tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79696163915403827772024-02-07T07:10:16.702-06:00Critical ThoughtsEclectic Commentary from a Libertyist Perspective <br>The price of liberty Is Constant Vigilence and Frequent Struggle This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.comBlogger494125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-40883116513575024482022-12-31T16:16:00.005-06:002023-01-04T17:42:12.903-06:00Covid is Fading, but Stern Justice Awaits<p class="MsoNormal">The Covid pandemic is fading, and hopefully it will stay
faded, but the pernicious and baleful medical, scientific, political, and
social effects will last for decades.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">We can only hope that those who lab-created the Covid virus,
that those who suppressed truths, that those who repressed the truthful, that
those who suppressed effective, cheap, and available treatments thus allowing so
many to die unnecessarily, and that those who profited off the suffering of others
– that all these people will face stern justice.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p><i>R Balsamo, MD</i></p>This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-80601381628550348262021-12-31T15:52:00.003-06:002022-01-18T15:43:40.600-06:00Thoughts on the SARS-CoV-2 / Covid-19 Pandemic<p><i>On the virus origin:</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There is little to no doubt that the US NIH funded research at
a Wuhan virus lab that created the man-made Wuhan SARS-CoV-2 franken-virus that
causes Covid-19, which then has killed hundreds of thousands of people
world-wide. Some still ridicule this
notion, despite much evidence to-date, but Occam's Razor insists that
SarsCoV2's origin was from the lab.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>On the vaccine-primacy approach:</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">From the beginning of Covid-19, the
big-pharma/Gates-captured establishment medical "leaders' went all in on
fabulously-expensive vaccines to the near-total exclusion of therapeutics,
which, no doubt has been the fear, would be much-less profitable and ultimately
more effective. Great harm has been done
by the evil, pharma/Gates-captured death-merchant NIH bureaucrats Fauci and
Collins, who duped America into a lockdowns-for-all, vaccine-primacy strategy.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Particularly disappointing, and shocking, has been the
complicity of American medical leadership, down to the local group practice
level, in the vaccine-primary approach to the pandemic, with very insufficient
attention to therapeutics.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Realities of the novel genetic material vaccines:</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The medical realities of the RNA/DNA gene therapies, called vaccines,
are that the intermediate- and long-term side effects are unknown, in addition to
concern about toxicity from the circulating spike protein itself and the
potential for antibody-dependent enhancement. For each person, getting vaccinated or not is
an individualized a risk/benefit analysis.
Furthermore, many of the unvaccinated have recovered from an infection, which
bestowed both antibody and cellular natural immunity that is superior to immunity
to a vaccine that induces only antibodies to the mutable spike protein (only
pharma-captured shills would deny that).</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Initially and for quite a while, Covid-19 vaccines were said,
by medical leaders and politicians, to prevent viral transmission entirely and
prevent all illness, not just serious illness and death. But we all now know that vaccination does <i>not</i>
prevent infection with the Sars-CoV-2 virus, does <i>not </i>prevent spreading
that infection to others, and only <i>for a while</i> lessens the chance for,
but does <i>not</i> always prevent, serious disease and death from the virus. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Vaccine mania:<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The rebuttable presumption in medicine is that natural, or
post-infection, immunity to a virus is equal to and likely better than immunity
via a vaccine, especially one that employs only a part of one virus surface
protein, and a lab-modified one at that, as with all current US vaccines. Yet, even those with natural immunity have
been pushed into vaccination. So what
explains the escalating vehemence of vaccine absolutists that everyone, even
the Covid19-recovered with strong natural immunity, be injected with an
experimental "vaccine" in the face of growing evidence of only
partial effectiveness and of serious, more common side effects? Well, for one thing, there is no money to be
made in "natural immunity."</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">No one knows how "safe" the vaccines are, since
intermediate- and long-term effects are unknown, and these RNA/DNA genetic
material vaccines are brand-new technology.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Covid-19 itself and Covid vaccines both can cause serious
illness and even death. The risk-reward
calculation to undergo vaccination or not depends on many individual factors,
such as age, medical status, etc. People
who become ill after one choice naturally wish they had chosen the other.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Public health opinion leaders can begin to regain an ounce
of the pounds of trust they so foolishly and cavalierly shredded in the Covid
era by ceasing their insistence that Covid survivors, who have natural
immunity, get vaccinated, and instead send those vaccine doses to
underdeveloped countries for people at risk who need them.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Vaccinating children and young adults:</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Injecting healthy children with a thoroughly-experimental,
only partially-effective "vaccine," with totally unknown
intermediate- and long-term side effects, for a disease with a mortality rate
for them below that of seasonal flu is as astonishing as it is horrific.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Seeing a fatal thrombotic sequela of the Johnson & Johnson
Covid vaccine in a young woman — if she was not at high risk for Covid and thus
a strong candidate for an experimental vaccine with an unclear risk profile, is
nothing less than a tragic and unnecessary event at the feet of the vaccine
absolutists.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Robert Kennedy, Jr, and others have opined that once vaccines
get full FDA approval (not just an Emergency Use Authorization), vaccine makers
have liability unless the vaccine is indicated in children, in which case there
is no liability by law even if adults also use the vaccine, and that’s why vaccine
makers have been pushing the Covid vaccines to children. If true, then vaccine makers are using
children as liability shields.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><br /></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i>Suppressing treatments:</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Everyone knows that drug companies and their paid agents
masquerading as impartial government advisor “scientists” cannot make money on
repurposed drugs, also known as “cheap generics whose safety profiles are
already known.”</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The fact that a hospital would still refuse to administer ivermectin
even after all of its treatments had failed and despite a court order (and
family agreement) that would remove any liability means that there was a
nefarious reason to deny care — recognition that ivermectin works. Admitting that safe, pill treatments work would
damage the push for fabulously-profitable universal, repeated, mass vaccination.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In late 2021 it was reported that the US FDA has been working
with the US post office to seize packages containing ivermectin. When has such a thing ever been done before in
the US for drugs that are completely legal, safe, and on the WHO’s list of
essential medicines? The only plausible
reason – big-pharma / big-government terror that more people will discover with
their own eyes that ivermectin works. The powerful tentacles of the
big-pharma/big-government cartel have a long reach.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Eventually, the “truth will out” on ivermectin, and then the
“just following CDC/FDA orders” excuses will begin from physicians and
scientists who knew better all along but were cowed into being “useful idiots”
for the big-pharma/big-government cartel.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Behavior of physicians:</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It has been shocking to see "expert" physicians
touting the complete effectiveness of "vaccines" whose antigenic
material consists only of the highly-mutable spike protein and no other parts
of the virus, all while ignoring therapeutics; skepticism would have been
smarter & more honest.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So many doctors and hospitals have become cruel petty
tyrants during the Covid era, under the guise of safety. Pushing vaccines on low risk people, denying
sick and dying patients the comfort of loved ones at their sides, denying even
court-ordered treatments. It saddens me
to see so many doctors behave that way.
One factor must be deep, deep corruption among some physician opinion
leaders, bought by pharma money and/or intimidated by political pressure.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The intense mania by so many physicians to vaccinate every
single healthy (= extremely low-risk) child with a Covid vaccine having
significant short-term risks (e.g., myocarditis) and unknown intermediate- and
long-term effects seems quasi-religious and quasi-political in nature, and has
been frightening to witness.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Vaccine failures:</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The vaccines are only partially-effective, and possibly in
some people may actually facilitate infection via antibody-dependent
enhancement. Their intermediate- and
long-term safety is unknown, and short-term side effects can be significant. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">With seemingly most Covid-19 case data looking worse in 2021
versus 2020, the question of antibody-dependent enhancement becomes ever more
pressing. Hospitalization and mortality
data in the "fully" vaccinated also has been alarming, and
underappreciated by society at large it seems.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Since the vaccinated can just as easily harbor and transmit Covid
than the unvaccinated, while more likely to be asymptomatic and thus mingling
out-and-about, the vaccinated (and the unvaccinated as well) may indeed be at
more risk from other vaccinated people than from those unvaccinated.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Somebody must be blamed for their totally-failed strategy of
going all-in on vaccines to the near-exclusion of therapeutics (especially
those already available like cheap ivermectin), and the leaders are not going
to blame themselves. So the vaccine’s failures
are blamed on those not taking it, a first in history.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><br /></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><i>On the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)</i></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">This past year the CDC has revealed itself, somewhat unexpectedly, to be one of the many failed government institutions in America. Even apart from the medical and policy missteps & politicization, its bumbling data collection issues last year were shocking. E</span>xamples: failed testing roll-out; incomplete data on website; no modeling; no dissemination of best treatment practices; incorrect public recommendation on mask wearing (maybe a lie to protect the supply).</p><p class="MsoNormal">Among the CDC’s many problems is mission creep into social justice and non-contagion-related projects, which dissipate and squander the agency’s effectiveness and betrays Americans. (As an aside on government mission creep, who can forget NASA's Muslim outreach program under Obama?)</p><p class="MsoNormal">The CDC's budget is about $12 BILLION, with 15,000 staff, yet it seems to have been totally unprepared to effectively deal with Covid-19. Its core purpose is to deal with infectious epidemics, and the lifer staffers failed. A complete reformation is needed.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i>The destruction of trust in medical and public-health “experts”:</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">No one believes these "experts" any more, after
they've shown themselves to be politically-based, opinion-based, pharma-captured
control freaks, not science-based. From
mass quarantine to suppression of ivermectin to making sick people die alone to
vaccinating low-risk kids, etc. – just evil.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i>Richard R. Balsamo, MD</i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-9885348611796349842020-12-31T22:47:00.011-06:002021-12-31T15:53:59.382-06:002020 -- The Inflection Point<p>The willing, ongoing sacrifice of liberty to authoritarian
governors, whose dictates have at times been illegal, the brazenly stolen
election that most Republican leaders passively accept, & the politicization of
medicine are the great 2020 tragedies for the American Experiment. </p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">The patient lies in hospital on IV meds and a
heart monitor, but we can only hope that Adam Smith was right when he said there is a great deal of ruin in a nation.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><i>R Balsamo</i></p>This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-82939120768753943102019-10-21T23:12:00.001-05:002020-03-13T17:10:29.443-05:00The Barber of Seville at the Lyric Opera<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Rossini’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Barber
of Seville</i> certainly is a popular opera. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 1954 inception,
the comedy has been performed in 14 seasons, more often than such favorites as
Rigoletto, Carmen, Lucia, and Aida.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
story revolves around the matchmaking machinations of a fellow (Figaro) who has
a day job as a barber, as he tries to link up his rich patron, a count, with
his young inamorata Rosina, who is the ward of an elderly doctor who also has
designs on her. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The opera is an enjoyable comedy, easy to understand, and enduringly
popular as a respite from the tragic, and often excessively melodramatic,
staples of the repertory. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a visual
delight and the audience was certainly entertained.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Musically though the opera does not have the
memorable, emotive arias, duets, and ensembles of dramatic opera, but it has
plenty of melodic scenes with appealing harmonies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The cast was terrific, and thankfully, the
Lyric played it straight with the production, without any dysfunctional, annoying
modern reinterpretations.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some of my earliest exposure to opera and classical music
came from Looney Tunes cartoons, and in my memory I can see and hear the
parody of the Figaro, Figaro, Figaro riff that, as fact would have it, is sung
in the opera by Figaro himself. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sitting
there taking in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Barber</i>, I was distracted
in my mind’s eye by images of Bugs Bunny singing the piece on stage, outwitting
Elmer Fudd while the annoyed audience throws produce at him.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">R Balsamo<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<br />This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-43620200046141567692019-05-23T17:37:00.002-05:002019-09-05T00:27:32.482-05:00Our Lyric Season Closes with Old Favorites Traviata and Boheme<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4JVOsjH2dUDGyCYtudOMcSVsLzU836sOvDh0RK9t3nR9Z4a1ogTLE2_-Z9-WAd8d2BApDpqCK4Xg1mucIovlOXvQpWdNAKXEN-ylR_We5nMv2W5yCnNK7V0YrZSsyjXQE3NdUunThzJCd/s1600/La-Traviata-di-Giuseppe-Verdi-dal-Royal-Opera-House-di-Londra-309x458.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="458" data-original-width="309" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4JVOsjH2dUDGyCYtudOMcSVsLzU836sOvDh0RK9t3nR9Z4a1ogTLE2_-Z9-WAd8d2BApDpqCK4Xg1mucIovlOXvQpWdNAKXEN-ylR_We5nMv2W5yCnNK7V0YrZSsyjXQE3NdUunThzJCd/s320/La-Traviata-di-Giuseppe-Verdi-dal-Royal-Opera-House-di-Londra-309x458.jpg" width="215" /></a></div>
Here’s a belated note about two wonderful operas we saw, moreover
heard, this past winter (which only ended the day before yesterday, hence I
didn’t realize I was so dilatory in posting).
