Sunday, April 24, 2011
Lawrence: Social Security
Lawrence: Social Security: "Alan Simpson, Senator from Wyoming , Co-Chair of Obama's deficit commission, calls senior citizens the Greediest Generation as h..."
Social Security
Alan Simpson, Senator from Wyoming , Co-Chair of Obama's deficit commission, calls senior citizens the Greediest Generation as he compared "Social Security" to a Milk Cow with 310 million teats.
August, 2010.
Here's a response in a letter from a unknown fellow in Montana ...
I think he is a little ticked off! He also tells it like it is !
"Hey Alan, let's get a few things straight..
1. As a career politician, you have been on the public dole for FIFTY YEARS.
2. I have been paying Social Security taxes for 48 YEARS (since I was 15 years old. I am now 63).
3 My Social Security payments, and those of millions of other Americans, were safely tucked away in an interest bearing account for decades until you political pukes decided to raid the account and give OUR money to a bunch of zero ambition losers in return for votes, thus
bankrupting the system and turning Social Security into a Ponzi scheme that would have made Bernie Madoff proud.
4. Recently, just like Lucy & Charlie Brown, you and your ilk pulled the proverbial football away from millions of American seniors nearing retirement and moved the goalposts for full retirement from age 65 to age 67. NOW, you and your shill commission is proposing to move the goalposts YET AGAIN.
5 I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying into Medicare from Day One, and now you morons propose to change the rules of the game. Why? Because you idiots mismanaged other parts of the economy to such an extent that you need to steal money from Medicare to pay the bills.
6. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying income taxes our entire lives, and now you propose to increase our taxes yet again. Why?
Because you incompetent bastards spent our money so profligately that you just kept on spending even after you ran out of money. Now, you come to the American taxpayers and say you need more to pay off YOUR debt.
To add insult to injury, you label us "greedy" for calling "bullshit" on your incompetence. Well, Captain Bullshit, I have a few questions for YOU.
1. How much money have you earned from the American taxpayers during your pathetic 50-year political career?
2. At what age did you retire from your pathetic political career, and how much are you receiving in annual retirement benefits from the
3. How much do you pay for YOUR government provided health insurance?
4. What cuts in YOUR retirement and healthcare benefits are you proposing in your disgusting deficit reduction proposal, or, as usual, have you exempted yourself and your political cronies?
It is you, Captain Bullshit, and your political co-conspirators called Congress who are the "greedy" ones. It is you and your fellow nutcases who have bankrupted America and stolen the American dream from millions of loyal, patriotic taxpayers. And for what? Votes. That's right, sir. You and yours have bankrupted America for the sole purpose of advancing your pathetic political careers. You know it, we know it, and you know that we know it. And you can take that to the bank, you miserable son of a bitch .
If you like the way things are in America , delete this. If you agree with what a fellow Montana citizen says, PASS IT ON
What’s your opinion on this?
Please leave a comment!
I hope you Enjoyed this article.
Lawrence Rinke
http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
Takes the time to check out what Worldprofit offers. You not only learn extensively how to market your business, but how to market yourself as well.
For Leaving a comment you will get
When YOU click and fill the form on the next page.
100% Give Away: Software Packages To Generate Massive Waves Of Traffic To Your Website
http://www.ActionEqualsProfit.com/?rd=uv82n09j
August, 2010.
Here's a response in a letter from a unknown fellow in Montana ...
I think he is a little ticked off! He also tells it like it is !
"Hey Alan, let's get a few things straight..
1. As a career politician, you have been on the public dole for FIFTY YEARS.
2. I have been paying Social Security taxes for 48 YEARS (since I was 15 years old. I am now 63).
3 My Social Security payments, and those of millions of other Americans, were safely tucked away in an interest bearing account for decades until you political pukes decided to raid the account and give OUR money to a bunch of zero ambition losers in return for votes, thus
bankrupting the system and turning Social Security into a Ponzi scheme that would have made Bernie Madoff proud.
