Merchimerch of the Steppes and Tamerlane/Turandot

So I found my battle cry to be a bit disappointing, especially since my weapon of choice is apparently a scalpel.

But I get to sprint out of the steppes, which makes me happy, since I just made a fabulous discovery for our conductor. Turandot, the opera by Puccini, is well known to be based off of Carlo Gozzi's play Turandotte. With some artful digging and noticing that Prince Calaf's father's name was Timur and that they were "Tartars" I found that Gozzi's play is based of translations of a silk road area fairy tale in the vein of 1001 Arabian Nights by Francois Petis de la Croix, who also translated The Life of Timur, a tale Amir Timur (known as Tamerlane in the West) that was written soon after his death. So Turandot is *not* a Chinese tale, it is a central asian/persian tale that came to Puccini by way of France and Mr Gozzi. I'm going to go get a copy of an English translation
of the De la Croix this morning.

What Is Your Battle Cry?

Yea, verily: Who is that, sprinting out of the steppes! It is Merchimerch, hands clutching an oversized scalpel! And with a vengeful grunt, her voice cometh: "For the love of beatings, I pillage faster than the super-flu!"

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Central Library

Wow, the LA Central Library is gorgeous!

I got to go there and pick up an 18th Century translation of the thousand and one days (yes its related to the 1001 Nights), because there is a version of Turandot in it (the French was the one that Gozzi used that I referenced in my previous post).

The building is beautiful and the people were so friendly. This month I have really learned how much I love public libraries - maybe because I don't associate them with all the pressures of the academy.

Then after dropping stuff of at my conductor's house and returning his library book to the N. Hollywood branch I stopped at trader joes for lunch. I have a new favorite thing!!! The Italian style chopped salad is full of protein and vegetables and it tastes so amazing - it has chicken and salami and cheese and lettuce and tomato and nice dressing I ate it ALL! I also got a tub of chocolate cat cookies for the office, so I am also full of chocolatey goodness.