Actually, some recent Lyric Opera promotional materials spurred me to
write. The Lyric, understandably needing
to promote itself these days perhaps more than ever before, markets itself as providing
beautiful musical art that everyday people can (and should) enjoy while
simultaneously casting itself as a vehicle for a more rarefied opera
lifestyle. High-definition DVDs played
on big screens with surround sound and an ever more-juvenile pop culture are
taking their toll.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Verdi’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">La Traviata</i>
and Puccini’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">La Boheme</i> have of
course some great similarities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each is
a story centered on a Parisian woman who wins and then loses at love, only to
be reunited with her lover just before dying from tuberculosis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each opera is its composer’s most popular –
and not for nothing is that true, as they are so full of beautiful music each
is the equivalent of a greatest hits album.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Traviata</i>
production featured Albina Shagimuratova as Violetta, Giorgio Berrugi as her
lover Alfredo, and Zeljko Lucic and his father Germont.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In recent years Lyric patrons have heard the
wonderful voices, and seen the wonderful acting, of Shagimuratova and Lucic, while
Berrugi was very strong in his Lyric debut.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Boheme</i> starred Maria Agresta
as the ill-fated Mimi, Michael Fabiano as her lover Rudolfo, Ann Toomey as her
friend Musetta, and Zachary Nelson as his friend Marcello.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Agresta and Nelson were heard last season in
Puccini’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Turandot</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Both productions featured strong singing and acting, with
sets that were visually traditional yet appealing to a more modern sensibility –
no wacky reinterpretations here by self-centered directors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lyric patrons won’t see these two gems for a while.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Traviata</i>
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Boheme</i> were last produced in 2013,
so it’s maybe a 5-6 year cycle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Next
year <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Luisa Miller</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madama Butterfly</i> will provide our Verdi
and Puccini fixes, spiced up with a production of selected scenes from Donizetti’s
The Three Queens and Rossini’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Barber of
Seville</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But for now Lyric patrons have warm weather to get through. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">R Balsamo<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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Related posts on these operas:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">https://criticalthoughtsblog.blogspot.com/2016/09/la-traviata-at-michigans-harbor-country.html</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">https://criticalthoughtsblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/la-boheme-at-lyric.html<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<br />This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-60200754839603149922019-02-12T13:29:00.000-06:002019-02-17T13:10:18.098-06:00The End of England, Exhibit 937: English Police Ignore Ongoing Rape Gangs to Focus on Real Crime – Misgendering Language<div class="MsoNormal">
In Britain in recent years there have been a number of horrific scandals in which police and community leaders ignored organized, continuous
rape of young English girls by gangs of Muslim men, primarily of Pakistani
origin. As these scandals finally have
come to light, the shocking and pathetic excuse given by the police and others is
that they feared being charged with anti-Muslim bias and racism if they exposed
the rape gangs.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The rape gangs activity in Rotherham, England, is just one
of these scandals, but the most infamous.
The section below is from Wikipedia (<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotherham_child_sexual_exploitation_scandal" target="_blank">link</a></i>),
with emphases mine. Note the
self-censorship – the absence of the word “Muslim” in this explanation that
fear of anti-Muslim bias caused the ethnic English authorities to allow the
Muslim gang rape gangs to rape their own children, and the euphemism “British-Pakistani”
for Pakistani men then living in England. </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal consisted of
the organised child sexual abuse that occurred in the northern English town of
Rotherham, South Yorkshire, <b>from the
late 1980s until the 2010s</b> and the failure of local authorities to act on
reports of the abuse throughout most of that period. .... From at least 2001, multiple reports passed
names of alleged perpetrators, several from one family, to the police and
Rotherham Council. The first group
conviction took place in 2010, when five British-Pakistani men were convicted
of sexual offences against girls aged 12–16.
From January 2011 Andrew Norfolk of The Times pressed the issue,
reporting in 2012 that the abuse in the town was widespread, and that <b>the police and council had known about it
for over ten years</b>.</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In August 2014 the Jay report concluded that <b>an estimated 1,400 children, most of them
white girls, had been sexually abused</b> in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013 by
predominantly British-Pakistani men. A
"common thread" was that taxi drivers had been picking the children
up for sex from care homes and schools.</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>The abuse included
gang rape, forcing children to watch rape, dousing them with petrol and
threatening to set them on fire, threatening to rape their mothers and younger
sisters, and trafficking them to other towns</b>. There were pregnancies—one at age
12—terminations, miscarriages, babies raised by their mothers, and babies
removed, causing further trauma. .... </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>The failure to
address the abuse was attributed to a combination of factors [including] fear
that the perpetrators' ethnicity would trigger allegations of racism and damage
community relations [and] the Labour council's reluctance to challenge a
Labour-voting ethnic minority....</b></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Shocking beyond words: “the Labour council's reluctance to
challenge a Labour-voting ethnic minority” – the English men and women of the
left-wing Labour Party allowed their own young English girls to be raped over
and over again because to even call attention to it might cause the Muslims not
to vote for them in future elections. </div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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So what in God’s name have the British police been doing
with their time, if not arresting gang rapists of their own children? Answer – sending teams of investigators to
check out any allegation of “misgendering” and arresting young English mothers
suspected of using incorrect language. Here’s the recent news (<i><a href="https://dailycaller.com/2019/02/10/mom-arrested-jailed-called-transgender-man/" target="_blank">link</a></i>) out of the land of Winston Churchill (<i>emphases mine</i>):</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A British mother was arrested and incarcerated for referring
to a transgendered woman as a man in online communication. Kate Scottow revealed Saturday that <b>police came to her home, brought her to the
local police station for questioning and left her in a cell for seven hours
while her children watched</b>, <i>The Daily
Mail</i> reports. Scottow had been
engaged in a Twitter dispute with a transgender activist over <b>“deadnaming,” or denying the gender that
someone believes he or she actually is</b>.
News of the arrest follows another incident in the UK, when 74-year-old
Margaret Nelson was questioned by Suffolk police about her social media
comments on transgendered people. </blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Scottow is still under investigation by <b>police — who took her photographs, fingerprints and a DNA sample after
arresting her</b>. They also took the
woman’s mobile phone and laptop computer and haven’t given it back since
Scottow was taken into custody on Dec. 1, 2018.
“I was arrested in my home <b>by
three officers</b>.... for harassment and malicious communications because I
called someone out and misgendered them on Twitter.”</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Hayden’s complaints prompted both the police to arrest
Scottow and a judge to deliver an injunction against her, according to The
Mail.</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
English politicians and police allow Muslim rape gangs to
rape their children while they spend their time quashing "misgendering" language. Millions of men and women died
in living memory to save England. For this? Dear God, what has become of these people? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">R Balsamo</span></i>This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-75633664024013269732019-02-01T23:14:00.000-06:002019-02-12T13:17:56.435-06:00Director John Ford at 125<div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpehi767QbEvd7FMUsClorQ3Qtv4bvHHQdqN5mgKhi6-e0A8RRsMYiJG9N7RWh5EmREw4DXRAd2EDdmzqqpuj4tydDLhofg1LPLVcbg8OFRIKfPZSa-b4gw9ezjQbb0rsUZrRY40FcibLr/s1600/John+Ford.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="268" data-original-width="238" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpehi767QbEvd7FMUsClorQ3Qtv4bvHHQdqN5mgKhi6-e0A8RRsMYiJG9N7RWh5EmREw4DXRAd2EDdmzqqpuj4tydDLhofg1LPLVcbg8OFRIKfPZSa-b4gw9ezjQbb0rsUZrRY40FcibLr/s320/John+Ford.jpg" width="284" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>John Ford</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I’ve loved movies from as far back as I can remember, and my
favorites growing up were filled with action and adventure. When as a young adult I finally began paying
attention to directors, I discovered that many of the films I admired most were
made by John Ford. Today is his
125<sup>th</sup> birthday.<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ford was a prolific director, even by the higher-output
standards of his time, and he had astonishing breadth in subject matter. He won four Academy Awards for Best Director,
more than anyone else. But although those
four films were all non-westerns, Ford is best known today for his magnificent
Westerns. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Harry Carey Sr, Ward Bond, Victor McLaglen, Henry Fonda (in
his early days), and especially John Wayne, whom Ford made a star in his 1939
film <i>Stagecoach</i>, are just some of the
actors particularly associated with Ford.
