The first and second movements from Symphony no. 2 by Jean Sibelius (1902).
Performed here by Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
It’s a good version, albeit alternately overwrought and halting on occasions, and not a patch on the LSO/Davis recordings and performances, which remain the best available to date.
Daft Punk, Muppets-style:
We’re up all night to get lucky. Oh yeah.
Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan for broadcasting this to the world.
Wishing a very happy and blessed Fourth of July to my American readers:
Branford Marsalis, playing one of my favourite renditions of the U.S. national anthem.
If you play the guitar like this, you are doing it wrong:
The thing is, the song sounds as though it would be absolutely awful to listen to even if our quick-to-anger troubadour was able to make it past the first few bars without stopping to scream and assault his instrument.
Music For The Day:
“Sad Professor”, by the band R.E.M. from Athens, Georgia, USA.
If we’re talking about love
Then I have to tell you
Dear readers I’m not sure where I’m headed.
I’ve gotten lost before.
I’ve woke up stone drunk
Face down in the floor.
Late afternoon the house is hot.
I started I jumped up.
Everyone hates a bore.
Everyone hates a drunk.
This may be a lit invention
Professors muddled in their intent
To try to rope in followers
To float their malcontent.
As for this reader,
I’m already spent.
Late afternoon, the house is hot.
I started, I jumped up.
Everyone hates a sad professor.
I hate where I wound up.
Dear readers, my apologies.
I’m drifting in and out of sleep.
Long silence presents the tragedies
Of love. note the age. get afraid.
The surface hazy with attendant thoughts.
A lazy eye metaphor on the rocks.
Late afternoon, the house is hot.
I started, I jumped up.
Everyone hates a bore.
Everyone hates a drunk.
Everyone hates a sad professor.
I hate where I wound up.
I hate where I wound up.
Semi-Partisan Politics 