I never grew up with Mexican jokes; growing up in the New York metropolitan area there were , then, very few Mexicans and Mexican Americans. I remember Tio Pepe was one of the few well-known restaurants which served any Mexican fare at all. Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Italian, and Cuban (Criollo) restaurants were much more common. I only made it through college by .99 cent and 1.99 cent plates of Arroz a la Cubana. There was a strong Latin presence which included French-Canadians, Haitians, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Brazilians, and Central and South Americans. And of course these groups were mixed with Greeks (born in Panama) Portuguese (Born in Africa), Irish (born in South Africa), Jews born everywhere. I knew many Spanish-speaking Jews in New York in the 1960s and 1970s. Some were from Argentina,, some from Cuba, some from Costa Rica. Some were of Greek/Jewish/Ladino origin. I knew a teacher born in Cuba whose family had been Ladino-speaking Jews in Salonika and Constantinople prior to 1914. Can anyone deny the world is one big bubbling melting pot?
When I was a boy there was still a fashion of making ethnic jokes however and I noted many anti-Catholic stories in which the Irish priests were always drunk and turning up with choir boys in their beds who had been frogs. I never liked cheap or mean humor.
I noted that the Cubans and Brazilians were really the only fully integrated groups; almost all the African-American friends and acquaintances I had were Latin (Latino).
In New York, in the 1970s there was almost no nativist feeling and the concept of what was “Latin” was broader. It’s possible that there was some anti-Gay feeling but I have no memory of that because no one ever talked about it. We were normal young people. The boys liked shapely young girls and vice-versa. Living in Greenwich Village one had some contact with the Gay Community. I had some friends who might have been Gay but they never talked about it or acted out in any way. I considered that to be someone’s personal business.
Many Spanish-speaking persons of color considered themselves Latinos and not Black. Among the common people, the terms used by people were Boricua, or Latin or in Spanish “Hispano o Latino”.
Spanish-speaking people did not naturally use the term “Hispanic” however and of course, no one had ever heard of LATINX (sic)
It seems to me Cubans and Puerto Ricans were much more likely to call themselves “Hispano” . Cubans and Puerto Ricans usually have much closer ties to Spain being officially Spanish as recently as 1898. ‘
Hispanic is a relatively modern word -I only heard “Spanish” as a youth. The word Hispanic is still rare beyond government and census documents.
Hispanic is still an artificial government term essentially invented circa 1970.
People, it seems to me, prefer to call themselves by their name of national origin which is natural.
It doesn’t bother me if people call me Irish (I am part Irish) but my people were Islanders and considered themselves Gaels or called themselves by their tribal or clan name. Clans were legally independent kingdoms or regions until 1746. There was much loyalty to the Chief and a strong remembrance of the Stewarts.
My people did not consider themselves Europeans or British either. Europe was “Roinn-Eorpa” the mainland. British people to them were Welsh people and of course, the Saxon was English.
Anglo was never a word that meant anything to me but English and sometimes protestant as in the term Anglo-Irish. Anglo-American meant a person of English descent.
I must admit even to this day I prefer “English-speaking” to Anglo because I am
not an Anglo-Saxon. But I am proudly an Anglophile as I am Hispanófilo. My children are Latins or Hispanic Americans but I have never claimed to be what I am not. The Anglo-Saxons were the traditional enemy of the Gael. Calling a Gael an Anglo-Saxon is like calling a Pole a Russian or an Alsatian a German. The Irish word for Irishman or Highlander is “Gael”(Gaidheal in “Erse”) by the way.
Even most “Germans” did not originate in “Germany” but other places such as Russia, Romania, Poland, Switzerland and Austria.
But even Mexican Americans are a divided people. They are severely divided by class. Mexico itself is as divided by class as England or Spain today, perhaps more so as England is more egalitarian today.
I see discrimination against those Mexicans who are, obviously, of African origin. I see discrimination against Mixtecos who do not speak Spanish well (they speak an indigenous language of Mexico). I see discrimination against Latins who do not Speak Spanish well.
I remember a young girl in my class -a huerita (fair-skinned girl) who was 100% of Mexican ancestry was taunted at not being Mexican by MEXICAN BORN students because she spoke so little Spanish (her parents and grandparents speak Spanish, but she and her brothers and sisters so far removed from Mexico did not speak Spanish.) They called her “pocha.” “Pocha” is somewhat derogatory for someone who is a “faded” Mexican that is someone very Americanized (anglicized).
But her skin color had nothing to do with her language: I know many darker Hispanics who don’t speak a single word of Spanish and have completely distanced themselves from their Catholic heritage believing it is not an important part of their heritage. Some have converted to Islam.
Once again, as a Gael, I find this strange because my identification as a Christian is the single most important and ancient part of my heritage. My surname, like many Gaelic surnames, is a Christian surname with a specific meaning and is a direct allusion to the early days of the Saints and Scholars of my people.
I could not imagine being a Christian in the Roman Catholic tradition without acknowledging my debt to the martyrs and saints who preserved and protected Western Civilization and the world itself. So for me, my Catholic heritage is something indestructible and essential even more so than my national origin, citizenship or “race”.
As a young man I dated young women of many races and backgrounds but most were Christian and most were Roman Catholic. I never dated a girl because she was of one faith tradition or nationality but because 1) they were likeable 2) they were attractive physically and more or less my age.
I never found the Catholic church to be asegregated place quite the contrary. “Here come the Catholics,” said Joyce , “here comes everybody”.
I still have difficulty with the American idea that race is a color and not a culture or nationality.
Exactly what do you call the grandchildren of a woman of Spanish, American and Filipino origin whose grandchildren are -brace yourselves- of Mexican, Irish, German, Polish, and English origin. She was multilingual -she grew up in the Philippines and is a native Spanish speaker as well as a Tagalog (Filipino) speaker and none of her grandchildren speak anything but English.
What do you call them except Americans?
When my grandfather spoke of the French race or the English race or the German race or the Turkish race or the Spanish race -I am quite sure he never used the word “Latin” or “Hispanic” his entire life he was speaking of cultures, languages and nationalities not what Americans call “race.”
I still laugh when I recall him speaking of the “Gallachers” as a “treacherous race.” By that, he meant they were not “leal n’ true men” from the North but a people apart -urban deracinated Irishmen who no longer had the traditional Gaelic values.
To a “Teuchter” like him they were “soupers” or “pochos.”
Similarly, ladies who were highly anglicized were “South o’ the Dyke” Lassies in other words more English than the English themselves. The men were “toffs”. A good examples were David Niven or Deborah Kerr.
Every community has its terms to identify “the other”.
Every community has it words of self-identification. And at different times people try to pass into one culture or another. Cultural diffusion and assimilation happen over time and over the generations One thing is certain. The Melting Pot bubbles on.
1) Casablanca appeals to such a wide audience because it is a skilled mix of many genres:
a) It is a romantic film (one of the great romantic films of all time)
b) It is a war film that clearly highlights “why we fight” (the Allied Cause vs. Axis)
c) It is a drama of intrigue and spies involving terror, murder and flight.
d) It is a drama of D.P’s (Displaced Persons or immigrants) trying to get visas
e) It is a character study centering on Rick Blaine (Bogart)
f) It is about seduction
and sexual abuse: characters are
coerced into sexual activity they don’t want to do.
g) It is also a musical journey into popular and national music of the time making the film almost a musical.
h) It is full of ironic lines and comedy relief (the pickpocket; the elderly couple trying to speak “perfect English” like an American; Captain Renault undecided how Urgarte died).
