Gary Freedman's Blog

Orpheus

Last night I listened to Orpheus, a tone poem by Franz Liszt. It is magnificent. It's definitely one of his finer musical creations. I had read years ago that Wagner admired Orpheus and was, in fact, influenced by the piece. A year ago, I purchased a recording of Orpheus and listened to it for the first time. I can understand Wagner's admiration. Wagner's wife Cosima records the following in her diary entry for August 28, 1878: "In the evening . . . my father plays us Beethoven's E major Sonata… Continue

Added by Gary Freedman on August 20, 2009 at 12:00pm — 3 Comments

My New Futon

My new futon arrived this morning. My generous sister bought it for me as a gift. Maybe now I'll get a good night's sleep.

Added by Gary Freedman on August 19, 2009 at 11:59am — 2 Comments

What George Bush Taught Us

I have a Facebook friend who asked me for an argument to rebut Rebublican claims that "the government screws up everything it gets involved in." Here's what I wrote in response:

There's nothing you can say to a Republican to convince him or her of anything. I wouldn't try. My father used to say, "Never argue with a Communist. You'll never win. They have a prefabricated argument to rebut anything you say." I think the best argument against Communism is the Soviet regime in Russia,… Continue

Added by Gary Freedman on August 18, 2009 at 11:46am — 9 Comments

Reminiscing About My Life as a Terrorist and Presidential Assassin

August 7th fell on a Friday this year. I can recall that August 7th also fell on a Friday in the year 1998, 11 years ago. Back in the day I was a danger to society. Yes, I was a very dangerous man.

On the evening of Thursday August 6, 1998 two Special Agents of the US Capitol Police (Threat Investigation Unit) forcibly entered my home, after frisking me for weapons, and proceeded to interrogate me about an allegation made by a DC employee that, earlier in the day, at the height of an… Continue

Added by Gary Freedman on August 17, 2009 at 11:01am — No Comments

Reminiscing About Coworkers

August 7th fell on a Friday this year. It occured to me that August 7th also fell on a Friday in the year 1987, 22 years ago. I began to reminisce about Friday August 7, 1987. At that time I worked at Chief Justice Roberts' old law firm, Hogan and Hartson, in Washington, DC. I worked in the Computer Applications Department.

Craig W. Dye, a coworker and fair-weather friend, left for a Miami vacation on Friday afternoon August 7, 1987. That morning I gave Craig a copy of a book of… Continue

Added by Gary Freedman on August 17, 2009 at 10:30am — No Comments

The Government Screws Up Everything It Gets Involved In?

Are you looking for the logical fallacy in the statement "the government screws up everything it gets involved in?"

The logical fallacy is that there are major screw ups in the private sector. Look at the banking crisis. Lehman Brothers was privately owned. It no longer exists because of faulty investment practices. Lehman Brothers was a case of private capitalists screwing up everything without any intervention by the government. How do conservatives explain that? What about the… Continue

Added by Gary Freedman on August 17, 2009 at 10:04am — 3 Comments

Introverts Are Not Shy!?

Extraversion is characterized by positive emotions, surgency, and the tendency to seek out stimulation and the company of others. The trait is marked by pronounced engagement with the external world. Extraverts enjoy being with people, and are often perceived as full of energy. They tend to be enthusiastic, action-oriented individuals who are likely to say "Yes!" or "Let's go!" to opportunities for excitement. In groups they like to talk, assert themselves, and draw attention to… Continue

Added by Gary Freedman on August 1, 2009 at 1:01pm — 5 Comments

A Black Man Did It!

At one time, all someone had to say was "a black man did it", and the police would arrest every black person in sight.

Today, we have a black president, Barack Obama. It looks like President Obama's policies have helped to finally bring an end to the worst economic slump since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

We can all say with pride about our president: "A Black man did it!"

Added by Gary Freedman on August 1, 2009 at 10:09am — 1 Comment

How Many of Your Know About Robin's Illustrious Career?

Robin Wollaner was an executive at CNET from 1997 to 2002. In 1985, she founded Parenting magazine, later sold to Time Inc.. Her founding of Parenting is documented in one of the most popular case studies by Harvard Business School, taught to all first-year students of the school. She started her career at Penthouse magazine, where she created the magazine's one-liner: "More than just a pretty face." She graduated from Cornell University in 1975 with a bachelor of science in industrial and… Continue

Added by Gary Freedman on July 31, 2009 at 11:00am — 1 Comment

Is TBD Getting The Promotion It Needs?

What I'm wondering is whether TBD is getting promoted on the internet? It should be! The way I learned about the old TBD is through an ad I saw on Myspace. But for that ad, I never would have learned about TBD. Robin needs to let the world know that WE ARE HERE!

