MACK THE KNIFE

My favorite program on TV could well be Classic Arts Showcase (Channel 53 from 6-8AM in Honolulu.)  This morning I awoke to Lotte Lenya from Die Dreigroschenoper, or, Three Penny Opera (TPO, here is the complete 1 hour 57 minute 1931 film).

Of course I know the name and the musical show, but had no idea how she looked and sang, or about the play, which was composed by Kurt Weill, who married, divorced and remarried Lotte Lenya.  He also wrote September Song, from the 1938 Knickerbocker Holiday. here sung by Walter Huston.

The whole atmosphere of TPO is depressing, for it is based on John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, (full 1 hour 34 minute BBC 1963 performance), and opens with a street musician--Bertolt Brecht, who wrote the lyrics--singing Die Moritat von Mackie Messer (DMVMV, more popularly know these days as Mack the Knife, here by Bobby Darin).  That opening prologue is a ballad on murder, rape and more.  The Darin rendition, which even Frank Sinatra indicated was the definitive version, used a 1933 American re-write (although other sources say 1976):

Oh the shark has pretty teeth dear,

And he shows them pearly white

Just a jack-knife has Macheath dear

And he keeps it out of sight.

Here is Lotte Lenya singing DMVMV.  She sort of looks like Carol Burnett, and kind of sings like her, too.  Lenya won a Tony in 1956 for her same role as Jenny in an Off-Broadway version for  The Threepenny Opera, the only time a non-Broadway show won such an award.  The cast included Bea Arthur and John Astin.  Six years later she was nominated for an Academy Award in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961).  If you are fans of Vivien Leigh, a young Warren Beatty and Cleo Laine, this is a nice clip.

So back to Mack the Knife, I close with some odd offerings:

• Bill Haley and the Comets
• Kevin Spacey, playing Darin (not bad at all, actually sung by Spacey)
• The Doors
• Bing Crosby
• Louis Armstrong

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SIMPLE SOLUTIONS FOR HUMANITY'S MOST IMPORTANT PROBLEMS: #2 Peace

My SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity begins in Chapter 1 with Ending Crime and War Forever.  I never quite provided a simple solution for war, but my very first Huffington Post article suggested a mechanism:

     Well, Barack, We have a Problem...

This was a period when he was still contending with Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.  I followed with several more HuffPos on this general subject, one which deserves your click:

     The 10% Simple Solution to Peace

A little more than three years ago U.S. News and World Report's Debate Club featured nine specialists on Peace and War, eminent people like Congressman Ron Paul (left), who was a candidate for President at that time, and Congressman J. Randy Forbes (right), Chairman of the House Armed Services Readiness Committee.    To quote the introduction:

About Debate Club

A meeting of the sharpest minds on the day's most important topics, Debate Club brings in the best arguments and lets readers decide which is the most persuasive. Read the arguments, then vote.

Paul's entry was voted #1, I came in second, with Forbes way down at #8.  

I'll keep this posting short and sweet and totally ignore the encyclopedic offerings of greater minds over the past few millennia on how to attain peace.  Let me instead merely quote from my debate offering:

In my original HuffPo piece, "Well, Barack, We Have a Problem..., "I suggested that President Barack Obama go to the next G8 summit and pronounce a Gorbachev-like bombshell: America will reduce defense spending by 10 percent this coming year, and will continue to slice 10 percent every year if you all do the same. In just a very few years, military spending will be minimal and the world will be at a higher level of peace forever.

This is the 10 percent simple solution to peace. Before you make any inane comments, click on my various postings to appreciate that Russia is getting feeble, and China will also become old before it gets rich. The United States will be supreme for a long time to come, and those war funds can better be applied to help our country, cure planet earth, and enhance the fate of humanity.

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FUTURE PATHWAYS FOR BATTERIES AND BIOFUELS

The state of commercial technology seems to be fermentation of biomass into ethanol and the lithium-ion battery.  Today, I will report on two possible future breakthroughs showing potential for significantly improving the application of biofuels and batteries.

First, a buzz about a microbe that is 14 times better than anything else.  This enzyme was announced in 2013, but not with so much fanfare.  Further, enzyme CelA might not actually be 14 times better.  Isolated from the left bacterium Caldicellosiruptor bescii, it is thermophilic (high temperature) and was in 1990 originally found in a geothermal heated pool in Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia.  But it is true that CelA is "much" more effective than the current workhorse, Cel7A.  Another plus is that the operation occurs at rather high fermentation temperatures, up to 197 F, thus placing the mixture closer to boiling point to separate the produced biofuel.  More so, there are signs that pre-treatment can be simplified with this particular enzyme.

