User talk:Almirena

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Welcome!!
Welcome!!

Hello Almirena, and welcome to Wikipedia! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, please leave me a message!
ShakingSpirittalk 05:27, 3 January 2007 (UTC)


Hi Almirena, I just read your comments on the origins of the Franks. I wondered if you have more tips for further reading? If so, I really would like to hear from you. johanthon 11:36, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] User page/User talk page

Hello Almirena, please can you make sure that when you leave messages for people it is on their TALK page and not their USER page as you did with User:Johanthon. I have moved your message to the talk page. Thanks in advance and continue contributing to Wikipedia in a positive way! --Samtheboy (t/c) 06:22, 23 June 2007 (UTC)


Thanks Almirena, Actually Prosper and the Gallic Chronicler are on my wishlist for quite some time but it is not easy laying your hands on a translation. BTW I was not offended by a message on the userpage :-) johanthon 13:35, 23 June 2007 (UTC)
My apologies about that - I hadn't realised how to access the TALK page.--Almirena 07:56, 16 September 2007 (UTC)
Apologies? ;-) Well, I thank you for your time and your booklist. I was also very interested in the scholars you mentioned on the talkpage of the Salian mythology article. I have put them on my wishlist at Amazon ;-) johanthon 20:10, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
You might also be interested in some pdf books available through books.google - Polybius (tome 1 et 2), and Ptolemy's Geographia. These have the original Greek text. I could have wished to see Strabo available too, but only snippets appear to be available. However, the Loeb multi-volume set is perfectly adequate (and certainly easier to read than scanned books at books.google).-Almirena 12:58, 8 October 2007 (UTC)
 ;-) I sure am interested in those writers. Just a month ago I bought the newly translated Dutch version of Polybius, I have 2 versions of Ptolemy's Geographia and I have 2 volumes of Strabo (those on north Europe). I also have for example Pytheas of Massalia by Roseman, the Ora Maritima of Avienus and the "Excellent and Pleasant works of Sollinus". To be honest I allready own most of the list you gave me, but I was affraid of saying so would be unkind. I really appreciated it, for you put so much effort in helping me. Actually I am very much interested in the change from late antiquity to early middle ages, especially in Gaul and VERY especially concerning the Franks. Everytime I read the primary sources on this subject, or serious scholars as Wood, James, Wallace-Hadrill on this subject I sense a big gap between "The fall of the Roman Empire" on one hand, and the emergence of "The Merovingian Kingdoms" at the other. Currently I'm looking if sagas and myths can be useful to fil some blanks or limit the gap. Therefore I am highly interested in an academic discourse on this particulair subject. Now I have works like "The poetic Edda in the light of Archeology, from Birger Nerman and books of the Chambers-family on the Beowulf and Widsith, and "The legends of Ermanaric" from Brady. But those books are SOOOOO old. There must me newer materials. And I am having serious troubles to find it. I can't stand Dumezil and his followers, because I think they are going astray, but it looks like it that since Dumezil the discours is divided between those who care staying close to the historical facts, but stay away for the mythology and those that willing to create a Dumezillian world for their own, without bothering on historicity. There must be material that say something usefull on the historicity of sagas without going astray.
A problem for me is JSTOR. I just discovered it, and I am member of the library of the University of Amsterdam, but due to copyright-problems only students have acces to it. I allready been kicked out the library once when I tried to bribe a student for his password. ;-) So I will follow you here on Wikipedia in the hope I learn something from it. :-) johanthon 14:33, 8 October 2007 (UTC)
Please don't hesitate to let me know when I'm suggesting titles you already have!
On the subject of JSTOR articles, let me see what I can do... -Almirena 16:08, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Callas

Glad to see you too have contributed to the Callas article. If you would like to chat to another Callas admirer (it does seem that we think very much alike), please don't hesitate to email me (Shahrdad@msn.com). Shahrdad 01:51, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

I look forward to talking with you - and absolutely... There's no one like Callas. She is the only singer I've ever seen in video to quite literally become the character she is singing, even during the orchestral prelude. (It might be a few days before I email - this is just due to a very, very busy life.) --Almirena 04:02, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Even more amazing is that if you have truly listened to her, when you finally see her on video, there are no surprises whatsoever. You have already "seen" her through you ears, through her singing. Her physical acting merely reflects that which has already been so vividly expressed and acted through her voice and her musicianship. She has already sung the acting. But I know exactly what you are saying. I once took the DVD of her 1959 Hamburg recital home to Seattle so my mom could watch it. Mind you, she knows absolutely nothing about opera or classical music. We were watching the mad scene from Il Pirata. Looking absolutely mesmerized, Mom said, "It's as if her head is in a fog," and then Callas started singing: O, s'io potessi dissipar le nubi che magravan la fronte. . . ., "If only I could disprese these clouds that press upon my brow." And that, just in the prelude, before uttering a single note. As Scotto said, "she was the genius!" Shahrdad 19:22, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Please check out the Vocal Category section for Callas and let me know what you think. Shahrdad 22:24, 13 November 2007 (UTC)
Please look at the second paragraph in the Vocal Catogory section and let me know if it's okay or if it's superfluous. Thanks! Shahrdad (talk) 13:45, 19 November 2007 (UTC)