Carousel Corner.

riverrun, past Eve and Adam's ... -- James Joyce, Finnegan's Wake

In the beginning, in the cradle, they were life itself, the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates in a land known as Mesopotamia, now known as Iraq. Charon ferried souls across the River Styx, the border between life and the afterlife. Until the last century as railroads spread across the continent, American settlement, trade, indeed civilization--just like every other from the dawn of time--was defined by its ability to navigate and master its rivers. In an age dominated by gargantuan leaps in man's ability to transport his wares and dreams without regard to terrain, we tend to tuck their vitality, their essential role in creating our world, into the recesses of cultural memory. But their language and mythology still fire our imaginations, serving up primordial metaphors of life and death--but mostly life. Lucky us.

Smetana, Ma Vlast, Raphael Kubelik, Boston Symphony Orchestra (DGG/Galleria). Smetana's monumental tribute to Czech nationalism is best known for the second movement, Vltava or The Moldau, the river which unites the country, eventually flowing...

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