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Beginning Schubert

Schubert collection

2020

Dod Procter (1890-1972), Sleeping Girl, 1927.

Do not disturb

This website is sleeping.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-12-27 09:00

Words: 155; reading time: 1 minute

Arnold Böcklin, 'Self-Portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle', 1872.

Scrapbook for December

[no entries yet]

Posted on  UTC 2020-12-01 02:01

Words: 3; reading time: 1 minute

Alma Eerdmann, Schwarzwälderin, 1899.

Scrapbook for November

Pricks R Us | Captain Foresight | Election eve | Nigel Farage in search of a cause | Deniers

Posted on  UTC 2020-11-01 02:01

Words: 1,773; reading time: 8 minutes

Fresco from Pompeii (detail).

Cynthia's shade

Hades hath no fury like a poet scorned.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-11-10 05:03

Words: 7,976; reading time: 36 minutes

Robert Frost, 1941, Library of Congress (detail).

A Considerable Speck

A sentient creature exercising good judgement.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-11-05 08:12

Words: 387; reading time: 1 minute

Giovanni Giacometti, 'Nebbia (Maloja)', 1910 (detail).

Quote and image of the month for November

Quote: Hermann Hesse, Im Nebel. Image: Giovanni Giacometti, Nebbia (Maloja).

Posted on  UTC 2020-11-01 05:02

Words: 1,799; reading time: 8 minutes

Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1887 (detail).

Scrapbook for October

Social media filtering | Swiss healthcare | Website changes

Posted on  UTC 2020-10-01 02:01

Words: 605; reading time: 2 minutes

Helmuth Westhoff, Rainer Maria Rilke, 1901 (detail).

Herbsttag, Autumn Day

Rainer Maria Rilke's farewell to autumn – or, why great poetry should be read slowly.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-10-31 12:12

Words: 1,520; reading time: 6 minutes

The Plague of Locusts in the 'Nuremberg Chronicle', 1493, detail.

The end of Covid-19

With a bang, not a whimper.

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2020-10-29 06:03

Words: 654; reading time: 2 minutes

Reading the newspaper.

Swiss tease

Sleepy Joe? No. Hunter's laptop? No. Burisma? Ignorance is Swiss bliss.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2020-10-25 07:12

Words: 869; reading time: 3 minutes

Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (1751-1829), Goethe in der römischen Campagna, 1787 (detail).

Goethe's Römische Elegien

The master's midlife crisis. [8 pages]

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-10-21 06:42

Words: 304; reading time: 1 minute

Isaac Israels, 'Meisje-op-ezel', 1898 (detail).

Scrapbook for August

FoS website changes | The guess: the new real | Only a matter of time… | Page view statistics | The Slough of Despond, then and now | This cannot end well | Sweet-rationing in the UK | Too clever by half | Hobby horse, gnomic edition

Posted on  UTC 2020-08-01 02:01

Words: 1,710; reading time: 7 minutes

The energy transition.

Sanity-checking insane energy

Does not compute.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2020-08-21 06:22

Words: 1,723; reading time: 7 minutes

Pieter Brueghel the Elder, The Blind Leading the Blind.

Plague notes, ad interim

Where are we and how did we get here?

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2020-08-17 12:15

Words: 3,923; reading time: 17 minutes

Updated on  2020-08-20

Pam Greene (woman), the coder's nemesis.

Butch browsing

Google Chrome, the coding man's browser of choice.

Posted by Austin Morris on  UTC 2020-08-14 10:43

Words: 827; reading time: 3 minutes

Updated on  2020-08-14

Joe Biden, Kamala Harris: 'Together We Will Beat Donald Trump'.

The lady in waiting

Kamala Harris, the great unwanted – even by Democrats.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2020-08-13 14:14

Words: 638; reading time: 2 minutes

Swiss National Day, 1 August.

After the Swiss party

2 August: Sunday morning coming down.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2020-08-02 15:23

Words: 1,130; reading time: 5 minutes

Léon Augustin Lhermitte's painting 'Paying the harvesters' (detail).

Paying the Harvesters

A close look at Léon Augustin Lhermitte's magnificent painting.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-08-01 03:05

Words: 4,867; reading time: 22 minutes

Swiss National Day, 1 August.

