Byzantium's Shores: chronicling the misadventures of an overalls-clad hippie

 I wrote yesterday about my possibly retiring this space in favor of migrating all of my blogging to ForgottenStars.net , because of Reasons. I am now pulling the trigger on this move. I wi...

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/10/this-is-end-follow-up.html

 So, as social media companies exercise more and more control over the content users post, and as those companies employ algorithms that are more and more quixotic in their moderation (I've seen...

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/10/a-possible-technical-change.html

The fifth episode of the great Carl Sagan show Cosmos is titled "Blues for a Red Planet". The episode focuses on Mars: a history of the chase for life on Mars, the clash between the fictional Ma...

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/09/something-for-thursday_30.html

 More photos from a two-day trip! Huzzah! When last we checked in , The Wife and I had just finished up a visit to a Cayuga Lake winery. Next up was a stop that we make every single year, with...

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/09/vacation-part-second.html

 Some nifty stuff in the pipeline--I'm not going to keep ignoring Richard Strauss, now that I've opened him up on this series--but for now, a favorite potboiler by Tchaikovsky, a man who certain...

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/09/tone-poem-tuesday_0983806826.html

 The Wife and I made our annual trek to Ithaca and the Finger Lakes this weekend. Our trip was timed a bit oddly and was truncated by a day, because of Reasons; usually we stay two nights in a h...

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/09/vacation-part-first.html

 Normally I don't post on Sundays much, but...well, today's my birthday. I am now fifty. Here's what fifty (minus two days, since I took this two days ago) looks like: Not a lot different...

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/09/a-pirate-looks-at-fifty.html

 Here's the thing: I'm fine with wearing a mask. As in, I'm genuinely fine with it. Not only does wearing one not bother me, but...I honestly kind of like it. The discourse on masks has ma...

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/09/masks-unpopular-opinion.html

 Autumn is here! And almost like flipping a switch, we went from warm temperatures in the 80s for the last few days to high temps that are unlikely to rise above 70 for the better part of a ...

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/09/something-for-thursday_23.html

 Mr. Tolkien was good enough to assign the birthday of two of my favorite fictional characters to the day when Autumn, my favorite season, generally starts. There's poetry there, I think. Hap...

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/09/happy-birthday-to-bagginses-of-bag-end.html

 Has anyone noticed that in all the time I've been doing Tone Poem Tuesday, I have never once yet discussed any of the works of the composer who is not only best known for his tone poems, but wh...

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/09/tone-poem-tuesday-or-hello-mr-strauss.html

 The most exciting development at Casa Jaquandor of late is this: I got a new phone! Yay! There it is, on the right: my brand-spanking new Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, with 512gb internal stor...

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/09/nuphone-whodis.html

 In recent times we've made various classic rock and 1970s and 1980s hits stations our regular listening when we're at home hanging out, or when we're driving about. This is a song I don't think...

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/09/something-for-thursday_16.html

 A strange and small subgenre popped up in the middle of the 20th century, called the "Tabloid Concerto". These were entire classical works composed specifically for use in film. Not film music ...

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/09/tone-poem-tuesday_14.html

  So, let's talk about coffee! I was slow to arrive at coffee, though I think I was always going to get there. I've loved the smell of coffee ever since I was very young; I remember m...

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/09/how-many-coffee-brewing-methods-does.html

 I thought about writing a long remembrance of that horrible day, a walk-through of the weird mix of terror and business-as-usual that played out in the office where I was working at the time. I...

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/09/twenty-years.html

 Sorry, folks, it's just been a busy week. Anyway, as part of my mood-listening for writing of late, I've been listening to music from Star Trek. Here's a selection from James Horner's score t...

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/09/something-for-friday-oh-crap-ive-been.html

 In honor of Labor Day, and therefore of the labor movement and the fact that the single biggest contributor to the America that exists is the American worker, here's a piece that pays tribute t...

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/09/tone-poem-tuesday.html

Here's something I've been thinking about for quite a while: how I would fix the Supreme Court. Obviously, I'm not an expert and am quite possibly wrong in many ways, but you have to start SOMEWH...

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/09/a-proposed-amendment-addressing-certain.html

 Here is a selection from John Williams's score to JFK that seems to match my mood regarding the present and future of America. I don't know, folks. I just don't know. There is no law of natu...

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/09/something-for-thursday.html

 I support the right to abortion. Moreover, I do not think that anyone who gets an abortion has done anything the least bit morally wrong. I believe that conservatives in America, for all their ...

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/09/for-record.html

 This was a long-range forecast from nine days ago: I've noticed for a while that I deal better with hot temperatures these days than I used to. Ten years ago, or more, I would personally s...

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/08/august-is-new-july.html

 Another fascinating work today by a composer whose work I'd never heard before: Zhu Jian'er, a Chinese composer who lived from 1922 to 2017. Judging by this piece, I need to hear a lot more of ...

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/08/tone-poem-tuesday_31.html

 Because he would have been seventeen today.

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/08/something-for-thursday_26.html

 Sheila O'Malley shares this wonderful post every year when the school year is about to start : > My friend is extremely intelligent. His parents did not value this > in him. OnÂ...

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2021/08/what-is-it-with-second-grade-teachers.html