2) Diegetic sound is the sound that you might logically expect to hear in a film scene such as the dialogue, the singing, the clinking of glasses, the sound of a gunshot. Non-diegetic sound is clearly dubbed or added artificially to a film –the characters can’t hear it. This includes the music score. The leitmotif
[1] of “As Time Goes By” is very powerful. So is the scene with the dueling nationalistic songs the Die Wacht Am Rhein [2](Nazi song) and the Marseilles (song of the French Revolution). Consider the role of music within the film (diegetic and non-diegetic).
What effect does music have on our understanding of key scenes?
a recurrent theme throughout a musical or literary composition, associated with a particular person, idea, or situation. “As Time Goes By” is a leitmotif in
Casablanca
[2]
Dear fatherland {VATERLAND}, put your mind at rest,–dear fatherland, put your mind at rest,–Firm stands, and true, the Watch, the Watch at the Rhine!––Firm stands, and true, the Watch, the Watch at the Rhine!
Much, as your waters without end, Have we our heroes’ blood to spend…
…the German youth, pious, and strong…
[3]Redemption
the action of saving or being saved from sin, error, or evil.
Everyone is in need of redemption. Our natural condition was characterized by guilt: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23
). See also
Psalm 130:7-8
Luke 2:38
; and
Acts 20:28
[4]
Catharsis: release, liberation , purification
3) One of the things that make Casablanca great is that it speaks to that place in each of us that seeks some kind of inspiration or redemption
[3]. On some level, every character in the story receives the same kind of catharsis[4]
and their lives are irrevocably changed. Rick’s change is the most obvious in that he learns to live again, instead of hiding from a lost love. He is reminded that there are things in the world more noble and important than he (such as freedom; the Allied cause) and he wants to do his part. Symbolically he represents isolationist America which is turning like FDR (after the Atlantic Charter) to Britain, Churchill, De Gaulle and the Allied Cause.
a) . Louis (Captain Renault), the womanizer and opportunistic scoundrel gets his redemption by seeing the sacrifice Rick makes and is inspired to choose a side, where he had maintained careful neutrality so as to save his own skin (and profit from the situation).
b) The stoic Resistance leader Victor Lazlo gets his redemption by being shown that while thousands may need him to be a hero, there is someone he can rely upon when he needs inspiration in the form of his wife, who was ready to sacrifice her happiness for the chance that he might survive the Nazi terror.
c) Ferrari, the local organized crime leader gets a measure of redemption by pointing Ilsa and Lazlo to Rick as a source of escape even though there is nothing in it, materially, for him. We cannot but think that his heart is touched by the beauty and tender love of Ilsa.
d) Ilsa herself has a bad conscience; she has kept her sin (her adultery, her temptation) from her husband and realizes she can overcome this if she accepts her husband’s forgiveness. Rick may be sexier than the older Lazlo but Lazlo has fame and money and will probably offer a better life than Rick. She won’t stay 26 forever!
e) Then there is the beautiful young Bulgarian refugee; she is considering cheating on her husband with Captain Renault to get the exit VISA. We have to think she is also offering herself to Rick as well. Rick is so moved by her suffering that he lets her husband win at roulette (this may be symbolic of American generosity in Lend Lease for the Allies).
Is redemption important for young people? Can a former Nazi find redemption? (Think Schlindler) Can the bad student today or the drug abuser of today or the greedy businessman (think Scrooge) really change their lives? What about you?
Casablanca shows a number of competing motivations through Character positions. Think about what motivates each character (money, power, sex, friendship, patriotism)and how some of them are actively repressing desires and the costs and benefits(opportunity costs) of these courses of action. How do the characters give a modern audience a deeper insight as to the suffering of the DP’s (Displaced Persons or Refugees without papers) and what it must have been like during WWII?
The Maria Schneider Orchestra presented by The Gilmore Festival, Chenery Auditorium, Kalamazoo, Michigan, March 12, 2023.
On the final date of a tour celebrating both a Pulitzer-Prize nominated album (2020’s masterful Data Lords) and 30 years together, composer Maria Schneider and her 18-piece jazz orchestra got down to business with aplomb and obvious delight. Launching “Look Up” (featuring supple, soaring trombone from Marshall Gilkes and Gary Versace’s lyrical piano), the MSO quickly gathered itself and swung hard, from a hushed opening through yearning, full-bodied ensemble passages into the charming reggae-tinged coda. It proved an inspired invitation into Data Lords’ contrasting aural portraits of disc 1’s grim “The Digital World” and disc 2’s expansive “Our Natural World”, and the Gilmore Festival audience, at this outlying event from an organization usually devoted to keyboard music of all genres, ate it up.
Pivoting to the dark side with the sardonic, Google-themed “Don’t Be Evil” (“and they can’t even live up to that low bar,” Schneider commented) bassist Jay Anderson set up the mocking tango pulse, Ben Monder spun out a fiercely rocking web of guitar, trombonist Ryan Keberle peeled off growl after growl, and Versace took the mood from pensive meditation to harried protest as the orchestra built menacing riffs behind them all. In the title role of “Sputnik,” baritone saxophonist Scott Robinson ran through an astonishing gamut of melodies, textures and sounds, feeling his way into orbit through the barbed obstacle course of his bandmates’ hypnotic, obsessively repeated laments. Throughout the afternoon, Schneider’s compositions proved gripping and brilliantly tailored to her players, while her conducting brought the music’s sure-footed rhythms and the group’s precision-tooled backgrounds into pin-sharp focus.
Flipping back to the natural world, soprano saxophonist Steve Wilson conversed with Johnathan Blake’s percussion (including wood-fired pottery?!?) and Julien Labro’s accordion on the pointillist “Stone Song”, with Schneider cueing gleefully off-kilter orchestral hits. Halfway between the two domains, tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin (best known, along with Monder, for his playing on David Bowie’s Blackstar) attempted contact in the tense, Morse code-based “CQ CQ Is Anybody There?” — only to be answered by the dissonant howls of Greg Gisbert’s distorted trumpet, wickedly role-playing as artificial intelligence. During these works, the orchestra and Schneider listened hard to each soloist, visibly reacting to particularly special moments of improvisation, and shaping their support to match the fleeting moods.
Release followed tension quickly, via the throwback chart “Gumba Blue” from the MSO’s debut album Evanescence (with features from Gisbert, tenor saxophonist Rich Perry and Versace). Then the highlight of the afternoon: Schneider’s setting of the Ted Kooser poem “The Sun Waited for Me” (originally written for soprano Dawn Upshaw and classical orchestra) translated stunningly into the big band idiom, with Gilkes and Labro “singing” the now-wordless melody while McCaslin pirouetted above, below and around lush ensemble backings that mutated from classical chorale to gospel groove. A ravishing experience!
But then, Schneider took the mike: “Can you handle this? This is about the annihilation of humanity at the hands of artificial intelligence . . . Sometimes it feels good just to face these things head on!” Cue the jittery, pulsating title track of Data Lords, with trumpeter Mike Rodriguez and alto saxophonist Dave Pietro raging against the dying of the light, and Schneider stoking the Orchestra’s encroaching singularity to a fever pitch in a shuddering apocalypse of a climax! Good thing we wanted an encore; Schneider decided to leave us with “something peaceful”: “Sanzenin”, a final vista from the natural world, with Labro fluttering over the Orchestra’s muted portrayal of a Japanese garden.