4. Recently, just like Lucy & Charlie Brown, you and your ilk pulled the proverbial football away from millions of American seniors nearing retirement and moved the goalposts for full retirement from age 65 to age 67. NOW, you and your shill commission is proposing to move the goalposts YET AGAIN.
5 I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying into Medicare from Day One, and now you morons propose to change the rules of the game. Why? Because you idiots mismanaged other parts of the economy to such an extent that you need to steal money from Medicare to pay the bills.
6. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying income taxes our entire lives, and now you propose to increase our taxes yet again. Why?
Because you incompetent bastards spent our money so profligately that you just kept on spending even after you ran out of money. Now, you come to the American taxpayers and say you need more to pay off YOUR debt.
To add insult to injury, you label us "greedy" for calling "bullshit" on your incompetence. Well, Captain Bullshit, I have a few questions for YOU.
1. How much money have you earned from the American taxpayers during your pathetic 50-year political career?
2. At what age did you retire from your pathetic political career, and how much are you receiving in annual retirement benefits from the
3. How much do you pay for YOUR government provided health insurance?
4. What cuts in YOUR retirement and healthcare benefits are you proposing in your disgusting deficit reduction proposal, or, as usual, have you exempted yourself and your political cronies?
It is you, Captain Bullshit, and your political co-conspirators called Congress who are the "greedy" ones. It is you and your fellow nutcases who have bankrupted America and stolen the American dream from millions of loyal, patriotic taxpayers. And for what? Votes. That's right, sir. You and yours have bankrupted America for the sole purpose of advancing your pathetic political careers. You know it, we know it, and you know that we know it. And you can take that to the bank, you miserable son of a bitch .
If you like the way things are in America , delete this. If you agree with what a fellow Montana citizen says, PASS IT ON
What’s your opinion on this?
Please leave a comment!
I hope you Enjoyed this article.
Lawrence Rinke
http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
Takes the time to check out what Worldprofit offers. You not only learn extensively how to market your business, but how to market yourself as well.
For Leaving a comment you will get
When YOU click and fill the form on the next page.
100% Give Away: Software Packages To Generate Massive Waves Of Traffic To Your Website
http://www.ActionEqualsProfit.com/?rd=uv82n09j
Lawrence: Opening night of Mozart's 'The Abduction from the...
Lawrence: Opening night of Mozart's 'The Abduction from the...: "Please read and enjoy our articles. Turn off the T.V. the radio, lock the door, and take the telephone off the hook . Give yourself a bit o..."
Opening night of Mozart's 'The Abduction from the Seraglio' in thepresence of His Imperial Majesty Joseph II. 16 July 1782. Burgtheater, Vienna.
Please read and enjoy our articles. Turn off the T.V. the radio, lock the door, and take the telephone off the hook . Give yourself a bit of quiet time to enjoy the full flavour of emotions, ideas, and inspirations you will get from these articles.
Come on in ActionEqualsprofit.com Meet and chat with the renowned Dr. Jeffrey Lant himself! He will be there at 2.15 PM EST most days,Saturday come 2 hrs. early and will be reading his latest article.
Call me at
310-618-8107
Confidential for YOU to get the 100% Give Away: Software Packages To Generate Massive Waves Of Traffic To Your Website
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBlbPw7WAqM
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Important note: To get into the mood for this article and, more importantly, this event, use any search engine and find the overture to "The:Abduction from the Seraglio". There are many fine recordings to choose from.
Readers: you are about to be ushered into one of the signature cultural events of human history: the opening night of "The Abduction from the Seraglio". You have arrived at the Burgtheater in Vienna, the cultural capital of Europe... You are in a state of high excitement and nervous, too. You are afraid that you will not be in your seat before the Emperor arrives; (why had the coachman not checked that wheel before?)... and that will never do.
Yes, His Imperial and Apostolic Majesty is even now on his way... for he, like you, has heard the buzz: this is Mozart, wonderful Mozart, sublime Mozart at his best. And the emperor, though an amateur, is a gifted musician, too. Is he aware that history is being made that night? Probably. But then wherever the Vicegerent of God Himself goes... history goes, too. That is what being a Hapsburg is all about... and a Mozart, too.
