Wednesday, December 31, 2025

Playing

Tom Waits
NIGHTHAWKS AT THE DINER

Daily Painting

Jesse Savage
NOCTURNAL (2022)

Tuesday, December 30, 2025

Reading

Stanisław Lem
SOLARIS



Playing

Nathalie Stutzmann
CONTRALTO

Orfeo 55

Daily Painting

Ludwig Munthe
ON THE PATH (1882)

Monday, December 29, 2025

Playing

Domenico Scarlatti
SONATEN

Alexis Weissenberg


RAY BRADBURY
Fahrenheit 451

If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it. Peace, Montag. Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change.



Daily Painting

Bernard Buffet
RUE DE VILLAGE (1970)

Sunday, December 28, 2025

Playing

Elgan Llŷr Thomas
UNVEILED

Iain Burside
Craig Ogden


STEPHEN KING
The Dead Zone

Something in his heart seemed to have closed. It was not a major feeling. That was the worst of it—it wasn’t a major feeling at all.



Daily Painting

Jack Kampmann
LANDSCAPE FROM THE FAROE ISLANDS (1980)

Saturday, December 27, 2025

Playing

CLUB MOD on allclassical.org

Hosted by Andrea Murray

Playing 

Antonio Vivald
GRISELDA, RV718

Jean-Christophe Spinosi​

Marie-Nicole Lemieux​,​ Veronica Cangemi​,​ Simone Kermes​,​ Philippe Jaroussky​,​ Stefano Ferrari​,​ Iestyn Davies​

Ensemble Matheus


SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK
Sex and the Failed Absolute

Trump's twisted 'greatness' is that he effectively acts - he is not afraid to break the unwritten (and written) rules to impose his decisions. As we learned (not only) from Hegel, our life is regulated by a thick web of written and unwritten rules, rules which teach us how to practice the explicit (written) rules. While Trump (more or less) sticks to explicit legal regulations, he tends to ignore the unwritten silent pacts which determine how we should practice these rules - the way he dealt with Kavanaugh was just one example of it.

Instead of just blaming Trump, the Left should learn from him and do the same. When a situation demands it, we should shamelessly do the impossible and break the unwritten rules. Unfortunately, today's Left is in advance terrified of any radical acts - even when it is in power, it worries all the time:'If we do this, how will the worlds react? Will our acts cause panic?' Ultimately, this fear means: 'Will our enemies be mad and react?' In order to act in politics, one has to overcome this fear and assume the risk, make a step into the unknown.



Daily Painting

Anders Andersen Lundby
VIEW OF A STREET ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF MUNICH, WINTER (1884)

Friday, December 26, 2025

Playing

Felix Mendelssohn
SYMPHONY NO. 5 IN D MAJOR, OP. 107 "REFORMATION"

John Eliot Gardiner
Wiener Philharmoniker

Daily Painting

Domenico Gnoli
RED DRESS COLLAR (1969)

Thursday, December 25, 2025

Playing

Anthony Holborne
TEARES OF THE MUSES
ELIZABETHAN CONSORT MUSIC VOL. 2

Jordi Savall
Hespèrion XXI

Playing

ELIZABETHAN CONSORT MUSIC 1558-1603

Jordi Savall
Hespèrion XXI

Daily Painting

Allen William Seaby
SNOW AND HARE (1923)

Wednesday, December 24, 2025

Playing

The Monks of Sherab Ling Monastery
SACRED TIBETAN CHANT

Daily Painting

Amaldus Nielsen
SNEFOKK I MAJORSTUVEIEN 8 (ND/Late 19th Century)

Tuesday, December 23, 2025

Playing

Thomas Wimmer, Ensemble Accentus
SEPHARDIC ROMANCES
Traditional Jewish Music from Spain

Daily Painting

Helen Frankenthaler
MOUNT SINAI (1956)

Monday, December 22, 2025

Playing

Marianne Faithfull
GO AWAY FROM MY WORLD


HANIF KUREISHI
Intimacy

I am aware how susceptible to illusion we all are. How disturbing it is that our illusions are often our most important beliefs.



