Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Saturday, September 18, 2010
And Finally, One of the Most Beautiful C&W Songs Ever Written…
…and mostly forgotten. Reid Jamieson—no, he’s not George Clooney’s evil, underfed brother—presenting Is It So Strange as an Elvis Presley tribute.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
I Should Be Responding to the People Who Stuck with Me…
But I’m weary to my bones, so—and the slacker that I am and to save LCH the trouble of googling—for those of you who come to my blog not named DM… I give you… Jonte Moaning! Channeling J.P. Polnareff?
FYI, that’s his real name, Jonte Moaning, Jefferson High School, class of 2001.
FYI, that’s his real name, Jonte Moaning, Jefferson High School, class of 2001.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Why There Is a Eurovision Song Contest
…and why, with a little more justification than with the League of Nations and the International Criminal Court, the United States is sitting this one out: The winner by 1.6 kilometres: Fairytale (one word), by Alexander Rybak, Norway.
Need I say more?
ADD: I am pleasantly surprised to learn that I can understand Norwegian. Every single word. There must be something in the adulterated water tonight.
Need I say more?
ADD: I am pleasantly surprised to learn that I can understand Norwegian. Every single word. There must be something in the adulterated water tonight.
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Garoto de Ipanema? You Be the Judge
When Prime Minister Berlusconi called President-Elect Obama “handsome, young and also suntanned”, do you think he was referencing The Girl from Ipanema, as in:
ADD: An incredible take by Ella Fitzgerald, live on stage. She segues into Fly Me to the Moon, which I understand also carries deep, Astrud Gilberto associations.
Tall and tan and young and lovely?He did work his way through college as a singing waiter.
ADD: An incredible take by Ella Fitzgerald, live on stage. She segues into Fly Me to the Moon, which I understand also carries deep, Astrud Gilberto associations.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
If No One Builds in Pyongyang, Will It Still Be “Groundbreaking”?
Trivial? Perhaps…
The online version of the Washington Post carried this post-arrival story* in a follow-up to this print-version, page A02 report and this page A08 report, both pre-arrival, and pushed it on the online front page as of February 25 (EST)as
“N.Y. Philharmonic Begins Groundbreaking Visit”.
To correspondent Blaine Harden’s credit (or the Section A copy writer’s), the article itself carries a less ambitious headline:
N.Y. Philharmonic Arrives in North Korea Closed Country to Broadcast Concert on State Television.
Now the event does have the full backing of the Bush administration. To quote from the A08 report, "‘[The North Koreans] are alleging that we have a hostile policy and that's why they need nuclear weapons. The presence of the New York Philharmonic argues against that,’ Hill told the Los Angeles Times editorial board last week. ‘I don't see any downside to this.’" So Mr. Hill’s point is that the visit takes an excuse out of Kim Jong Il’s hands? So on February 27, after the NY Phil leaves, Hu Jintao and Lee Myung-bak are going to call Kim Jong Il and tell him, “See, America likes you,” and Dear Leader is going to lean back in his easy chair, smack his forehead, and say, “Dang, you’re right, I’m wrong. I’ll make a full declaration of our nuclear program, including our plutonium stockpile and nuclear warheads ASAP”?
Mr. Hill, of course, has been racing the clock and pulling out all stops to conclude the Second Phase Actions of the Six-Party deal. Anything that might help keep the ball in play is, in his eyes, a plus. But my view is that this trip is essentially a small, domestic propaganda coup for Kim Jong Il but will have little or no effect outside North Korean borders. For the sake of security in East Asia, I hope that he’s right, and I’m wrong. But in the meantime, it’s Maazel Tov for Kim Jong Il.
In the meantime, I have a few questions about the NY Phil playing the two national anthems in Pyongyang. Did it play The Star Spangled Banner and Kimi ga Yo (the Japanese anthem) in 2004 when it came to Japan? The South Korean anthem in Seoul?
And what are we to make of this controversy, where “North Korea has balked at South Korea playing its national anthem or raising its flag at a World Cup soccer qualifier in Pyongyang next month [March 26], claiming a neutral flag and traditional folk song should be used”? Granted, “[t]o promote unity at friendly sport events between the two Koreas in recent years, the sides have displayed a flag depicting a united Korea in blue and substituted the traditional folk song "Arirang" for their national anthems.” But this is an official FIFA event.
According to this report, South Korea’s Unification Ministry, in one of its last acts under President Roh, approved a list of 102 people to attend the Pyongyang concert. 72 of them are from MBC, a broadcasting station in Seoul. When will they trek to stand in Pyongyang for their own national anthem?
* Please note that WaPo has a later, very different report with a different title covering more or less the same subject on this URL now. This is the second time that I have seen this happen on WaPo and one of the reasons why I copy most articles for the record.
The online version of the Washington Post carried this post-arrival story* in a follow-up to this print-version, page A02 report and this page A08 report, both pre-arrival, and pushed it on the online front page as of February 25 (EST)as
“N.Y. Philharmonic Begins Groundbreaking Visit”.
To correspondent Blaine Harden’s credit (or the Section A copy writer’s), the article itself carries a less ambitious headline:
N.Y. Philharmonic Arrives in North Korea Closed Country to Broadcast Concert on State Television.
