Every so often I remember to check Michael Ramirez’ cartoons. He’s very talented and I often agree with his takes. Obviously, he is a NeverTrumper.
Because I know I am biased and as capable as anyone of fooling myself, I try to use my disagreement with people with whom I usually agree to examine that disagreement to check myself. Am I missing something?
Ramirez appears to believe that it is impossible for anyone to have any doubts about the 2020 election. Given the massive number of statistical red flags, as well as all the evidence of illegalities and improprieties, and the failure to investigate them, I don’t see how it is possible to KNOW that the election could not have been stolen. Simply as an exercise in logic his conclusion fails. So I presume that he has let his dislike of Trump flavor his opinion. He’s fumbled his humble.
Recently, he made fun of Trump for arguing that he is being framed. But in order to accept that the FBI and DOJ are acting in good faith, one has to ignore mountains of evidence of their dishonest, corrupt and illegal actions in dozens of different matters over the last decade (a lot of them against Trump and his aides). So, again, I presume he has let his dislike of Trump flavor his opinion.
I’ve seen a lot of people who normally vote GOP talk of DeSantis as “Trump without the baggage”. I love DeSantis. But I’m shocked that anyone could believe that DeSantis by 2024 will not be saddled with every bit as much “baggage” as our enemies dumped on Trump. I ask myself once again — am I missing something? This seems obvious to me. Trump is and has always been far cleaner and free of scandal (in any honest and legitimate world) than Biden. Or Hillary. Or any of a large number of Democrats. Sure, he’s abrasive, an exaggerator, vain, thin-skinned and a self-promoter. But so are Hillary and Biden. And they are ugly and nasty even when in conversations with voters. Both are far worse on those metrics and I can’t imagine that any fair observer could disagree. Evidence matters. Or it should. All of Trump’s “baggage” is manufactured by fraudulent, corrupt enemies. And given their success, we should expect the same gameplan against DeSantis.
I guess I’m curious why some conservatives seem obsessive in their insistence that Trump be held to standards that no else is held to. Am I missing something?
Is it a desire by some to avoid being labelled an “extremist” by lefties? They don’t want to be considered part of the “icky” group of redneck Neanderthals by their friends who are Democrats?
its a style thing, trump is a blunt instrument, desantis is a smoother character with fewer sharper edges, I appreciate both, but he faces an institutional army that is hellbent on dismantling this country,
stan,
I’m not really a fan of Trump. I didn’t like him in the ’80s, when many people embraced his “art of the deal” persona. He always came across as a carnival barker to me. I did not vote for him in 2016. He did some incredibly tone deaf and stupid things while President.
However, he held to the Constitution more than any President in my lifetime since, maybe, Reagan. He accomplished some amazing things; the U.S. became a net exporter of fuel, he got Mexico to hold immigrants on their side of the border, the middle east peace deal, Europe funding for NATO, reduction and streamlining of U.S. regulations. And, most amazingly, I don’t think Roe would have been overturned had he not been President*! So, I voted for him in 2020. His behavior on election night was abominable and much of his behavior from then to January 6th was ignorant. He says a lot of outrageous stuff. Some of it makes me laugh. Some of it makes me cringe. Some of his threats and verbal attacks against U.S. citizens while President were way over the line coming from the head of the Executive Branch.
He’s a hard guy to like and he seems to revel in making it hard. And, like you, I think Michael Ramirez is very talented. I don’t always agree with him, but he is fantastic at what he does.
*I know that happened after he left office, but his judges made it possible.
I wasn’t a fan of trump, i’ve made that point clear, largely because of his iraq war statements, and his groveling to obama, that first year, then choosing the tired birth certificate gambit, hence I voted for cruz in the primary, (who is signing on to that minitrue bill, that will make samizdat site like this impossible) but I warmed to him, because the alternative is pure hillary evil, make no mistake all the horrors we face now, would have come with this slithy tove’s accession,
so what should he have done, we know they committed fraud by the evidence of what they have wrought, january 6th was a toga party that got out of hand, except for the live ammunition, whether it was merely the mail ballots or the digital backup this was the mechanism to seize the ship of state, I still trust Sydney Powell because she has a reputation for speaking truth, Lawfare doesn’t legitimate objections, it’s the tool the terrorist financiers used to silence critics,
as with one of obama’s key money men, who was a baathist bagman,
I described in the other thread, the caliber of the men, that have been hunting trump, mueller shut down bcci investigation on barr’s orders, he learned to do that with whitey bulger’s blood strewn boston, comey, of a similar breed that guiliani bred in the southern district, mccarthy is perhaps the dimmest of these, as the sheikh trial bore out, and he let ali mohammed skip town in order to plan the embassy bombings, (from all indications, mohammed was the primary source for the August 6th PDB which left out as much as it included,)
I suggested the obvious some weeks ago, that the smear campaign against DeSantis would escalate dramatically and quickly. I’d be curious to hear from hard core Dem voters when they think they began to hear or form negative opinions of DeSantis. Recently, or earlier?