In sum, the overall impact of the MSO was overwhelming. Schneider’s thoughtfully crafted tone poems, her intense focus and leadership, her orchestra’s breathtaking ensemble playing and consistently creative, exciting solo work made for a musical experience that was visceral, invigorating, moving and beautiful in the highest sense of that word. Only the Bach Collegium Japan’s 2003 Saint Matthew Passion and King Crimson in Chicago in 2017 have been more powerful live shows for me. If you want to experience this one for yourself, I heartily encourage you to pay what you want and livestream the concert between now and April 12th!
New US progressive rock group, Ascher, release their debut album ‘Beginnings’ today, March 16th. The album, containing five instrumental pieces and four songs, clocks in at fifty-seven minutes. From the opening instrumental title track to the bonus track closer, “The Instrumental Divide,” the album flows seamlessly through a sonic landscape of guitar-driven rock, vintage keyboard wizardry, and a lofty hook-laden ballad. The instrumental pieces power through enough time signature and meter changes to keep the die-hard prog fan happy while the thought provoking songs reveal a more grounded down to earth feel.
The band features Doug Bowers (Guitars/Keys/Bass/Vocals), Blake Dickeson (Rhythm Guitars), Rob Perez (Lead Guitar), and Kyle Graves (Lead Vocals).
Beginnings will be available via the band’s Bandcamp page as well as all digital music retailers and streaming sites. Lyrics are also available on Ascher’s Bandcamp page. https://ascher1.bandcamp.com/album/beginnings
To coincide with the release of the album, Ascher has released video for the track, “What the World Can’t Give,” which you can see here: https://youtu.be/_jEn-qJqKGs
The band released their first single, “The Great Divide,” in February accompanied by a video. https://youtu.be/sSYSEfy_u4c
Tracklisting:1. Beginnings (6:03) 2. In the Clear Distance (5:07)3. The Great Divide (7:44) 4. Ransom For the Righteous (6:19) 5. De Profundis (7:58) 6. Nail Soup (5:27) 7. What the World Can’t Give (6:03) 8. Wheels Turning Now (4:12) https://ascher1.bandcamp.com/album/beginningsDoug Bowers (Ad Astra, KDB3, Vertical Alignment) and Rob Perez (Visual Cliff, Bluesyndrome) have been collaborating on one another’s projects for years. A short-lived band formed in 2021 and disbanded in early 2022 yielded many co-written instrumental pieces that never saw the light of day. Toward the end of 2022, Doug began collaborating with guitarist, Blake Dickeson, fleshing out some musical ideas that Blake had developed over the years, Rob was brought in to add tasty lead guitar to the effort. When Rob suggested that the trio revisit some of the unfinished instrumental pieces, it was decided that a band might be the best expression of their growing repertoire. Thus Ascher was born. It quickly became apparent that Doug was not up to singing the melodies he was writing for his lyrics and the search for a proper singer was soon underway. Rob suggested a singer that he had recently encountered. Kyle Graves was writing lyrics for an upcoming album for Rob and Rob felt he would be a perfect fit for Ascher. Rob was right and the band was complete.
PAUL JOHNSON OFTEN WROTE FOR COMMENTARY in fact I believe the first time I heard of him my father shared his copy of COMMENTARY and recommended Paul Johnson to me circa late 1960s early 1970s
Andrew Robert’s valedictory for his late friend Paul Johnson captured the essence of the soul and great humanity of the man.
We all know Johnson as world-class author who wrote many times for COMMENTARY and who published highly readable and important books such as THE HISTORY OF THE JEWS, THE INTELLECTUALS, A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, THE BIRTH OF THE MODERN and a personal favorite I have read many times THE QUEST FOR GOD. His books sold millions and were translated into over 20 languages.
Some years ago, I was working with Andrew Roberts doing research and helping him with the galleys of his book CHURCHILL: Walking with Destiny. Paul Johnson happened to come up and I mentioned to Andrew that years prior I had written a letter to Paul Johnson concerning A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
I had noted some mistakes in chronology and made some suggestions on how Johnson could make a good book even better. To my surprise Paul Johnson had honored me with a signed personal letter. He thanked me for my suggestions and references to sources he had not known. Johnson said he would try to incorporate them in a future edition of his work and that he really appreciated my loyal readership and my attention to detail.
Andrew Roberts said to me “that is just like Paul. Always kind and generous with others.”
I am nobody, a retired rural schoolmaster. I am not a scholar of high degree.
But I will never forget how PAUL JOHNSON treated me with respect as a serious person. I will cherish his letter to me.
PAUL JOHNSON was a great man who was willing to learn not only from books but also from the man in the street, from old and young, from fellow parishioners, from Jewish scholars and rabbis and from citizens all over the world of many faith traditions and languages in the Republic of Letters.
Paul Johnson is gone from us. But his pleasant voice, deep learning and joie de vivre endure in his books and taped interviews for instruction and as an example for us today and for future generations. He shall not wholly die.
NE OBLIVISCARIS do not forget PAUL JOHNSON.
William (Johnson) Cory. 1823–1892
759. Heraclitus
THEY told me, Heraclitus, they told me you were dead,
They brought me bitter news to hear and bitter tears to shed.
I wept as I remember’d how often you and I
Had tired the sun with talking and sent him down the sky.
And now that thou art lying, my dear old Carian guest,
Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales, awake;
For Death, he taketh all away, but them he cannot take.
Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter, four-part poem by Federico García Lorca, written in Spanish as “Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías” (“Lament for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías”) and published in 1935. Each part of the poem is written in a different poetic meter, and each addresses a different aspect of the goring and death of a bullfighter who had been Lorca’s friend. A haunting and powerful elegy, it is Lorca’s greatest poem. It contains the famous insistent refrain “A las cinco de la tarde” (“At five in the afternoon”). THIS IS ONE OF THE GREATEST MODERN ELEGIES
FRAGMENT FROM
Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías – Federico García Lorca
4. Alma ausente
No te conoce el toro ni la higuera,
ni caballos ni hormigas de tu casa.
No te conoce el niño ni la tarde
porque te has muerto para siempre.
No te conoce el lomo de la piedra,
ni el raso negro donde te destrozas.
No te conoce tu recuerdo mudo
porque te has muerto para siempre.
El otoño vendrá con caracolas,
uva de niebla y montes agrupados,
pero nadie querrá mirar tus ojos
porque te has muerto para siempre.
Porque te has muerto para siempre,
como todos los muertos de la Tierra,
como todos los muertos que se olvidan
en un montón de perros apagados.
No te conoce nadie. No. Pero yo te canto.
Yo canto para luego tu perfil y tu gracia.
La madurez insigne de tu conocimiento.
Tu apetencia de muerte y el gusto de su boca.
La tristeza que tuvo tu valiente alegría.
Tardará mucho tiempo en nacer, si es que nace,
un andaluz tan claro, tan rico de aventura.
Yo canto su elegancia con palabras que gimen
y recuerdo una brisa triste por los olivos.
.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY RICHARD K. MUNRO, MA
(please note this version has only a fraction of the lyricism and emotion of the original).
Absent Soul
The bull knows you not, nor the fig tree, nor the horses, nor even the ants in thine own house. The child and the afternoon know thee not because thou hath died now and forever.
The back of the stone knows thee not nor the black silk,
where thou wert smashed into pieces
Thy mute memory does not know thee because thou hath died now and forever
The autumn will come again with snails, juicy grapes and clustered hills, but no one would want to look into thine eyes because thou hath died now and forever.
Because thou hath died now and forever, like all the dead of the earth, like all the dead who are now neglected
Just like a pile of dogs! snuffed out dead dogs!.
