Music – Page 6 – Politics Plus

Open Thread August 15 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:03 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 152024

Yesterday, I learned there’s a new Randy Rainbow out. I also learned Randy has a sponsor now. I have doctored the URL to omit it – but I might point out that it is “Ground News,” which Trae Crowder has also accepted as a sponsor, so you know it’s going to be a reliable source. If you want the coupon, you can start it at the beginning. The parody is of “The farmer and the cowman should be friends,” from “Pklahoma,”which also is about division, so very appropriate. Here’s the link. With that accomplished, I also requested to schedule a donation pickup – and got today for a date. Well, I was ready; all I needed to do was move the chair I want to keep away from the boxes, and put out a note. Since I was going out to the porch anyway, I replaced my “No solicitation” sign, which was getting pretty worn, and put up a new one (if you are on our Mitch’s email list you probably saw it) “Warning! Retired person on premises. Knows everything and has plenty of time to tell it.”

Brooke Binkowski is new at Wonkette. She is a “counterdisinformationist*. In this article she addresses what counterdisinformation is and why it differs from fact-checking and debunking (both of which are also in her CV.) Even though she writes with Wonkette’s trademark irreverence (Rebecca appears to have a knack for hiring people who take to irreverence like ducks to water) some of her suggestions are quite doable. Of course, the more successful one is at it, the more likely one is to start receiving death threats, so take that into consideration too.

There’s a great deal wrong with people who to remove from society those wom they believe to be the “underclass.” But the one thing that may make them the most likely to rethink this is to point out that, without the “underclass,” they would have to clean their own toilets, scrub their own floors, at the very least harvest, and possibly also grow, their own food – and on and on. No, he’s not running for PResident – yet – but as an adviser th JD Vance, if Republicans win, he could still see the inside of the White House.

Belle Ukraine

Dog

Open Thread August 11 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:05 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 112024

Yesterday, the radio opera was Verdi’s “Don Carlo,” which takes place in Spain during the Spanish Inquisition, and features mostly actual historical figures of very interesting people, not entirely accurately. This one came with lots of pictures, and it must have been beautiful to see. However I would have found it distracting that the tenor singing the title role resembles RFK Jr. (Thatmay be more historically accurate than the libretto, since the real Don Carlo was a real jerk.) But this opera is one of my favorites, and it’s not heard that often, so I was grateful. Also, Steve Schmidt has a new “The Schmidt Storm” up. And now I’m off to see Virgil.
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We all know this in general terms. But the numbers are getting horrifying. I wonder whether we could convince any by arguing that is public schools stopped requiring students to be vaccinated, they would lose their excuse to send the kids to private and charter schools or to home school and would have to send them to public schools. Nah, probably not.

This is also a couple of days old. But it has some information about Project 2025 which will be good to know. (And he shares another astronomical photo. He is no relation to the Hubble telescope – it’s spelled differently. He’s just good at using what he does have.)

Open Thread July 21 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:07 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 212024

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Elektra” by Richard Strauss. Itis based on te Greek myth, but I have only ever seen it in modern dress. (The first time may not have been intentional – bot when Chrysothemis had her back to the camera – it was televised – viewers could easily see the zipper in the back of her costume.) It’s one of his early operas, like “Salome,” and, like Salome, it’s all in one act and the heroine dances at the end and then dies. Aside from thet, they’re very different. It was under 2 hours, so when it ended and I turned the stream off and the radio back on, I got to re-listen to the last third of “Rheingold” again.

I like cats (and most other animals.) I don’t like climate change. We used to have permafrost in the Rockies. Back in the late seventies, when I was still living in Alamosa, a former Marine Corps colleague visited with his wife and two kids (who must now be in their late fifties) who had never seen snow. I was able to call the local paper and get directions to a glacial permafrost area within easy driving distance. It wasn’t really snow, but the kids were thrilled. There are concerns about thawing permafrost releasing CO2 – but it’s also known there are viruses in there. I don’t see why this one would not spread to humans, though it hasn’t yet, thankfully.

This by Robert Reich could be very depressing. But it also could be very motivating – it puts additional faces on “We must avoid this at all costs.” If you find that depressing, and don’t need any more motivation, you may want to skip it.

Open Thread July 7 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:09 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 072024

Yesterday, the radio opera was Mozart’s “Don Giovanni.” I think everyone knows the “Don Juan” story, and I have seen and heard it many times since I was introduced to it in college. I think this is the first production which attempted to bring a little “Me Too” spirit to it – for one thing, setting parts of it in a butcher shop. Of course being Mozart, the music is wonderful, and the singers were competent. I also received a grocery order – not large in volume but kind of pricey. Light bulbs and fancy coffee will do that, despite other sales.