Some background.
The man, Joseph Benedikt August Johannes Anton Michael Adam, who became Emperor Joseph II in 1764, had a pedigree even longer than his name. Unfortunately, that did not prevent him being born under a cloud. For at the very moment of his birth (13 March 1741), the patrimony of his mother, Maria Theresa, was being sundered, pillaged, plundered by Prussia's King Frederick II who made the creation of mayhem his special talent. As a result, Joseph's inheritance shrank significantly. becoming less German, more Italian for his empire was both. He wanted vengeance... and Wolferl Mozart was the unlikely device. Just 25, he was, Joseph II was sure, precisely what was needed to show the world that Berlin was nothing more than an outpost of thieves and marauders whilst Vienna was... exalted, lofty. This was music as statecraft... and it was played andante non troppo.
For his weapon of choice, Joseph II was patron of the Nationalsingspiel, his pet project from 1778-1783. Its task was to perform works in the German language and make every German speaking person on earth realize that Vienna, magnificent Vienna, culture-loving Vienna was their true capital, never that cultural backwater, Berlin.
The messy beginning.
Mozart, a young man always in a hurray, wanted Vienna for his capital as much as the emperor did. And so, ever upward aspiring, Mozart befriended Gottlieb Stephanie, inspector of the Nationalsingspiel and set about the business of turning them into a means of glorifying... Mozart... whatever was necessary.
Relentlessly Mozart lobbied, ultimately impressing Count Rosenberg-Orsini, manager of the opera. The count was impressed enough to ask Steiphanie to find appropriate material for Mozart... and he did: pirating and then altering an earlier work by Bretzner. Bretzner complained long and loud. No one cared. The honor of the nation... the reputation of the emperor was at stake. Mozart got his libretto, and (so it happened) immortality.
But, first, came the work which even the most gifted must do; something the less gifted never quite understand. Most assuredly work precedes its benefits.
Mozart received the libretto (which he immediately started changing) in July, 1781. At his usual, how-can-he-do-it-so-fast breakneck pace, he wrote three major numbers in just two days. He thought he'd finish the entire opera, the first to be written in German (the job, remember, of Nationsingspiel) in just two months. But even sublime genius often needs more time...
As Mozart wrote, so he thought about just what he was doing. This letter to his father (13 October 1781) gives us an aperture to the creative process at work:
"I would say that in an opera the poetry must be altogether the obedient daughter of the music. Why are Italian comic operas popular everywhere -- in spite of miserable llibretti?... Because the music reigns supreme, and when one listens to it all else is forgotten." But he hadn't finished...
"An opera is sure of success when the plot is well worked out, the words written solely for the music and not shoved in here and there to suit some miserable rhyme... The best thing of all is when a good composer, who understands the stage and is talented enough to make sound suggestions, meets an able poet, that true phoenix; in that case, no fears need to be entertained as to the applause -- even of the ignorant."
Mozart, the supreme egotist, was of course writing about himself... for by now he had taken on all the necessary roles... the better to create a work of undiluted brilliance. Now the way was clear for Mozart to create a work that would take Vienna by storm and establish him as the ultimate artist of his age... and all the ages to come.
The man and his moment were ready... "The Abduction from the Seraglio" now began to emerge.
It is light hearted and frequently comic, inspired by contemporary interest in the Ottoman Empire, once Austria's menace, now the "sick man of Europe" ripe for the taking. The plot takes place in a seraglio, the harem where every delight and debauchery could be found; in short the very symbol of the irresponsible good life we all want.
Mozart delivered it... the action carried forward by spoken dialogue, punctuated by set numbers, including several of the most spectacular and difficult arias he would ever write. He was dazzling... innovative... and cheeky.
Joseph II came to check on the progress of his project. Mozart, of course, asked him how he liked it. The emperor supposedly said, "That is too fine for my ears -- there are too many notes." Mozart, protecting his baby, supposedly responded, "There are just as many notes as there should be." But the key word here is "supposedly" for the anecdote may be ben trovato, not truth. Joseph II, after all, was a musician himself; he knew how good Mozart really was.
