R.L. Swihart's Blog, page 121
December 17, 2018
Xmas @ The Bradbury (2/16/18): KITKA + The Grand Central Market
Always a treat. We had some corner seats on the 4th Floor. KITKA was almost at eye level once (they travel throughout The Bradbury while performing): a Finnish song about Creation (sounding like someone weaving). Then we had some good food at the Central Market. We even got there early enough to check out Angels Flight.
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December 16, 2018
From Tolstoy's "Hadji Murad"
`Where have the batmen got to?' asked Butler. `Gone off drinking,' said Marya Dmitrievna. `What is it you want?' `I want the door opened. You've got a whole horde of mountaineers outside. Hadji Murad has come.' `Go on, tell me another one,' said Marya Dmitrievna, smiling. `It's not a joke. It's true. They are just outside.' `What? Really?' said Marya Dmitricvna. `Why should I want to make it up? Go and look -- they are just outside. `Well, there's a thing!' said Marya Dmitrievna, rolling down her sleeves and feeling for the pins in her thick plait of hair. `I'll go and wake up Ivan Matvcovich, then!' `No, I'll go. You, Bondarenko, go and open the door,' said Butler. `That's all right by me,' said Marya Dmitrievna and returned to her work.
From Tolstoy's "Hadji Murat"
`Where have the batmen got to?' asked Butler. `Gone off drinking,' said Marya Dmitrievna. `What is it you want?' `I want the door opened. You've got a whole horde of mountaineers outside. Hadji Murad has come.' `Go on, tell me another one,' said Marya Dmitrievna, smiling. `It's not a joke. It's true. They are just outside.' `What? Really?' said Marya Dmitricvna. `Why should I want to make it up? Go and look -- they are just outside. `Well, there's a thing!' said Marya Dmitrievna, rolling down her sleeves and feeling for the pins in her thick plait of hair. `I'll go and wake up Ivan Matvcovich, then!' `No, I'll go. You, Bondarenko, go and open the door,' said Butler. `That's all right by me,' said Marya Dmitrievna and returned to her work.
December 9, 2018
A "Clip" from Tolstoy's Hadji Murad
In her letter Peter's mother first sent him her blessing, then greetings from everybody and the news of his godfather's death, and at the end she added that Aksinya (Peter's wife) had not wished to stay with them but had gone into service, where they heard she was living honestly and well. Then came a reference to the present of a ruble, and finally a message which the old woman, yielding to her sorrows, had dictated with tears in her eyes and the church clerk had taken down exactly, word for word: "One thing more, my darling child, my sweet dove, my own Peterkin! I have wept my eyes out lamenting for thee, thou light of my eyes. To whom has thou left me? . . . " At this point the old woman had sobbed and wept, and said: "That will do!" So the words stood in the letter; but it was not fated that Peter should receive the news of his wife's having left home, nor the present of the ruble, nor his mother's last words. The letter with the money in it came back with the announcement that Peter had been killed in the war, "defending his Tsar, his Fatherland, and the Orthodox Faith." That is how the army clerk expressed it.
