In my quest for author voices I found that John Philip Sousa, great conductor and composer, had also penned an impassioned and oddly prophetic argument about phonograph music as a copyright infringement and a harbinger of the death of amateur music. Looking further, hoping to find more comments on copyright, I found that he had written fiction as well.
Can you imagine my surprise? Marching band legend, and writer of marches that permeate pomp, circumstance, cartoons and popular culture (who I recently found out is not as well known as I expected) was also a spinner of yarns! The Fifth String is a story that seems utterly familiar: a man going to impossible lengths to win the love of a lady, a quest to attain the unattainable, a deal with the devil, etc. The writing is perfectly engaging and walks at a pace that you might expect from a story published in 1902, and it is, every now and then, peppered with perfectly lovely imagery and delightful vocabulary:
“blinking-eyed cabs came up the avenue, looking at a distance like a trail of Megatheriums, gliding through the darkness”
Just in case you haven’t heard any Sousa, here is the March of the White Rose (not as ubiquitous as most, but I like the beginning):
I’ve had this idea rattling about in my head for a long time. The basis for this life-size, life-weight dummy would be a burlap or canvas sack filled mostly with saw dust. The limbs and head would be solid wood. Inside the body would be a network of chains and armature that would make the marionette move only the way a slack human body would move.
A little bunny revenge post Easter. I worked up this pattern a very little while ago and did not know what to do with it. Well, here you go…
I did some online shopping and got an awesome new purse in the mail the other day. But there’s a mystery! All the packaging on the purse was in Chinese. The label plaque on the front says: MEDE DE ITALY – CIANMI VEASRGE GOUTUAH….Via dei Cesa 16 Milano. Google translate says the first part is Dutch, meaning “Also the Italy.” Google translate says the next bit it actually Chinese, but offers no translation. Finally, Via Dei Cesa 16 Milano is actually Italian. It maps to a Via Antonio Cesari, 16.
