The first time ever I liked Celine

A propos nothing in particular, I spent a few minutes yesterday on YouTube listening to covers of Ewan MacColl's brilliant love song "The first time ever I saw your face." And had two related revelations. The first is that it is possible for me to listen to Celine Dion without coming out in a rash provoked by insincerity, sentimentality, and saccharine in equal profusion: with this song she almost appears genuine, and there can be no doubt about the beauty of her voice. The other revelation—the corollary of this, if you will—is that Celine is less to be condemned for her talent than for her poor judgment in generally singing really atrocious, emetic songs. Viz. Or maybe it shows that even Celine cannot screw up a work of genius...

For all that, Johnny Cash still comes out on top... (I've still to make up my mind about Peter, Paul and Mary, and Roberta Flack)

Comments

Fred said…

[Warning: heavily over-parenthesized comment ahead]

Evidently I'm combing through your blog(s) this evening, avoiding the umpteen bits of "real work" that need tending to before sun-up...

This post (specifically: "[...] possible for me to listen to Celine Dion without coming out in a rash [...]) evoked an amusing memory:

At some point during Fall term 1997 (how on Earth is it possible that this was 15 years ago) during the opening minutes of LIN555 (Course Name: Linguistic Theory and Language Acquisition, Grade: KF [ouch...but still you saw fit to write me a letter, for which I'll be eternally grateful]) you walked in and said (something very near to):

"I was just in the café on the corner when I was overcome by a sort of creeping malaise, which then gave way to actual anger. At first I couldn't figure out what was wrong, but then I realized that Kenny G was playing on the sound system."

[cue polite laughter]

I'm happy to see that you're doing interesting things and have a lovely fmaily, by the way.

Cheers.

p.s. Your Captchas are horrendously difficult. How would our AI fare on Turing Tests if we gave them a "give me a different sentence please" option?

November 15, 2012 4:00 pm

Reflections on Thought: Work in Progress

"An incredible trick" The starting point for this piece is an observation that Simon Kirby made a long time ago in the introduction to a BBC Horizon programme Why do we talk? , a documentary that I have used for nearly 20 years in my language acquisition classes at Konan. It is a scene-setting observation, one which seems self-evident and innocuous, and to which I paid next to no attention until a few months ago. I can walk up to someone I don’t know, and I can make a sequence of noises…that I’ve never made before…by pushing air through my mouth. I will take a thought in my head…and make it go into their head . That’s an incredible trick. It would be incredible, if that was what happens. Yet a moment's reflection - or perhaps twenty-plus years of rumination, I'm not sure which - tells me that this is completely wrong. We do not take our thoughts and cause them to go into other's heads. That would be amazing. Instead, whatever is involved in verbal communication i

Musical Triumph....

it wasn't, but a family triumph most certainly. After four weeks of occasional rehearsal, Sean, Julian and I appeared on stage in support of Justin's first piano recital. The quality of the performance does nothing to detract from the historic significance of this event: 10 years ago, I could not have imagined that Justin would be able to take piano lessons, nor that Sean and Julian would have rallied round in such a way to support their brother. Justin has brought out the best in all of us.

Starting over

Blogging is no different from any other activity: once the momentum is lost, it's hard to get going again. So pushing, grinding, out these first few lines is even more difficult than I had anticipated. Yet looking back on the posts from last year, I can see some value in the enterprise, as a family document, and from the fact that some readers come back regularly to browse... So let's begin with the headlines, in brief. After months of torpid indecision, Ayumi and I decided not to return to our professional lives in England—though we spent a very pleasant two months there in February and March—but to give Japan a go for a bit longer. In December last year, I was offered a permanent job at Konan University in Okamoto—Kobe's Hampstead, if Kitano is Chelsea), where I have now started teaching English and Linguistics courses to a delightful bunch of students, in the company of friendly and extremely welcoming colleagues. First day at Konan (Okamoto) The professor I'm

Devenish

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