In fact, he cast in supporting roles a large group of regulars that
became known as the Ford Stock Company.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgflzAS4ABOV2hi56d2GwxPBzdNdsF9oA1hkAY_7w-QC6wYdRK7cGdkmRGDYiKFKO9mtTFi8qnvGF1sYAHYrVXXOh_V1CLfSDZ4YM0JyKTW85GGScoCmiyFzDvJ5_sSbZsBnE1nozEl77nG/s1600/Stagecoach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="155" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgflzAS4ABOV2hi56d2GwxPBzdNdsF9oA1hkAY_7w-QC6wYdRK7cGdkmRGDYiKFKO9mtTFi8qnvGF1sYAHYrVXXOh_V1CLfSDZ4YM0JyKTW85GGScoCmiyFzDvJ5_sSbZsBnE1nozEl77nG/s320/Stagecoach.jpg" width="248" /></a></div>
Ford was admired for his genius, both in narrative and in
technique. But he was a gruff, often-unpleasant
man, and at times mean and vindictive – especially when drunk. Given his personality, Ford had a poor and
unsatisfying family life, but in his films he seems almost obsessed with the
rituals of community and domestic life. Many
of his best films center on family – some of his earlier ones, like <i>Grapes of Wrath</i> and <i>How Green Was My Valley</i>, can seem overly-sentimental and mannered
today, but some that came later are personal favorites – <i>The Quiet Man</i> and <i>Donovan’s
Reef</i>. Other non-Westerns that I
particularly enjoy include <i>What Price
Glory</i>, <i>The Horse Soldiers</i>, <i>Drums Along the Mohawk</i>, and <i>The Last Hurrah</i>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Ford's Westerns stand out, many of them filmed in Monument
Valley (which he put on the map). <i>Stagecoach</i>, <i>She Wore a Yellow Ribbon</i>, and <i>The
Man Who Shot Liberty Valance</i> are particularly noteworthy favorites. And then there’s his masterpiece, <i>The Searchers</i>, which many film buffs
consider perhaps the greatest Western and one of the best films ever made. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2k0HnJ62gw01trmNMnaZUGpL4wNLJHj0KjH2GytdcGMA0arKwOYUW_4XQgwnO5_ljlRsrhxg-9iMDoAjjCI4facKGGoXmoaPH52fgPy5ugo9AFBpG_To0Os8vkUGEPcGt-3NrBNN0hd-8/s1600/The+Quiet+Man.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="248" data-original-width="163" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2k0HnJ62gw01trmNMnaZUGpL4wNLJHj0KjH2GytdcGMA0arKwOYUW_4XQgwnO5_ljlRsrhxg-9iMDoAjjCI4facKGGoXmoaPH52fgPy5ugo9AFBpG_To0Os8vkUGEPcGt-3NrBNN0hd-8/s320/The+Quiet+Man.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
There are certainly other directors who have made many great
films; for me Billy Wilder particularly stands out in this regard. But Ford had an extra dimension, a thread, in
his films that is hard to identify or describe, but it’s there. Once, as the story goes, Orson Welles, certainly
no slouch himself as a filmmaker, was asked to name the directors he most
admired, and he replied: "I like the old masters, by which I mean John
Ford, John Ford, and John Ford."</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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<i>R Balsamo <o:p></o:p></i></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-61885227265870403352019-01-31T18:54:00.000-06:002019-02-07T18:58:41.816-06:00In Key West "Remember the Maine"<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnCfRz9QO5j_XkXIDyt16yy2ZW1qN-_ncJoSUdj5gBR1EqwGBLvNxn8C3HcKTUl8HR79ufNzdjRzWgZGjl7jidtzTonq55Jsebn3HiTAPhY5sUIUOAu3qX0ue5n5Zmw7JE5ukFH-3iXusf/s1600/IMG_9456.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="1024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnCfRz9QO5j_XkXIDyt16yy2ZW1qN-_ncJoSUdj5gBR1EqwGBLvNxn8C3HcKTUl8HR79ufNzdjRzWgZGjl7jidtzTonq55Jsebn3HiTAPhY5sUIUOAu3qX0ue5n5Zmw7JE5ukFH-3iXusf/s400/IMG_9456.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Key West "Maine" Memorial</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
As I huddle indoors enduring the latest polar vortex that has
brought record sub-zero temperatures to the Great Lakes, I warmly recall
that I began this month in the Florida Keys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Specifically in Key West, which isn’t all just sun and fun, boats, beaches,
and bars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are some serious sights to see.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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One notable place is the military section of the Key West
cemetery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s easy to get to, a
moderate walk from most parts of the western, tourist side of the island.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Servicemen from many wars rest there, and not
all American, but the prominent memorial is to the 19 sailors buried there after the explosion of the American Navy cruiser
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Maine </i>in Havana harbor (most of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Maine</i> dead were buried at Arlington National Cemetery).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Maine </i>was one
of the very first American ironclad battleships, still featuring masts in case the
steam engines failed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because of the nine
years between design and completion, and the rapid advance of naval technology,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Maine</i> was obsolete when it entered
service in 1895.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In January of 1898, it steamed
from Key West to Havana to protect U.S. interests during the Cuban uprising
against Spanish rule.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just three weeks
later, on February 15, an explosion sunk the ship in Havana
harbor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over 266 American servicemen men
died, while 89 survived.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In March, the
U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry, sitting in Key West, declared that a naval mine had
caused the blast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This conclusion
has been challenged, and it seems from my reading that most knowledgeable observers
today think that a spontaneous internal coal fire ignited the magazines (the Navy
brain trust had the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Maine</i> using, for
ships, a non-standard type of coal, which burned hotter but was prone to producing
combustible gases).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhORGHzQRL986PWJFbm-JDILPNflYl-rb8rGMu438N3zcjL_yo2YOVK6jXCmexrd8eoqwPEg3zLLs13ewdTqS1JiZGnqVzIs9eYh4gCC5XPXEFm0OzOBy7a61GEo6I2L12zer8IMC8WwKMP/s1600/IMG_9455.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="1024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhORGHzQRL986PWJFbm-JDILPNflYl-rb8rGMu438N3zcjL_yo2YOVK6jXCmexrd8eoqwPEg3zLLs13ewdTqS1JiZGnqVzIs9eYh4gCC5XPXEFm0OzOBy7a61GEo6I2L12zer8IMC8WwKMP/s400/IMG_9455.jpg" width="300" /></a>At the time, the
sinking of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Maine</i> became a rallying
cry (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"Remember the Maine! To hell
with Spain!"</i>) of those who wanted the US to declare war on Spain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The warmongers soon got their wish, and after
a short war the US emerged victorious and the new ruler of Puerto Rico and the Philippines
(and some other places like Wake Island and Guam).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Spanish-American War at the time was viewed
as a great American victory, but actually it is one of the great American
misadventures.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Maine</i> sat on the harbor
floor until 1911, when the US built a temporary dam around it and patched up
the hull.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> What was left of the </span>ship was then floated, towed
out to sea, and re-sunk some miles off the Cuban coast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> It was a </span>sad ending to a misbegotten ship that was
poorly-designed and poorly operated in its power plant, leading to the deaths
of nearly 300 young American men in the bloom of youth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To compound the tragedy, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Maine’s </i>destruction was used to start a war absurdly costly
in blood and treasure, and whose sequelae burden the United States to this very
day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<o:p>And far from tropical Havana, in north-central Illinois, there is this:</o:p></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinOegiK5kgjtR0S31NB5Rw9keY102OOemYYV4Tr5Y9aggirjLgM80MeTVEQArOR8ilRfCgi1i_sWnbj_h1sgLTfSXoCeW3xmbkP0FhYYcas_kWjzt6X0XZP0MR0Cb-bIJM7f-S7-Kqc9Be/s1600/IMG_7067.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinOegiK5kgjtR0S31NB5Rw9keY102OOemYYV4Tr5Y9aggirjLgM80MeTVEQArOR8ilRfCgi1i_sWnbj_h1sgLTfSXoCeW3xmbkP0FhYYcas_kWjzt6X0XZP0MR0Cb-bIJM7f-S7-Kqc9Be/s400/IMG_7067.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A memorial to those who died in the Spanish-American War, in Ottawa, a town in north-central Illinois.<br />
The second body of text begins with "USS Maine seaman Carlton H Jencks." </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The filaments of war reach far and wide.</div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>R Balsamo</i></div>
This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-87566692453961755212019-01-21T16:09:00.000-06:002019-01-22T13:36:50.501-06:00Rotting Out America – the Anti-Trump Political Scandal Percolates On<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
About one year ago I first commented on the great frame-up
of Donald Trump, then after more than a year of unfruitful FBI and Department of Justice investigation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now one whole year later the
witch hunt continues, as its perpetrators labor mightily to push their
discreditable and shameful boulder up the hill, only to have it time and time
again roll back to painfully crush a bone or two.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But as facts are pried loose from the malefactors who fight
hard to keep them all secret, the slow unveiling of the greatest scandal, by
far, in American political history fitfully continues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We see more and more, in drips and drabs, as
time goes on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know indisputably that some
Democrat Party senior officials in the Obama Administration’s national security
team, in the Justice Department, in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and in
the Clinton campaign, strongly aided by Democrat operatives in the media
masquerading as journalists, all conspired to criminally sabotage Donald Trump,
first in his presidential campaign and then in his presidency. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the election, they deftly maneuvered
around hapless Republicans to engineer the appointment of a special inquisitor of effectively all things Trump and in essence charged him with finding the crime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Democrat insiders have known from the
jump that it was all a put on, but still today gullible, Trump-hating true
believers, churlishly refusing to accept an election result, frantically grasp
at illusory straws while specters of collusion dance in their fevered dreams.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Even many so-called Republicans, those whose Democrat-lite political
influence dissipated in the Trump wave or whose exploitation of cheap, illegal labor
is threatened or whose lust for endless foreign wars is unrequited, have looked
the other way at these Democrat depredations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They myopically and delusionally make common cause with the Democrat crocodile
while it rips away at some other Republican, thinking the beast will be forever
satisfied with just Trump.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In political depth and breath, and by the global stakes at
hand, this may be the greatest nefarious frame-up in all political history. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has severely corroded public trust in the FBI
and the Justice Department, the two critical federal agencies once, naively in
retrospect, thought fair and honest and above the political fray.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And senior leaders of the Democrat Party, actively
and passively, have endorsed these affronts, and more (see their vicious, despicable
behavior during the Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation process).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I fear that the evildoers who have betrayed
