Sunday, September 11, 2016

RNZ CONCERT ENIGMA

6/11/2016
The normal Norma is sung by Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne, and they did so in 1982 in San Fran, and we can hear the result now at 6.05 on AAAARNZ (that's "arenzed", though the word radio starts with R not A, somebody should discreetly inform them before this bad habit gets established as an addiction).
    I don't know about the tenor, but our Joan (well she was my Joan, from Sydney, like me, but too expensive for me, though I have a lot of her operas in boxes in the house). Bonynge will be waving the baton at them.
http://operawonk.blogspot.co.nz/2008/06/bellini-norma.html
For some reason, this particular site (the Norma article with my own synopsis) has not been visited much. I hope bel canto is not going out of fashion again. Can Anna Netrebko replace Maria Callas in this department? I have been watching her this afternoon,
    Brace yourself! Thursday 10th of November is "scuttling the sore" time again. The leak says that Wagner will be represented, after all those years when he was excluded, and that aberration showed how unrepresentative this hit parade is.  I hope the Albinoni is not the fake piece (as shown by their own snooper, Steve Danby). The APhO will perform a selection of the items and the top five (and any solo pieces, such as Beethoven piano sonatas, willhave been secretly secreted, in the non-secretory sense, for this occasion).
One year they managed to get their oen party-piece for horns into the concert, by tactical voting, no doubt. Who checks whether some participants are frequent flyers in this contest?
    To give you an idea how these things work: BBC Magazine asked 151 conductors to name their three favourite symphonies. Beethoven 3 came top (he would have agreed with this rating) with 32/151. Beethoven 9 was the runner-up with 31/151, and 5 and 6 also ran, though 7 and 4 were left behind the
starting gate. Third was Mozart 41. Haydn has 104 symphonies, but did notget a look-in, even though his 1 (a joke!) 6 22 and 94 got a vote each.
Brahms, Bruckner, and Mahler fared much better. Tchaikovsky 6, Shostakovitch 5, Berlioz SF (7), but Dvorak 9 and Saint-Saens 3 did not score enough to be in the 20.
    Let's see if the RNZ selecters can come up with a comparable team.
(I suspect they will be giving help-up handicaps to NZ compositions.)
October 2016
The RNZ CONCERT is heavily advertised on the New Zealand national broadcasting network, but to the uninitiated it is an undecipherable enigma. In such acronymical puzzles, ROYAL has to be the first choice for R. So we presume that a royal command performance is in the offing, but it turns out to be more off than on; it never happens.
   Is it the Royal Naval Zoo? No, it is Radio New Zealand. For years they taught us how to say it, and then suddenly, in a fit of reductionism, they altered it to the incomprehensible RNZ.
Health warning:
Monday madness of RNZ concert party.
You know that in NZ the abbreviation R can only refer to Rugby.
(And rugby players often make news headlines for their activities off the playing field.)
But it is possible that Radio is sometimes intended, though it must not be said aloud because it has connotations of radioactive radiation, which is a bad thing.
Whatever the truth or truthiness of the matter, a madness Monday has been programmed for 12/9/16 (which would be the day after 9/11 in the backward USA).
I am not making this up. It is on the RNZ website.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/concert/schedules/20160912
The invitation (to the bach?) is: Come you tempted sinners.
It is billed as a bacchanal (not a reference to Bach).
Invited guests are: the lads in their hundreds, a bevy of merry wives, a corsair, a red priest, a fairy queen, a sorcerer's apprentice, Daphnis and Chloe (ready for another orgy), and Billy the Kid (for a bit of gun-play).
A young woman (apparently promoting a brand of paint stripper) has been hired to perform the dance of the seven veils, and a riotous fire dance.
There will be an upbeat lunch, after all the beating up.
Other entertainments include an Up-country song, and Love went a-riding, and much more (though I refrain from naming them, since you might blame me for all the double meanings lurking in them)
And to the fore all day will be 'settling the score' (very violent).
Wicked!
And do you know why this is happening?
It is because of the new policy of only allowing short pieces on the air.
We are not permitted a pious Bruckner symphony with our breakfast, or a Mahler symphony for afternoon tea.

