Lisa Hirsch

@lisairontongue

Classical music and opera journalist. Blogs at irontongue.blogspot.com. Alto, martial artist. Former tech writer. Music, books, politics, food, public health. Cis, queer, Jewish. I instablock men who follow only women's accounts.

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Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· 6d

Julius.

An orange tabby cat sprawled across the seat of a brown chair, leaning against an orange and blue pillow. The end of his tail alternates orange and white stripes, a common color pattern among orange cats.

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· 6d

Our calico Japanese bobtail has been gone nearly four years and we will always miss her. (We adopted her when she was 12 and had lost her first home for health reasons and second owing to divorce. We aren't purebred cat types but didn't want her to go to a shelter. She was a great cat.)

A seven-pound calico Japanese bobtail cat sitting on a desk in front of a monitor and giving the photographer A Look. Tiny cat with a huge personality. Her name was Sunny and her personality was not.

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· 12d

Julius, my orange boy, is a sweetheart. Of course he wants to spend about 85% of his time sitting on me, which can be inconvenient.

An orange cat in meatloaf position on a blue duvet.

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· 22d

Here's something you won't see in the United States any time soon.

A sleek black BYD car from China, probably electric, seen parked in Munich. I should have confirmed that it's electric.

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· 25d

The wine-dark sea, babe.

The splashy wake of a boat, lower left corner; an expanse of deep blue sea; above the sea, a blue sky and the distant horizon.

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· 29d

Outdoor train platform with a station sign reading

Battle
Alight here for 1066 Battlefield and Abbey

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· Jul 5

I'm here for about 28 hours before heading for points south. Too bad everything is closed tonight. Might leave my luggage at the hotel and try to do something before I catch the TGV at 3:30. 1/

A gold statue on a copper column that has gold writing on it - the writing isn't legible from where I took the photo. The copper column is on stone and concrete pediments. The whole is at the center of a traffic circle, the Place de la Bastille, Paris. In the background is a big glassy building, the Opera Bastille.

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· Jun 1

This is a cat checkpoint. Please relinquish the most recent cat pic on your device.

An orange cat standing on a floor that's about the same color he is.

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· May 29

You could put a collar with a note on him. Here's my orange tabby, the chill and amiable Julius.

An orange cat curled up on a blanket in front of a window.

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· May 11

Where I spent most of the last few days.

The marquee and sign of the Castro Theater. I was there for the 29th SF Silent Film Festival.

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· Apr 22

It's my cat half the time.

The head and shoulders of an orange cat in the foreground, a woman with shiny glasses, gray hair, and a desperate look peeking over the cat's shoulders, a CD tower in the background, also the faintly pinkish ceiling.

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· Mar 30

Anja Kampe as Isolde, Simon O'Neill as Tristan. Photo by Cory Weaver, courtesy of San Francisco Opera.

Against a blue background resembling the hold of a ship, a red haired woman in a long green dress and a man in a long blue coat face each other and hold a cup between them with all four of their hands. Photo by Cory Weaver, courtesy of San Francisco Opera. Anja Kampe as Isolde, Simon O'Neill as Tristan. 2024

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· Mar 23

My orange boy comes for me around 7 am. His preferred location is on me. For instance:

An orange cat wearing a red collar dozing with his head buried in a human's elbow. Bookcases in the background include a volume of GB Shaw's music criticism, some CDs, a fold-out Bayeux tapestry purchased at the tapestry's museum many years ago, and Dover musical scores including Mozart symphonies and Puccini's La bohème.

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· Mar 19

This guy:

Photo of a shelf of random CDs. On top is a long box that says:

Arturo Toscanini
The Complete RCA collection.

The box has a black top. The printed side includes a photo of Toscanini, a handsome old man with white hair and a gray moustache, holding a hand to his cheek and looking intently at the photographer.

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· Mar 3

My orange boy loves having his tummy rubbed.

Orange tabby cat stretched out and dozing on a light blue bedspread.

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· Feb 27

Post a pic you took, no context, to bring a little zen to the feed.

Orange cat on a bluish bedspread in meatloaf position, with his paws tucked in, looking away from the camera.