Daily Painting

Ellen Bernard Thompson
THE IMMIGRANTS (1899)

Sunday, December 21, 2025

Playing

Björk Guðmundsdóttir & Tríó Guðmundar Ingólfssonar
GLING-GLO


TOVE DITLEVSEN
"Divorce 1"

He would
in case of divorce
lay claim to half
of everything
he said.
Half a sofa,
half a TV,
half a summerhouse
half a pound of butter
half a child.

The apartment was his
he said
because it was in his name.
The thing was
he loved her.

She loved another
whose wife would
lay claim to half
of everything.

So the marriage act stated.
As clearly as
two and two makes four.

The solicitor
said so too.

She broke half of everything
and ripped the tax bill apart.
Then she left for
the women’s shelter on Jagtvej
with half a child.

The child was teased at school
because he only had
one ear.
Other than that,
this life too
was bearable
since things couldn’t be
any different.

-

Translated from the Danish by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell



Daily Painting

Anna Ancher
INTERIOR, BRANDUM'S ANNEX (c. 1920)

Saturday, December 20, 2025

Playing

CLUB MOD on allclassical.org

Hosted by Andrea Murray

Reading

Hanif Kureishi
INTIMACY

Playing

Benjamin Britten
BRITTEN SONGS

Ian Bostridge

Antonio Pappano, Xuefei Yang


LI BAN
"Drinking Alone with the Moon"

A tankard of wine in the midst of some flowers
I drank alone, no one was with me
Raising my cup, asking the bright moon
Bring me my shadow let us be three.
Alas, the moon couldn’t drink,
And my shadow stared at my vacantly.
Still, for a while, I had these two friends,
To cheer me up as Spring was ending.
On the spot, I composed a poem, the moon encouraged me,
I got up and danced, my shadow stumbled along.
All along, we two bosom companions.
Finally drunk, it was then I lost him.
Eternally tied, lacking emotion, one wanders,
We two for a time watching the Starry River.



Daily Painting

Florence McGillivray
AFTERGLOW (1914)

Friday, December 19, 2025

Playing

Franz Xaver Dussek
FOUR SYMPHONIES

Aapo Hakkinen
Helsinki Baroque Orchestra


SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK

God was a lazy programmer.



Daily Painting

Christopher R. W. Nevinson
ANY WINTERY AFTERNOON IN ENGLAND (1930)

Thursday, December 18, 2025

Playing

Ben Webster & Gerry Mulligan
GERRY MULLIGAN MEETS BEN WEBSTER


WILLIAM STAFFORD
"Love the Butcher Bird Lurks Everywhere"

A gather of apricots fruit pickers left
gleam like reasons for light going higher, higher;
I look half as hard as I can to tease
the fruit out of its green.
        (It is time to run lest pity overtake us,
        and calamity pit invents to accompany itself:
        to sigh is a stern act—we are judged by this air.)

Down the steady eye of the charging bear
a gun barrel swerves—intention, then flame;
and willows do tricks to find an exact place in the wind:
resolution steady, bent to be true.
        (While there’s time
        I call to you by all these dubious guides:
        “Forsake all ways except the way we came.”)


Daily Painting

André Masson
ERRANCE I (1959)

Wednesday, December 17, 2025

Playing

Bryant Myers
LA OSCURIDAD


TED GREENWALD
"Staring Doesn’t Help"

Staring doesn’t help
Nor does running around
Music doesn’t help
Especially songs
Getting together doesn’t help
Nor does staying apart
Seeing someone else doesn’t
Nor does seeing you
Sleeping doesn’t help
Nor does waking
Dreaming doesn’t help
Nor do any facts
Running doesn’t help
Nor does sitting around



Daily Painting

George Morrison
ABSTRACT COMPOSITION (1950)

Tuesday, December 16, 2025

Playing

Ludwig van Beethoven
STRING QUARTET NO. 11 IN F MINOR, OP. 95
STRING QUARTET NO. 9 IN C MAJOR, OP. 59/3


Borodin String Quartet


JOYCE CAROL OATES

There is a wish in the heart of mankind to be distracted and confused. Truth is but one attraction, and not always the most powerful.