It should be noted that this "discovery" is yet in the early research stage, and commercialization could well be a decade or more in the future.  And, finally, there is the matter of cost.  Methanol, for example, is cheapest when produced from natural gas.  To remove fossil fuels from the equation, methanol from gasification of biomass and catalysis is much quicker and cheaper than any fermentation technology.  Yet, if an enzyme can hasten the conversion ten times faster, that could be a game-changer.

Biofuels Digest had another article entitled, The 41 Weirdest Things Ever Used to Make Biofuels.    I won't go into vivid detail, you can click on that link and read the posting, but here are just a few feedstocks mentioned:  Prince Charles' leftover wine, liposuction fat, bunnies....  I might add that Caldicellulosinuptor bescii made this list.

I've been intrigued with a concept called the flow battery, which is similar to a fuel cell, where the electrolyte (ionic material) is not a solid, but a liquid, and stored outside the device.  Charging is rapid and the system is known for long lifetimes.  This concept seems ideal for utility applications, that is, storage and peaking. The negatives include the need for pumps, sensors and secondary vessels.  The energy densities also tend to be low.

Renewable Energy World reported on the use of Imergy's vanadium-flow battery storage system at a Slovenian Alps restaurant renowned for its donuts.  The return on investment seems attractive, so commercialization for specific applications might well already be here.  In fact, hundreds of these packages are already being used in  India, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and, even Hawaii.

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THE GREAT FOIE GRAS CONTROVERSY

Gastronomists love foie gras, pronounced fwa gwa.  I belong to Chaine des Rotisseurs, and every major dinner has featured goose liver, but sometime the much cheaper duck liver.  Mind you, I hate...despise, avoid all other kinds of liver, but foie gras is almost heavenly.  

Do I feel guilty?  Well, yes.  But life is full of contradictions.  In my quest to save Planet Earth and Humanity I travel a lot, so my carbon footprint is atrociously high.  If we can tolerate the outright butchering of animals and without much remorse eat steak, chicken salad and the like, it seems morally pretentious to carp on the feeding process for a bird people consume anyway.

Organizations such as the Humane Society, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and similar organizations throughout the world have filed suit contending that force-feeding pellets of corn to these fowl is cruel and inhumane.  A few producers have argued that their geese and ducks come to get fed and they do it gently and humanely, with the feeding only lasting for 3 seconds.

Here is the global status:

• Blue:  Production banned.
• Red:  Main production countries.
• Argentina:  production is illegal.
• Europe:  five producing countries, but importation okay anywhere.
• India:  illegal to import.
• Israel:  mixed, but laws not enforced.
• California:  On 7 January 2015 judge reversed the ban, citing that this was a federal responsibility.
• Chicago:  Mayor Richard Daley thought the issue was silly, so the City Council in 2008 overturned a 2-year ban.
• San Diego:  85% favor a ban, but unclear what is the true status of any ban.

The Gascony region of France produces 80% of the world foie gras supply.  Only 1.4% is produced in the U.S., with New York the most prominent. 

There is another reason to avoid foie gras:  health.  It is reported that foie gras should not be consumed by those who have Alzheimer's, rheumatoid arthritis, type 2 diabetes and any amyloid-related disease.  Yet, while the Gascony residents had a diet heavy in saturated fat, there was a lower rate of heart disease.  The conclusion was that foie must have been the reason.  In any case, almost anything in moderation cannot really hurt that much.  I know I consume less than a pound a year of this controversial delicacy.

Which leads to cost.  You can order from Amazon a wide variety of foie gras for between $50 and $100 per pound.  This 1/3 pound tin of goose liver block with truffles cost $35.  I've paid more than $50/pound for chu-toro, a fatty blue fin tuna, and see in Japanese markets wagyu beef for $250/pound, so foie gras is not outrageous in cost.  White truffles from Italy, incidentally, that other epicurean treat, can be had for $168-$658/ounce, or up to $10,528/pound, and it doesn't look all that appetizing.  This 2.86 pound white truffle was purchased by Stanley Ho of Hong Kong for $417,200, or $146,000/pound:

For the record, that is Angela Leong, Ho's fourth wife.

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WHAT WAS INVENTED FIRST: GOD, FIRE, FARMING, THE WHEEL OR A BRIDGE?