Don't forget to vote for your favourite old scores But they must be short, and orchestral (for the AKL orchestra to play at a concert in November), not piano sonatas (forget the Moonlight Sonata), or string quartets (don't mention the Lark Quartert, though the Lark Ascending is always acceptable), or solo cello suites; there has to be rules, even in conspiracies.

Peace and quiet be upon us

Brayin (not as in braying ass).

I am reading The Third policeman by Flann O'Brien (not his real name nor my pseudonym) which is mainly about bicycles taking over the world, and ridiculing academics like me.

Saturday, July 25, 2015

FONETIC SPELING



Teibel foor consistent fonetic speling ov internaeshenel Ingglish
(Not dhiy Ocsford dayalect oor dha Cwiinz Ingglish)
Did yuw (k)nouw dhaet 'quick' woz orijhenliy spelt 'cwic'?
Whot haez haepend?
French got intuw Anglo-Saxon aend spoild dha speling.
Tray dhis set ov non-aidenticel twinz: ration aend nation.

pit  dhis thing (this thing)
ii piit (peat) fiit (feet feat) piir (peer pier); -iy siy (see)
e  pet  sed (said) red (red read)  plezher (pleasure)
ee peer (pair, pear) dheer (their there)  eer (air heir)
ae paet (pat)  raeshen (ration)
pat (putt) bat (but, butt) madher (mother)
aa paast (past) paart (part)  faadher (father)
o  pot
oo poor (poor pore pour) poort (port)  sooht (sought)  ool (all awl)
u  put (put  foot  soot)
uu puul (pool) fuud (food)
ai paid (pied) pay (pie); -ay  ay (I) may (my)
ei peid (paid/payed)  neishen (nation)  beibiy (baby); -ey dey (day)
au paut (pout) laud (loud)  nauw (now)
ou poust (post) bout (boat) vout (vote)  souw (sew, so)
oi oil ; -oy  boy
eu peurl (purl pearl)  heur (her)
r  red  horer (horror)
l  led (led lead read) liv (live) laiv (live) fool (fall)
y  yet yang (young)  nyuw (new) dyuw (dew due)  fyuw (few)
cing (king)  meic (make) cic (kick) cwic (quick)
g  get  big  bigìn (begin)
hit heer (hair)
sit  sent (cent, sent)
z  zip fiz (fizz) hiz (his)  endz (ends)
sh shist (schist) secshen (section) mesh
zh mezher (measure) plezher (pleasure) beizh (beige)
ch chit  mach (much)
jh fajh (fudge) jhin (gin) (Should be dj? but that would require tj for ch)
th thing  thisel (thistle)
dh dhis (this) dhaet (that) dha/dhiy (the)  dhey (they) dhem (them)
kh lokh (loch)
ng singer fingger (finger)
wh wheil/weil (whale)
weil (wail)
cw cwiin (queen)  cwest (quest)  cwic (quick)
cs sics (six)
n  nit nan (nun none)
m mit  maim (mime)
b  bib blob bluw (blew blue)
p  pip  peper (pepper)
t  tot
did ded (dead)
fit fonetic (phonetic)
v vecs (vex) faiv (five)
K (c)  Q (cw) X (cs) Ph (f) aar nauw obsoliit
Shwa (indistinct shoort vauwel) iz reprizented aez e (-ed) or a (benaana) or i (inaf)

Haeng it ap on dha wool!

Hiir iz anadher wey ov duwing it
http://www.simpelfonetik.com/spelling-qa.html

Friday, May 29, 2015

BRION JARVIS PhD



Brion Douglas Walton Jarvis
(1928-2015)