Daily Painting

Brenda Goodwin
SELF-PORTRAIT 61 (2007)

Monday, December 15, 2025

Playing

Antonin Dvořák
SYMPHONY NO. 2 IN B-FLAT MAJOR, OP. 4

Bernard Haitink
Das Concertgebouw-Orchester, Amsterdam


MARY OLIVER
Upstream

Through these woods I have walked thousands of times. For many years I felt more at home here than anywhere else, including our own house. Stepping out into the world, into the grass, onto the path, was always a kind of relief. I was not escaping anything. I was returning to the arena of delight.



Daily Painting

Andrea Kowch
SOIRÉE (2019)

Sunday, December 14, 2025

Playing

Kuniko Kuniko
CANTUS

-

Arvo Pärt - FÜR ALINA
Steve Reich - NEW YORK COUNTERPOINT
Arvo Pärt - CANTUS IN MEMORY OF BENJAMIN BRITTEN
Arvo Pärt - FRATRES
Hywel Davies - PURL GROUND
Arvo Pärt - SPIEGEL IM SPIEGEL


LIU ZONGYUAN
"River Snow"

A thousand mountains, not a bird in sight
Ten thousand paths, not a human track
Alone in a boat, wearing a straw cape and hat, an old man sits
Fishing alone, in the winter snow



Daily Painting

Karel Appel
LITTLE GIRL (1947)

Saturday, December 13, 2025

Playing

CLUB MOD on allclassical.org

Hosted by Andrea Murray

Playing

Manuel Ponce
COMPLETE PIANO WORKS VOL 1

Álvaro Cendoya


CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD
A Single Man

Waking up begins with saying am and now. That which has awoken then lies for a while staring up at the ceiling and down into itself until it has recognized I, and therefrom deduced I am, I am now. Here comes next, and is at least negatively reassuring; because here, this morning, is where it has expected to find itself: what’s called at home.



Daily Painting

Ismail Fatah
UNTITLED (2000)

Friday, December 12, 2025

Playing

George Butterworth
THE BANKS OF GREEN WILLOW

Grant Llewellyn
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic


ROBERTO BOLAÑO
2666

He had a little single-story house, three bedrooms, a full bathroom and a half bathroom, a combined kitchen-living room-dining room with windows that faced west, a small brick porch where there was a wooden bench worn by the wind that came down from the mountains and the sea, the wind from the north, the wind through the gaps, the wind that smelled like smoke and came from the south.

He had books he'd kept for more than twenty-five years. Not many. All of them old. He had books he'd bought in the last ten years, books he didn't mind lending, books that could've been lost or stolen for all he cared. He had books that he sometimes received neatly packaged and with unfamiliar return addresses, books he didn't even open anymore. He had a yard perfect for growing grass and planting flowers, but he didn't know what flowers would do best there--flowers, as opposed to cacti or succulents. There would be time (so he thought) for gardening.

He had a wooden gate that needed a coat of paint. He had a monthly salary.



Daily Painting

Sidney Nolan
LANDSCAPE WITH A MAN AND A CAMEL (1966)

Thursday, December 11, 2025

Playing

Mumford and Sons
WILDER MIND


ITALO CALVINO
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

Your house, being the place in which you read, can tell us the position books occupy in your life, if they are a defense you set up to keep the outside world at a distance, if they are a dream into which you sink as if into a drug, or bridges you cast toward the outside, toward the world that interests you so much that you want to multiply and extend its dimensions through books.



Daily Painting

Purvis Young
UNTITLED (1988)

Wednesday, December 10, 2025

Playing

Anuel AA
REAL HASTA LA MUERTE