America’s trust will never be held to account, making further damage to our
polity much more likely, and that this horrific scandal is one giant step
toward a very ugly political future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Romans, Egyptians, and British, to name just a few, at one
time could not imagine that their great states, their great power, could ever
collapse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know though that they first
became hollowed out, until the shell that was left just collapsed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, Americans can only hope that there is a “great
deal of ruin in a nation.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But should
America die, how will it die?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Certainly
slowly at first, politically rotting out behind the facades and underneath the flags,
and then one day all of a sudden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
then having sown the wind, the great destructors will reap the whirlwind.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">R Balsamo<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Related link:<o:p></o:p></div>
<i>https://criticalthoughtsblog.blogspot.com/2017/12/clinton-democrats-fbi-justice.html</i>This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-4928750000704225332018-12-26T18:29:00.000-06:002018-12-27T22:20:45.927-06:00Van Dyck’s Palermo Madonna and Child<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2ANnbp927-X9_cdxmWF5o-Z2bIu0kS6U1gDwN4CAGhbQvGfUHvp2Ij2JGggz9M0ml8Z7w5IB4heXmyDAtv-pjiOSreiXSuQg8IwM1Z_gyKWorTB6OJ5j7kxoOkv8nnQv64GNos46PxslR/s1600/IMG_0021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="412" data-original-width="306" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2ANnbp927-X9_cdxmWF5o-Z2bIu0kS6U1gDwN4CAGhbQvGfUHvp2Ij2JGggz9M0ml8Z7w5IB4heXmyDAtv-pjiOSreiXSuQg8IwM1Z_gyKWorTB6OJ5j7kxoOkv8nnQv64GNos46PxslR/s400/IMG_0021.jpg" width="296" /></a>On Christmas Eve two days ago I posted (<i><a href="https://criticalthoughtsblog.blogspot.com/2018/12/caravaggios-nativity.html" target="_blank">link</a></i>) a photo of the beautiful Caravaggio painting
of the Nativity that was stolen from a Palermo oratory in 1960. Christmastide has me thinking of another
Palermo oratory I had the pleasure of visiting a few years ago. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Oratories are small, Roman Catholic chapels for private worship. Palermo, Sicily, has three of which I am aware,
built by confraternities -- private altruistic organizations of men bound by a
trade or specific object of religious devotion.
In walking distance of the Oratorio di San Lorenzo, in which now hangs a
reproduction of Caravaggio’s <i>Nativity
with St. Francis and St. Lawrence</i>, one can find the Oratorio del Rosario di
San Domenico. This chapel sits behind Palermo’s
great Dominican basilica of San Domenico (which unfortunately was closed both
times the missus and I tried to visit in the spring of 2016). <o:p></o:p></div>
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The Oratorio del Rosario di San Domenico is stunning. Bathed in white with gold accents, the space
is full of three-dimensional ladies, knights, and playful putti. The magnificent altarpiece
is the large painting <i>Madonna of the
Rosary with St. Dominic and the Patroness of Palermo</i>, executed by Anthony van
Dyck in 1628. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq0j9HV4iKyb4OsaWpSKzm8xi1ElAVax-hV6U1j49dap4epCDx27RM_-Gs-j5RSxpYt7LsJkXzlGHlQD36dcQfWkrCB52K3HHqdveLyn9BQQb9fIzVx_thtFo945Db1LOTyxcWwsEGOvS8/s1600/IMG_0071.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq0j9HV4iKyb4OsaWpSKzm8xi1ElAVax-hV6U1j49dap4epCDx27RM_-Gs-j5RSxpYt7LsJkXzlGHlQD36dcQfWkrCB52K3HHqdveLyn9BQQb9fIzVx_thtFo945Db1LOTyxcWwsEGOvS8/s400/IMG_0071.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Oratorio del Rosario di San Domenico in Palermo, Sicily</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who achieved great
success in England, in the Netherlands, and in Italy, where he spent six of his 42 years studying and painting. His Wikipedia entry states that for him Titian’s
“use of colour and subtle modeling of form would prove transformational,
offering a new stylistic language that would enrich the compositional lessons
learned from Rubens.” Van Dyck spent time in Palermo, about 20 years after Caravaggio passed through Sicily, and left
behind in the Dominican community a stunning painting to be especially enjoyed this
Christmas season. </div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">R Balsamo</span></i></div>
This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-77063303904478657892018-12-24T17:32:00.000-06:002018-12-24T17:49:19.734-06:00Caravaggio’s Nativity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYVhMa7q28w6BxmhGesOdd2xsWnUj77cJeN8e2ZXfH1VrCHihagSzS_uuQa0G2zaQ9yACg4CtO0kg58dIuQ4YyqiUI4qUh_Ns2cMyXMVW_3L1H6M5KwLt81D-prxoMxxDLfS5HSPV3eOMk/s1600/Carravaggio+--+Nativity+with+St.+Francis+and+St.+Lawrence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1205" data-original-width="879" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYVhMa7q28w6BxmhGesOdd2xsWnUj77cJeN8e2ZXfH1VrCHihagSzS_uuQa0G2zaQ9yACg4CtO0kg58dIuQ4YyqiUI4qUh_Ns2cMyXMVW_3L1H6M5KwLt81D-prxoMxxDLfS5HSPV3eOMk/s400/Carravaggio+--+Nativity+with+St.+Francis+and+St.+Lawrence.jpg" width="291" /></a></div>
Caravaggio’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nativity
with St. Francis and St. Lawrence </i>is a warm scene of dramatic moment composed
with his typical striking use of light and shadow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
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Caravaggio was born Michelangelo Merisi in Milan and came of
age in the nearby town of the name by which he became famous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pugnacious and temperamental, he spent a fair
amount of his all-too-short life on the lam, running from the jailer or the assassin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He spent some time in Sicily late in his
short life of 38 years, and it was probably there in 1609 that he composed <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Nativity</i> .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The painting found its way to a confraternity
hall in Palermo, the Oratorio di San Lorenzo, where it was on display until
1969 when it was stolen by the mafia, according to all evidence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has never resurfaced, and is said to have
been destroyed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recently, a faithful reproduction
of the painting was created and is now on display where the original hung.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">R Balsamo</i></div>
This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-41262927435258411772018-12-11T23:32:00.002-06:002018-12-12T18:25:58.951-06:00The Lufthansa Heist at 40<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo_A7NJZSoNd8scrmkfHIK9AJKWdYaBRoOfukEGB_JKW4_rRysOaht-vOj_hSu_lBdWNMLoetOL5xYu_QU9pX2i52eM5sQTTkTTL2yyjjRJ5WHeIyXI9vOfepKaN7QDgq4ntPGWvagCnvc/s1600/Lufthansa+Heist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="221" data-original-width="147" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo_A7NJZSoNd8scrmkfHIK9AJKWdYaBRoOfukEGB_JKW4_rRysOaht-vOj_hSu_lBdWNMLoetOL5xYu_QU9pX2i52eM5sQTTkTTL2yyjjRJ5WHeIyXI9vOfepKaN7QDgq4ntPGWvagCnvc/s320/Lufthansa+Heist.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
Today is the 40th anniversary of the incredibly-successful, infamous Lufthansa heist by New York City mobsters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It paradoxically led, through greed and stupidity, to the
destruction of many, if not most, of the men who pulled it off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moral of the story — be careful what you wish
for. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Martin Scorsese, though, got a
great movie out of it, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Goodfellas</i>,
and he may be one of the few who really profited from it all.<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">R Balsamo</i></div>
This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-81228869529711734742018-12-08T17:34:00.002-06:002018-12-08T17:36:27.313-06:00Cendrillon at the Lyric Opera<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp_mVlcv1dgvhNT04g2tPxjOUZNxI80tKL-czS2EtSDtPBWpAf8l9_9wm2NlcP3LZqLEIHTS-7_8weeQb9yshN1nvIU1Ah-d60bzKDbnqHWDLCGoshaxqp6Q0SDCbcZ-8SKMoyzZq1us4w/s1600/Cendrillon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1203" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp_mVlcv1dgvhNT04g2tPxjOUZNxI80tKL-czS2EtSDtPBWpAf8l9_9wm2NlcP3LZqLEIHTS-7_8weeQb9yshN1nvIU1Ah-d60bzKDbnqHWDLCGoshaxqp6Q0SDCbcZ-8SKMoyzZq1us4w/s400/Cendrillon.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
The Lyric offered up a solid production of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cendrillon</i>, French composer Massenet’s
version of the Cinderella story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
the opera’s first showing at the Lyric in its 64 seasons, although it has
offered up Rossini’s variation on the theme, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">La Cenerentola</i>, no less than six times. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Massenet’s version is half comedy (awfully
slapstick in this production) and half drama, and he gives Cinderella’s father a
sizeable role.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although the story line for
the most part is an operatic version of a chick flick, there are a few worthwhile
moments. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Particularly of interest, and the
highlight for me, is the serious, touching Act III scene between Cinderella and
her father, as she despairs of ever again seeing her magical love Prince
Charming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
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In popularity Cendrillon does not rank with Massenet’s main four
– <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Manon and Werther, </i>followed by<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Don Quichotte </i>and<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Thais</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Prince is a
“trouser” role, written for a contralto and featuring a mezzo in this
production; for me, the opera would be more appealing if the part were transposed
for a tenor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Soprano Siobhan Stagg was terrific in the title role in her
American debut, and I also particularly enjoyed bass-baritone Derek Welton as her
meek but gentle and caring father.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sets consisted
of various moving panels with writing on them – inexpensive, minimalist, and very
uninteresting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know opera companies
are struggling with cost control, but this was a pretty lame effort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The show was almost a concert version in
costume.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The blame for the set, though,
gets spread around to many other opera companies, so the Lyric is mostly off
the hook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hell, even the Met used it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I’m happy to have seen <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cendrillon</i>,
though I don’t think I would go out of my way to see it again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If an opera company is going through the
expense of putting on a show, there are a lot more appealing choices on the
list before you come to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cendrillon</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The set was available, sure, but sets
abound.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it’s not as if a packaged cast,
already rehearsed, was readily available, for only Alice Coote as Prince Charming
was a carry-over from last spring’s production at the Met. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So here are two picks, for example, that jump to
mind long before <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cendrillon</i> – Puccini’s
sleeper <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Manon Lescaut</i>, last seen on
the Lyric stage 13 years ago and just that once since 1977, and even Massenet’s