Swiss National Day, 1 August

Gottfried Keller's poem Sommernacht.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-08-01 03:04

Words: 999; reading time: 4 minutes

Julien Dupré, Haymaking (detail).

Scrapbook for July

The Railway Man prince | Eighteen shades of incompetence

Posted on  UTC 2020-07-01 02:01

Words: 237; reading time: 1 minute

Detail from fig. 3, Persistent warm Mediterranean surface waters during the Roman period.

Hot Romans

The dog days of the Roman Warm Period revisited in the Tibullan guide to climate change.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-07-29 09:25

Words: 1,187; reading time: 5 minutes

President Trump at Mount Rushmore, 3 July 2020.

Born in the USA

The forces of destruction are not at the gates; they were born within them.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2020-07-20 07:13

Words: 1,064; reading time: 4 minutes

Blackout car

Blacking out for Britain

Government by nonsensical directives enforced by law — a bit like COVID-19, in fact.

Posted by Austin Morris on  UTC 2020-07-16 16:32

Words: 890; reading time: 4 minutes

Updated on  2020-07-18

Karl Barth (1787–1853), portrait of Friedrich Rückert (1826)

Friedrich Rückert's Über alle Gräber

Recovering a particularly poignant poem from the Kindertodtenlieder

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-07-10 10:55

Words: 1,913; reading time: 8 minutes

Churchill riding his horse Salve in the grounds of Chartwell, ND (detail).

Winston Churchill's love of horses

The wartime prime minister was an excellent rider with a lifelong love of horses.

Posted by Werner Vogt on  UTC 2020-07-09 16:15

Words: 950; reading time: 4 minutes

Franz Schubert, Pencil sketch by Friedrich Lieder, 1827

Schubert in da hood

Franz Schubert growing up with family, friends and neighbours in a close-knit community. [8 pages]

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-07-08 14:24

Words: 1,177; reading time: 5 minutes

Edzard Koning, Farmhouse in Normandy, 1892 (detail).

Scrapbook for June

Lieder evening in Vienna | 'Latest comments' change | Barn wall smiley

Posted on  UTC 2020-06-01 02:01

Words: 162; reading time: 1 minute

René Magritte, The Lovers, 1928 (detail).

Scrapbook for May

Not the Age of Reason | 'Latest comments' panel | Clap for the NHS | What would Treebeard say?

Posted on  UTC 2020-05-01 02:01

Words: 848; reading time: 3 minutes

Franz Schubert, Pencil sketch by Friedrich Lieder, 1827

Hidden Schubert

The Schubert materials we can't show you.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-05-29 10:44

Words: 930; reading time: 4 minutes

Franz Schubert, Pencil sketch by Friedrich Lieder, 1827

The Atzenbrugg enlightenment

A review of Oliver Woog's book Franz Schubert und sein Freundeskreis in den Schlössern Atzenbrugg und Aumühle.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-05-19 09:33

Words: 5,404; reading time: 24 minutes

Franz Schubert, Pencil sketch by Friedrich Lieder, 1827

Franz Schubert und sein Freundeskreis in den Schlössern Atzenbrugg und Aumühle

Announcing a recent book by Oliver Woog, the concert guitarist and Schubert researcher, which throws new light on the party life of the young Schubert crowd.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-05-11 10:11

Words: 488; reading time: 2 minutes

Oiling the wheels the traditional way.

Oiling the Swiss paywall media

The Swiss government wants to lubricate the inaccessible with lots of nice slippery money.

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2020-05-01 10:44

Words: 1,513; reading time: 6 minutes

TGM van Hettinga Tromp, 'Vase with Primulas', 1931.

Scrapbook for April

Who's that train? | Schubert portrait 'Young Franz Schubert'

Posted on  UTC 2020-04-01 02:01

Words: 592; reading time: 2 minutes

US Presidential Seal.

The American shambles

November: hoping for the least worse, whoever that might be.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2020-04-28 10:44

Words: 989; reading time: 4 minutes

Updated on  2020-04-30

Philipp Franck, Mutter und Kind, 1904.

Scrapbook for March

COVID-19 sanity check | Disgusting | Thuggery | New site navigation | Saint Joseph's Day | Can the UK National Health Service cope with COVID-19? | Do not touch me, woman | Two inspectors call | And don't step in the excrement | Country music for the doolally | The Schubert guide to handwashing | Before social media

Posted on  UTC 2020-03-01 02:01

Words: 1,893; reading time: 8 minutes

Apricot blossom braving the cold north wind, Switzerland, 28 March 2010.

