Tag: German Expressionism

Phone it in Friday LXXXIV: YouTube Roundup XXXIV: Stroopwafel Series

The Portly Politico2 Comments

At the end of the 2023-2024 school year, teachers were given three tickets to put towards different items in an end-of-the-school-year raffle.  The items varied in quality and value, ranging from random coffee stuff to an Amazon gift card.  Naturally, the big(ger)-ticket items attracted the most tickets, so yours portly played the odds:  I put all three of my tickets in the random assortment of coffee stuff.

I was not surprised, but was still excited, when I won the item.  The coffee was pretty good, and I still have the basket and the mug that came with it.  But the best part of the collection was the box of Stroopwafels (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of any purchase made through that link, at no additional cost to you—and you should definitely get some Stroopwafels).

If you’ve never had them before, the concept is simple:  you pour your steaming hot cup of coffee, then place a Stroopwafel on top of the mug for a few minutes.  The result is that the delicious caramel filling heats up to an oozy, flavorful consistency, and you have the perfect companion snack to accompany your cup of joe.

Naturally, a man of my generous proportions enjoyed this toothsome Dutch treat.  What I enjoyed almost as much as the Stroopwafels, though, was making a truly absurd, three-part YouTube Shorts series based on the flavorful concoction.

Read More »

An Acquired Taste: German Expressionism and Arnold Schoenberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire”

The Portly Politico3 Comments

In a move sure to incite riots akin to those that accompanied the premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, I’m dedicating today’s post to the bizarre German Expressionist music of Arnold Schoenberg’s atonal vocal work Pierrot Lunaire.

Before my musically conservative readers begin rioting in the comments section, let me hasten to add that, as a rule, I do not like German Expressionism outside of film.  The art movement has its moments, and I appreciate weird absurdity, but the movement is, at its core, nihilistic and anti-Beauty.  It seems to be the bitter wellspring of postmodern art, much of which is meaningless trash.  But at least the German Expressionists had technique; they knew how to make good art, but chose not to, largely as a reaction to the absurdity of the First World War.

I’m also not much of a fan of Arnold Schoenberg’s twelve-tone composing system, and the organized atonality it represents.  I just love a good chord progression too much, and generally think there is more fun (and musicality) to be had tinkering with music inside the limits of traditional tonality, rather than abandoning them entirely.

In spite of all of that, I kind of like Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire.

Read More »