Now the event does have the full backing of the Bush administration. To quote from the A08 report, "‘[The North Koreans] are alleging that we have a hostile policy and that's why they need nuclear weapons. The presence of the New York Philharmonic argues against that,’ Hill told the Los Angeles Times editorial board last week. ‘I don't see any downside to this.’" So Mr. Hill’s point is that the visit takes an excuse out of Kim Jong Il’s hands? So on February 27, after the NY Phil leaves, Hu Jintao and Lee Myung-bak are going to call Kim Jong Il and tell him, “See, America likes you,” and Dear Leader is going to lean back in his easy chair, smack his forehead, and say, “Dang, you’re right, I’m wrong. I’ll make a full declaration of our nuclear program, including our plutonium stockpile and nuclear warheads ASAP”?
Mr. Hill, of course, has been racing the clock and pulling out all stops to conclude the Second Phase Actions of the Six-Party deal. Anything that might help keep the ball in play is, in his eyes, a plus. But my view is that this trip is essentially a small, domestic propaganda coup for Kim Jong Il but will have little or no effect outside North Korean borders. For the sake of security in East Asia, I hope that he’s right, and I’m wrong. But in the meantime, it’s Maazel Tov for Kim Jong Il.
In the meantime, I have a few questions about the NY Phil playing the two national anthems in Pyongyang. Did it play The Star Spangled Banner and Kimi ga Yo (the Japanese anthem) in 2004 when it came to Japan? The South Korean anthem in Seoul?
And what are we to make of this controversy, where “North Korea has balked at South Korea playing its national anthem or raising its flag at a World Cup soccer qualifier in Pyongyang next month [March 26], claiming a neutral flag and traditional folk song should be used”? Granted, “[t]o promote unity at friendly sport events between the two Koreas in recent years, the sides have displayed a flag depicting a united Korea in blue and substituted the traditional folk song "Arirang" for their national anthems.” But this is an official FIFA event.
According to this report, South Korea’s Unification Ministry, in one of its last acts under President Roh, approved a list of 102 people to attend the Pyongyang concert. 72 of them are from MBC, a broadcasting station in Seoul. When will they trek to stand in Pyongyang for their own national anthem?
* Please note that WaPo has a later, very different report with a different title covering more or less the same subject on this URL now. This is the second time that I have seen this happen on WaPo and one of the reasons why I copy most articles for the record.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Our New York Philharmonic Visit against Your Presidential Inauguration, Says North Korea
Go to the New York Philharmonic website and look up its Asia 2008, “a five-city, eleven-concert tour, February 11–24, 2008, the first under the aegis of Global Sponsor Credit Suisse. The Orchestra begins in the south, with return visits to Taipei, Kaohsiung, and Hong Kong, and will make its debut in Shanghai before concluding the tour in performances in Beijing.” So it’s actually “The Chinas 2008”*.
But where’s Pyongyang? You know, the North Korean invitation, issued and accepted in balmier times, before the Six-Party Agreement, Second Phase, year-end deadline? But a mouseover at the NY Phil calendar tells you that on February 26 the orchestra is “On tour: Korea, 6:00 PM”. Click through, and you reach this, where you finally learn the details of the Pyongyang concert.
It could be mere coincidence that the event is being staged on the very day after South Korean President-Elect Kim Myung-bak’s inauguration ceremonies on February 25? After all, the Pyongyang date has been scheduled most conveniently, right after the Asia 2008 tour.
I doubt it. It is even more convenient for Kim Jong Il and the rest of the North Korean leadership to be able to beat the drums and issue the fanfare We Matter, right on the heels of the South Korean event. And no doubt about it, they will flood their domestic news outlets with reports not only on the concert itself but of the orchestra’s arrival, procession and whatever else by way of encouraging tidbits that they can squeeze out of the timely trip.
These grandmasters of spin never leave such matters to chance, for it is by stringing together these little tactical victories that they maintain their self-delusionary visions of strategic victory. It is, literally, a matter of life and death.
* Of course they couldn’t call it that, and they had to make it short and snappy; thus, Asia 2008. Compare to Japan Korea 2006. These people are mindful of the politics, since they have to mind the sensibilities of all sorts of donors and subscribers.
But where’s Pyongyang? You know, the North Korean invitation, issued and accepted in balmier times, before the Six-Party Agreement, Second Phase, year-end deadline? But a mouseover at the NY Phil calendar tells you that on February 26 the orchestra is “On tour: Korea, 6:00 PM”. Click through, and you reach this, where you finally learn the details of the Pyongyang concert.
It could be mere coincidence that the event is being staged on the very day after South Korean President-Elect Kim Myung-bak’s inauguration ceremonies on February 25? After all, the Pyongyang date has been scheduled most conveniently, right after the Asia 2008 tour.
I doubt it. It is even more convenient for Kim Jong Il and the rest of the North Korean leadership to be able to beat the drums and issue the fanfare We Matter, right on the heels of the South Korean event. And no doubt about it, they will flood their domestic news outlets with reports not only on the concert itself but of the orchestra’s arrival, procession and whatever else by way of encouraging tidbits that they can squeeze out of the timely trip.
These grandmasters of spin never leave such matters to chance, for it is by stringing together these little tactical victories that they maintain their self-delusionary visions of strategic victory. It is, literally, a matter of life and death.
* Of course they couldn’t call it that, and they had to make it short and snappy; thus, Asia 2008. Compare to Japan Korea 2006. These people are mindful of the politics, since they have to mind the sensibilities of all sorts of donors and subscribers.
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