Purging the planet

A breathing space for the Earth.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2020-03-29 10:03

Words: 325; reading time: 1 minute

José Jiménez Aranda, 'The Small Naturalists', 1893 (detail).

Exposing yourself to COVID-19

But just a little bit, of course.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-03-24 15:33

Words: 3,648; reading time: 16 minutes

Updated on  2020-04-01

William Adolphe Bouguereau, 'An Offering of Thanks', 1867 (detai).

The Trump insight

COVID-19: the cure must not be worse than the disease.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2020-03-23 10:33

Words: 258; reading time: 1 minute

sussexroyal logo.

Beyond bananas

Meghan and Harry's message to a grateful world.

Posted by Austin Morris on  UTC 2020-03-19 16:08

Words: 853; reading time: 3 minutes

Technology in the service of the new barbarism.

Laughing at the afflicted

Shouldn't do it, but we need something to pass the time in our isolation cells.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2020-03-18 08:14

Words: 875; reading time: 3 minutes

Albin Egger-Lienz, 'Der Sämann', 1908 (detail).

Quote and image of the month for March

Quote: Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, Säerspruch. Image: Albin Egger-Lienz, Der Sämann.

Posted on  UTC 2020-03-14 14:02

Words: 469; reading time: 2 minutes

Gabriel Metsu, 'The Sick Child', c1660-65 (detail).

COVID-19: time to start worrying?

Even the normally sunny disposition of Matt Ridley is clouding over. Nobody panic.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2020-03-12 13:20

Words: 3,698; reading time: 16 minutes

Updated on  2020-03-26

Social control and the management of resources.

Sheep Herding for Dummies

The art of letting no crisis go to waste.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2020-03-10 10:18

Words: 604; reading time: 2 minutes

Boris Johnson kissing his young green bit on the side.

The greening of Boris™

Climate sceptic to climate alarmist in six months.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2020-03-08 14:20

Words: 314; reading time: 1 minute

Styptic pencil

Mr Cherry

Certainly gone, but still not forgotten.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2020-03-08 10:12

Words: 1,986; reading time: 9 minutes

Greta Thunberg

In praise of maturity

Let's stop listening to the revolting young.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-03-05 15:43

Words: 1,418; reading time: 6 minutes

Domenico Fetti, Melancholy, c1620 (detail).

Over the waterfall

Avoiding the rending pain of re-enactment.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-03-02 12:52

Words: 476; reading time: 2 minutes

Miners returning.

Mining the data mountain

Putting content online is only the first step – just try and find it again… or bend it like Google.

Posted by George Meredith on  UTC 2020-03-01 09:17

Words: 2,252; reading time: 10 minutes

René Magritte, Vie Nocturne, 1923.

Scrapbook for February

More COVID-19, among other things | Government by weirdo | Lest we forget | Brexit smoke and mirrors

Posted on  UTC 2020-02-01 02:01

Words: 1,531; reading time: 6 minutes

Sir Andrew Parker, Director General of MI5.

Trust me, I'm from MI5

Searching for signs of intelligence in the UK intelligence services. So far, none found.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2020-02-25 16:22

Words: 1,446; reading time: 6 minutes

Horace Vernet, The Angel of Death, 1851 (detail).

Coughs and sneezes spread diseases

You are a dot on the Blue Marble, now learning to live and die with COVID-19.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2020-02-25 11:04

Words: 1,025; reading time: 4 minutes

Updated on  2020-02-26

John William Waterhouse, Echo and Narcissus, 1903.

Social media on the couch

And its users. 'Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.'

Posted by George Meredith on  UTC 2020-02-20 10:25

Words: 2,918; reading time: 13 minutes

A Crypto AG mechanical rotary encoder from the fifties, the CX-52 IMG.

Swiss neutrality decoded

Beware the Swiss, bringing encryption equipment.

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2020-02-14 11:02

Words: 1,850; reading time: 8 minutes

Updated on  2020-02-15

'Republik', Cheap at the price.