Nobody knows thee. No. But I shall sing of thee!
I will sing of thy style and grace Of the great maturity of thy intelligence Of thine appetite for death despite its taste in thy mouth. The sadness within thy happy courage!
Many years will pass – if ever-before there might be born an Andalusian so distinctly individual, so rich in adventure! I sing of his elegance with words that groan, and I remember a breeze so sad across the olive groves.
Riverside at Come and Take It Live, Austin, TX, February 22, 2023
Members of the band helpfully direct concertgoers to the venue
Sometime in the mid-to-late 00’s, I was surfing the internet looking for new music. I happened upon this Polish band named Riverside who was creating a lot of buzz in the prog community. I ended up purchasing their second album, and have been a fan ever since. Unfortunately, the chance to see them never seemed to materialize, as what little touring they did in the U.S. never seemed to be near my home. That almost changed in February 2022, when Riverside had a show scheduled here in Austin. But almost as quickly as it was scheduled, it was canceled for some reason. They promised on Facebook they would make it on the next tour, and I crossed my fingers. And almost a year to the date after their originally scheduled show, they delivered on that promise.
Appearing at a venue with one of the most Texas names ever, Come and Take It Live (which, serendipitously, is located on East Riverside Drive in Austin), the band put on a two hour show that was just about flawless. The setlist was quite interesting, and if there is such a thing as a concept album, I suppose this show could have been called a concept concert. The band performed six of the seven songs off of their latest album, ID. Entity (I’m Done With You being the lone exception). A number of other songs dovetailed nicely with the theme of ID. Entity. These songs included the show opener #Addicted (from Love, Fear, and the Time Machine), Left Out and Egoist Hedonist (from Anno Domini High Definition), and We Got Used to Us (from Shrine of New Generation Slaves). Outside of that, the only two songs that didn’t really fit in thematically with the rest of the set were O2 Panic Room (from Rapid Eye Movement) and Conceiving You (from Second Life Syndrome).
The performances were as excellent as one would expect from this group of musicians, delivered with high energy and intensity. Delivery of Egoist Hedonist and Left Out were especially powerful, both including jams that extended their respective durations over their studio counterparts. Mariusz Duda, in addition to being a great player, was engaging with the audience, and proved to be every bit the cool guy I had the good fortune of interviewing three times during my days at Progarchy. The Duda indeed abides.
The other musicians were in top form as well. I continue to be impressed with Maciej Meller’s ability to play the parts of Piotr Grudziński with the right balance between faithfulness to the original and his own individual style. Michał Łapaj was in the zone all show long, playing to the high standards prog fans expect of their keyboard heroes. And Piotr Kozieradzki did not disappoint on drums.
In addition to enjoying the show myself, I managed to introduce Riverside to a friend and co-worker I brought along, one who is as much of a prog-head as I. He left impressed, and was enticed by the lyrics of ID. Entity enough to spend $100 on a special edition of the album that included the main disk, the bonus disk, a 5.1 surround sound disk, vinyl-sized artwork, and booklet. That’s a pretty nice way to start a journey of discovery of the Riverside catalog. I’m kind of envious that he’s going to get to hear all their music for the first time.
It’s a few days after the show as I write this, but I’m still buzzing. Their performance was so good, so tight, so energetic, and just so much fun. There are a few other Riverside fans that contribute to this site, and a few more that read it. So if their tour manages to stop close by, I highly recommend you go see them. You will not be disappointed.
Richard K. Munro with a star Chinese student. She went from 0-to 100 in three years! The author second from the left at age 17 in SORIA Spain with the University of Northern Iowa Summer in SpainYou could say this movie started it all! DISTANT DRUMS the first movie I ever saw in Spanish.THOMAS MUNRO, jr and RICHARD K MUNRO at the ELGIN MARBLES (BRITISH MUSEUM) JUNE 2000Examples of Scots dialect
I have studied foreign languages for most of my life. I have also taught AP Spanish, Spanish for Native Speakers, and English as a Second Language to learners from many backgrounds. I began to learn Spanish when I was eight years old. My father would read to me the Spanish language ads on the New York City Subway. I would repeat after him and after a while, through repetition, I memorized a series of simple phrases. ¡ Cuidado! la vía del tren es peligrosa! (BE CAREFUL! The train track is perilous or dangerous! ) So began my early language learning experiences. They have continued, essentially all of my life and I continue to learn new languages while reviewing the old ones I have learned.
My father taught me how to count in Spanish (and Tagalog). My father had studied Latin, French and German in high school and college so he taught himself the basics of Spanish and Tagalog while serving in Puerto Rico and the Philippines. He served in the U.S. Army Transportation Corps and almost all of his cargadores (laborers) were native Filipinos who had a little Spanish but virtually no English. His foremen were Malaking Tony (Big Tony) and Maliit Tony (Little Tony). The numbers of Spanish and Tagalog are the same phonetically except that orthography was changed to make up for letters that are not part of the Tagalog or Filipino alphabet. For example, “cuatro” (4) is written in Tagalog as “kuwatro” “cinco” (5)as “singko,” “seis” (6) as “sais,” “ocho” (8) as “otso,” “nueve” (9) as “nuwebe,” and “diez” (10) as “diyes” and so forth. His men all called him Mbuti Teniente (the Good Lieutenant). He was one of the few American officers who learned the local language; he attended weddings and baptisms and was very close to the local community which had a Spanish priest and an Irish priest. He was there on July 4, 1946 when the Philippines voted for independence. Malaking Tony and Maliit Tony were very unhappy at the result even ashamed. They told my father -with tears in their eyes- “Teniente if all Americanos like you we put another star on the flag!” There is no question that my father felt that he owed his life to the loyalty and courage of such men. The philia love they achieved as comrades was made possible by communicating in common languages Spanish and Tagalog. My father always said knowing another language could save your life.
My father used to say to me (frequently) “Halika rito, Ricardo! (come here, Ricky) or in Spanish Ven aquí ! Kamusta ka (How are you!) or ¿Cómo está?Bilisan mo (hurry up) or de prisa! Bakit hindi kanagtatrabaho (why aren’t you working!) ¿ por qué no trabajas? mabuti ! Good! Bueno!
My father’s business dealing took him to Puerto Rico and other Spanish-speaking countries and I had to good fortune to accompany him. I got to hear him ask for directions (todo derecho STRAIGHT AHEAD the man pointed NOT TO THE RIGHT) order in restaurants and we went to baseball games (la pelota) at Bithorn Stadium in San Juan. We saw Roberto Clemente play in Winter Ball and I called out to him in Spanish, and he smiled and waved back. Back in New York, we listened to baseball (and soccer games) on the radio in Spanish. In those years all the Yankee games and the World Series were broadcast in Spanish, and we would listen to the World Series simultaneously in English and Spanish. Buck Canel (the baseball and sports announcer) was thus one of my early Spanish teachers. First came the names and the numbers and then the baseball and soccer jargon. Of course, at the stadium, I found it useful to use Spanish to talk to Spanish-speaking players like Felipe Alou and Rico Carty and so obtain their autographs. Better than any autograph was the friendly interaction with a baseball hero. A language is truly a bond that unites men (humanity). If one speaks another’s native language one has obtained a shortcut to that person’s heart and sympathy. Mar an teanga tá an croí the Irish say: “as the tongue so is the heart!”