And now he was on his imperial way to the premier of the work he threw down as a challenge, a gauntlet to his bete noir in Berlin, Frederick II. "We have Mozart as an ornament of our Court!" It was an insult, from one sovereign to another, certified by the raucous applause and huzzahs which resonated through the ornate Burgtheater the night of 16 July 1782. That applause has never stopped... nor will it ever.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also a noted historian and author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
What’s your opinion on this?
Please leave a comment!
I hope you Enjoyed this article.
Lawrence Rinke
YOU Can have yourself over 180 Articles on YOUR Blog
Call me at
310-618-8107
http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
Takes the time to check out what Worldprofit offers. You not only learn extensively how to market your business, but how to market yourself as well.
For Leaving a comment you will get
When YOU click and fill the form on the next page.
100% Give Away: Software Packages To Generate Massive Waves Of Traffic To Your Website
http://www.ActionEqualsProfit.com/?rd=uv82n09j
Come on in ActionEqualsprofit.com Meet and chat with the renowned Dr. Jeffrey Lant himself! He will be there at 2.15 PM EST most days,Saturday come 2 hrs. early and will be reading his latest article.
Call me at
310-618-8107
Confidential for YOU to get the 100% Give Away: Software Packages To Generate Massive Waves Of Traffic To Your Website
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBlbPw7WAqM
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Important note: To get into the mood for this article and, more importantly, this event, use any search engine and find the overture to "The:Abduction from the Seraglio". There are many fine recordings to choose from.
Readers: you are about to be ushered into one of the signature cultural events of human history: the opening night of "The Abduction from the Seraglio". You have arrived at the Burgtheater in Vienna, the cultural capital of Europe... You are in a state of high excitement and nervous, too. You are afraid that you will not be in your seat before the Emperor arrives; (why had the coachman not checked that wheel before?)... and that will never do.
Yes, His Imperial and Apostolic Majesty is even now on his way... for he, like you, has heard the buzz: this is Mozart, wonderful Mozart, sublime Mozart at his best. And the emperor, though an amateur, is a gifted musician, too. Is he aware that history is being made that night? Probably. But then wherever the Vicegerent of God Himself goes... history goes, too. That is what being a Hapsburg is all about... and a Mozart, too.
Some background.
The man, Joseph Benedikt August Johannes Anton Michael Adam, who became Emperor Joseph II in 1764, had a pedigree even longer than his name. Unfortunately, that did not prevent him being born under a cloud. For at the very moment of his birth (13 March 1741), the patrimony of his mother, Maria Theresa, was being sundered, pillaged, plundered by Prussia's King Frederick II who made the creation of mayhem his special talent. As a result, Joseph's inheritance shrank significantly. becoming less German, more Italian for his empire was both. He wanted vengeance... and Wolferl Mozart was the unlikely device. Just 25, he was, Joseph II was sure, precisely what was needed to show the world that Berlin was nothing more than an outpost of thieves and marauders whilst Vienna was... exalted, lofty. This was music as statecraft... and it was played andante non troppo.
For his weapon of choice, Joseph II was patron of the Nationalsingspiel, his pet project from 1778-1783. Its task was to perform works in the German language and make every German speaking person on earth realize that Vienna, magnificent Vienna, culture-loving Vienna was their true capital, never that cultural backwater, Berlin.
The messy beginning.
Mozart, a young man always in a hurray, wanted Vienna for his capital as much as the emperor did. And so, ever upward aspiring, Mozart befriended Gottlieb Stephanie, inspector of the Nationalsingspiel and set about the business of turning them into a means of glorifying... Mozart... whatever was necessary.
Relentlessly Mozart lobbied, ultimately impressing Count Rosenberg-Orsini, manager of the opera. The count was impressed enough to ask Steiphanie to find appropriate material for Mozart... and he did: pirating and then altering an earlier work by Bretzner. Bretzner complained long and loud. No one cared. The honor of the nation... the reputation of the emperor was at stake. Mozart got his libretto, and (so it happened) immortality.
But, first, came the work which even the most gifted must do; something the less gifted never quite understand. Most assuredly work precedes its benefits.
