Susan's Scribblings the Blog

Monthly Archives: November 2018

• Boxed Up

  Posted at 2:23 am by kayewer, on November 25, 2018

  This morning I just wanted to go to the bank. Saturday banking isn’t an easy concept anyway because many branches don’t open or close early. My favorite branch is about ten minutes away, but it’s on Main Street USA and the town was having their parade, which meant absolutely no parking for anybody. Signs indicating parking for bank customers only mean nothing anymore, especially when it’s an entire parking lot in a town filled with parking meters. Worse, these parking meters are the variety in which you must walk to a kiosk, pay for a ticket and then return it to your vehicle’s dash. Towns with an elderly population can only dash so much.

  So I decided to try going to another branch several miles away, packed up and started out to the road, only to find the streets feeding into the main streets were all shut down. I drove around my favorite shortcuts for ten minutes without success. I had to drive three miles away and in the opposite direction to connect with another road. On the way I realized that another bank branch I could use was nearby. Managed to park the car for free (blessings from above), but got to the door to find they have discontinued their Saturday hours.

  Back into the car for a drive which should have taken about fifteen minutes and ended up being 35 minutes. No bargains to be found trying to live everyday life on Small Business Saturday.

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• Colora-Sure-A

  Posted at 2:36 am by kayewer, on November 18, 2018

  I like opera, and have since childhood. Sure I enjoy a good pop song or Sinatra, metal or contemporary, and even some country if it isn’t twangy or hokey (and if it’s Willie Nelson I have to be in a certain frame of mind to not want to change the station), but classical is the foundation for so much of what we experience musically today, many people don’t know how much opera they actually know.

  Some of the best pieces in opera are used in commercials and movies, and many people don’t even know it. It can be fun to sit in a darkened theater and say to yourself, “Yup, that’s Delibes,” and smile.

  So why is Volvo keeping their recent opera commercial so low-keyed and mysterious? To promote its XC Range vehicles, the car company features an opera singer named Emily Cheung to perform (what I feel is) one of Mozart’s most challenging arias from The Magic Flute, known as the “Queen of the Night Aria” for quick reference*, the piece is better known (as in many operas) by its first words, “Der Hölle Rache” (loosely translated as the wrath of Hell).

  It’s an interesting choice of aria, as it demands a high soprano range and full command of coloratura (which is best defined as musically turning a stick drawing into a Monet). Ms. Cheung certainly has what it takes to perform the piece, and in terms of a car company wanting to stress its class, control and quality, an aria makes a fine metaphor.

  In actual performance, however, the character the Queen of the Night demands that her daughter ensure the death of a main character or be disowned, and it is sung with some motherly vehemence as a result. The ad elects to use it in a more intimate setting, so the drama is tuned down. When one is used to hearing an over-the-top queenly mother figure going all bitchy on her own daughter, this interpretation falls flat. It’s not the performer’s fault, but some other choice of aria might have been better.

  I have a car I like, so it won’t encourage me to buy a Volvo, but at least I can listen to it and smile. Yup, that’s Mozart.

  *(Actually the opera features two arias from the Queen of the Night, but this second one is given the recognition.)

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• Punctual Reality

  Posted at 3:35 am by kayewer, on November 11, 2018

  Don’t overuse periods. In fact, don’t overuse anything on a keyboard if you want to get your point across. I work in customer service and have seen plenty of self expression overkill jobs over the years, but trying to stress a point with periods is simply annoying and ineffectual.

  I’m. Talking. About. This.

  Just as putting the caps lock on is akin to shouting in an email, periods look as if one is punching the reader senseless by beating the point into them. Next to not using commas as often as necessary, overusing periods is an instant clue that the rest of the communication is going to be nothing but nonstop whining.

  What ever happened to the simple, “I’m having a problem, and I hope you can you help me” types of emails? We all seem to have been rewired into a bunch of bile-spleened idiots with no sense of decorum.

  I, however, will not give up the fight. I answer all emails politely and calmly. Period.

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• Dreadful Bells

  Posted at 1:29 am by kayewer, on November 4, 2018

  The holidays can’t wait. The day after Halloween, the commercials were already holiday themed; you could tell by the jingle bells in the background on every soundtrack. One day bells symbolize doom and horror, and the next it’s all candy canes and early bargains. Those candy canes, by the way, may have been made back in July.

  Remember when November was normal until Black Friday?

  The general well-being of our country can be measured in how quickly we need Christmas. We’re in a bad way right now, if we’re embracing red and green, snow themes and gingerbread house kits already.

  Shouldn’t we be thinking about Thanksgiving instead? Perhaps that is too late, as flight bargain hunters have already snatched up the best rates online. We have come a long way from those days when one would drop by a travel agency and buy a comfy seat, from a nice agent, on a well-maintained aircraft piloted by truly qualified people. Now one never knows what a flight home for turkey you don’t have to prepare will turn out to be. The seats are cramped, you can’t pack anything anymore, and your seatmates may well be. . .well, let’s say not everybody is mannerly on flights these days.

  Do the stores are decked out, and the cards line the Hallmark store shelves, and the mall kiosks are stuffed with wintery baubles. Even Santa will be spending more time there, with some arrivals as early as this weekend.

  What we won’t have is a Toys R Us® big book of toys, and many will miss out on K-Mart and Sears this year. People would rather shop as if they’re doing surgery: impersonally, online, and have it shipped hoping the stuff won’t get lifted by opportunistic neighborhood thieves.

  Ask not for whom the bell tolls: it’s tolling for us all.

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