While visiting Spain father took me to an adventure film at the old Rex Theater on the Gran Via. It was dubbed in Spanish. The film was DISTANT DRUMS (Tambores Lejanos). It was the first time I had seen Gary Cooper in the movies and a big screen technicolor western. It was the first movie I had ever seen in Spanish. It was a revelation. I only understood it in part, but I was able to follow the story and even picked up some more Spanish words. The theater had a beautifully painted marquee in Spanish. The marquee my father read it out loud to me said I still remember La major creación de GARY COOPER (Gary Cooper’s greatest creation). My father told the ticket taker in Spanish “Uno Sólo el peligro fue la mejor. “(High Noon) who responded Vd.Lleva la razón pero esta es muy Buena! High Noon was probably Coop’s best but this Florida adventure was great fun as it featured Seminole Indians, pirates, alligators, and wild fauna of all types. Sort of a Mogambo goes to the Everglades. Yes, I began to learn the animal names in Spanish! The film featured the famous Castillo San Marcos!
Later in New York we occasionally went to foreign language movies and later we saw DVDs that were dubbed or VO with English or Spanish subtitles. Even today I often see movies in foreign languages just to practice and expose myself to new languages. Recently I saw a good WW2 movie on Netflix (with English subtitles) called Narvik (Norwegian: Kampen om Narvik lit. ’The Battle for Narvik’) The languages used in the film were German, Norwegian, and English. The main character (Kristine Hartgen) spoke all three. It worked as a patriotic adventure film but also was a rare example of a film that demonstrated the usefulness of being multilingual. I know a little German and have never studied Norwegian but found myself picking up words and phrases. I have seen some films like THE BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI in five languages. Netflix is an excellent resource and has many languages. I recommend watching in the VO (original version) with English subtitles and then a dubbed version also with closed captions or subtitles in English or the target language.
Languages always fascinated me. I cannot remember a time when I did not speak or understand at least a little of other languages. My mother could speak (and sing) in several languages). My father was a great lover of opera, so I heard, as a boy many operas and art songs in Russian, Italian, French, German, and some in Spanish. My uncles, both graduates of Columbia University and WW2 veterans were fluent in German and often visited. Our next-door neighbor Frank David, also a WW2 veteran was a German Jew and naturally a native German speaker. He personally witnessed Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass. I was fascinated to witness them speak about their German experiences which included the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. Speaking German my uncle probably saved the lives of young German boys press-ganged into the SS in the final days of the war. He and his men refused to take them POWS and returned them to their mothers. Frank David served in the US Army as an interpreter. His family escaped because of his father’s international business dealings and savings invested in Switzerland. But it was a close thing. The Nazis confiscated their car, their house, and German savings. Once again, a multilingual family was able to maneuver and adapt and so survived. Frank’s brother (Albert David) became a professor of English at an American university specializing in Chaucer and Old English.
My father had a vast personal library of foreign language books. I inherited the Spanish, Latin, and Greek books my sister inherited the German and French books. He also had LP’s of poetry such as Moses Hades reading in Latin, some ancient Greek, German, French, Garcia Lorca in Spanish, plus complete Linguaphone Spanish and Portuguese sets (Books with 50 recorded lessons each on 45s). So my father was an amateur linguist who could read, write, and speak (in order of his fluency)
French (He read Zola, Martin Du Gard, Victor Hugo, Moliere, Flaubert, Proust)
German (He read Goethe, Mann, Hesse, Heine, Schiller, Rilke)
Latin (Caesar, Cicero, Vergil, Horace, Catullus Ovid Seneca)
Ancient Greek (some Modern Greek) New Testament, Homer, Euripides, Sappho, Plato, Aeschylus, Sophocles , Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius , Xenophon, Thucydides, Callimachus
Italian (he read Dante in the original)
Spanish (He read Cervantes, Machado, and Garcia Lorca in the original)
Russian (He read Pushkin and Tolstoy in the original)
Tagalog (chiefly spoken)
Greek and Russian were the most difficult because of the alphabet. But of course, the Russian alphabet is derived from Greek so knowing Greek is an advantage in learning Russian. Like my grandfather (who served in the British Army) my father knew a little spoken Yiddish, Arabic, Hindi, and Punjabi. My father was a little ashamed that he knew so little Gaelic, the language of his grandparents, but in his time, Gaelic was not studied in schools. Gaelic has a reputation (underserved) as being a “hard language”. But it is phonetic along its own lines and has only ten irregular verbs. Late in life, my father took an interest in Gaelic place names, slogans, and Gaelic words in the Scots dialect (which he knew quite well). He enjoyed it when I read and interpreted Gaelic poetry and songs for him. He very much enjoyed the SONGS OF THE HEBRIDES. However, my father felt studying Gaelic or Latin was interesting but not “Big Languages” like Spanish or English to be studied formally with university degrees. The primary law of economics is scarcity. One had scarce money and limited time so one should be credentialed in “Big Languages” and not spend too much time and money on “small languages.” So, my early language learning years were dedicated principally to English, Spanish, and Latin then German and Portuguese, but I always maintained an interest in Scottish Gaelic and studied it on the side. Of course, it was with some regret I abandoned the classics in college (Greek and Latin) but for someone like me who had no money and a need to earn his daily bread, English and Spanish were much more practical. There are for example over 60,000 Spanish teachers in the USA alone. There are about 1,000,000 ESL teachers plus over 1,250,000 English teachers. I have taught in all three areas. I found there was a great demand for certified English teachers who were trained as foreign language teachers and bilingual in Spanish.
So rather than forbidding Gaelic, my father encouraged me to study Gaelic as a hobby. He bought me my first Gaelic book TEACH YOURSELF GAELIC and Dwelly’s Gaelic-English Dictionary at Rizzoli’s bookstore in New York. But the language he encouraged the most was Spanish a language that was spoken every day in New York and many places in the USA and the Americas.
My father was very fond of the series TEACH YOURSELF BOOKS. They are (still) widely available and affordable. I think they are a great supplement to any language study. My father had the TY (I still have these original volumes) in Ancient Greek, Modern Greek, Italian, German, Scottish Gaelic, Irish (Gaelic), Spanish, and Latin. Many come with recordings, but I use them primarily for reading practice and grammar explanations. I highly recommend the Teach Yourself Books (and dictionaries).
I learned from my father and the many wonderful foreign language teachers I had in the USA and Spain that:
Learning languages is fun. Language learning can be a very absorbing pastime. And of course, it is always useful to communicate with others when one travels. Yes, it can be hard work but believe me there are a lot of laughs along the way. I think it was Woody Allen who joked that being bisexual immediately doubles your chances for a date on a Saturday night! Similarly, being bilingual or multilingual makes it far easier to meet and date, and do business with a wide variety of individuals. People, customers, and business associates are usually favorably impressed by your kindness and seriousness of purpose in understanding their culture and dealing with them. The maître d’s ,aunts, and prospective mothers-in-law genuinely liked me, trusted me more, and eagerly fed and entertained me because I made valiant attempts to speak their native tongue. Speaking another language made dating, business dealings and diplomacy much smoother. I have struck up friendships with musicians and artists by writing to them in their native languages (never using English).
Knowing a foreign language (especially a “Big Language” like English or Spanish) is practical and a credential just like certification in computers, typing or a degree in accounting or chemistry. It’s worth something on your resume. In my own life, I have worked for major banks, coached immigrant youth, served in the military worked for ETS and worked in schools and colleges. One skill that gave me an edge was my skill in language. I could work the phones in Spanish or English. I could work in customer service or interpret. I could work as a Tour Guide. I have been to Toledo and the Prado Museum, for example, dozens of times.