Mozart received the libretto (which he immediately started changing) in July, 1781. At his usual, how-can-he-do-it-so-fast breakneck pace, he wrote three major numbers in just two days. He thought he'd finish the entire opera, the first to be written in German (the job, remember, of Nationsingspiel) in just two months. But even sublime genius often needs more time...
As Mozart wrote, so he thought about just what he was doing. This letter to his father (13 October 1781) gives us an aperture to the creative process at work:
"I would say that in an opera the poetry must be altogether the obedient daughter of the music. Why are Italian comic operas popular everywhere -- in spite of miserable llibretti?... Because the music reigns supreme, and when one listens to it all else is forgotten." But he hadn't finished...
"An opera is sure of success when the plot is well worked out, the words written solely for the music and not shoved in here and there to suit some miserable rhyme... The best thing of all is when a good composer, who understands the stage and is talented enough to make sound suggestions, meets an able poet, that true phoenix; in that case, no fears need to be entertained as to the applause -- even of the ignorant."
Mozart, the supreme egotist, was of course writing about himself... for by now he had taken on all the necessary roles... the better to create a work of undiluted brilliance. Now the way was clear for Mozart to create a work that would take Vienna by storm and establish him as the ultimate artist of his age... and all the ages to come.
The man and his moment were ready... "The Abduction from the Seraglio" now began to emerge.
It is light hearted and frequently comic, inspired by contemporary interest in the Ottoman Empire, once Austria's menace, now the "sick man of Europe" ripe for the taking. The plot takes place in a seraglio, the harem where every delight and debauchery could be found; in short the very symbol of the irresponsible good life we all want.
Mozart delivered it... the action carried forward by spoken dialogue, punctuated by set numbers, including several of the most spectacular and difficult arias he would ever write. He was dazzling... innovative... and cheeky.
Joseph II came to check on the progress of his project. Mozart, of course, asked him how he liked it. The emperor supposedly said, "That is too fine for my ears -- there are too many notes." Mozart, protecting his baby, supposedly responded, "There are just as many notes as there should be." But the key word here is "supposedly" for the anecdote may be ben trovato, not truth. Joseph II, after all, was a musician himself; he knew how good Mozart really was.
And now he was on his imperial way to the premier of the work he threw down as a challenge, a gauntlet to his bete noir in Berlin, Frederick II. "We have Mozart as an ornament of our Court!" It was an insult, from one sovereign to another, certified by the raucous applause and huzzahs which resonated through the ornate Burgtheater the night of 16 July 1782. That applause has never stopped... nor will it ever.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also a noted historian and author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
What’s your opinion on this?
Please leave a comment!
I hope you Enjoyed this article.
Lawrence Rinke
YOU Can have yourself over 180 Articles on YOUR Blog
Call me at
310-618-8107
http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
Takes the time to check out what Worldprofit offers. You not only learn extensively how to market your business, but how to market yourself as well.
For Leaving a comment you will get
When YOU click and fill the form on the next page.
100% Give Away: Software Packages To Generate Massive Waves Of Traffic To Your Website
http://www.ActionEqualsProfit.com/?rd=uv82n09j
Lawrence: 'And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all h...
Lawrence: 'And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all h...: "Please read and enjoy our articles. Turn off the T.V. the radio, lock the door, and take the telephone off the hook . Give yourself a bit o..."
Lawrence: Thoughts upon the latest acquisition to my collect...
Lawrence: Thoughts upon the latest acquisition to my collect...: "Please read and enjoy our articles. Turn off the T.V. the radio, lock the door, and take the telephone off the hook . Give yourself a bit o..."
Thoughts upon the latest acquisition to my collection, a portrait of Joseph II, emperor of Austria, patron of Mozart.
Please read and enjoy our articles. Turn off the T.V. the radio, lock the door, and take the telephone off the hook . Give yourself a bit of quiet time to enjoy the full flavour of emotions, ideas, and inspirations you will get from these articles.
