From an ad for the Silva Method and my retort.

Face it, we live in dark, pressing times.
It seems that society and its various institutions seek to ensnare you, pull you down, and reduce you to a insignificant cog in the machine.
You flip open the newspapers, and there’s yet another case of corruption, injustice and horrific crime.
Even we ourselves are not spared. How many of us had suffered some form of violation and abuse?
How many of us have coped with the past with substance addiction, alcoholism and throwing ourselves into our work?
But maybe your way of dealing is not so dramatic. Yet, how many of us instead settle for bitterness, unforgiveness and pettiness? Allowing these demons to chain us up.
That is why we believe the madness… Content to live a life of mediocrity, so that we can be shielded from further pain.
That we are content to let our goals and dreams be wasted, as long as we can maintain some kind of order, even if it results in numbness and lifelessness.
Then, we see those that seem to live life on their own terms.
Face it, we live in dark, pressing times.
It seems that society and its various institutions seek to ensnare you, pull you down, and reduce you to a insignificant cog in the machine.
You flip open the newspapers, and there’s yet another case of corruption, injustice and horrific crime.
Those people are not without problems or a past. Some of them even come from broken and abusive backgrounds.
And yet, they are able to be successful in whatever they do. They are star players in the office. They are in the pink of health. They raise up unbelievably obedient kids within an unbelievably loving marriage.
It was as if the weight of this screwed-up world slides off them effortlessly, like TEFLON. There are no shackles, no confines, only complete and utter freedom!
So… why do some people have it all while others stumble and crawl?
The answer is mind-bogglingly simple…

IT’S ALL IN THE MIND!  [End of Silva ad]

From Dr. Jordan Richman:
So let's go on to the anonymous Katy-Did Polka Letter, "Amico" to the spectacular conductor, Louis Jullien , friend of  Hector Berlioz! In the good old days of 1853. 

The Anonymous Katydid Letter signed as "Amico."

Subsequently, The publisher of the musical composition called The Katy-did Polka, by Louis Jullien, appended the following letter to the sheet music:


The composition of the "Katy-did" Polka or Souvenirs of Castle Garden, was suggested to M. Jullien by the receipt of the following letter, which is given verbatim.


Staten Island, Oct. 3d (sic), 1853.


Mon Cher Jullien:--


Loving music as "an art divine" and regarding all its best exponents as my friends, are the only excuses I can offer for addressing you.

Although you have been a short time in America, I dare say you have already concluded that there is little of the romantic in our National character; and you will be right, for as a people, we are more given to the study of the real, than the ideal! We have no time to spare for day dreaming; and in this activity of mind, lies the secret of our greatness as a Nation, and the rapid progress of civilization by our means throughout the length and breadth of this vast continent.


Yet though accustomed from childhood to deal with stern realities, we appreciate the beautiful in ideal when it is placed before us. We love the poetry of nature, and we are ever alive to the harmonious and mystic grandeur of Creation, and its wondrous works. What then, if, after all, ours should be the true romantic admiration, instead of the morbid sensibility of a diseased imagination, which but too frequently assumes the name?


Fortune has dealt kindly by me, in blessing me with sufficient of "the goods the Gods sends (sic) us, "to give me leisure for study, enjoyment, and reflection. I live in a quiet cottage on this beautiful Island, and I am enough of a sailor to let my little boat scud before the wind without a fear of danger, whether it "blows high, or low." But I love best to glide over the bay when the sun is sinking to his fiery bed in the West, when not a sound is heard but the rippling of the water against the sides of my little craft, ere yet the pale moon has risen to silver the placid surface of the bay, or the myriads of insect life have commenced to make the night harmonious with the music of nature, when a "throbbing stillness" reigns during the short interval twixt day and night.

On such an evening a few short weeks since, I was out as usual, enjoying the delicious sensation of the cool sea breeze, after the oppressive heat of a sultry day, though there was scarcely sufficient air to cause a ripple on the mirror-like surface of the bay. The sail flapped idly against the mast, as I let my boat drift with the tide. The sun was setting in a blaze of fiery glory, brilliantly illuminating the western sky in gorgeous colors; now in the brightest scarlet of the Flamingo's wing, next deepening into purple of the richest intensity. A few moments more, and mysterious shadows flitted hither and thither, like long transparent draperies of varied hues appertaining to unearthly forms, which it required but little imagination to picture of the fabled Naiads of the deep.

Spell-bound I gazed upon a scene of such transcendant beauty, as gradually it faded from my view;--it is gone--sunset and twilight have deepened into night, as I gently glide under the walls of Castle Garden--and the moon is rising to give pale lustre to the pictures. Within the walls of the old fortress there is a flood of light, which, escaping through the time honored port holes, is scattered over the distant waters;--now comes the strains of your mighty orchestra swelling on the ear, as some majestic symphony is poured forth, now fading away like a sweet and melancholy echo, to the metre of a valse, only to arise again in harmonious grandeur, to the joyous measure of some sprightly quadrille.