_____
There is this provocative but semi-obvious thesis put forward today.
It must be at least partially true. However, I suspect the author’s thinking that Kamala is very intellectually deficient is not really correct. I think that she is getting a large amount of presentation instruction that is yielding these abysmal media appearances.
I’ll guess that there are two motivations for her presentations. 1) They are targeting the dumbest of the electorate. 2) They don’t want her to say anything substantive and remain a “blank slate” or screen upon which voters can project their wishes or hopes.
Number 2) was Barack Obama’s stated goal which worked marvelously IMO. Unlike Kamala, he was very good at addressing topics at some length without really saying much. He could talk around a topic in a way that seemed relevant and he could run down the clock with that pleasant sonorous voice of his. One of the goals of this is to avoid pressing any hot buttons. And if he or she ever did press one, supporters could always say, or better yet imply, that he or she is black and the detractor is racist.
Hate to be a party pooper(!)…but, um…DeSantis is a Nazi, too!!
(Just ask the latest boy-wonder expert on the Holocaust….well, at least he has the right surname…)
…Or at least a semi-demi-hemi Nazi…
(OK, OK, I’m exaggerating, OK….a semi-demi-hemi FASCIST!…)
(Hey, not to worry—we all are!!…)
well fetterman is dumb as a stump, and very dangerous, like a kitten playing with firearms, now harris is just lazy at the prog table, like she doesn’t even pretend to make the argument,
I think patty murray, who may finally be accountable, is in the similar version for white women, she was the beta version, saying nothing at great length,
we are all wolverines*, my self more c thomas howell than patrick swayze
yes ken burns crossed the tufnel line between clever and stupid, like a 18 wheeler on the PCH, see sunny hostin a more presentable version of joy reid,
*high school mascots, and red dawn resistance,
Patty Murray, the beta version. Nice.
Biden is getting worse, a lot worse. See the video below
I was a Cruz primary voter, but voted for Trump twice. Lots of smaller things bothered me about Trump, but only one jumps to mind that shocked me. That was his inauguration speech. It was very ill considered. Where was his team or did he override them?
And we can now say that it wasn’t a very good team. Where were the shrewd political mechanics? OTOH, a few shrewd GOP political mechanics are actually doubly shrewd Democrat mechanics (effectively or literally).
Carnage is exactly what they delivered on our streets, for at least the last two years, this was within hours of an actual insurrection, i would call it a terror attack on the dc streets, not to mention an aborted effort to poison delegates, see I remember the important things,
Chris Christies list of blanc mange, he recommended his atty Ray, kissinger and co recommended Tillerson, would I have trusted Michael Cohen, with anything more than picking up lunch, no, but he was doing a favor for a family friend
What was so terrible about Trump’s inaugural address? It was politically pointed, but I don’t can’t find any of the offensive things he said in other appearances in that speech. It was less “unifying” that Biden’s address, but also less clichéd, less windblown, more plainspoken, and more direct. To me at least, Trump came closer to achieving the goals outlined in his speech than Biden has to his own professed goals.
The media singled out “American carnage” with appropriate visual and audio effects to make it appear that the speech was darker than it actually was. Washington DC is a company town, and the DC media is very protective of their hometown’s only industry, so criticism of the political establishment and bureaucrats goes down much less smoothly there than it does in the rest of the country.
I thought it was much too pointed, and blunt, and inartful. It really is an event that calls for skilled rhetoric and word-smithing, or so I believe. It is largely a style issue, but for so much of the country, style and inflection is about the only thing they take away from such things.
om,
If that natural gas forecast plays out through this winter that will be very good news!