own take on that story, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Manon</i>, regarded
by some as his best opera and last seen at the Lyric in 1983 – 35 years ago.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">R Balsamo<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<br />This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-82094521089160876252018-11-27T17:10:00.003-06:002018-12-06T12:40:45.101-06:00Opera’s Shrinking Audience<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAGcnonOe-aP3HoFVMKNiwzvdOFwGOl4EGpben1Vz2dovaXk388ATOfJS6-XRSsoyBElfrJRzqOePd22Hm4WgtQUSQsmMh5ObHJ9Vm4NKy3WUHoZ-BCM7TZC8ayB051Sms93B4qQzGK9lc/s1600/La+Boheme.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="363" data-original-width="257" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAGcnonOe-aP3HoFVMKNiwzvdOFwGOl4EGpben1Vz2dovaXk388ATOfJS6-XRSsoyBElfrJRzqOePd22Hm4WgtQUSQsmMh5ObHJ9Vm4NKy3WUHoZ-BCM7TZC8ayB051Sms93B4qQzGK9lc/s400/La+Boheme.jpg" width="282" /></a></div>
Earlier this Fall, the Lyric Opera of Chicago suffered
through a short musicians’ strike that caused the cancellation of a few performances,
but a quick resolution was reached and productions are back on. However, the cause of the strike was proposed
reduced employee compensation that the Lyric said was necessitated by the fewer
performances and reduced revenue as a consequence of its shrinking audience.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I've been wondering about this development and why it is so. Multiple factors seem at play. Certainly the wide availability of
high-fidelity opera CDs and DVDs has made an impact. Perhaps even more importantly, opera seems generally
much less familiar to most people than it was decades ago. The general dumbing-down of our popular
culture has had an impact – rarely do opera stars appear in general
entertainment and public venues as they did in the past. For example, years ago opera stars could be
seen on widely-watched TV variety shows and Johnny Carson-like late shows, but programs
like that are no longer common, and the late-night shows have degenerated into junk
time hosted by smug, smirking, and sarcastic personalities offering sophomoric
entertainment to pseudo-adults stuck in perpetual adolescence. <o:p></o:p></div>
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So what can opera companies do in the face of these secular
trends? By themselves, unfortunately
perhaps not much. But they can redouble
efforts to promote opera and their performers in the broader culture and in the
media. Add perhaps some programming
shifts. How about adding a few evenings
of great scenes from a number of operas?
<i>Tosca</i> Act 1, <i>La Traviata</i> Act 2 Scene 1, and <i>La Boheme</i> Act 3, for example, with
narrative introductions that explain each scene. Solo concerts are fine, but they lack the
beautiful mixture of voices in duets and trios and scenes, and lack as well the
costumes and the sets that make opera such a wonderful visual experience. <o:p></o:p></div>
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What about being more aggressive in offering smartly-edited
performances of operas that perhaps don’t get shown because they’re too long or
too complicated. The Lyric’s recent complete
staging of Bizet’s <i>The Trojans</i> (<i>Les Troyens</i>) was wonderful, but it is
very long; some opera companies eliminate the first two acts which are frankly
not the more musically-pleasing parts and are severable plot-wise. Although I like having an opera produced in
its entirety, if length and cost prevent its production an opera is much better
being trimmed than never being seen.
Rossini’s <i>William Tell</i> is
another candidate. Ballet sequences,
where they exist in some operas, are now often omitted in the interest of time,
so the precedent of editing operas is already established.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Finally, I wonder if opera selection has been a factor in
recent years. The current Lyric
management seems to have a tilt toward German, Russian, and modern operas. Of course those operas have their fans, but I
have known few casual opera lovers to pine for a German or Russian opera, or hum a
tune from an atonal modern show. In the
professional opera world and among the intelligentsia that may be true, but for
many of us in the hoi polloi German and Russian operas remain better in theory
than they sound in practice. A good
example of the recent selection tilt is the 2016-2017 Lyric season, which
featured two German operas and one Russian among the eight produced, and,
remarkably, no Verdi or Puccini. Don’t
get me wrong – it featured some wonderful productions – <i>Norma</i>, <i>Carmen</i>, and a
premier of Berlioz’s masterpiece <i>The
Trojans</i>. But no Verdi or even Puccini? <o:p></o:p></div>
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I realize that some in the high-brow set love to love
not-very-popular operas, and I am certainly not arguing for <i>Boheme, Butterfly, Tosca</i>, and <i>Traviata </i>every year or two, but can the
Lyric find room for more Italian classics?
In its 64 seasons, including the current one, the Lyric has put on
Puccini’s beautiful <i>Manon Lescaut</i>
just four times, just once since 1977 and not since 2005-2006. What about Verdi’s <i>La Forza del Destino</i>, put on just three times over 30 years ago, or
his <i>Luisa Miller</i>, done just once in
1982. How about more Bellini, whose
version of the Romeo and Juliet story, <i>I
Capuleti e i Montecchi</i>, has appeared just twice. And never on the menu in 64 years are such
notables as Verdi’s <i>Sicilian Vespers</i>
and <i>I Lombardi</i>, Bellini’s <i>Il Pirata</i>, and Rossini’s <i>William Tell</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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My ideas might not help the Lyric and other opera companies much, and even then perhaps only at the margins. Opera as an art form is swimming against the cultural current for the first time in its history, and it’s a tough slog.<br />
<br />
<i>R Balsamo</i>This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-4310527676120008792018-11-24T13:29:00.001-06:002018-11-25T13:22:54.664-06:00Il Trovatore at the Lyric Opera<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7GkyDoWHFlrXMjuNGw-rvr6u8z-BOgAbMAU7umhu6eKfwzrTT_EoafrSBQjVPK7MdEQ_N0ErUuUvJH-gZQsyCaYShORugihd0-AQlYFI_rfLiJddhMSUw5G_gTLd3231heJwgM70meUUB/s1600/Il-Trovatore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="930" data-original-width="664" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7GkyDoWHFlrXMjuNGw-rvr6u8z-BOgAbMAU7umhu6eKfwzrTT_EoafrSBQjVPK7MdEQ_N0ErUuUvJH-gZQsyCaYShORugihd0-AQlYFI_rfLiJddhMSUw5G_gTLd3231heJwgM70meUUB/s400/Il-Trovatore.jpg" width="285" /></a></div>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Il Trovatore</i> is an
operatic treat, musically and visually, and the missus and I were delighted to
take it all in the other day at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We last saw it four years ago to the month at
the Lyric, and it was just as fresh and wonderful this time around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its music to me is as beautiful as any Verdi
wrote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After its world premiere in Rome
in 1853, according to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Lyric Opera
Companion</i>, a music critic wrote:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“The music transported us to heaven ... because this is, without
exaggeration, heavenly music.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The public
listened to every number in religious silence and broke into applause at every
interval.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
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As remarkable as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Trovatore</i>
is, given the wealth of the Verdi repertory it is only the fourth most-shown Verdi
in the Lyric’s 64 seasons, appearing nine times, after <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Traviata</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rigoletto</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Un Ballo</i>, in that order, and tied with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Aida</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The first production was in 1955 with none other than tenor Jussi Bjorling
and soprano Maria Callas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How’s that for
casting?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, in November of 1955
alone, when the Lyric’s season was very short and very, very sweet, opera
lovers had not only Callas (in three operas) and Bjorling (in five!), but also Giuseppe
Di Stefano, Renata Tebaldi, Tito Gobbi, and Carlo Bergonzi, plus Chicago (Melrose
Park) native Carol Laraia, stage name Carol Lawrence, in no less than six productions.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Trovatore</i> has not been
everyone’s cup of tea, puzzlingly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Highbrow
critics slam it for its allegedly confusing libretto, but, assuming the knock
is even true, few opera lovers have read the libretto, and the plot seems straightforward
to me, and with supertitles at a performance the narrative is quite understandable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those same critics also look down their noses
at Verdi’s supposed retreat in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Trovatore</i>
from the musical “advances” of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rigoletto</i>
(which premiered two years earlier) toward the ideal – loved by the cognoscenti
– of the Wagner-like “numberless” opera – in other words, music that’s better
than it sounds, as Twain supposedly phrased it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Il Trovatore</i> is a
wonderful opera, and the Lyric put on a great show.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Highlights of the performance were soprano
Tamara Wilson as Leonora, mezzo Jamie Barton as Azucena, baritone Artur
Rucinski as Count di Luna, and Roberto Tagliavini as Ferrando.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On tenor Russell Thomas I plead the 5th. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The choruses were terrific, as usual at the
Lyric.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the sets were visually
arresting and appropriate to the storyline, and a welcome step up from the less-expensive
offerings (however understandable) that occasionally pop up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Costuming was fine enough for the leads, but
the Lyric seemingly ran out of gypsy costumes, for most of the gypsies in the
Anvil Chorus gypsy camp scene, set in 15th century rural, northeastern Iberia, were
dressed in relatively-dressy 17<sup>th</sup> century clothing, including some
in top hats; well, there always has to be some transgressive functionary who likes
to poke the audience in the eye, highlighting the need for constant adult
supervision.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Stephanie von Buchau writes in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Lyric Opera Companion</i> that “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Il
Trovatore</i> is the quintessential Italian opera, its drama propelled by the
human voice.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, it is so
quintessential that it was chosen as the opera backdrop for the zany antics of
the anarchist Marx Brothers in their film masterpiece <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Night at the Opera</i>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>High
praise indeed.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">R Balsamo<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A post on the 2014 Trovatore at the Lyric:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<a href="https://criticalthoughtsblog.blogspot.com/2014/11/il-trovatore-at-lyric-opera.html" target="_blank"><i>https://criticalthoughtsblog.blogspot.com/2014/11/il-trovatore-at-lyric-opera.html</i></a></div>
<br />This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-22426328056883207202018-11-11T11:11:00.000-06:002018-11-24T13:34:06.891-06:00One Hundred Years After the Armistice That Paused the Carnage<div class="MsoNormal">
This day marks the one hundredth anniversary of the
armistice that paused, for about twenty years, the senseless slaughter of World
War One. It was called “the War to End
All Wars,” and would that only to have been true, it might have been worth it
all – but it did not and so it was not.
