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Yes, i still love all of you. I’m not posting much because I’m feeling flu-ish.

While browsing New Music Box, a web site for contemporary American music — classical isn’t quite the right word — I came across their Quicktime presentation of John Cage’s Complete Music for Carillon, which we were lucky enough to hear on October 26 as part of the “When Morty Met John” festival. James wrote about it here.

Two weeks ago we went to see the Berlin Philharmonic with Simon Rattle at Carnegie Hall. This is the first time they have appeared with him as Music Director in New York. It was dazzling. They started with a commissioned work by Heiner Goebbels, followed by Sibelius’s Seventh Symphony and Schubert’s Ninth Symphony (“The Great”). I like the idea of performing a contemporary work first. It makes one listen to the “classic” works as if they were new again, and the Berlin under Rattle certainly plays them that way.

They are an immensely talented and surprisingly young orchestra who could probably play these works in their sleep, but the point is that they do not play them that way. We could see the players smiling at each other with enthusiasm or even joy as they played. Performances like this remind me why we go to hear works performed live, even when we have almost anything one could hear in a concert on a CD at home.

I read an article in the Chicago Tribune about Simon Rattle. One of things it makes me think about, which is hard to express, is that I’m such a Euro-phile because it is a place where people consider culture an integral part of life, not a luxury for an effete elite. It’s one of the reasons why I’m thinking of leaving the USA for a while at some point. I want to live in a city like Berlin that can mix a vital contemporary arts scene with a respect for classical culture that is part of the social fabric, not just something for a small group of people. Our President thinks he’s talking about culture when he tells people he saw “Cats” on a previous visit to London.

Simon Rattle says it’s not unusual for him to be strolling along one of the bustling streets of ethnically diverse Berlin and have a bunch of kids — just the other week it was three Turkish teenagers — greet him with a high-five and a cheery “Hi, Simon!”

…

“The thing that is different is that in Central Europe you don’t have to argue that classical music is important or valid — that is taken for granted,” Rattle said recently from New York. “It’s extraordinary how classical music survives when it isn’t marginalized in people’s consciousness. Over there, politicians believe it’s important. They come to hear concerts and operas. They wouldn’t consider themselves civilized unless they did.”

…

And because the Berlin players have no collective fealty to the great classics, he has discovered they are more open to the challenge of performing some of the most difficult contemporary scores. He has already transformed the BPO’s repertory by making his passion for the music of our time his players’ passion too. “What is new for them they have accepted with open arms,” Rattle observes, adding that the orchestra’s new-music programs usually play to sold-out houses of younger listeners.

Let’s just call it the Bush junta. Arguing before an appeals court that the government should be able to hold José Padilla indefinitely in a military brig without acccess to a lawyer, Bush’s lawyers said that the entire United States is a battlefield and thus operates under “military justice.”

On Sept. 11, 2001, “al-Qaida made the battlefield the United States and the evidence indicates that they’re trying to make it the battlefield again,” said Deputy Solicitor General Paul Clement. And if it’s a “battlefield” arrest, Bush can detain anyone alleged to be in league with terrorists, including citizens, for as long as it takes to gather intelligence and deter future attacks. “This is the way it’s been done for 200 years in military justice,” Clement said.

Angela Turner Wilson as Norina in Don Pasquale at NYC Opera

Remember her name. The production overall wasn’t terribly interesting, but she has star power and a great voice.

[Really this weblog is often for my notes on what I’ve seen. It’s not always for my readers.]

From The Guardian (emphasis mine):

George Bush was safely installed behind the high walls of Buckingham Palace last night at the start of a controversial state visit that will devote just 150 minutes to direct talks with Tony Blair on Iraq and other thorny problems.

Mr Bush, his wife, Laura, and a 700-strong entourage worthy of a travelling medieval monarch, flew into Heathrow airport slightly late, at about 7.30pm.

A comic in honor of Glenn. Get well soon!

An interesting ensemble for a tall young man visiting NYC as a tourist. I took this photo next to the carousel in Central Park as he was waiting on his friends who were riding it. That’s an Abercrombie & Fitch t-shirt in addition to his NRA hat and hunting coveralls.

A man at an Ann Coulter appearance in Boulder does this:

“I stood up to the mic… kind of shaky, wasn’t sure if I was going to use it, or go after her intellectual bankruptcy, and I finally just decided… Then I thanked her for coming to Boulder, and then I said, “Ann, since you’re a self-proclaimed extreme right-winger, when are you going to take your own advice and get pregnant, march into the kitchen barefoot and make me a god damn sandwich?!”

Then, “the crowd roundly applauded me…” – “and I heard a good amount of boos, but it was mostly laughter.”

…

Anyway, “She stood there kind of aghast for a couple seconds, gathered herself, and went into a 30 second response about how LIBERALS were actually the ones who wanted their women to be barefoot and in the kitchen pregnant.”

[via TBOGG]

We all knew the 30-hour Senate debate was just show biz, but we hadn’t realized quite how much.

Via The Hill:

The 30-hour debate on President Bush’s judicial nominees began on a testy note Wednesday night.

After Republicans walked into the Senate chamber together to begin the extraordinary session, Democrats argued that their move was not a show of unity but rather a television stunt orchestrated for Fox News. They pointed to a memo from Manuel Miranda, a staffer for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), which said:

“It is important to double efforts to get your boss to S-230 on time … Fox News Channel is really excited about this marathon and Brit Hume at 6 would love to open with all our 51 senators walking onto the floor — the producer wants to know will we walk in exactly at 6:02 when the show starts so they get it live to open Brit Hume’s show? Or if not, can we give them an exact time for the walk-in start?”

Democrats had unsuccessfully attempted to delay the debate until 8 p.m. to allow the Senate to first complete its work on the VA/HUD appropriations bill.

Democrats have confirmed 168 of the president’s judicial nominees since 2001 and have only blocked four. Republicans blocked 63 of former Democratic President Bill Clinton’s nominees, denying many of them even a confirmation hearing while in the majority.

How can the GOP have a convention in NYC without mixing with New Yorkers? By having many of the politicians stay on a cruise ship. We all know they think New Yorkers are scum, and this way they don’t have to defile themselves by interacting with the ones that work in hotels and restaurants, which I thought was supposed to be the only good thing about having the convention here.

Republicans, including Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Rep. Vito Fossella, are considering docking a luxury cruise ship in New York Harbor where members of Congress and lobbyists could stay and play during the GOP convention next summer.

…

"As far as the host committee is concerned, we have 22,000 hotel rooms reserved in New York City in close proximity to the [Madison Square] Garden, said mayoral spokeswoman Jennifer Falk. “Manhattan alone has an additional 44,000 hotel rooms. We are confident we are going to be able to provide a hotel room for every single delegate who needs one.”

The cruise ship, with accommodations for 2,200 guests and 14 bars and 10 restaurants, would mirror other hospitality suites DeLay (R-Texas) has championed for members of Congress at past conventions. At the 2000 Republican convention in Philadelphia, DeLay secured private railroad cars, where members could meet and mingle with invited guests such as lobbyists – no media allowed. He also provided members of Congress with cars and drivers. The amenities were funded by corporate contributions to a political action committee.

…

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn) criticized Republicans for eschewing city soil. “There’s something fishy about having hotel rooms on the water when so many are available on the island,” he said.