The earlier one is introduced to a language the better. The way a child learns its first (or second language) is a very good method. A child learns grammar and vocabulary unconsciously by listening to and interacting with speakers of a language. The younger a child is the more likely they can assimilate the accent of a native speaker. Unfortunately, that is not possible for most of us! But there is no shame whatsoever in having a slight foreign accent. In fact, if one speaks clearly, I think a slight foreign accent can be charming even exotic. I had a former student who studied engineering at Cal Poly. He had been an English learner and in the 9th grade hardly knew a word of English. He concentrated, persevered, and studied hard. He became fluent in English. In fact, while at college a professor asked him what part of Canada he was from and then what private academy he had studied at. His English was so good he didn’t think he was Hispanic! Things that work with children also work with adults. We can learn a lot by listening to and interacting with native speakers. And we adults have advantages, however, that children do not have which helps us learn multiple languages. We can read and study more easily. Also, adults can understand grammar and the relationship between languages more easily. We know that every language builds complex words from the simple basic roots of a language. I know that English helps one learn German languages and the relationship of Romance languages with English and each other. Some language teachers place little or no emphasis on accentuation or grammar. This is a mistake if carried to an extreme. It is not necessary for the average learner to be as expert in a language as a teacher or professional translator. My old Spanish teacher told me that “accents were but the shine on the car but verbs were the motor!” But grammar and orthography are important. Knowing a standard language and correct grammar is not so much to create elegant speech as it is to make clear what the relationship is among words. Grammar and diction link words together and give them precise meanings. Therefore, we must understand grammar to a greater or lesser extent. I never understood grammar until I studied Latin and Spanish. But it began to be clear to me when I studied foreign languages and began learning moods, tenses, and parts of speech. When one learns a foreign language, one learns more about one’s native language.
4) Learning languages requires more than anything else steady attention and effort. To become competent in a foreign language one must make a serious almost daily commitment over a long period of time -usually years. You must like the language you are studying and maintain a positive attitude. As the Gaels say “beag is beag is fhearr an ceum mor.” Little by little every day -ten or fifteen minutes is better than one big step once a week or once a month. There is no such thing as “instant Spanish” or “instant English.” When I study a new language, I keep daily notes books of new vocabulary and make study cards. I don’t always take notes, however. In the early morning or at night in bed, I do some review listening and speaking exercises and don’t worry about taking notes. However, during my daily language sessions at my desk, I have a cup of sharpened pencils and colored pencils plus my Teach Yourself grammars and Collins dictionaries at hand. I often interrupt my Duolingo sessions to look up words in the dictionary to learn (and write out) related words and additional nuances or translations. In Linguaphone, the text was illustrated, and the pictures helped make the meaning of the sentences clear. Using pictures and color coding is a very good help to language learning. A wonderful resource for language learning is the colorful series My First Thousand Words series by Usborne. It is an excellent (and humorous) supplement. One can buy it new or find used versions on ABE books. It is available in major languages such as Spanish, English, and French but also in Latin, Hebrew, and Irish (Gaelic). I have several and use color coding to put in translations of other languages. For example, in my Irish book, I have written in the Scottish Gaelic equivalents in red ink (the two languages are closely related). In my Spanish book, I have written the Italian equivalents.
5) If one wants to gain a high level of fluency sooner or later, one must immerse oneself in the target language. I was a good high school student (I studied Latin and five years of Spanish) But what really helped me was spending one entire summer -almost every day- listening to all 50 lessons of my father’s Linguaphone course in Spanish. The following fall I was enrolled in Spanish III and everyone including my teacher noticed my improved Spanish vocabulary and accent. My high school AP Spanish teacher, a native Cuban Mr. Eli Gorelick encouraged me to seek advanced studies in Spain. Then I spent another summer studying in Spain for ten weeks via the University of Northern Iowa’s summer program in Spain. In that ten-week time, I was totally immersed in Spanish. I later studied three more summers in Spain gaining my MA in Spanish. Later I lived and worked in Madrid for almost two years. I used to go months at a time without speaking or hearing any English at all (I read newspapers, and books and corresponded in English however). Living in a Spanish-speaking country where Spanish was a prestige language was a great experience. I became an adjunct professor for a local Junior College and also for ETS in Spanish and for many summers graded recordings of students and student essays. Since that time, I have heard or spoken or read Spanish every day of my life.
My father used recordings to help him with his language learning. But primarily he read newspapers, periodicals and literature. He was interested in what Gilbert Highet called “culture languages”.He rarely wrote or read anything in Tagalog or Chavacano (the Spanish creole language he heard in Manila in the 1940s. His interest in those languages was strictly utilitarian while he was on active service overseas. But he enjoyed meeting speakers in those languages during his lifetime.
Whatever system you use it is good to do listening, speaking, reading, and writing practice regularly. I presently use or have used DUOLINGO in Latin, Modern Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, Scottish Gaelic, and Italian. Other online programs are very good also and some people recommend Babbel. I didn’t choose Babbel because they didn’t offer Latin and Scottish Gaelic, but Duolingo did. You can try Duolingo for free (I did for about six months) but eventually I subscribed to avoid ads and have more features. I am a big fan of Duolingo but I supplement it with Teach Yourself books. Be aware that some languages are more developed than others in Duolingo. Spanish, English, and Italian have more activities (Stories, dialogues, and readings) than Modern Greek or Scottish Gaelic. Teach Yourself has wonderful resources and some (like New Testament Greek) are free to download. Here are some links:
6) Learning a foreign language can benefit your health! I think I was rather shy and withdrawn as a young boy. But learning a new language gave me the confidence to overcome shyness and psychological barriers and helped me to get to know people. When you are studying and using a new language you are exercising your brain. So, your brain becomes stronger. Studying languages can even help one recover from a brain injury. When my father was 63 he suffered a massive stroke and lost the ability to read and speak. It was devastating to him. But he made an almost full recovery. I strongly believe my father’s dedication to language study may have helped him recover from his massive stroke. Most of his nurses happened to be Filipino and they spoke Tagalog among themselves, and my father listened to them. One morning after weeks of total silence he responded to them by speaking in Tagalog. They were astonished! That was the first language he used after his stroke. Then he began to speak the Scottish dialect (his boyhood tongue). At first, he couldn’t speak American English -I remember he couldn’t remember to say “The boy bounces the ball” he said “the illie (lad) was a-stotin’ the ba’’ (Scots dialect). Then gradually he began to understand and speak and read and write in American English. We all broke out laughing when we visited him one day and he said, a la Humphrey Bogart: “Si-down, pal and listen to the music.” Gradually, he returned to studying and reading the languages he had studied. The doctor said it was a remarkable recovery and it was possible that my father’s white matter and language portion of his brain were very highly developed, so it might have helped his mind reconnect. This theory has also been supported by studies at the University of Edinburgh. In any case, studying a foreign language hinders not and can have many positive benefits.
The researchers found that when the brain is challenged when people speak more than one language, this experience will inspire cognitive reserve, which would enhance the brain’s ability to deal with damage caused by a stroke and other diseases. Bilingual people can switch between two languages, when they stop using one, it is necessary to activate another language to communicate,” Thomas Bak, one of the study authors at the University of Edinburgh, said, “This switch allows the brain to continuously evolving, thus becoming factors in helping stroke patients to have rehabilitation. Apart from showing better recovery on brain function after a stroke, bilinguals who are able to speak more than one language also perform better in stroke sequelae tests, including tests of attention, gather and organize information.