This, thought I, is true enjoyment of music, for never does it sound so beautiful as when it comes floating over the moon-lit waters.

But hark! Nature's orchestra has commenced her mystic harmonies. There is a gentle murmur--a soft rustle of the leaves upon the fine old trees--and now hark! to the merry chirps of the cricket as he gives forth his mighty song in octave notes, to the accompaniment of the whirring drone of the Locust, and the thorough bass of the tree-toad and bull-frog,--whilst that most mysterious of all mysterious little creatures, "The Katy-did," keeps the truest Polka time with the continual asseveration and denial of something, known only to nature.

Katy did! Katy didn't asserted and denied the livelong night, and ever in that mystic number three, (who was Katy? and what did Katy do, that the entire lives of one insect race should be employed in proclaiming to us?) This is Nature's harmony, and is it not as perfect as any that was ever penned on music paper?

Mon cher Jullien, you are great in the art of descriptive musical painting, and I think you can embody my impressions of that evening. Will you attempt to interpret my badly expressed thoughts? but stay, there is yet a sequel.

Three or four nights since I was out again at sunset, but what a "change came over the spirit of my dream." The sky had a cold and wintry look; the sun sank to his rest no longer, surrounded by his gorgeous halo of glory; the very shadows were changed in form and hue, and wore a chill and ghostly aspect, as the wind whistled in sullen gusts; and the foam crowned waters of the bay, hurled themselves in angry fury against the Battery walls, or howling, swept the fallen leaves along the pathways to form a mound over the grave of the departed summer.


I listened in vain for the strains of your orchestra; you and it had vanished; there were lights in Castle Garden, and sounds came from it, the clink of the hammer 'giving note of preparation,' for the exhibition of the realities of man's genius and industry, and the banishment of the romance of the ideal. I listened for the song of the cricket, the drone of the locust, and the cry of the tree-frog; but I listened in vain. Summer was gone, they were silent,--where too was the Katy-did? * * * Dead!
                                    Amico

Pet Katydid

Blog Archive

Jullien Katy-did Varations

Grobe 1853 katy-did cover

A Cover for the Katy-did Polka

Jullien conducting a monster concert

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Castle Garden History

Castle Clinton or Fort Clinton was once a circular sandstone fort now located in Battery Park at the southern tip of New York City. It went from a beer garden, to an exhibition hall, to a theater, to the first immigration station before Ellis Island, to a popular public aquarium, and then finally to a museum.

Construction began in 1808 and was completed in 1811. The fort, known as West Battery (sometimes South-west Battery), was designed by architects John McComb Jr. and Jonathan Williams. It was built on a small artificial island just off shore.
West Battery was intended to complement the three-tiered Castle Williams (still extant) on Governors Island, which was East Battery, to defend New York City from British forces in the tensions that marked the run-up to the War of 1812, but never saw action in that or any war. Subsequent landfill expanded Battery Park, and incorporated the fort into the mainland of Manhattan Island.
As with all historic areas administered by the National Park Service, Castle Clinton National Monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.

• Castle Clinton today is approximately two blocks west of where Fort Amsterdam stood almost 400 years ago, when New York City was still known by the Dutch name New Amsterdam.
• West Battery was renamed Castle Clinton in 1815, its current official name, in honor of New York City mayor Dewitt Clinton.
• The US Army stopped using the fort in 1821 and it was leased to New York City as a place of public entertainment and it opened as Castle Garden on July 3, 1824, a name by which it was popularly known for most of its existence, even to the present time. It served in turn as a promenade, beer garden/restaurant, exhibition hall, opera house, and theater. Designed as an open-air structure it was eventually roofed over to accommodate these uses.

• In 1850, the castle was the site of two extraordinarily successful concerts given for charity by the Swedish soprano Jenny Lind to initiate her American tour, managed by P. T. Barnum.

• In 1851, European dancing star Lola Montez performed her notorious "tarantula dance" in Castle Garden.

• In 1853 and 1854, the famous and very eccentric French conductor and composer of light music Louis-Antoine Jullien (1812-1860) gave dozens of very successful concerts mixing classical and light music.

• French conductor Louis Jullien (1812-1860) was a musician-showman of enormous proportions. From his thirty-seven names, to his reputation, to his popularity, and most of all in the size of his concerts, he was a colossus. Born as the son of a bandmaster, he toured America in 1853-54, performing in New York, Boston, and several other American cities.
  