The most prosperous culture in the world, one that certainly should have
known better, descended into madness and almost destroyed itself in quick time. Scores of millions died, all over the world, in
the two-part war that only ended in 1945 and whose effects are very much with
us today.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />
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<br />
As I wrote last year, in the primitive film of 1914 we can clearly
see the pompous, murderously-incompetent, half-decrepit generals and the
effete, smarmy, oily politicos all parading about in herky-jerky motion, full
of themselves, festooned like peacocks with their gaudy European plumes and
sashes, leading the world into war for their own petty, obscure, and erratic
purposes. It was all so absurd, so
comical if not so unspeakably sad, so utterly infuriating, so unimaginably
tragic.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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When the war began in 1914, certainly few, if any, however
foolish they might have been, could have imagined the horrific carnage that was
about to come. But soon they suffered full
well the harsh reality of it all and no doubt most, if they could go back in
time, would have none of it. Yet after
almost three years of this madness, revealed to the world in newspapers, in
film, in photographs, and in letters, in June of 1917 the Americans crossed an
ocean to join in. They disembarked in
France to cheering crowds, smiling while shouting back, it is said, “Lafayette
we are here.” Then over one hundred
thousand of them died, and to this day we don’t really know why.<o:p></o:p></div>
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For years afterward mothers and fathers roamed battlefields looking
for sons who never returned. Nonpareil writer
Jan Morris evokes the profound sadness of inconsolable loss: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In one of the lonely cemeteries in
which, buried where they died, the Anzacs lay lost among the Gallipoli ravines,
the parents of one young soldier wrote their own epitaph to their son, killed
so far away, so bravely we need not doubt, in so obscure a purpose: “God Took
Our Norman, It Was His Will, Forget Him, No, We Never Will.”</blockquote>
</div>
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Canadian physician John McCrae, serving as a front-line
field surgeon in France, wrote a short poem after the burial of one of his friends
killed in battle.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In Flanders fields the poppies blow<br />
Between the crosses, row on row, [....]<br />
We are the dead, short days ago<br />
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,<br />
Loved and were loved, and now we lie<br />
In Flanders fields.</blockquote>
</div>
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McCrae never returned home either, dying himself later in
the war. He was buried near where he
fell.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Western culture paused in the slow suicide it had begun just
a few years earlier, one hundred years ago today, and we still bring out the
poppies to pretend it all stopped just then.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">R Balsamo</span></i>This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-30204720131068379672018-07-25T22:51:00.003-05:002019-09-05T00:34:46.761-05:00Singer/Songwriter Steve Goodman at 70 – You Better Get It While You Can<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje1SrXr6_PGOLTtRxcwhq8Czln_hHxypM8aHF2S-xBFEXivc1iXOwmVYx7onoy-oN4mROSleaul7nq-4NNrCgikAOacX86ypqGN_teOc9WQvBnlKN3_9J38dIDs81WVRDZH304_Axsp-VW/s1600/Goodman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="263" data-original-width="352" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje1SrXr6_PGOLTtRxcwhq8Czln_hHxypM8aHF2S-xBFEXivc1iXOwmVYx7onoy-oN4mROSleaul7nq-4NNrCgikAOacX86ypqGN_teOc9WQvBnlKN3_9J38dIDs81WVRDZH304_Axsp-VW/s320/Goodman.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Today would have been the 70th birthday of the late, great
Chicago singer-songwriter Steve Goodman.
For anyone who saw him perform, it was impossible to imagine that a man with
such youthful energy and bounding joy could ever grow old. Sadly, he did not, passing away in 1984 at
age 36 from the leukemia that plagued him throughout his too-few years among
us.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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His performances were full of energy and sparkle and good
humor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Much of what he sang were his own
compositions, and his style was certainly eclectic, ranging from folk to
country & western to oldies, from soft ballads to comedy to satire to
jazzed-up foot-stompers. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyone who has
had the pleasure of hearing him live, especially in a small club on a warm
summer night, can only wonder why he did not become a bigger star.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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I saw Steve Goodman perform many times in Chicago, in small folk-houses
and in large halls (like the Park West on Armitage Avenue).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of the venues are long-gone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I first saw him in the mid-1970s at the Earl
of Old Town saloon with the great Chicago blues band Martin, Bogan &
Armstrong, and I will never forget their exhilarating rendition of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mamma Don’t Allow It</i>, which no one there,
especially the musicians, seemingly wanted to ever end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A couple years later I returned to the Earl
to see Goodman once again, and smiled as, early in his act, he pulled an
audience member up to play with him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They played for hours, and seeing Steve Goodman and John Prine do an
impromptu three-hour riff was a thrill I still remember.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In his middle career years he was joined in
concerts, and on recordings, by county music legend Jethro Burns. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I once drove alone from Chicago to Rockford, almost
a hundred miles from where I started on the South Side, in a light snow storm
(I was very young then) to see the two of them play; consummate musicians they
were, Goodman on his guitar and Burns on his mandolin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I had the pleasure of conversing with Jethro
Burns for a couple of minutes during a break while standing shoulder-to-shoulder
with him in the small, two-man men’s room – a most pleasant fellow).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few years before his death, Goodman moved,
with his wife and children, to Southern California, hoping for more success from
the connections he could make there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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His breakout hit was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">City
of New Orleans </i>after it was recorded by Arlo Guthrie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had great range in his many compositions –
from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Would You Like To Learn To Dance</i>,
a soft, gentle invitation to take a chance at love, to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Banana Republics</i>, a ballad about disaffected American expatriates
south of the border.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some were intensely
personal, filled with bittersweet emotion, notably <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">My Old Man</i> in which he mourns and reconciles with his long-passed
father, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Old Smoothies</i>, about the
joy his loving grandparents experienced watching an old couple ice skating together.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Goodman had a great sense of humor, and what a treat it was to
see as well as hear him do <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Talking
Backwards</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Auctioneer</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vegematic</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This Hotel Room</i>, or of course <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Broken String Song</i> (which always seemed like he was making it up on the
spot when he actually took time to repair a broken string in the middle of a set).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He could fill up half an evening, if he
wanted to, with just these fun, and funny, songs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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North-sider that he was, Goodman was a big, and
long-suffering, fan of the Chicago Cubs baseball team, and composed two tunes
still often played today – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go Cubs Go</i>
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request</i>
(featuring the now inoperative lyric, funny then – “the doormat of the National
League”).<o:p></o:p></div>
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Along with life-long friend John Prine (fellow Chicagoan and
fellow former US postal worker), Goodman wrote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Souvenirs</i>, a favorite of mine, and the “perfect” country song <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You Never Even Call Me By My Name</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He also popularized songs of other composers,
notably Michael Smith, who wrote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Dutchman</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Roving Cowboy</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Crazy Mary</i>, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Spoon River</i> – all soft ballads that became big Goodman fan favorites.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Goodman was a leading figure among the Chicago
singer/songwriters and folksingers in a now-bygone era, along with others such
as Prine, Bonnie Koloc, Ed and Fred Holstein, and Tom Dundee. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Although not well-known by his fans during his lifetime,
illness and mortality were always on Goodman’s near horizon, perhaps explaining
in part the energized emotion and bittersweet tenderness of so many of the
songs he sang.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You Better Get It While You Can</i> was more poignant than many of us
realized at the time (“from the cradle to the crypt is a might short trip, so
you better get it while you can”).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Steve
Goodman passed away in late September 1984, just days before his beloved Cubs finally
entered post-season play for the first time since before he was born.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Although I enjoy a great deal of popular music I don’t go to
concerts much, preferring mostly to listen to music in a comfortable arm chair
with a subtle pinot at hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Steve
Goodman had to be seen in person, to share in his warmth and energy, and so I
have seen Steve Goodman far more than any other performer, and he is still
sorely missed, after all these years.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">R Balsamo<o:p></o:p></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Related Posts:</i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://criticalthoughtsblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/john-prine-at-65.html" target="_blank">John Prine at 65</a></i><br />
<i><a href="https://criticalthoughtsblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/folkie-tom-paxton-at-75.html" target="_blank">Folkie Tom Paxton at 75</a></i><br />
<i><a href="https://criticalthoughtsblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/laura-nyro-in-my-head.html" target="_blank">Laura Nyro in My Head</a></i></div>
This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-22094832822020281142018-03-31T15:44:00.002-05:002018-11-25T13:23:18.630-06:00Faust at the Lyric Opera<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Chicago’s Lyric Opera has a striking new production of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Faust</i>, Gounod’s most popular opera whose
story is loosely based on Goethe’s most famous play.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Wikipedia entry for the latter asserts
that it “is considered by many to be Goethe's magnum opus and the greatest work