This is one of his best columns. It’s on the topic od down-ballot roll-off. I remember TomCat used to complain about it. But now at least someone is doing something about it. He has a video with her (but no CC – sigh), but he also talks about her organization “Sister District,” and what it’s doing. At the end of his article, he provides a link to an interview of Heather Cox Richardson by Christiane Amanpour whish does have CC (it has it in the upper left of the screen, and if you accidentally let your mouse slip into the video part of the screen, it gets covered. Also, after you click on the video in the list, you need to scroll to the top of the screen to see it. Not difficult, just different.) She doesn’t mince words.

I didn’t even hear the rumor until yesterday. Of couuse I don’t frequent places which peddle stuff like this, so that’s probably why.

Open Thread June 30 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:46 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 302024

Yesterday, the radio opera was “The Fairy Queen” by Purcell, which is an adaptation of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” recorded by an early music group in Utrecht, Netherlands. I streamed it – my local radio staion is now broadcasting the summer schedule, but they started a week late, so, if I don’t sream, I’ll miss the last one, and I don’t want to do that. However, The Fairy Queen is just over half the length of last week’s, so when The Fairy Queen ended, I switched over to the radio, just in time for the third and fourth acts. An also just in time for the static it was making earlier to have quieted down. So, the best of both worlds. And today, I’m off to see Virgil. As always, I’ll post a quick comment when I get back.

If you need a lift, and need to see Joe being Joe and apreciated for it, here’s a link to the North Carolina rally from Friday.

This is short, and simple.. Though about a complex issue, it makes it not to difficult to understand. And it’s good news, as far as it goes.

Remember the mayor elected in Alabama with an overwhelming majority, who couldn’t take office because the previous, unelected white mayor (who had not even bothered to run against him) would not turn over the keys? Well. Here’s the latest in that saga – and, hopefully,the last we’ll ever need to hear about it. Though I’m not holding my breath.

Open Thread June 23 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:12 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 232024

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Die Frau Ohne Schatten” by Richard Strauss. That translates to “The Woman without a Shadow,” but the shadow is purely symbolic. The woman of the title is not a woman but a fairy, who has married the Emperor and become his Empress. But in order to stay with him after a certain amount of time has passed, she must become fully human, and that is what the shadow symbolizes. To emphasize the fairy tale environment, only one of the characters is given a name, and that is the dyer, whose wife is tempted to sell her shadow to the empress. It always tickles me that the name of the dyer is Barak (in German, the accent is on the first syllable,) since this opera premiered in 1919. I won’t go into the plot – it’s too complicated. Musically, it’s somewhere between Salome and Rosenkavalier. It has the color of Rosenkavalier but not the catchy waltzes, and it has the fierceness of Salome (and Elektra, which is like Salome without the sex) but without the jarring dissonances which made them so shocking in their day. Also, after looking all over for a video clip of John Oliver discussing Project 2025 which has CC, I did finally find one here.

For Pride Month – what people of faith are doing to oppose the hatred of LGBTQIA people, particularly at Pride events, where the hatred too often becomes physical.

When you read this, you will likely wonder whether Joe really is a wizard after all. It certainly seems like it would require a wizard to accomplish all of this at once.

Open Thread June 16 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:46 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 162024

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Guillaume Tell” by Rossini. Everybody knows the story, and everybody knows the overture (though there’s a lot more to it than the Lone Ranger.) This was recorded in Vienna, at the Vienna State Opera. I do think it’s cool that anAustrian opera house would put on an opera in which Austria in general and an Austrian governor of Switzerland are the bad guys. Even though the story goes back to the 14th century, that would not have happened in Rossini’s lifetime and for most of the rest of the 19th century (possibly even through Thw Great War, as World War I was originally called.) I find this very hopeful. And now, I’m off to see Virgil.

I’d call this good news – while st the same time hoping it won’t be necessary for Hunter (The other felon is another matter.)

The Reich on the left is right – as usual – but how to get this message to the Biden campaign? Since our lives mey depend on it?

Open Thread June 9 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:44 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 092024

Yesterday, the radio opera was Gluck’s “Orfeo ed Euridice.” Composed in 1762, it was part of his “reform” project to simplify both operatic plots and operatic music. Allow me to suggest that the story is of universal appeal by pointing out that the most famous aria in it, “Che faro senza Euridice,” has the same content as irving Berlin’s “What’ll I Do,” both being in language appropriate to their time periods (for example, Orpheus didn’t have access to photographs.) I sang the aria (badly) when I was taking voice lessons – it’s in the mezzo-soprano range, but sung yesterday by a counter tenor – Anthony Roth Constanzo – of whom I’m a fan. As I guess is the Philadelphia Opera – they just named him their General Director) This is the last opera in the Met season, so next week I’ll be streaming a summer season opera broadcast from Chicago (performed and recorded in Vienna).

For pride month. I guess I don’t need to go over again how so-called Christians who think being anti-gay is Christian annoy me (not a strong enough word but I’m trying to be civil.) The image below is also from this article.

Sheesh. I remember when it was anthrax. I’m sure this is coming from the right … but there are too many suspects to nail it down. I hope we can get a clearer picture by November – maybe even put a stop to it.

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