

I wish you wouldn’t call her that.

Mr. Ayo

Look, there’s a history there. She’s called me worse.

scotchnaut

There I go again-sticking my nose into other people’s toilets.

BC Dick

I want to see the poop cam.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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ballsofsteelandfury

@Viva LA Tabula Raza, I’m Rolling with it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izGwDsrQ1eQ

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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scotchnaut

No one ever talks about Sir John Brillo Pad’s contribution to modern cookery. smgdh…

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

That’s way better than the intended joke.

Gratliff

Flyers who most recently lost 0-5 to the fucking Devils are up 3-1 in the second against Washington. This season is so stupid.

Gratliff

Sorry. 4-1. Sure, why not

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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HOT SPACE ACTION!

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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scotchnaut

Glory Hole Pointer Girl is one of the most under-rated super heroes in the Jack Kirby pantheon.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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Viva La Tabula Raza

Man, at the beginning there I thought this post was going to be about different Musical Georges, like Thorogood, Lowell, Harrison, Michael, and Boy. Nice headfake!!

Doktor Zymm

Fun story. One of my best friends, I met my junior year in college when I was hanging out with his GF in NYC. I actually met her at CBGBs and we were roommates the year after. During that year, we went to a Slaughter and the Dogs show at CBs and he was crowdsurfing during the second or third song and got straight dropped on his back. He was screaming like an idiot cause he hadn’t eaten or slept, we cabbed it to the hospital where we weren’t supposed to check him in with his fake id (duh) and he got prescribed muscle relaxers and promptly forgot the next week.
https://youtu.be/5jZddq_JLy4

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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Viva La Tabula Raza

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Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

HOT APE ACTION!!

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

Ape’s near you want to fuck.

1-800-ASimian

Viva La Tabula Raza

Obligatory: OOK OOK!

Brick Meathook

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Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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Happy Brass Nipples Saturday.

Viva La Tabula Raza

Those were certainly simpler times.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

It’s more expensive to pierce a brass nipple.

Doktor Zymm

But once it’s done, it’s FOREVER

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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Viva La Tabula Raza

Just gotta have the right tools.
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Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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Horatio Cornblower

Houston clearly stole their uniforms from the Washington Sentinels.

Viva La Tabula Raza

Are they playing at the U of H Cougars stadium? I saw Pink Floyd there in April 1977 on the Animals Tour, when it was called Jeppesen Stadium. I was tripping my balls off on some really good mushrooms, and it was raining for most of the show. The inflatable pig blew my mind. The stadium was in a bad area, and two of our complement were jumped, robbed, and beaten while trying to find their car after show. Good times!

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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Doktor Zymm

RIP Kirk

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

Yep.