When one studies a foreign language the first thing you hear if you decide to study English, Persian, Greek, Korean, Turkish, Russian or Chinese people will say that language is “hard” or “easy”. In realty one CAN make generalizations about languages but it is difficult to be accurate. The most important factor determining whether a language is “hard” or “difficult” is not the foreign language itself but WHERE one is coming from. Spanish is not hard if one already speaks Italian or Ladino. Hebrew is not that difficult if you already speak a related language like Arabic. Russian is easier if you speak Polish or Ukrainian. German is easier if you speak English (especially Scots English). Languages that are closely related to our own tend to be easier both in alphabet, in grammar and vocabulary. Modern Greek is not that much harder than Italian or Spanish BUT learning a new alphabet is a strong affective filter. I take twice as much time to study Modern Greek than Italian and feel compelled to take many more notes. But Greek has the added benefit of teaching roots words that have entered many modern languages: chorus, poly-, bio-, hypnotic, myth, Bible, school, academy, idol, poet, poetry, rhetoric, aesthetic, music, rhythm, hygienic, alphabet, sympathetic, irenic, hubris, emphasis, antithesis, hypothesis, cosmos, onyx, copper (Cyprus), colon, delta, chaos, diploma, fantasy, phantom, thermos, ethos, dogma, stole, pneumonia, asthma, kudos, crisis, character, scene, pathos, zone, psyche, genesis, diagnosis, criterion, orchestra, idea, pragmatic, cinema, coma, thorax, dyspepsia, nectar, aphasia, echo, nemesis, hero, catastrophe, tyrant. Even though Greek and Latin are not as commonly spoken or taught as previously they remain very powerful “culture languages” and therefore are of immense intrinsic interest.
The Spanish Alphabet
When one learns a language the first thing one should do is determine what language family the language belongs to. Most European languages come from a common linguistic heritage that language group called Indo-European. Some of the oldest written languages in that language family are Sanskrit (from India), Greek and Latin. Indo-European languages subdivide into these families ROMANCE, GERMANIC, SLAVIC, INDIC, IRANIAN, CELTIC, HELLENIC (Greek) and ALBANIAN. Let’s look more closely at some of the biggest sub-families and languages. Romance languages include:
French Catalán Spanish Italian Portuguese Romanian
All of these languages derive from Latin and use a Latin alphabet. In all of these countries, Latin remained an important culture language until relatively modern times. If one speaks Spanish then Italian is relatively easy to speak, read and understand because the languages are so closely related. The grammars of Romance languages are similar but most importantly a high proportion of words will be recognizable to speakers of another Romance language. These words are called cognates. More of this later.
One might ask if one is an English speaker, how does this help me? English isn’t a Romance language it is a Germanic language. But only about 40% of everyday words in English are Germanic. About 60% of English words are of Greco-Latin origin.
Here are the Germanic languages:
German Afrikaans
Dutch Swedish
Icelandic English
Norwegian
Danish
Another big language group is the Slavic which includes
Russian Serbian
Croatian Czech
Slovak Bulgarian
Ukrainian Polish
Other big Indo-European language families are Indic languages spoken in India and Pakistan such as Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi. These languages do not use a Latin alphabet, but the spoken versions of these languages are relatively closely related to Spanish, English and yes, Gaelic. I remember stories of the Highland soldiers in World War One speaking a Gaelic/Hindi/English patois with the Indian soldiers and being able to communicate on a basic level. More recently I have had Punjabi speakers in my Spanish classes and many of them became top students. For one thing, most were multilingual to start with (speaking English and Indian languages). If one speaks two or three languages it is easier to learn another! Then they quickly realized how many Spanish words were similar to Hindi or Punjabi. Later they invested in local gas stations, sandwich shops and retail stores and work in farming and many are completely fluent not only in English but in Spanish.
Linguaphone books come with a bilingual glossary to help teach the words of the lessons and readings. There on online dictionaries also but I myself don’t want to open and close windows when I am listening to audible books or doing Duolingo. There is no question if one studies a foreign language, one needs access to a good dictionary. I think for beginners a small pocket dictionary is just fine (such as Collins Gem). I occasionally use online dictionaries and even GOOGLE TRANSLATE but when I study, I am usually completely focused on the language I am studying. I keep notebooks of vocabulary and write down new vocabulary. I do this with a pencil.
I also use colored pencils to underline or star verb endings or grammar points or misspellings I make. If a word is more difficult or completely new to me, I usually write it out three times (in pencil) then highlight or circle it in red pencil and add asterisks. I also make little drawings (in color) of objects and animals such as FOUR RED CHAIRS , the BLACK CHAINS, THE YELLOW PENCILS, GRAY SHARK or BLACK CAT, the ORANGES, the Green Book to help me.
I also use antonyms or synonyms or similar words to reinforce learning. I use a forward slash to indicate opposite words such as EASY/DIFFICULT. I use the equal symbol = to indicate translation or synonyms such as Problema=problem (also trouble). I use (≠)The not equal sign (also called the inequality sign) to indicate a false cognate or a translation problem. The Greek words Αντιπαθητικός (antipathitikós/unlikeable)and συμπονετικόςd (symponetikós / likable)are antonyms but also are close cognates to English (simpatico /nice; sympathetic) and Spanish related words (simpático/antipático) .
When studying vocabulary cognate study is vital. I have many Spanish and English bilingual dictionaries on word usage and cognates that go “beyond” any basic dictionary. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the definition of a cognate is “a word that has the same origin as another word, or is related in some way to another word.”
Three categories of cognate exist (the divisions are for Spanish/English):
Perfect cognates (cognados perfectos) 5-10%
True cognates (cognados verdaderos) 85-90%
False cognates (Cognados falsos) 5-10%
When the meaning, spelling, and sound is identical, as in animal and (el) animal, we call them perfect cognates. The only difference is in pronunciation.
A true cognate is a word that is “either spelled the same or similar and often sounds alike in both languages.” In other words, it’s similar but notidentical. An example includes “action” in English and acción in Spanish. Both words have similar sound and spelling and they (generally) have the same meaning (acción does mean “action,” but it can also mean “stock” or “share” in financial terms).
Here are some other cognates:
ENGLISH
SPANISH
patio
patio
rodeo
rodeo
attractive
atractivo
invisible
invisible
lesson
Lección
reality
Realidad
Fiction
ficción
Pecadillo
Pecado (sin)
Colaboration
la colaboración
Usually, the more sophisticated the word it the more likely it is a true cognate or perfect cognate. such as TOPOGRAPHY. Common everyday words are more likely to be false cognates or partially false cognates.
When one studies Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, German or Dutch one consistent pitfall is the problem of false friends or false cognates. False cognates are misleading because they apear to be the same but can have totally different meanings or translations. These words can be totally false or partially false. Here are some examples from Spanish:
Sin in Spanish means without and has no relationship whatsoever with the English noun “Sin”.
Once (1) and once (11)
Library is not librería(bookstore). A library is a biblioteca
Grocery (food store) is not grosería rudeness or coarseness
Pan (skillet/ sartén is not pan (bread)
To rest is not “restar” which means to subtract and to deduct.
Red (color) is not “red” (net)
Out of control does not mean autocontrol (self control)
Embarrassed is not embarazda (pregnant)
Gracious is courteous but not gracioso (funny)
When in doubt assume the cognate is or could be a similar word or exactly the same. Some of these words represent direct borrowings from Latin or Greek like radio (la radio Sp. or ραδιόφωνο GR “radiophone”) and teléfono(Sp.) τηλέφωνο GR (tiléfono/telephone. Of course, some slang English words used in German (ex “cool”) Spanish or Modern Greek may not be standard words. Time will tell. I used to tell my students who often used the slang word “raite” (“ride”) that if someone wrote a Nobel Prize winning work called the “Último Raite de Arvin” (the Last Ride from Arvin then they could probably use it on the AP Spanish test but until then it was best to avoid that word however useful and stick to standard Spanish and say “paseo” or simply “llevar en carro” or even medio de transporte. But there is no question “raite” is a borderland Spanish word in every day use.
