The World Of Jennifer Rubin

Samuel HooperLeave a comment

Sometimes someone just says it better than you ever can.

And on this occasion, Andrew Sullivan hits the nail on the head.

I have previously blogged about the ocean of willful ignorance in which pundits like Kimberley Strassel and Jennifer Rubin gently bob, but Sullivan reboots the attack and gives us the big picture. Behold – this is what determined head-in-the-sand, willing self-deception can make a person – in this case Jennifer Rubin – say.

Andrew Sullivan's avatarThe Dish

rubin

[Re-posted from earlier today]

Come join me, for a while, in an alternative universe. In this universe, Obama is clearly a worse president than George W. Bush. Now how do we get there? Here’s a start:

Many of [Bush’s] supposed failures are mild compared to the current president (e.g. spending, debt).

But by far the biggest factor in today’s debt are the unfunded wars Bush launched and lost, the massive tax cuts which took us from surplus to deficit, a spending spree on Medicare, and a collapse of the economy which occurred on Bush’s watch after eight years of negligent regulation of Wall Street. This sentence is therefore almost perversely deceptive.

Unlike Obama’s tenure, there was no successful attack on the homeland after 9/11.

Does 9/11 not count? The biggest national security failure since Pearl Harbor – resulting in more than 3,000 deaths? After the president was explicitly warned

View original post 606 more words

Music For The Day

Samuel HooperLeave a comment

“In Trutina” from “Carmina Burana”, composed by Carl Orff.

 

In trutina mentis dubia
Fluctuant contraria
Lascivus amor et pudicitia.

Sed eligo quod video
Collum iugo prebeo
Ad iugum tamen suave transeo.

A Musical Glass Ceiling, Finally Broken

Samuel HooperLeave a comment

For the first time ever, the person given the honour of conducting the Last Night of the Proms, that great British musical occasion, will be a woman. An exceptionally well qualified woman, Marin Alsop.

 

Yes, I’m biased. Alsop is a protege of one of my musical heroes, Leonard Bernstein. But she has also distinguished herself through her very well-received tenures with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Bournemouth Symphony.

Female conductors are still an incredibly rare site on the podium, as the Telegraph article relates:

Female conductors are about as common as hen’s teeth. A comedian friend of mine once said that a comic is always the person facing the wrong way, and this is doubly true of a conductor. If a comedian onstage is the only individual in the room facing the audience, then a conductor is the only person on stage facing the performers.

To put yourself in a position where you are neither orchestra nor audience, that is to say, a unique figure, elevated on your own little platform, essentially telling everyone in the room what to do (you listen; you play) requires a rather particular set of personal characteristics that we probably traditionally associate with men, slightly crazy, arrogant, wild-eyed men.

The series of summer musical concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and associated venues, collectively known as the BBC Promenade Concerts, have expanded boundaries in a number of areas. We have already had the first American conductor to take charge of the Last Night – the excellent (and underappreciated) Leonard Slatkin, of St. Louis fame. The Proms now include outdoor concerts, late night concerts, and science fiction themed concerts (to the delight of many Doctor Who fans). This is all well and good. But the announcement that Alsop will be the first woman to conduct the BBC Symphony on this illustrious occasion should serve as a reminder that much more needs to be done before women are fully represented at the highest levels of classical music. Alsop has blazed a trail, but there are far too few younger women following in her wake.

That is not to say that there are no other women conductors of great talent and some renown – one might think of the excellent Xian Zhang, who occasionally guest conducts the London Symphony Orchestra – but this wikipedia page shows the depressing truth of the matter. Just 61 entries.

As always, I shall look forward to the upcoming Proms season, and to the Last Night. But the fact that we are celebrating this particular milestone only in the year 2013 should give us all pause for thought.

A Terrorist In The Family

Samuel HooperLeave a comment

Like everyone, I have been watching the troubling events unfolding in Boston with mounting concern and alarm.

At this early stage, there is not much to be said on this blog that cannot be easily read on Twitter, or seen on the wall-to-wall television coverage. But this video – an audio recording of the uncle of one of the Boston Marathon bombers reacting to the news of the death of his nephew, and the circumstances in which it happened – is very sobering indeed:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/danoshinsky/boston-bombing-suspects-uncle-they-do-not-deserve-to-exist-o?sub=2157117_1090512

It appears that both men were enjoying asylum which had been granted to them by the United States of America, but at some point (either prior to or following their arrival) had become radicalised. Which can only lead us to wonder, given the apparent ease with which one can assemble a bomb using a pressure cooker and nails to maim the maximum number of people with the minimum of difficulty – how many other such angry, radicalised young people are currently living among us? And what can possibly be done to prevent a recurrence?

Neil Kinnock Falling Into The Sea

Samuel HooperLeave a comment

Someone made a tone poem about former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock’s close encounter with the sea, back in 1984.

 

And now I share it with you all, for some light relief today.