Brion passed away peacefully at Summerset Home on Friday 8th May 2015
Brion was a wonderful friend and dearly loved husband to Audrey for 56 years. Treasured father of Susan, Linda and Sharon and to Melissa and Emma Buckle. Loved father-in-law of Mike. Dearest grandfather of Amelia, Felicia and Cajetan; Edwina, Elliot and Anna; Jack and Josh; and great grandfather of Lucas and Twila.
"A wise and gentle man who will be sadly missed by us all. Yours was a worthwhile life, indeed Dad."
We are very grateful to Drs Murray Shaw and John Burke and the staff at Summerset Village for their care and support. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Methodist Social Services would be appreciated and may be left in the church foyer. Messages to the Jarvis family C/- PO Box 5191 Palmerston North 4441. Friends are invited to join with family for a celebration of Brion's life at Wesley Broadway Methodist Church, 264 Broadway Avenue, Palmerston North, on Thursday, 14th May 2015, at 10am, followed by a private cremation.
Published in Manawatu Standard on May 11, 2015
- See more at: http://deaths.manawatustandard.co.nz/obituaries/manawatu-standard-nz/obituary.aspx?pid=174830017#sthash.GbeVsChu.dpuf
Brion was a wonderful friend and dearly loved husband to Audrey for 56 years. Treasured father of Susan, Linda and Sharon and to Melissa and Emma Buckle. Loved father-in-law of Mike. Dearest grandfather of Amelia, Felicia and Cajetan; Edwina, Elliot and Anna; Jack and Josh; and great grandfather of Lucas and Twila.
"A wise and gentle man who will be sadly missed by us all. Yours was a worthwhile life, indeed Dad."
We are very grateful to Drs Murray Shaw and John Burke and the staff at Summerset Village for their care and support. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Methodist Social Services would be appreciated and may be left in the church foyer. Messages to the Jarvis family C/- PO Box 5191 Palmerston North 4441. Friends are invited to join with family for a celebration of Brion's life at Wesley Broadway Methodist Church, 264 Broadway Avenue, Palmerston North, on Thursday, 14th May 2015, at 10am, followed by a private cremation.
Published in Manawatu Standard on May 11, 2015
- See more at: http://deaths.manawatustandard.co.nz/obituaries/manawatu-standard-nz/obituary.aspx?pid=174830017#sthash.GbeVsChu.dpuf
Brion was a wonderful friend and dearly loved husband to Audrey for 56 years. Treasured father of Susan, Linda and Sharon and to Melissa and Emma Buckle. Loved father-in-law of Mike. Dearest grandfather of Amelia, Felicia and Cajetan; Edwina, Elliot and Anna; Jack and Josh; and great grandfather of Lucas and Twila.
"A wise and gentle man who will be sadly missed by us all. Yours was a worthwhile life, indeed Dad."
We are very grateful to Drs Murray Shaw and John Burke and the staff at Summerset Village for their care and support. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Methodist Social Services would be appreciated and may be left in the church foyer. Messages to the Jarvis family C/- PO Box 5191 Palmerston North 4441. Friends are invited to join with family for a celebration of Brion's life at Wesley Broadway Methodist Church, 264 Broadway Avenue, Palmerston North, on Thursday, 14th May 2015, at 10am, followed by a private cremation.
Published in Manawatu Standard on May 11, 2015
- See more at: http://deaths.manawatustandard.co.nz/obituaries/manawatu-standard-nz/obituary.aspx?pid=174830017#sthash.GbeVsChu.dpuf
Brion was a wonderful friend and dearly loved husband to Audrey for 56 years. Treasured father of Susan, Linda and Sharon and to Melissa and Emma Buckle. Loved father-in-law of Mike. Dearest grandfather of Amelia, Felicia and Cajetan; Edwina, Elliot and Anna; Jack and Josh; and great grandfather of Lucas and Twila.
"A wise and gentle man who will be sadly missed by us all. Yours was a worthwhile life, indeed Dad."
We are very grateful to Drs Murray Shaw and John Burke and the staff at Summerset Village for their care and support. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Methodist Social Services would be appreciated and may be left in the church foyer. Messages to the Jarvis family C/- PO Box 5191 Palmerston North 4441. Friends are invited to join with family for a celebration of Brion's life at Wesley Broadway Methodist Church, 264 Broadway Avenue, Palmerston North, on Thursday, 14th May 2015, at 10am, followed by a private cremation.
Published in Manawatu Standard on May 11, 2015
- See more at: http://deaths.manawatustandard.co.nz/obituaries/manawatu-standard-nz/obituary.aspx?pid=174830017#sthash.GbeVsChu.dpuf














































































































We remember with love: "A wise and gentle man who will be sadly missed by us all. Yours was a worthwhile life indeed Dad."


Brion was a wonderful friend and dearly loved husband to Audrey for 56 years. Treasured father of Susan, Linda, and Sharon, and to Melissa and Emma Buckle. Loved father-in-law of Mike. Dearest grandfather of Amelia, Felicia, and Cajetan; Edwina, Elliot, and Anna; Jack and Josh; and great grandfather of Lucas and Twila.