Each language has its own special challenges or problems. So I will write separate essays on English learning.
THOMAS MUNRO, JR relaxing in the patio of his garden circa 1980
HW BRANDS: “As a rule, people don’t change their beliefs by being insulted or demeaned. They don’t become angels by being yelled at…”
I would say this is axiomatic.
Rule #1 in a civil society is to treat people civilly and with respect. This is one of the reasons why we are polite and why we learn other languages. Insisting that everyone ONLY speaks YOUR language and showing no interest in the language and cultures of others is not a way to make friends and influence people. If you REALLY want to change people it is usually best to shut up and pray for that person. That does more go than attacking and arguing with people. After all, you are not perfect either.
Rule #2 don’t go out of your way to insult people and their pastimes.
I don’t like bizarre hair or tattoos or profane language. Some sports don’t appeal to me. I certainly have zero interest in fantasy leagues and sports betting. But I don’t fight with people or argue with them. I avoid their company, yes, or ignore them. (It’s easy I am nearsighted). I don’t like golf but agree it has great charm and beauty. I have enjoyed miniature golf and have even played a few rounds myself, but I decided long ago I did not want to spend so much time and money away from home and family. I glance at the sports page for about 5 minutes. I am aware there are championships and leagues out there somewhere, but I am not obsessed with every team sport that there is.
I enjoy other pastimes more.
Rule#3 society and its norms have changed drastically, and I am not always happy about that but I live and let live.
I cultivate my own garden and turn off shows and spectacles I do not like. I used to love to go to the movies but now have almost completely fallen out of the habit. For one thing, they don’t make movies for mature adults it seems. For another, if they make a film that might prove to be entertaining (TOP GUN MAVERICK) I can watch it on pay per view for a few dollars.. I recently saw DEVOTION (it was ok I would say 2 1/2 stars). It was pro-Navy and patriotic BUT completely banal and predictable including racists Southerners bullying and taunting black man character. They called him aJackie Robinson. Most films do not do a good job at handling racism. DEVOTION went out of its way to show SOME SOUTHERNERS and MOST AMERICANS were friendly even warm to African American characters. But all the interactions with neighbors and police were negative. The film did a reasonable job showing the camaraderie and purpose of the US military. The main character (rather unbelievably) spoke fluent French. I enjoyed DEVOTION but would not recommend it to anyone really and would never watch this film again. I primarily paid for it because I wanted to support a film that was (I was told )pro-American and patriotic.) But I am trying to be completely truthful about the film. DEVOTION was harmless and of minor interest to people interested in military history.
Rule #4 VOTE WITH YOUR POCKETBOOK and YOUR FEET.
I don’t like LAX airport or JFK so I don’t ever go there.. There are cities and states that scunner me so if I can I avoid them completely. I buy books from authors I like and yes, still buy music from my favorite musicians and yes, still subscribe to a few periodicals and a daily newspaper WSJ in part because I want to support artists and authors I like. I read a lot of book reviews and at my age decide if it is worth my time and money to buy a book I might not even finish. Most ephemeral books I read via e-books now. I no longer buy paperbacks and have given most of my paperbacks away because the print is too small to read. If a book has lasting appeal, I will buy a hardback or even a deluxe leather-bound edition. But all my books are meant to be read. I hope most are passed on and cherished. I have books that date back to the 19th century and early 20th century and many from circa 1933-1980. From 1942-1948 there is a big gap due to military services. I have quite a number of books from 1940.
It’s been a long four and a half years since we last heard from Riverside. In 2018, the band was still in recovery mode from the untimely loss of Piotr Grudzinski and, as a three-piece, released the spacious-sounding Wasteland, which thematically dealt with the apocalypse, on levels both personal and civilizational. The present year finds Riverside releasing another thematically bi-furcated album. ID. Entity deals with the themes of the impact of social media and, more broadly technology, and its impact at the level of the individual and society as a whole. Given the present zeitgeist, ID. Entity is the timeliest thing they’ve ever done, which is saying something for a band that has albums like Anno Domini High Definition (ADHD) and songs like #Addicted (from Love, Fear and the Time Machine) in the repertoire.
Musically, ID. Entity has a palette as broad as its cover. That’s no coincidence, as bassist/lead vocalist Mariusz Duda has more or less said in a number of interviews regarding the album. Sounds ranging from synth-pop, heavy metal, electronica, and 70’s prog, among others, can be found in what is Riverside’s most musically diverse collection of songs yet. But still, the music has certain threads running through the album that make it unmistakably Riverside.
Friend or Foe kicks off the album, with much of the first half of the song extracted from the 80’s, with synthesizers, a prominent bass line, and a steady drumbeat, before new guitarist Maciej Meller brings a few meaty riffs to the party. And speaking of Meller, the band has done an excellent job of integrating him into the fold. Stylistically, there are enough similarities that he fits in with what Riverside does, while still allowing him enough space to be his own guy. Meanwhile, Duda ponders what the present is doing to our own identities:
Who is behind the filter?
Who Who’s behind the mask?
How much of yourself is left in you?
Landmine Blast follows, a quirky mix of hyper-kinetic electronic keyboards, pounding bass, and guitar that ranges from long leads to power chords. There is a nice mix of dynamics in this song, loud juxtaposed with quiet, fast with momentary interludes of breath-catching. In some respects, this song channels some of the same energy from ADHD, but updated for the present.
The title of Big Tech Brother leaves no questions about its message, beginning with a sarcastic ‘Terms of Service,’ followed by a musical introduction that even includes some brass – a first for Riverside. Lyrically, allusions to Huxley and Orwell are mixed with those of the present for a potent message, underscored by the dark, pounding music. Post Truth musically turns things down a notch, but just a notch. This song seems to point its criticism at the media, traditional and social, and the constant stream of BS that emanates from both. Meller’s guitar work on this song is particularly good, at times hinting at Alex Lifeson and other times sounding somewhat like the work of his predecessor in Riverside.
The most overtly prog composition on the album is the 13-minute mini-epic, The Place Where I Belong. This song has some strong 70’s prog influences, including the use of the Hammond by Michal Lapaj, and within the structure of the piece itself. The quiet interlude in the middle is an especially good touch. I’m Done With You follows, with plenty more of the Hammond and lots of prog-metal goodness while Duda pontificates on cutting poison people out of one’s life. The album closer, Self Aware, begins as a straight-ahead rocker, but has a nice keyboard- and bass-driven quiet jam at the end. It also has a little bit of reggae-beat worked in, reminding me a little of Rush’s Vital Signs.
If you were like me and bought the deluxe edition, you are treated to single edits of Friend or Foe and Self Aware, along with two new instrumental tracks, Age of Anger and Together Again. Both are worthy additions and worth the extra money.
In summary, ID. Entity finds Riverside’s music branching out into new areas and new sounds while still maintaining all of their trademarks that have made them one of the best 3rd wave progressive rock bands around. It’s no accident that they are my favorite band to emerge in the last 20 years or so, but even if they don’t hold that lofty position for you, this album is still worth checking out.
Spirit of Cecilia 
You must be logged in to post a comment.