SOUNDTRACK: JULIA BULLOCK-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #119 (December 1, 2020).
I had not heard of Julia Bullock, so when I started this video I was surprised that she was an operatic singer. Their setting seems so casual–just her sitting next to her husband, Christian Reif, at the piano. And then pow–what a voice!
Soprano Julia Bullock prefers to be called a “classical singer.” It’s a rather humble, even vague, appellation for one of today’s smartest, most arresting vocalists in any genre.
Bullock is in Munich Germany and has decided to sing songs in both langauges.
Carefully choosing songs in German and English, Bullock begins with something bittersweet and introspective by Franz Schubert that cautions patience when looking for inner peace.
Franz Schubert: “Wanderers Nachtlied II” [Wanderers Night Song] features poetry by Goethe and is barely two minutes long. It’s a wonderful start.
She follows with “Wie lange noch” (How Much Longer), a World War II-era song by Kurt Weill. Written after Weill emigrated to the United States, the song contained coded messages for Germans back home. But Bullock has no time for secrets in these days fraught with uncertainty. The meaning behind her insistent cries of “How much longer?” as she stares straight through the camera, couldn’t be more transparent.
That direct look at the camera is certainly uncomfortable–I hope the right people are made uncomfortable by it.
The next two songs are a gut-punch of clear-eyed observation, struggle and hope. The spiritual “City of Heaven” finds a determined protagonist facing down sorrow.
The song is sung as a spiritual, but Bullock’s operatic voice cannot be denied.
while Billy Taylor’s “I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to be Free,” written at the height of the civil rights movement, speaks truth to power. At the very end, Bullock spins out a long flowing line on the word “free.”
After a soft piano intro, she sings the beginning of the song a capella. So that when the piano comes back in it’s even more powerful. As are the deep notes she hits.
[READ: December 29, 2020] “The Heart of the Circle”
This was an excerpt in the back of the novel Simantov. It’s another book from Angry Robot and “more Israeli fantasy.” The story was translated by Daniela Zamir.
I enjoyed the way this book starts right in the middle of the action–giving very little in the way of context.
A few people (college students) are seated at a bar. There’s Reed and Daphne. He is close with Daphne (her curls tickle his nose), but she is a free spirit. There’s also Reed’s brother Matthew. Daphne and Matthew were supposed to be an item (according to the boys’ mother) but it never happened. Their mother now sees her as part of the family–as a sort of sister.
They are all somber. It is the day after the latest murder.
The first murder was unbearable. This is now the fifth or sixth and they are almost numb. This time they didn’t know her, but they were marching with her when she was killed.
When pyros tried to get revenge after the first murders, they were arrested and executed by the Prevention of Future Crimes Unit. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 