Come on in ActionEqualsprofit.com Meet and chat with the renowned Dr. Jeffrey Lant himself! He will be there at 2.15 PM EST most days,Saturday come 2 hrs. early and will be reading his latest article.
Call me at
310-618-8107
Confidential for YOU to get the 100% Give Away: Software Packages To Generate Massive Waves Of Traffic To Your Website
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBlbPw7WAqM
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
I am now at the stage of life and collecting where I am looking for quite specific things. These things must either fill a gap in my collection or expand the collection in a new way, but related to what it already contains.
Items must also have the undeniable "wow" factor, the je ne sais quoi which is so hard to explain in words but so easy to see in person.
Oh, yes, one more thing: the price must be, if not a bargain, then most attractive, so that one can justify, yet again, exceeding one's (always too meager) budget.
Imperial Hapsburg portrait.
My latest acquisition, a fine portrait of Austrian emperor Joseph II by Josef Hickel, fills all these criteria, but for the price, for I admit I did exceed my budget. I am chagrined, of course, but realistic. The auction market which has been so attractive for purchasing during the great recession now over is now most healthy again. Just as I got bargain after bargain during that recession, so I must logically expect to pay more now that that once-in-a- lifetime buying opportunity has waned.
I expect you'd like to see this picture.
Go to the website of the auction house, Vienna's celebrated Dorotheum in business since 1707. You'll find it at dorotheum.com
Once there find the entry for the Alte Meister (Old Master) pictures sale, Part I, 13 April, 2011, lot 473. Be sure to click on the link that increases the size of what you see.
Here are the facts about this picture:
Josef Hickel (born Bohmisch-Leipa/Bohemia, 1736; died Vienna, 1807).
Portrait of Emperor Joseph II in a Chevaux Legers uniform, with the Order of the Golden Fleece set with brilliants; the Order of Maria Theresa and the Order of Saint Stephen. Oil on copper, oval 32 x 26 cm, framed.
About the painter and his picture.
Josef Hickel was court painter to Empress Maria Theresa, for whom he portrayed numerous high-ranking personalities. In 1769 he was appointed a member of the Florentine Academy. In Vienna, where he was likewise affiliated with the Academy, he was repeatedly commissioned to paint Emperor Joseph II and portrayed him at least five times. He left altogether more than 3,000 portraits. The present painting depends on contemporary English portraiture, a typical feature of which is the hint of a clouded sky in the background, so that the sovereign, in contract to the meticulous rendering of his appearance, is placed against the limitless expanse of space in order to augment his significance.
These are the bare facts. Now, as every serious collector knows, the real work begins.
Every collector is an historian and needs to act like one.
Understand that every picture, and every other collectible artifact for that matter, is an aperture into the past, a way of seeing and understanding days gone by while building a collection of significance.
My involvement with this lot began when I was in high school in the mid 1960s. There for the first time I became aware of Josef Hickel, but as celebrated artist father of a celebrated artist son, Karl Anton Hickel. Hickel fils' portrait of the English early 19th century statesman Charles James Fox was pictured in a book for a project about Fox's oratory. (Charles James Fox: A Man for the People, author Loren Reid, 1969) That picture was most assuredly not in the grand tradition. It showed Fox very much as his contemporaries saw him: overweight, unkempt, hat askew, undeniably the most charming and popular man of his age. This was a Fox captured by a Hickel. Hickel pere and fils thus became must-have names on my list of desirable acquisitions.
Do you have such a list of the desirable painters, silver smiths, seat furniture craftsmen etc that you would like to have? You must. These lists are invaluable as you consider new acquisitions and, for that matter, as you de-acquisition because you have outgrown various items, styles, and craftspeople.
Because this list is very important, you must start it as early as possible and constantly work to keep it up to date.
Why Joseph II? (1741-1790).
For hundreds of years the Hapsburgs, in all their various manifestations and titles, more often than not Holy Roman Emperors, guarded Europe from menacing Turks, Russians, Slavs, and more. They were an essential cog in the wheel of European civilization. Indeed, so important were the Austrian and their sprawling possessions that had they not have existed, they would have had to be invented.
