Umnak Island, 19 October 1944 -- "Tonight is symphony night"

My Nunny...

I found this in “The Pacific Ocean” by Felix Riesenberg. It is a quote from Conrad:

“If you would know the age of the earth, look upon the sea in a storm. The grayness of the whole immense surface, the wind furrows up the faces of the waves, the great masses of foam, tossed about and waving, like matted white locks, give to the sea in a gale an appearance of hoary age, lusterless, dull, without gleams, as though it had been created before life itself.”

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Tonight is symphony night for the local radio station and we had a bit of Ravel, Tschkai—wow, really off the Slavic beam tonight, and the Schubert Second Symphony. I told you before, didn’t I, that the second movement of the Schubert Second is the little dance the Offenbach lifted for Bluebeard? It was extremely pleasant to listing to in a quiet hut and it made up for the sleep I didn’t get. ...

Some of the boys on the swing shift have started a rather nice custom. They come to the maintenance shop during graveyard to write their letters and they bring a portable phonograph and records. Tonight I heard the Bruch concerto and the Rachmaninoff concerto while working, which is a nice way to spend the evening. Incidentally the Rachmaninoff is that one with the cover which shows a pair of peasants and a Kremlin-like building against a Chirico background. Our Corsican troubadour doodled his initials all over the cover. He also drew some fish and a phallic symbol.

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M