This year we’ll catch a Handel and Haydn Society performance of Handel’s Messiah, one of the greatest achievements of Western culture.
Author: DOuG pRATt
From Amazon to the Ganges
The prime minister of India? Ben Kingsley as the younger Gandhi? No, it’s Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos in Bangalore at, somewhat ironically, a shopping mall.
Intruder alert!
Here is video showing how the White House intruder managed to slip past the Secret Service.
http://youtu.be/-jO1EOhGkY0?t=2m
Before and Afterthought
Political cartoonists no longer have the influence that they enjoyed for many decades, if not a century, but the ones that remain continue to ply their craft. Jerry Holbert of the Boston Herald did this cartoon, about the recent lapse in White House security, which saw publication locally.
But before it reached national syndication, the editor at Uclick requested a change in wording.
I checked, and watermelon-flavored toothpaste does indeed exist.
A musical beginning and end
I am listening to a live performance on WCRB, Boston’s Classical music radio station. Andris Nelsons is conducting, in his public premiere as Musical Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. But there is a sad counterpoint to the excitement of Nelsons taking over the baton in Boston, because I have just learned of the death of Christopher Hogwood.
I saw Hogwood quite a few times when he was conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society. Hearing Mozart and Beethoven as they were heard by Mozart and Beethoven (well, only up to a point with Ludwig), played by right-sized ensembles on original period instruments, was always a delight under Hogwood’s direction. He was only 73 and his passing is a very sad and significant loss.
Cheap Suit Special
It’s been twenty years since Robert Crumb relocated to France, and he’s still there. The introverted yet irrepressible cartoonist/record collector/musician, who is equally profound and profane, is featured on this week’s edition of the syndicated radio program American Routes.