of German literature.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The basic story
is well-known – a disenchanted, aging philosopher named Faust sells his soul to
Mephistopheles in exchange for his earthly transformation into a dashing and
attractive young man, especially, but not exclusively, so he can pursue the
beautiful young maiden Marguerite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many
suffer tragic consequences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Faust</i> debuted in
Paris in 1859 and has become a world-wide favorite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Created in the French grand opera tradition,
like many others of its kind it is so long that many productions scale it
back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thankfully, the ballet is often
omitted entirely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Faust</i> offers some wonderful music in addition to its
thought-provoking story line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But although
there is beautiful, flowing music in this opera, little of it seems to show up
in compilations of favorite opera selections.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The tenor aria “Salut, demeure chaste et pure” is the only one I’ve
frequently encountered. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Lyric production featured terrific singing from the leads
and the usual great vocals from the chorus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>French tenor Benjamin Bernheim
played Faust in his American debut, Ana Maria Martinez played Marguerite in her
one appearance in this role (Ailyn Perez sang the role in the other
performances), Christian Van Horne played Mephistopheles, and Edward Parks was
Marguerite’s brother Valentin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sets,
although somewhat abstract in parts, were for the most part interesting and relievedly
period-appropriate. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Taking in the Lyric
production in sight and sound was a delightful way to spend a few hours. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Faust</i> has evoked
some strong feelings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Despite being
French and spending time studying in Italy, Gounod fell under the spell of
Wagner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the <i>Lyric Opera Companion</i>,
Dale Harris writes that after the appearance of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Faust</i> “accusations of ‘Wagnerism’ were leveled against [Gounod].” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Harris quotes one British critic who “accused [Gounod]
of being to all intents and purposes a German composer ... and too much after
the manner of Wagner to please the lovers of unadulterated music.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joseph
Wechsberg writes in his masterful <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Opera</i> that “Gounod’s <i>Faust</i> remains one of the most popular works in the
repertory, but compared to Carmen it is second-rate salon music...<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The critics hate <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Faust</i> and the public loves it.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Many music lovers take a different view.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Lyric offers that “the score ... simply
bursts with memorable music. Marguerite’s Jewel Song, the Soldiers’ Chorus, the
spectacular final trio — these and much more make <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Faust</i> a sublime experience.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
the public does love it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the Lyric,
in the last 50 years <i>Faust</i> has been the tenth most frequently-produced opera in
the Italian and French repertory, with its six productions second only to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Carmen</i> of those by French
composers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Boito’s treatment of the same
story in his opera <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mephistopheles</i>
seems well-regarded, if not more regarded, by critics but has not been as
popular with the public, as illustrated by its only two Lyric productions in
the past 50 years – both in the 1990s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
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The moral of the Faust story is immortal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although the notion of literally selling
one’s soul to the devil may strike a great many today as fanciful, selling out
one’s principles and honor for some temporal advantage is not, so the story has
lasting relevance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such folly is all the
more tragic when committed by someone old enough to know better, for truly
there’s no fool like an old fool.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">R Balsamo</i></div>
This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-3527333796911980652018-02-12T15:59:00.001-06:002018-02-12T15:59:24.385-06:00Lincoln's Birthday<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN7Qq-K7UU6vd77i_4RPzcMd7sTz3UkSCAa3YVK_rkwLcLOb8LaqVJbe-fWWp1TmcxBrzBhuS9rsMqkGbZpFjVpB99x7D8dFJ_JjS2crAJzsgOXIAMsubqH8fKhd_Dg_vUWwnIjh9zFAie/s1600/Lincoln.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="529" data-original-width="387" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN7Qq-K7UU6vd77i_4RPzcMd7sTz3UkSCAa3YVK_rkwLcLOb8LaqVJbe-fWWp1TmcxBrzBhuS9rsMqkGbZpFjVpB99x7D8dFJ_JjS2crAJzsgOXIAMsubqH8fKhd_Dg_vUWwnIjh9zFAie/s320/Lincoln.png" width="234" /></a></div>
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Today is the anniversary of the birth, in 1809, of Abraham
Lincoln. My small collection of books
specifically on his life include the first edition of the one-volume edition of
Carl Sandburg’s monumental six-volume biography <i>Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years</i>; Stephen B. Oates <i>With Malice Toward None – A Life of Abraham Lincoln</i>; the Library of
America’s two-volume <i>Abraham Lincoln: Speeches
and Writings</i>; James McPherson’s <i>Abraham
Lincoln and the Second American Revolution</i>; Garry Wills’s <i>Lincoln at Gettysburg</i>; and Jan Morris’s <i>Lincoln: A Foreigner’s Quest</i>. Some of these I’ve read fully, and some in
part. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Interestingly, the only one I’ve hardly touched is perhaps the
most famous of all – Sandburg’s biography.
I have a general bias toward more recent scholarship, and I’ve always
been suspicious, unfairly no doubt, that Sandburg was too close in time to the
actual man, and did not have the benefit of more fulsome scholarship and basic
research yet to come. But it’s on my
long get-to list! <o:p></o:p></div>
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Among his many qualities was his sometimes-droll great sense
of humor. One example I enjoy, from
Anthony Gross’s <i>The Wit and Wisdom of
Abraham Lincoln</i>: <o:p></o:p></div>
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While walking along a dusty road in
Illinois in his circuit days, Lincoln was overtaken by a stranger driving to
town. “Will you have the goodness to
take my overcoat to town for me?” asked Lincoln. “With pleasure, but how will you get it
again?” came the response. Lincoln
promptly replied “Oh, very readily. I
intend to remain in it.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>R Balsamo<o:p></o:p></i></div>
This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-31787525102001564722017-12-26T13:04:00.001-06:002017-12-26T19:00:45.778-06:00Clinton Democrats, the FBI, & the Justice Department Caught in the Biggest Political Scandal in American History<div class="MsoNormal">
By all appearances now, Hillary Clinton and the Democrat
Party and their corrupt high-level operatives in the FBI and the Justice
Department funded a pack of lies about Donald Trump’s supposed ties with Russia
and dressed them up in an official-looking “dossier.” They then used those lies to secure legal
justification to spy on Trump and Republicans and promoted those lies through
the liberal media to smear Trump during the 2016 election campaign. Moreover, all indications are that the same senior FBI and Justice Department people who worked so hard to frame Trump were the same ones who colluded with the Clinton people to wrongly clear her of grossly illegal activity. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This is the biggest political scandal in American history,
all the more remarkable because many of the corrupt conspirators <i>to this very day</i> remain in senior positions
in the FBI and the Justice Department. <i>Even now</i>, they are allowed to obstruct
justice by their Republican boss, the seemingly dazed and spineless Jeff
Sessions, and his boss the Republican Donald Trump, remarkably the very object
of the conspiracy. What are Sessions and
Trump thinking – that the FBI and the Justice Department don't report to them,
and that they can do nothing about the Obama and Clinton partisan lawbreakers
still apparently running those two federal organizations that are very much under
their control? I'm sure that never
before in American history have such corrupt, subversive high-ranking federal
officials been allowed to remain in office and continue their conspiracy by the
very President who has been the object of their vicious malfeasance. Breathtakingly remarkable.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>R Balsamo<o:p></o:p></i></div>
This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-53424324345277131352017-12-23T16:18:00.000-06:002017-12-23T18:22:16.703-06:00Republican Tax Reform – Three and a Half Points<div class="MsoNormal">
The Republican Congress and President Trump just passed a
sweeping new tax reform law that significantly changes the American financial landscape. This new law will strengthen American
business competitiveness in world markets and will result in income tax reductions
not just for companies but also for about 80% of taxpayers.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Three important points about this new tax reform law.<o:p></o:p></div>
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First, by lowering the United States corporate tax rate from
one of the highest in the world to a competitive one, tax reform significantly
improves American business competitiveness on the world markets. This will result in higher corporate profits
that will be passed along to shareholders and workers. Already officials in other parts of the world
are expressing deep concern about this substantially-improved American
competitiveness, warning their countrymen that they must also now act to
counter the American move lest they lose business and jobs to American
companies.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Secondly, by greatly expanding the standard deduction tax
reform will mean an estimated 80% of tax filers will be able to use the simple
and quick easy form. This really is tax
simplification for a lot more people.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Finally, the tax reform bill substantially limits the
deductibility of state and local income taxes on the federal tax
calculation. The ability to deduct state
and local income taxes on the federal return amounts to a direct and grossly
unfair subsidy to taxpayers in higher-tax states from taxpayers in lower-tax
states. The amount someone pays in
federal income tax should not depend upon the state in which he or she lives. Although some Republicans wanted the subsidy eliminated
altogether, a compromise was reached that caps the state and local tax
deduction to $10,000 per year. Thus, a
huge bump in tax fairness across America. <o:p></o:p><br />
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Of course, the disgraceful and outrageous special tax break specifically for hedge fund managers, the so-called "carried interest" loophole, was left untouched. One can only imagine all the dollars those financiers drop into politicians' coffers. But hey, nobody's perfect, and there's always next time. </div>
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<i>R Balsamo<o:p></o:p></i></div>
This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-81148080306655180712017-12-11T15:31:00.001-06:002017-12-22T12:00:45.945-06:00Allenby and Trump Enter Jerusalem<div class="MsoNormal">
One hundred years ago today the British World War One Near
East offensive against the Ottoman Turks reached Jerusalem on its way north. General Edmund Allenby famously dismounted and with his
officers modestly entered the holy city on foot through the Jaffa Gate, the entry
way of the pilgrims of past centuries.