Their capital was Vienna, and there one emperor after another left his signature on a metropolis fit for a monarchy sanctioned by God, Holy and Apostolic. Joseph II thus became the Vicegerent of God on earth... and he acted accordingly... not least in turning Vienna into the cultural capital of Europe. A bumptious lad with egregious ego, dripping with disdain for the less gifted, aimed for Vienna, too. His name was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (born 1756). He was a handful even for the emperor himself.
However, when I look at my imperial portrait, I see the man who gave Mozart his first great break: commissioning from him the first opera in the German language, the masterwork which came to be known as "The Abduction from the Seraglio." Mozart, whose genius was greater than the empire itself, was ungrateful, of course. That is the cross even emperors must bear.
By the way, I feel honor bound to set the record straight on two standing charges against Joseph II,
1) that he told Mozart that "The Abduction..." had too many notes, Mozart immediately telling His Imperial Majesty it had just the number it needed. This story is most likely apocryphal, though it is clear Joseph II never did figure out how to treat the potty-mouthed boy who wrote with the voice of God Himself.
2) Mozart was not dumped in a common pauper's grave. Joseph II, enlightened monarch, wished to cut the giant expenditures his subjects spent on unproductive funerals. He ordered all bodies be thrown in common pits to be covered with flesh-dissolving lime. And so it was with Mozart.
Now I am part of the story.
This fine picture, still in Vienna, willl shortly to go to my conservator Simon Gillespie in London. For over 20 years now, he has taken the merely excellent and with unsurpassed talent turned my pictures, all my pictures, into glorious History. Once they are here, I become part of the story... Improving, maintaining, preserving, augmenting. But make no mistake, they most assuredly own me, never the reverse. And I am proud, honored, content to have it so.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is an avid art collector and the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
What’s your opinion on this?
Please leave a comment!
I hope you Enjoyed this article.
Lawrence Rinke
YOU Can have yourself over 180 Articles on YOUR Blog
Call me at
310-618-8107
http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
Takes the time to check out what Worldprofit offers. You not only learn extensively how to market your business, but how to market yourself as well.
For Leaving a comment you will get
When YOU click and fill the form on the next page.
100% Give Away: Software Packages To Generate Massive Waves Of Traffic To Your Website
http://www.ActionEqualsProfit.com/?rd=uv82n09j
Come on in ActionEqualsprofit.com Meet and chat with the renowned Dr. Jeffrey Lant himself! He will be there at 2.15 PM EST most days,Saturday come 2 hrs. early and will be reading his latest article.
Call me at
310-618-8107
Confidential for YOU to get the 100% Give Away: Software Packages To Generate Massive Waves Of Traffic To Your Website
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBlbPw7WAqM
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
I am now at the stage of life and collecting where I am looking for quite specific things. These things must either fill a gap in my collection or expand the collection in a new way, but related to what it already contains.
Items must also have the undeniable "wow" factor, the je ne sais quoi which is so hard to explain in words but so easy to see in person.
Oh, yes, one more thing: the price must be, if not a bargain, then most attractive, so that one can justify, yet again, exceeding one's (always too meager) budget.
Imperial Hapsburg portrait.
My latest acquisition, a fine portrait of Austrian emperor Joseph II by Josef Hickel, fills all these criteria, but for the price, for I admit I did exceed my budget. I am chagrined, of course, but realistic. The auction market which has been so attractive for purchasing during the great recession now over is now most healthy again. Just as I got bargain after bargain during that recession, so I must logically expect to pay more now that that once-in-a- lifetime buying opportunity has waned.
I expect you'd like to see this picture.
Go to the website of the auction house, Vienna's celebrated Dorotheum in business since 1707. You'll find it at dorotheum.com
Once there find the entry for the Alte Meister (Old Master) pictures sale, Part I, 13 April, 2011, lot 473. Be sure to click on the link that increases the size of what you see.
Here are the facts about this picture:
Josef Hickel (born Bohmisch-Leipa/Bohemia, 1736; died Vienna, 1807).