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· Feb 3

Seen in Germany in 2015:

Lunch meat at a hotel in Germany. On the left, bologna of some kind. On the right,lunch meat with a smiling sun somehow present throughout. Terrifying.

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· Jan 11

29 Avenue Rapp, Paris, photographed in 2018.

An elaborate Art Nouveau door. Wood, deeply set into the doorway. At the top is a carved wooden section, and just below are two oval glass panels that look like insect eyes, slanting down and toward the center of the door. The oval glass panels are about half surrounded by slender decorative ironwork that looks like a fantasy dinosaur with wings. There are three glass panels across the center of the door, reinforced with decorative but abstract ironwork. The lowe quarter of the door is carved wood. The central door handle is a sinuous metal lizard. There are large metalwork pieces running down the sides and under the central outer glass panels. Even this long description doesn't do justice to the beauty and complexity of the door, which is sort like an insect's face watching you.

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· Jan 3

This is Julius, now age 9.

An orange tabby cat wearing a black collar. He's sitting on a green leather ottoman. Behind him there are two low bookcases. One has a TV on it. The wall behind him is teal and the floor is polished hardwood.

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· Jan 3

Our cat was 7 when I took him home from the municipal animal shelter. Previous cat was adopted privately; she was 12. Her original people gave her up for health reasons. The first family who took her in split up and neither of the divorcing parties could keep her. Sunny the Japanese Bobtail:

A small calico cat (red, white, and black) sitting on a desk in front of a computer monitor. She's a Japanese Bobtail and has a teeny tail. Green eyed with a bossy attitude.

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· Dec 28

I'm the head magic teacher at a British boarding school. Emily Tesh, "The Incandescent"

A green square with white text reading: You are now forced to have the same job as the main character in the last book you read. What is the job?

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· Nov 19

T-shirt I bought at a Potlatch auction in the 90s.

Yellow-gold short sleeved t-shirt with a circular collage. The collage is printed in black and includes an elephant or mastodon skeleton, water lilies, a pond, a woman in a diaphanous nightgown, and an assortment of megaflora.

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· Nov 2

From a trip to Hollywood Forever in 2023.

A gray headstone, probably granite, inscribed as follows:

JONATHAN GOLD

TACOS FOREVER

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· Oct 13

A better Italian; he even died in New York City.

Lorenzo da Ponte, a great librettist, taught Italian at Columbia, and had a wild, wild life.

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· Sep 23

Name a film from before 1950.

Kino Video cover of the DVD release of Mauritz Stiller's great silent film "The Saga of Gosta Berling." The cover is mauve and includes the text GRETA GARBO, although Garbo's role is by far the least interesting of the leads. Most of the cover is a colorized photo of her in a black and white gown (black except for the bodice). Go for Garbo, whose first film it was, stay for the unforgettable performances of Lars Hanson and Gerda Lundequist. For opera fans, Zandonai's "I cavalieri di Ekebu" is based on the same source material.

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· Sep 11

White and purple carrots at Berkeley Bowl West.

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· Sep 5

Quote post an album you rate 10/10.

Image of a Renaissance angel playing an eight-stringed fretted instrument with a bow; presumably it's a viol of some kind. It wears a green tunic and red cloak. The text reads Villancicos y Danzas Criillas de La Iberia Antigua al Nuevo Mundo 1550-1730. La Capella Reial de Catalunya. Hersperion XXI Jordi Savall

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· Jul 6

@jamellebouie.net Charles Sumner was already a hero of mine. Your conversation with Zaakir Tameez is breathtaking. Looking forward to reading the biography. I visited Mt. Auburn Cemetery in April.

A rectangular stone monument with a low double plinth perhaps 18" high, above it columns at the corners. Chiseled on it the name Charles Sumner. A number of small stones have been left atop the plinth, as you might do at a Jewish grave.

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· Jul 5

College and Ashby protest, Berkeley, CA.

A street corner in Berkeley, CA with many protesters. The sky is very blue.

Lisa Hirsch@lisairontongue· Jun 29

Jongwon Han and the coat - gorgeous.