I have only two simple solutions left for Humanity's greatest problems, so I thought I'd go back in time and enlighten you on Humanity's greatest inventions.  My final solution will be for death/Heaven, so this posting could be looked upon as a prelude to that ultimate.  Asked which is the oldest invention of Man--God, fire, farming, wheel or bridge--you might find surprise with the answer.

Let me begin with, perhaps, the most important creation of Humanity:  GOD.  For the more conventional (worldwide, the non-religious range from 10%-20%, with at least one survey showing that 84% do believe in God), hang with me here for a while, and I look forward to your comments.  First, I can't imagine chimpanzees inventing God.  Somewhere between them and Homo sapiens, some ancestor of us came up with this brilliant idea, some supreme power, to keep people honest.  

The nuclear (mother/father/children) family surely came at the very beginning, or we wouldn't be here.  At some point, extended families formed, where tasks were shared and security could be maximized.  Early societies ranged from 60 to 100, and were mobile, because there was a limit to the commons--they ate and hunted to a point of decimation and had to move on.  I suspect it was during this period that a leader invented God to keep the community together.  

But when? Primates came 85 million years ago, and our Hominoid chain diverged perhaps 15-20 million years ago.  It is said that orangutans actually branched off later, maybe 14 million years ago.  Donald Johanson (right) unearthed Lucy, the first human link, who was 3.2 million years old.  The earliest Homo genus, Homo habilis, evolved around 2.3 million years ago.  

Our brains grew and two pathways, Homo erectus and Homo ergaster, finally began to leave Africa around 1.5 million years ago.  Chances are high that our early roots did not look like Raquel Welch, for anatomically modern Homo sapiens only evolved probably around 200,000 years ago, but maybe as recently as 50,000 years.   Supervolcano Toba erupted around 75,000 BC, nearly bringing an end to human life, for there was a 6-10 year long winter due to the particulates blocking sunlight.  Plus, there followed a millennium long cooling period.  

Then again, maybe not, for the state of pre-archeology is that there are always opposing points of view, not unlike fundamental science today.   I say only because it takes light 100,000 years just to pass from one end of our Milky Way galaxy to the other end, and there are probably several hundred billion galaxies in our Universe.

My wild guess, then, is that God was invented by some Homo genus community one or two million years ago.  In any case, religion and a watchful God (in their minds) kept these bands of wandering Homo species together in a manner that could well have been a pivotal reason why we are here today.  Where did I find this theory?  I just made it up, but there are books on this subject.

There is very little question that fire was discovered before the wheel was invented.  Almost surely before God, some early ancestor saw the remains of a forest fire, found a cooked bird or bear, ate it, and thought, wow, this tastes okay.  It took another bit of genius to actually create fire, but that was inevitable after that accident.  

Again the surmisals are all over the map, but 1.8 million years ago seems reasonable, a contention by Richard Wangham in his book Catching Fire.

More recently, some more definitive evidence revealed that Homo erectus a million years ago invented fire in South Africa.  Why didn't they, then, dominate?  Here is the Wonderwerk Cave where cooking might have occurred:

Anyway, moving on, at some point these hunting/gathering societies finally figured out something called farming, and, who knows, it might have been around this period that the concept of God became prominent, for a stable community can both solidify the worth of religion and provide recorded evidence.  Most history books seem to say that the Fertile Crescent (Middle East countries with rivers, of what is now Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Syria, etc.) started farming around 10,000 BC.  However, the BBC reported that Stone age people in Israel collected seeds of wild grasses around 21,000 BC.  

But more so, there is a human body with rice, maize and salt embedded in rock which dates back to 30,5000 BC in  Sri Lanka.  Critical mass contagion could well have also spurred the beginning of a Deity. Hinduism is the oldest religion, said to have begun around 2000 BC.  There are signs that the roots of Hindu could well have come from Sri Lanka.  The cradle of civilization might now need to be shifted from the Middle East to this largely historically ignored spot on our globe, for this is where the concept of farming and a Supreme Being might well have begun.

Wheels were definitely a Homo sapien invention, for most scholars pinpoint a wooden-wheel for a vehicle in  Slovenia from 3150 BC (left), with a wooden Mesopotamian wooden wheel (right) for a potter, from around 3500 BC.  The oldest in China was only 2000 BC. Certainly, too, there were various potter's wheels around 4500 BC and other forms of wooden wheels as far back as 6500 BC. 

