Category: Arts and Letters

The Smashing Pumpkins – Denver – October 27, 2026

Great show. 10/10.
Highly recommended

From Google AI:
The Smashing Pumpkins performed at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado on October 27, 2026, as part of The Rats in a Cage Tour. 

Set 1: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (Front-to-Back)

  1. 1979
  2. Bullet With Butterfly Wings
  3. Cupid de Locke
  4. Porcelina of the Vast Oceans
  5. Jellybelly
  6. Bodies
  7. Galapogos
  8. Thirty-Three
  9. Tonight, Tonight
  10. Here Is No Why
  11. To Forgive
  12. Fuck You (An Ode to No One)
  13. Zero
  14. Muzzle
  15. By Starlight
  16. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

Set 2: Career Hits & Deep Cuts

  1. Sojourner
  2. Edin
  3. Pentagrams
  4. Disarm
  5. Ava Adore
  6. War Dreams of Itself
  7. Mayonaise
  8. Black Stars
  9. As Rome Burns
  10. Today
  11. Cherub Rock
  12. Jesus Is the Sun
  13. The Everlasting Gaze
  14. Superchrist

A Thousand Forms of Fear – Recovery Phrase

My only way to deal with what I deemed an attack (and I might deem anything an attack in those days) was to attack more aggressively in return. The level of hostility in my offensive depended on my level of fear. Fear of being caught, fear of having to tell the truth, fear of being exposed as the lying, cheating fraud I was. But it was the fear of showing my true heart, at times either so full it might burst or so empty I could cry, that hounded me most viciously.

There had been a perpetual war between myself and the costume of persona I’d donned as a youngster and then worn my entire life. Petrified that someone might discover who I really was: merely a child inside the body of an adult. A boy playacting as a man. My lifelong hard-ass exterior and, underneath that, ironclad interior were all an intricately constructed, carefully cultivated, and fiercely guarded sham. I was, in reality, driven by what I’d heard referred to in rehab all those years ago as “a thousand forms of fear.” Sadly, somewhere deep in my soul, I knew that was probably me.

Sing Backwards and Weep: A Memoir
Mark Lanegan

Note – Highly recommended book

The Later Days of Lyndon Johnson

Salem1690s
When you had a near fatal heart attack in 1955, and then begin smoking again, and keep smoking after a massive attack of angina in 1971, yes, I’d say you don’t give a fuck.

He drank. He didn’t keep to a physician prescribed diet, and got chunky on heavy, salty food that also sped up his massive heart attack.

He had an actuarial study done that he was likely to die at age 64 given his family history; and seemed to accept this, and to just head towards making that prediction a reality.

There are reports that in this period.”, he would listen to the song Bridge Over Troubled Water by S&G on repeat and cry.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Presidents/comments/1x6p852/lbjs_slow_suicide_called_so_by_his_aides_from/

Relating to a Poem – Personal Experience and Imagination

One way to talk about a poem is to talk about how you relate to it. How you may identify with the speaker of it, like a main character in a story or movie. Or how you share the emotions running through the poem. Or how you are sympathetic to a particular situation, event, or character in the poem because you’ve had similar experiences.

But what if you don’t relate to a particular poem in any of these ways? Or what if the way you relate to the poem is by taking a different or opposing viewpoint? What then? Do you chuck the poem aside, spit in its eye, take it out back, and smack it around a little, before burying it at the back of the bookshelf? That would be one method of readerly response. All reading, in one way or another, is call-and-response. The call is the set of words on the page, and the response is your reaction in reading them.

But here is the thing: you have the ability to relate to anything. Your imagination is as powerful as any reality you have experienced or are presently experiencing. If you have a certain response to a poem—especially an adverse one—have it. Let it run its course. Then, re-read the poem, questioning what you think you know about it in order to enter the poem on its own terms.

The Poetry Reader: An Anthology
Mark Yakich

Principles as a Limited Durability Product – Brecht Quote

That was straightforward. Why take things in a roundabout way now? I’m packing so they shan’t take away your job as senior physician. And because they’ve stopped saying good morning to you at the clinic, and because you’re not sleeping nowadays. I don’t want you to tell me I mustn’t go. And I’m hurrying because I don’t want to hear you telling me I must. It’s a matter of time. Principles are a matter of time. They don’t last for ever, any more than a glove does. There are good ones which last a long while. But even they only have a certain life.

The Jewish Wife
Bertolt Brecht
Note –  One of the short one act plays in Fear and Misery of the Third Reich
Brecht Collected Plays: 4

The Blue Danube – André Rieu – Vienna

“The Blue Danube” (German: An der schönen blauen Donau, lit. ’By the Beautiful Blue Danube’, Op. 314) is a waltz by the Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, composed in 1866. Originally performed on 15 February 1867 at a concert of the Wiener Männergesang-Verein (Vienna Men’s Choral Association),[2] it has been one of the most consistently popular pieces of music in the classical repertoire. Its initial performance was considered only a mild success, however, and Strauss is reputed to have said, “The devil take the waltz, my only regret is for the coda—I wish that had been a success!”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Danube

Power to the People Fest

A Day of Peace, Love, Justice, and Music
Power To The People is a celebration of peace, love, justice, music and community action. Curated by Tom Morello, this one-day event at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD is about the power everyday human beings have when they come together — through music, art, community and action — to shape our country and our planet on, and beyond, Election Day.

https://powertothepeoplefest.com/

Full Metal Jacket Trivia – Joker’s Full Name

Although never spoken in the film, Private Joker’s real name is J.T. Davis (as seen on the back of his PT sweats). He was named after Specialist James T. Davis, the first U.S. casualty of the Vietnam War. He was killed in action on December 22, 1961.

I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do – ABBA

“I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do” is a song recorded by the Swedish pop music group ABBA for their eponymous third studio album (1975). It was written by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, and their manager Stig Anderson, with Andersson and Ulvaeus producing. Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad sing lead vocals. It was released on 10 April 1975 as the album’s third single by Polar Music. The song takes inspiration from the European schlager music of the 1950’s to the 1970s, as well as the saxophone sound of the 1950’s American orchestra leader Billy Vaughn.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Do,_I_Do,_I_Do,_I_Do,_I_Do

Opera for the People – New York Ticket Lottery

NEW YORK – Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani, Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) Commissioner Diya Vij today announced “Opera for All,” a long-term partnership between the City and the Metropolitan Opera that will provide 70,000 free tickets this season to New Yorkers who have never attended a performance at the Met.

Beginning this month, the Met will release 10,000 tickets each month throughout the 2026-27 season, about 10% of all tickets for the season. New Yorkers can enter the monthly lottery at on.nyc.gov/opera or through the Met’s app. This season’s performances include Macbeth, Lincoln in the Bardo and La Bohème.

Mayor Mamdani Launches “Opera for All,” Bringing 70,000 Free Metropolitan Opera Tickets to New Yorkers