Added by Gary Freedman on July 30, 2009 at 12:41pm — 1 Comment

The Sublimities of Schumann

I'm a loner who engages in few activities. Small things are important for me. I can still remember that it was five years ago, during the summer of 2004, that I became acquainted with a collection of four piano pieces by Robert Schumann: the Humoreske in B flat, opus 20. The music is sublime. (I wonder if Aida Epstein is familiar with this music? Aida Epstein teaches piano at the Settlement School, in Philadelphia. Aida Epstein, incidentally, was Patrick Dugan's piano teacher. Patrick is… Continue

Added by Gary Freedman on July 30, 2009 at 10:30am — 3 Comments

What I Am Looking For in a Friend

These are the qualities that I am looking for in a friend. Am I being too picky? Maybe that's why I currently don't have any friends!

If you have these qualities maybe we should hook up online.

(A) Warm, outgoing, attentive to others, kindly, easy-going, participating, likes people

(B) Abstract-thinking, more intelligent, bright, higher general mental capacity, fast learner

(C) Emotionally stable, adaptive, mature, faces reality calmly

(E)… Continue

Added by Gary Freedman on July 29, 2009 at 12:09pm — No Comments

What Is Happening to My Neighborhood?

I live on upper Connecticut Avenue in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Washington, DC. It's one of Washington's most beautiful and affluent neighborhoods.

There's a commercial district about two blocks south of me. The commercial district comprises a strip of business that span a two-block area.

Recently, something very strange has been happening in the commercial district. Stores are closing, one by one. The properties are remaining unleased. What stores have closed?… Continue

Added by Gary Freedman on July 29, 2009 at 10:55am — 1 Comment

Does Size Matter?

A TBD member left the following comment on my blog about Jean-Jacques Rousseau's sexual confessions: "Taken in total, such confessions compromise less than a fraction of a percent of his work. I doubt [any reader] would have noticed ...."

My response? Taken in total, the Jews have comprised, throughout history, less than a fraction of a percent of the world's population. You would doubt that anyone would notice them at all. But people do!

Added by Gary Freedman on July 29, 2009 at 10:30am — 2 Comments

Anna, Annie, And The Compulsion To Repeat

ANNA FREUD: So, Annie, tell me, what was it like for you growing up?

ANNIE: It was a hard knock life.

ANNA FREUD: No! That was your fantasy!!

Annie's concerns about her hard-knock life may be a legitimate recognition by Annie of the possible role of the repetition compulsion in causing her interpersonal problems.

"Early internal objects of a harsh and phantastic nature are constantly being projected onto the external world. Perceptions of real objects… Continue

Added by Gary Freedman on July 28, 2009 at 12:56pm — No Comments

What If Jean-Jacques Rousseau Were a Modern Blogger?

Jean Jacques Rousseau was a major philosopher, writer, and composer of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, whose political philosophy influenced the French Revolution and the development of modern political and educational thought.

For Jean-Jacques Rousseau's biographers the man himself has been as puzzling as his work—a severe moralist who lived a dangerously "relaxed" life, a misanthrope who loved humanity, a cosmopolitan who prided himself on being a "citizen of Geneva," a… Continue

Added by Gary Freedman on July 28, 2009 at 12:30pm — 1 Comment

Would You Be Friends With Your Psychiatrist?

I started seeing a new psychiatrist about two weeks ago. His name is Abbas Jama, MD. He is a black Muslim from the African country of Somalia. He's very bright, with a research orientation. I admire his work. He was a research fellow at the University of Maryland School of Medicine doing research on the genetics of schizophrenia. Dr. Jama is the type of person I would like to have as a friend. I think we would get along very well. I like few people. I have no feelings about most people, and… Continue

Added by Gary Freedman on July 27, 2009 at 9:55am — 8 Comments

Is It Appropriate to Tell a Blogger What He or She Can Write?

The personal blog, an ongoing diary or commentary by an individual, is the traditional, most common blog. Personal bloggers usually take pride in their blog posts, even if their blog is never read by anyone but them. Blogs often become more than a way to just communicate; they become a way to reflect on life or works of art. Blogging can have a sentimental quality. Few personal blogs rise to fame and the mainstream, but some personal blogs quickly garner an extensive following. A type of… Continue

Added by Gary Freedman on July 26, 2009 at 12:00pm — 6 Comments

On Wagner, Brahms, and The TBD Blog

In her diary entry for February 3, 1879, Cosima Wagner, wife of the German opera composer Richard Wagner, wrote: "We then go on to a Brahms symphony [the Brahms second], which Richard plays as a piano duet with Herr Rubinstein and which again downright disgusts us."

I have a remote association. I am reminded of TBD members who complain about blog posts that a member posts, but continue to read the blogger's posts. If you don't like a particular blogger, don't read his… Continue

Added by Gary Freedman on July 26, 2009 at 11:00am — 1 Comment

Free Associations

Join my new group, Free Associations. Feel free to say anything that comes to mind, without censorship, no matter how trivial, irrelevant, boring or outrageous. Just speak your mind in one continuous thread. No restrictions on topics or language used. Adult content.

http://teebeedee.ning.com/group/freeassociations

Or access the group through my page.

Added by Gary Freedman on July 25, 2009 at 10:14am — No Comments

Gary Freedman's Blog (185)