Let me end with a NASA photo showing a man-made bridge between India and Sri Lanka that is said to be 1.75 million years old, or as aged as any of the above:

Should this technological marvel be true, that would seal Sri Lanka as the genesis of humanity.  However, modern day technology might have mis-seen a myth, as retorted The Times of India.  So perhaps God came before fire or farming or the wheel or any bridge.  On the other hand, this intriguing prospect is why Sir Arthur C. Clarke (2001, the entire 124 minute movie if you click on it, but with a Pink Floyd perspective, which begins, appropriately enough, with the Dawn of Pre-Humanity) moved to Ceylon (independence came in 1948, but the name change to Sri Lanka occurred in 1972) in 1956 (some say this was because he was gay or a pedophile).  He passed away in 2008.  

Remarkably, just before his death, a massive gamma-ray burst reached Planet Earth after a 7.5 billion year journey as the furthest object that has been seen with the naked eye.  The world awaits 2038 when his archives will be published.

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THE MERRY WIDOW

Composed by Austro-Hungarian Franz Lehar in 1905 as Die Lustige Witwe (provides a short introduction to this light opera plot, and listen to a two hour CD featuring Pacido Domingo), this light opera is better known as The Merry Widow (TMW, watch Placido Domingo in this 2011 Toronto version, about 2.5 hours long).  Here is a 1996 three hour show by the New York City Opera, and if you're really into TMW, a full 1.5 hours with Beverley Sills.

There have been five TMW films, with my favorite the 1934 production with Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette Macdonald.  The score includes:

• Vilja Song
• You'll Find Me at Maxim's
• Girls! Girls! Girls!
• Merry Widow Waltz

Somehow, the music from the 1958 Gigi sounds awfully similar to TMW.  However, I could not find any link between the two, aside from the fact that Paris was the backdrop and Maurice Chevalier starred in both.

Anyway, all the above was to set the stage for the three choices I had yesterday:

• Watch for FREE at 15 Craigside, Warrior, a 2011 film about mixed martial arts, gaining 83% reviewers and 92% audience ratings from Rotten Tomatoes, where Nick Nolte got an academy award nomination.  The commute is down the elevator and popcorn is served free.
• Listen to The Merry Widow on my PBS radio station, again for FREE, of the Metropolitan Opera live transmission.  I thus could make my own popcorn, and with a glass of Chardonnay.

• Drive to the Regal Dole Cannery Stadium to watch this live performance.  Turns out the cost was $22 for the ticket, $7 for an Icee, and only because at the box office I got a coupon for a FREE small bag of popcorn, saving $6.25.  Cheap, relative to flying to New York City and paying $50-$300 for just a seat, if any might be available.  This same assemblage will perform four more times this month.

This Metropolitan Opera production of The Merry Widow features Renee Fleming (sure you remember her--she sang the National Anthem at the Super Bowl last year) and Nathan Gunn:

Kelli O'Hara (she was Nellie Forbush in Lincoln Center's South Pacific which I attended in 2010)  as Valencienne was good casting.  She and Fleming (left) look like twins, but they have totally different bodies. I was astonished that the largest theater in the complex was almost entirely full, so I had to sit in the front row, and while you get enveloped by the screen, this is something I can't recommend, for my neck got strained just trying to look up.  To summarize:

• The average age of the audience was older than me.
• Here is a clip of the rehearsal period for this show.
• They had subtitles in English.  For a while I couldn't quite understand what language was being sung, but finally figured out it was English.  So why?  Anyway, when they spoke French, the subtitles were in French.  Makes little sense to me.

• The whole program lasted just about 3 hours, with one intermission, where the two  sweating stars were interviewed.  It was also interesting to watch the crew change the scenery.  A lot of people and considerable technology.
• The audience in the theater clapped like they were there at that New York City performance.

• The production was grand, costumed and wonderful.  The sound system was excellent.
• I also had a backstage pass via the magic of communication technology.
• No one eats popcorn at the Met Opera, and they dress up too much.  By the way, I improved my Pina Colada ICEE with a small bottle of rum.

• Actually, the telecast wasn't live, as it was performed at 12:55 EST that day, which would have been 7:55 AM Hawaii time.  So it was delayed to 12:55 PM here.
• I had previously been to University of Hawaii football games in movie theaters, and it was nice not to have to scrounge for parking and fight the crowd trying to get home.  Similarly, this operatta, or more, long light opera, shared with an appreciative crowd, was immensely enjoyable.

In two weeks this theater will show the next Metropolitan Opera presentation, a live telecast of Les Contes d'Hoffmann, or The Tales of Hoffmann (based on three short stories by E.T.A Hoffmann), composed by Jacques Offenbach in 1881.  You all know The Barcarolle, here a 1988 Met performance.

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