During this military campaign Allenby commanded T. E. Lawrence (“Lawrence
of Arabia”), who was the British liaison to and motivator of the Arab desert fighters against their common enemy, the Turks. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAb8ywuNf2R-cUoliMLJPXB-x0r1N6O1GwL1LaMcQGKIyKOZfxivcmYk28RlBjyPSmIDUiDeXomhDzZTYgTS5bJFa4UqFSj-GqXBFhclzSX8FFWNqT-Zu65k7-aXsnsJhdWmQqnyuPEhhw/s1600/Allenby+Entering+Jerusalem.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="381" data-original-width="669" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAb8ywuNf2R-cUoliMLJPXB-x0r1N6O1GwL1LaMcQGKIyKOZfxivcmYk28RlBjyPSmIDUiDeXomhDzZTYgTS5bJFa4UqFSj-GqXBFhclzSX8FFWNqT-Zu65k7-aXsnsJhdWmQqnyuPEhhw/s400/Allenby+Entering+Jerusalem.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Allenby Entering Jerusalem on December 11, 1917</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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In one of those small but telling coincidences of history,
President Donald Trump has just announced that the United States is formally recognizing
Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which it is in fact, and will move the US
embassy there. This move comports with
the previously-stated positions of Presidents William Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack
Obama, and also of the United States Senate, which in 1995 passed the Jerusalem
Embassy Act by massive majorities in the Senate (93-5) and House (374-37) and
which just this past June passed a resolution 90-0 reaffirming the American
position that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. President Trump continues to move forward, in
a show of strength that will improve the chances of peace, in stark contrast to
his recent predecessors who were all talk and no action, and whose fecklessness
only led to more strife in a part of the world where, in the end, one can only
gain peace through strength.</div>
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<i>R Balsamo<o:p></o:p></i></div>
This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-71346277263840770312017-12-08T18:27:00.000-06:002017-12-08T18:27:14.839-06:00The National Football League Doubles Down on Its Ultraliberal, Social Justice Warrior Boss Goodell<div class="MsoNormal">
There’s a rule that I’ll paraphrase: all organizations not explicitly conservative
or politically neutral, and not continually reinforced to be so, become liberal
over time. The National Football League is
a case in point. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Last year, in a story on which I commented (<i>link below</i>), NFL Commissioner Roger Goddell slammed then-candidate Donald
Trump over his alleged past behavior toward women. Goodell was, at the same time, a supporter of
candidate Hillary Clinton who for many years was the vicious smearer-in-chief
of any and all women who came forward to credibly and contemporaneously accuse
her husband of sexual assault and rape, accusations almost every honest person
now believes. In addition, Goodell
presided over a group of football teams made up of a shocking number of players
who had raped, assaulted, or otherwise terrorized women, and many of those
players had received slap-on-the-wrist penalties from Goodell for such
behavior. In defending the NFL players
who had beaten women, Goodell said “people do not understand the complexity of
domestic violence.” Perhaps in Goodell’s
mind getting beaten up from time to time is just an occupational hazard of
becoming a domestic partner of an NFL player that every women accepts going in.
Goodell seems to think that NFL players
are very important people and deserve special allowances. For their women, pay-to-play, so to speak.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Finally, last year Goodell supported the anti-police
demonstrations instigated by now former player Colin Kaepernick, who, among
other affronts, wore socks with cartoons depicting police as pigs. This current NFL season, the widespread police-hating
protests by NFL players during the pre-game national anthem has caused many
fans to boycott the games. Some stadiums
have been half-empty this year. <o:p></o:p></div>
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To appease the anti-police protesting players, particularly
the many black players at the core of the movement, Goodell’s NFL has agreed to
spend almost $100 million on “causes important to black communities.” Read “Black Lives Matters,” the movement
based on a lie that, by causing police to step back from aggressive
enforcement, has directly caused the spike in deaths in the black neighborhoods
of cities such as Chicago and Baltimore.
Reportedly this NFL money is coming out of funds previously earmarked
for breast cancer and military veterans’ causes. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Nevertheless, in the face of Goodell’s politicization of the
NFL, his disastrous handling of the anti-police protesting, and his alienation
of a large segment of the fan base, the NFL owners have just extended his
contract. The NFL owners want more Roger
Goodell. They are doubling down on the
left-wing politicization of the league and anti-police protests, thinking fans
won’t mind paying exorbitant ticket prices knowing they are helping to fund the
anti-police Black Lives Matters protestors.
I cannot fathom the thinking of the NFL owners. <o:p></o:p></div>
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My thoughts. From now
on, no more public funding, which was never right or sensible to begin with, of
stadiums that are a huge free gift to already-rich team owners, enabling them
to have all the more cash to donate to anti-police activists. And high-time to revoke the unfair special
exemption the NFL has long had from the nation’s anti-trust laws. And now that everyone knows of the widespread
tragedy of chronic traumatic encephalopathy among football players, it may be
time for former players to sue the NFL owners out of existence. They’ve known for a long time about the
problem and have looked the other way. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The NFL owners and players have sown the wind, and it’s now
time they reaped the whirlwind. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">R Balsamo</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Related link:</span></i><br />
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<i><a href="https://criticalthoughtsblog.blogspot.com/2016/11/nfl-head-roger-goodell-tolerates-thug.html" target="_blank">NFL Head Roger Goodell Tolerates the Thug, Domestic-Violence Prone Football Culture and Supports Anti-American Protests But Slams Trump</a></i><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-29792879276371237252017-11-30T17:57:00.000-06:002018-11-25T13:23:50.813-06:00The Pearl Fishers at the Lyric Opera<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBZwtEJVc9n4byYTidT0oBXjgKcUpV9K0Y6VJ8e-6oTPVW6STA1T3zT3jWrtOk3VI7pXULbfSqGsiUU0V-41tiBc-Cz1mUtUzyY7kZPht4bJKKbgtBfIUDHwJCgq7NCrOaU4IdSszMcov_/s1600/Pearl+Fishers+at+the+Lyric.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="484" data-original-width="808" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBZwtEJVc9n4byYTidT0oBXjgKcUpV9K0Y6VJ8e-6oTPVW6STA1T3zT3jWrtOk3VI7pXULbfSqGsiUU0V-41tiBc-Cz1mUtUzyY7kZPht4bJKKbgtBfIUDHwJCgq7NCrOaU4IdSszMcov_/s320/Pearl+Fishers+at+the+Lyric.png" width="320" /></a></div>
A mention of Bizet and one naturally thinks of the composer’s
masterpiece <i>Carmen</i>, but he was not a
one-hit wonder. Ten years before that eventual
favorite, in 1863 at the tender age of 24 he introduced Paris to a love story
set on the island of Ceylon. <o:p></o:p></div>
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A wandering adventurer arrives at a village of pearl
fishermen and meets up with a long-lost friend.
Years ago they both loved the same woman, a priestess, but renounced
that love to maintain their strong friendship.
Early in the story, before tensions develop, they sing one of the, if
not <i>the</i>, most well-known and well-loved
tenor-baritone duets in the Italian-French repertory – <i>Au fond du temple saint</i>. I
think the first version I ever heard was perhaps the most famous one of all, recorded
in 1951 by tenor Jussi Björling and baritone Robert Merrill.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Then the priestess surprisingly reappears, under a pledge of
chasteness, and conflict ensues. The
story is a relatively simple one, as opera goes, about love, loyalty, and honor. And all along the way we are treated to sumptuous
music and arresting visuals. In addition
to the famous duet already mentioned, of particular note are the wonderful
soprano-tenor duet and soprano and tenor arias, and plentiful chorus singing,
all a delight as our imagination is drawn to a faraway place and time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This month the Lyric did a splendid job putting on this production. The sets and lighting were very well-done, and
those responsible deserve a special tip of the hat. In fact the sets were perhaps the most
colorful I've ever seen in an opera. The
singing was spectacular. Latvian soprano Marina
Rebeka was the priestess, American tenor Matthew Polenzani the fellow who wins
the girl, and Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecien the odd man out. The rest of the singers and especially the
chorus were also terrific. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This isn't ballet-saturated French Grand Opera, but Bizet
was of that place so occasionally there was some dancing about, though it was
generally uninteresting and ended just before it got annoying.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>The Pearl Fishers</i> was
a flop when it premiered, standing it in good company with some other initial
sleepers. After an initial short run it
was not revived in Bizet’s lifetime. Well,
those same Parisians pooh-poohed Berlioz’s masterpiece <i>The Trojans</i> that same year (the insightful Berlioz was perhaps the
only music maven in Paris to have a good word to say about <i>The Pearl Fishers</i>). The
unfortunate Bizet went to his grave in his late 30s convinced that <i>Carmen</i> and <i>The Pearl Fishers</i> were both flops.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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Eventually the opera found its way into the repertory, but
still today seems not highly regarded. Apparently
to the cognoscenti the libretto is not sophisticated enough and the score not complex
enough – the opera is not as good as it sounds, they say, to borrow a phrase. But after listening to the rich melodies while sitting
in a darkened theater captivated by colorful sets, all an inviting stimulative to
the imagination, I wonder – what do the experts really know? Opera is too important to be left just to
them. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>An earlier related commentary:<o:p></o:p></i><br />
<i><a href="https://criticalthoughtsblog.blogspot.com/2017/03/carmen-at-lyric-opera.html" target="_blank">Carmen at the Lyric Opera</a></i></div>
This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969616391540382777.post-37871045419417484232017-10-23T22:36:00.000-05:002017-10-29T12:26:16.396-05:00Dropping in on Bang the Drum Slowly<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVIInW-fY_8CKvuNjeZf79-MvNousa2Cg3VoRBLaF5Ms06rjaBlxynE4_Frb9_-liNX2INP0Dgsn1gGk33XObWXsetNW5hqJvtd4OoXRfhxSCV1kI7A8kd1SEjvJa2tRiuwg59bLrd1HV6/s1600/bang-the-drum-slowly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="494" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVIInW-fY_8CKvuNjeZf79-MvNousa2Cg3VoRBLaF5Ms06rjaBlxynE4_Frb9_-liNX2INP0Dgsn1gGk33XObWXsetNW5hqJvtd4OoXRfhxSCV1kI7A8kd1SEjvJa2tRiuwg59bLrd1HV6/s320/bang-the-drum-slowly.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
This 1973 film tells the bittersweet story of a star major
league baseball pitcher who protects and supports his less-talented and
simple-minded friend and teammate who just learns he is dying from Hodgkin’s
disease. The title comes from a phrase
in the song <i>Streets of Laredo</i>, a story
about a dying young cowboy, and the haunting tune is a backdrop in the film. Michael Moriarty and Robert De Niro, unknowns
at the time, give strong, understated performances, and Vincent Gardenia almost
steals the show as the comically-frustrated manager who tries to find out the
secret he knows the two men are hiding. I
enjoyed watching the film once again after so many years, getting absorbed in its
slow rhythms, soft humor, and poignant moments. In the movie world, this is one of those
little gems that get lost in the glare from the big chunks of fool’s gold. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>R Balsamo<o:p></o:p></i></div>
This Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08575564677244390248noreply@blogger.com0