Portrait of Emperor Joseph II in a Chevaux Legers uniform, with the Order of the Golden Fleece set with brilliants; the Order of Maria Theresa and the Order of Saint Stephen. Oil on copper, oval 32 x 26 cm, framed.
About the painter and his picture.
Josef Hickel was court painter to Empress Maria Theresa, for whom he portrayed numerous high-ranking personalities. In 1769 he was appointed a member of the Florentine Academy. In Vienna, where he was likewise affiliated with the Academy, he was repeatedly commissioned to paint Emperor Joseph II and portrayed him at least five times. He left altogether more than 3,000 portraits. The present painting depends on contemporary English portraiture, a typical feature of which is the hint of a clouded sky in the background, so that the sovereign, in contract to the meticulous rendering of his appearance, is placed against the limitless expanse of space in order to augment his significance.
These are the bare facts. Now, as every serious collector knows, the real work begins.
Every collector is an historian and needs to act like one.
Understand that every picture, and every other collectible artifact for that matter, is an aperture into the past, a way of seeing and understanding days gone by while building a collection of significance.
My involvement with this lot began when I was in high school in the mid 1960s. There for the first time I became aware of Josef Hickel, but as celebrated artist father of a celebrated artist son, Karl Anton Hickel. Hickel fils' portrait of the English early 19th century statesman Charles James Fox was pictured in a book for a project about Fox's oratory. (Charles James Fox: A Man for the People, author Loren Reid, 1969) That picture was most assuredly not in the grand tradition. It showed Fox very much as his contemporaries saw him: overweight, unkempt, hat askew, undeniably the most charming and popular man of his age. This was a Fox captured by a Hickel. Hickel pere and fils thus became must-have names on my list of desirable acquisitions.
Do you have such a list of the desirable painters, silver smiths, seat furniture craftsmen etc that you would like to have? You must. These lists are invaluable as you consider new acquisitions and, for that matter, as you de-acquisition because you have outgrown various items, styles, and craftspeople.
Because this list is very important, you must start it as early as possible and constantly work to keep it up to date.
Why Joseph II? (1741-1790).
For hundreds of years the Hapsburgs, in all their various manifestations and titles, more often than not Holy Roman Emperors, guarded Europe from menacing Turks, Russians, Slavs, and more. They were an essential cog in the wheel of European civilization. Indeed, so important were the Austrian and their sprawling possessions that had they not have existed, they would have had to be invented.
Their capital was Vienna, and there one emperor after another left his signature on a metropolis fit for a monarchy sanctioned by God, Holy and Apostolic. Joseph II thus became the Vicegerent of God on earth... and he acted accordingly... not least in turning Vienna into the cultural capital of Europe. A bumptious lad with egregious ego, dripping with disdain for the less gifted, aimed for Vienna, too. His name was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (born 1756). He was a handful even for the emperor himself.
However, when I look at my imperial portrait, I see the man who gave Mozart his first great break: commissioning from him the first opera in the German language, the masterwork which came to be known as "The Abduction from the Seraglio." Mozart, whose genius was greater than the empire itself, was ungrateful, of course. That is the cross even emperors must bear.
By the way, I feel honor bound to set the record straight on two standing charges against Joseph II,
1) that he told Mozart that "The Abduction..." had too many notes, Mozart immediately telling His Imperial Majesty it had just the number it needed. This story is most likely apocryphal, though it is clear Joseph II never did figure out how to treat the potty-mouthed boy who wrote with the voice of God Himself.
2) Mozart was not dumped in a common pauper's grave. Joseph II, enlightened monarch, wished to cut the giant expenditures his subjects spent on unproductive funerals. He ordered all bodies be thrown in common pits to be covered with flesh-dissolving lime. And so it was with Mozart.
Now I am part of the story.
This fine picture, still in Vienna, willl shortly to go to my conservator Simon Gillespie in London. For over 20 years now, he has taken the merely excellent and with unsurpassed talent turned my pictures, all my pictures, into glorious History. Once they are here, I become part of the story... Improving, maintaining, preserving, augmenting. But make no mistake, they most assuredly own me, never the reverse. And I am proud, honored, content to have it so.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is an avid art collector and the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
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