Brion was born in Farnborough, Hampshire, UK and educated at Caterham School in Surrey. He served two years in the Royal Air Force as a radar operator before obtaining a Diploma in Dairying from Nottingham University and a National Diploma in Dairying. He emigrated to Australia in 1951 and worked for the Portland Cooperative Dairy Company and Glaxo Australia, before moving to Melbourne to work in the CSIRO Animal Health Division and undertaking part-time BSc studies at Melbourne University. He obtained a Victorian Department of Agriculture scholarship in 1958 and undertook a BAgrSc course at Massey University, NZ, graduated with a PhD from the University of New England, Armidale, NSW, then spent 2 years at the University of California (Davis), before returning to Massey in 1967 as Senior Lecturer in Microbiology.
   His research interests have covered rumen cellulolytic bacteria, the interactions between rumen bacteria and ciliate protozoa, then moving on to work with Rhizobium and Agrobacterium and their classification.  Brion retired from Massey at the end of 1993, but still retained an active interest in Rhizobium.

Audrey Jarvis (wife of Brion) says: We met in Port Fairy in Victoria in 1955, when we both worked at Glaxo Laboratories. Brion had come to Australia from England as a  '10 pound Pom', and I arrived as a new graduate from Melbourne University. Port Fairy has wonderful beaches, and Brion's favourite activity was spearfishing. The first time he invited me to go out (on his motor bike) he had been spearfishing. He and his friend caught so many fish that they themselves could not fit in the boat with them, and they had to swim behind it to get it home. He was nearly two hours late meeting me. I was still willing to go out with him, and he was impressed.
   Brion came to Palmerston North to be a student at Massey University in 1958, and at the end of that year we married in Melbourne. We both came to live in Palmerston North, and we became part of Trinity Methodist Church.
   Brion had a tremendous love of nature, and he combined this with his artistic skills, in his many Nature Books. Here are some sketches of chiffchaff.



    In 1974 we built a house on 11 acres in Old West Road, and Brion added raising calves to our family activities. And there were horses for the girls.
   Brion was a dedicated scientist, working long hours, and he regretted that he didn't have as much time for family holidays. He worked on protozoa, which, unlike many bacteria, one cannot simply freeze and take out of the freezer when convenient;  he would come home each morning from church camps to feed his protozoa.
   Brion was very supportive of my wish to have a scientific career. I joined the staff of the NZ Dairy Research Institute in 1968.
   I remember Brion as a wise and dependable Dad and Poppa. And he was a wonderful friend and husband to me for 56 years. My heart is overflowing with gratitude for the life we have had together, and with sadness because he is no longer here with me in a physical form. I know he will live on in many ways as he remains in my and our memories.

Brian Colless says: Since 1970 the Jarvises and the Collesses have been a close-knitted family group. We are all refugees from Australia (it's easier to get out of Oz than into it). Having left our relatives overseas, we became cousins and uncles and aunts to one another.















































































































   Brion Jarvis was certainly a good mentor to my children. Young Nigel went paua fishing with him, underwater, and felt safe, he said recently.



















































































































The two families went on camping holidays together, usually arranged through our Methodist church: Waikanae, the donkey ranch; Taranaki, the snowy mountain; Coromandel, the camp by the sea. In all this, my main role was to be there to have my ginger beard tugged (but I never pulled pigtails or ponytails).






























































































































































































































   I would also like to speak for my dear departed wife Helen. Brion and Helen were friends. And Helen constantly demonstrated  her faithfulness to me by only having close friendships with men named /braian/. My daughter Laurel says this ensured that when Helen called out a name in her sleep, it would always be the right one, no matter what the spelling: Brion, Bryan, Brian (in my family, mine is Brain). Actually, Brion's birth certificate spells his name Brian, but the spelling he used assured him of uniqueness.
   Helen and Brion truly influenced many young lives through the Sunday school class they took together; and they had a sleep-over on one occasion, in the church hall.
   Helen passed away on Christmas Eve in 2014. Brion departed from us on the 8th of May, which was Helen's 56th wedding anniversary. They both died as the sun was setting, in different seasons (summer, autumn) but it was a good way to go. "As the sun sinks slowly in the west, we say farewell ...."