The Swiss news magazine Republik, circling the drain

Good.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2020-02-10 11:16

Words: 408; reading time: 1 minute

Heidenröslein, somewhat startled.

Du bist die Ruh, swipe right edition

A lonely reader of the New York Review of Books looking for Miss Perfect.

Posted by Prudence Crowther on  UTC 2020-02-09 10:04

Words: 521; reading time: 2 minutes

Franz Schubert, Pencil sketch by Friedrich Lieder, 1827

Du bist die Ruh D 776

Another masterpiece from Friedrich Rückert's Oestliche Rosen (1819/1822), masterfully set to music by Franz Schubert (1823/1826).

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-02-09 10:04

Words: 3,905; reading time: 17 minutes

Now wash your hands. The newly elected Thomas Kemmerich receiving the congratulations of Björn Höcke, the leader of the AfD in Thuringen. Kemmerich is not even wearing a facemask or rubber gloves, let alone the obligatory hazmat suit. He will not survive this encounter.

Thuringia voted!

Three months ago. The last election worked so well that they had better have another one.

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2020-02-07 14:04

Words: 1,126; reading time: 5 minutes

Albin Egger-Lienz, 'Mann und Weib' oder 'Das Menschenpaar', 1910 (detail).

Quote and image of the month for February

Quote: Bertolt Brecht, Fragen eines lesenden Arbeiters. Image: Albin Egger-Lienz, Mann und Weib.

Posted on  UTC 2020-02-03 14:17

Words: 1,705; reading time: 7 minutes

Swiss flag

17 May, the end of Switzerland?

Jumping from the referendum frying pan into the EU fire.

Posted by George Meredith on  UTC 2020-02-01 13:12

Words: 1,048; reading time: 4 minutes

Hartmann Schedel, Book Burning, Nüremberg Chronicle, 1493.

A book burning

The Frankfurt Book Fire of 1758.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-02-01 08:02

Words: 1,886; reading time: 8 minutes

Veikko Vionoja, 'A little after five o'clock', 1951.

Scrapbook for January

Peter Schreier (1935-2019)

Posted on  UTC 2020-01-01 02:01

Words: 147; reading time: 1 minute

J.J.Rousseau: Still crazy after all these years

Democratic discontent

The Centre for the Future of Democracy is worried. They will be when the tumbrils get there.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-01-30 14:22

Words: 1,596; reading time: 7 minutes

Anshelm Schultzberg, 'A Winter Morning after a Snowfall in Dalarna', 1893 (detail).

Quote and image of the month for January

Quote: Siegfried Lenz, Heimatmuseum. Image: Anshelm Schultzberg, A Winter Morning after a Snowfall in Dalarna.

Posted on  UTC 2020-01-25 11:13

Words: 478; reading time: 2 minutes

Franz Schubert, Pencil sketch by Friedrich Lieder, 1827

Jägers Liebeslied D 909

Franz von Schober's much ado about nothing sinks without trace, taking Schubert's rubber ring with it.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-01-24 09:03

Words: 2,860; reading time: 13 minutes

Franz Schubert, Pencil sketch by Friedrich Lieder, 1827

Die Sterne D 939

Musical mission impossible: Leitner's terrible poem and Schubert's attempted rescue.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-01-20 14:15

Words: 1,895; reading time: 8 minutes

Franz Schubert, Pencil sketch by Friedrich Lieder, 1827

Franz Schubert and Franz von Schlechta

Cracking the door, but just a little bit.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-01-17 16:43

Words: 4,553; reading time: 20 minutes

Franz Schubert, Pencil sketch by Friedrich Lieder, 1827

Fischerweise D 881

Franz Xaver Freiherr Schlechta von Wssehrd's mediocre poem, rescued by Franz Schubert.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-01-15 10:21

Words: 4,770; reading time: 21 minutes

Franz Schubert, Pencil sketch by Friedrich Lieder, 1827

Schubert portrait Whac-A-Mole

As soon as we whack one, another one pops up.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-01-05 10:48

Words: 6,876; reading time: 31 minutes

Updated on  2020-02-16

Franz Schubert, Pencil sketch by Friedrich Lieder, 1827

Ueber allen Gipfeln Ist Ruh' D 768

One genius stands on another's shoulders: Goethe and Schubert.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2020-01-01 08:14

Words: 10,235; reading time: 46 minutes

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