Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, badger2305.

Birgit Nilsson Dies

Swedish Soprano Birgit Nilsson Dies
Filed at 9:51 a.m. ET

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Birgit Nilsson, whose prodigious voice, unrivaled stamina and thrilling high notes made her the greatest Wagnerian soprano of the post-World War II era, has died. She was 87.

I heard her live only once in Munich. I stood in line to buy the tickets in advance (standing room) and stood with a friend through the throes of a Wagner opera which is quite a span of time. It too required ''Comfortable shoes.''

More IKEA

Just in case that piece from IKEA was not under your tree, candle holder, or chimney, their sale ends Monday, January 16th.
10% - 50% off select furntiure and accessories throughout the store. (I'm not sure if this includes meatballs...)

This scandihoovian moment brought to you for no particular reason by lsanderson's 3/4 Swedish heritage.

Computer too loud?

Strip Out The Fans, Add 8 Gallons of Cooking Oil

Heck, you might even be able to fry some French fries in it!

Help Wanted

Dear Larry,

It's hard to believe, but we're less than two months away from precinct caucuses! On March 7, 2006, at 7:00 p.m., DFLers all around the state will meet to discuss issues that are important to them and elect delegates to their local conventions. Part of the preparation for precinct caucuses involves the assembly of large boxes of caucus resources. We need as much help as we can get to put these boxes together and fill them with caucus materials! This is a huge project!

We are scheduling five volunteer days for people to come in to the DFL Headquarters at 255 East Plato Blvd in St. Paul to help us out. If you can come in for part or all of one or more of the following shifts, please call us at 651-251-6313 or e-mail fieldintern@dfl.org to sign up.

Thursday, January 12th: 1-4 pm, 4-8 pm
Friday, January 13th: 10 am - 1 pm, 1-4 pm
Saturday, January 14th: 10 am - 1 pm, 1-4 pm
Sunday, January 15th: 10 am - 1 pm, 1-4 pm
Monday, January 16th (Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day): 10 am - 1 pm, 1-4 pm, 4-8 pm

You are welcome to join us for the whole volunteer day or for however long you're available. Just let us know when you reply what times you're free to help.

For questions or to be scheduled, please e-mail fieldintern@dfl.org or call 651-251-6313. Thanks so much for your help and we hope to see you there!

Donna Cassutt, Associate Chair
Minnesota DFL

Obit - Birgit Nilsson

Birgit Nilsson, Soprano Legend Who Tamed Wagner, Dies at 87
By BERNARD HOLLAND

Birgit Nilsson, the Swedish soprano with a voice of impeccable trueness and impregnable stamina, died on Dec. 25 in Vastra Karup, the village where she was born, the Stockholm newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reported yesterday. She was 87.

A funeral was held yesterday at a church in her town, the presiding vicar, Fredrik Westerlund, told The Associated Press.

Ms. Nilsson made so strong an imprint on a number of roles that her name came to be identified with a repertory, the "Nilsson repertory," and it was a broad one. She sang the operas of Richard Strauss and made a specialty of Puccini's "Turandot," but it was Wagner who served her career and whom she served as no other soprano since the days of Kirsten Flagstad.

A big, blunt woman with a wicked sense of humor, Ms. Nilsson brooked no interference from Wagner's powerful and eventful orchestra writing. When she sang Isolde or Brünnhilde, her voice pierced through and climbed above it. Her performances took on more pathos as the years went by, but one remembers her sound more for its muscularity, accuracy and sheer joy of singing under the most trying circumstances.

Her long career at the Bayreuth Festival and her immersion in Wagner in general, began in the mid-1950's. No dramatic soprano truly approached her stature thereafter, and in the roles of Isolde, Brünnhilde and Sieglinde, she began her stately 30-year procession around the opera houses of the world. Her United States debut was in San Francisco in 1956. Three years later she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera, singing Isolde under Karl Böhm, and some listeners treasure the memory of that performance as much as they do her live recording of the role from Bayreuth in 1966, also under Böhm. The exuberant review of her first Met performance appeared on the front page of The New York Times on Dec. 19, 1959, under the headline, "Birgit Nilsson as Isolde Flashes Like New Star in 'Met' Heavens."

Playing opposite Karl Liebl as Tristan, Howard Taubman wrote, "she dominated the stage and the performance." ...

"Stay close to the earth. Then when you fall down, it won't hurt so much."