  Jullien, who received thirty-six Christian names from the thirty-six members of the Philharmonic Society who were his godfathers, developed the promenade concert in England into a highly popular form of entertainment.
  
  These concerts generally had an orchestra, multiple bands, choirs, and soloists. They also had novel effects designed to amuse and intrigue those attending such as cannon fire and performance on enormous, one-of-a-kind instruments. This type of concert, including large number of instrumentalists and vocalists, eventually became known as a "monster" concert. When Jullien toured America, he brought with him a cadre of fine musicians.
  
  When Jullien gave a number of concerts hosted by P.T. Barnum at Castle Garden  located in downtown New York in 1853, he received the following anonymous letter suggesting that he write a Katy-did Polka.
  
  
• In 1855, it became the Emigrant Landing Depot as the New York State immigrant processing facility (the nation's first such entity) until 1890, when the Federal Government took over control of immigration processing, and opened the larger and more isolated Ellis Island facility for that purpose in 1892. Most of the immigration records burned in a pier fire during the transition to Ellis Island,^[2] but it is generally accepted that over 8 million immigrants (and as many as 12 million) were processed through Castle Garden. Styled Kesselgarden by Yiddish-speaking Eastern European Jews, a "Kesselgarden" became a generic term for any situation that was noisy, confusing or chaotic. Prominent persons that were associated with the administration of the immigrant station included Gulian Crommelin Verplanck, Friedrich Kapp, and John Alexander Kennedy.

South entrance

The New York City Aquarium used to be housed in the castle (image before 1923)

• In 1896, Castle Garden became the site of the New York City Aquarium until 1941. For many years it was the city's most popular attraction, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors a year. The structure was extensively altered and roofed over to a height of several stories, though the original masonry fort remained.

• In 1941 the politically powerful Park Commissioner Robert Moses wanted to tear the structure down completely, claiming that this was necessary to build a crossing from the Battery to Brooklyn. The public outcry at the loss of a popular recreation site and landmark stymied his effort at demolition, but the aquarium was closed and not replaced until Moses opened a new facility on Coney Island in 1957. See Brooklyn-Battery bridge.^[3]

[edit] Castle Clinton National Monument

Although Castle Garden was designated a national monument on August 12, 1946, the law did not take effect until July 18, 1950, when the legislature and the governor of New York (Thomas Dewey) formally ceded ownership of the property to the Federal Government. A major rehabilitation took place in the 1970s. Today it is administered by the National Park Service and is a departure point for visitors to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It appears much as it did in its earliest days, contains a museum, and is again called Castle Clinton.

[edit] Noted Castle Garden immigrants

Registering immigrants at Castle Garden in 1866

This list is an incomplete sampling

• Martin Beck, founder and owner of the Orpheum vaudeville circuit [Austria]
• Edward Bok [Holland]
• Mother Cabrini [Italy]
• James J. Davis [Wales]
• William Fox (producer)
• L. Wolfe Gilbert [Russia]
• Emma Goldman
• Oscar Hammerstein I
• Harry Houdini
• Lew Leslie
• Carl Laemmle, founder of the Universal Studios
• "Typhoid" Mary Mallon
• M. P. Moller
• William Morris, founder of the William Morris Agency
• Joseph Pulitzer
• Michael I. Pupin
• J. William Schickel, architect of the firm Schickel & Ditmars
• Charles Proteus Steinmetz
• Nikola Tesla
• Sophie Tucker
• Bert Williams
• Adolph Zukor

Castle Garden bibliography

• Castle Garden as an Immigrant Depot, 1855-1890, by George J Svejda (1968)
• Castle Garden and Battery Park by Barry Moreno (2007)
• Guide to the New York Aquarium by Charles H. Townsend (1919)
• The Public Aquarium by Charles H. Townsend (1928)

Castle Garden/Castle Clinton in fiction

• Castle Garden by Bill Albert (novel)
• The Penguin Pool Murder by Stuart Palmer (1931 novel)
• The Penguin Pool Murder (1932 motion picture)
• The Alienist by Caleb Carr (novel)
• Castle Clinton appears in the video game Deus Ex as a terrorist stronghold the player must infiltrate.
• An American Tail (animated film)

[edit] Castle Garden/Castle Clinton in Music

• The Irish music group Wolfe Tones' 1993 album Across the Broad Atlantic contains a tune called "Goodbye Mick" with the farcical line "For the ship will play with pitch and toss--for half a dozen farthings, I'll roll me bundle on me back, and walk to Castle Gardens."

 References

1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13. http://www.nr.nps.gov/. 
2. ^ The New York Times, 15 June 1897, Fire on Ellis Island
3. ^ Author: Caro, Robert A. The power broker: Robert Moses and the fall of New York. New York, Knopf, 1974. ISBN 0-394-72024-5