On Trump vs DeSantis. The main argument, in my view, for DeSantis over Trump is their respective appeal to the more middle of the road voter. Anecdotal, but I know quite a few voters (friends and family) who are not as conservative as I am, who voted for Trump in 2016. Why? because they couldn’t stand Hillary and rightly thought she was a liar and a disaster. 4 years later, after getting a full dose of Trump braggadocio etc, they voted for Biden. Personality matters a lot to these people, not so much results. Thus, despite the coming smear campaign against DeSantis, or whoever the GOP nominates, that person will be viewed in a more favorable light than Trump. And the GOP needs those voters.
Rufus T Firefly:
There was a Perun YouTube presentation about a month ago regarding the war in Ukraine that included steps that European countries were already taking to mitigate Vlad’s grand energy plan. I also hope that their actions are successful and that the winter isn’t severe.
I wish there were more FBI agents like this guy. Of course, he ended up losing his job over actually having principals. If there were many, many more agents who were willing to put their principals ahead of their careers, maybe there might be real change at the FBI. Yeah, it’s hard to risk a government gig with all its benefits, but huge numbers of Americans no longer trust the FBI at all and no longer believe that there are any number honest field agents.
The middle of the road voter you’re talking about is someone right now. In two more years our media betters will have besmirched DeSantis’ reputation. far worse than they did Trump’s. They know how to do it now, and they have a two year head start.
In re DeSantis – at least one Democrat in Florida likes him.
(h/t Barry on another thread)
no they don’t want him back, probably face the fate of that benghazi suspect, anwar al libi, who died on the boat back,
Here’s a new discovery which AesopFan may appreciate. It’s Terry Riley’s “Olson III” performed by a Swedish high school orchestra and chorus.
Riley was one of the founding American minimalist composers from the sixties and the first I fell in love with on the basis of his “Rainbow in Curved Air.” There’s a good chance you have heard a snatch of that piece without knowing it.
Riley’s first triumph was the groundbreaking piece “In C,” which is to say in the key of C. It didn’t have a standard classical score. Instead it was a sequence of musical phrases. The musicians were instructed to play each phrase as many times as they wished before proceeding to the next, while listening to the other players. Eventually everyone arrives at the last phrase, then plays the last invocation of the last phrase, and the piece resolves.
It doesn’t sound like a promising idea. It is indeed chaotic. But quite organic, like listening to the rain or watching shadows change on a wall. I found it oddly powerful. I knew a bookseller who bought four vinyl copies, figuring he would eventually wear them all out, he loved the piece so much.
Terry Riley moved on to an electronic style using phase loop tape delays, which allowed him to get similar effects playing solo, as in “Rainbow in Curved Air.”
“Olson III” follows the same rules as “In C” with a different set of phrases, and in this case with an amateur group of musicians. I’d never heard it before. It was wonderful to find another piece like “In C” and I swear, as the reviewer below says, you can hear the excitement of the kids playing.
___________________________________
Recorded live in Stockholm in 1967, this archival release appeared in 1999 to much anticipation, as it represents a vital chapter in the rediscovery of American minimalism. Terry Riley premiered this phenomenal work, Olson III, in Sweden — a 53-minute composition for orchestra, chorus, and his own soprano sax. A Swedish high school orchestra performed his composition with renowned local minimalist composer Folk Rabe at the controls. The music allows a large degree of improvisation in order to create the phase variations that are one of the signatures of Riley’s hypnotic music. The delight of the young students indulging in the ecstatic drones of this highly experimental new music is audible in the explosive performance that they give to the piece.
But I’m shocked that anyone could believe that DeSantis by 2024 will not be saddled with every bit as much “baggage” as our enemies dumped on Trump. I ask myself once again — am I missing something?
stan:
That’s a good faith question. I agree and disagree.
Sure, every Republican candidate going back to the days of FDR and Truman has been saddled with Fascist! accusations, but Trump’s blunt, blowhard, carnival barker persona coupled with some shady business dealings is tailor-made to cement a Fascist! image moreso than previous Republicans.
Participants here understand, or have come to understand, that’s a false appraisal of Trump. But Democrats can shoot at that image like fish in a barrel for partisan gain more than if DeSantis were the candidate. I think it’s something of a problem.
Of course, I will vote for Trump in 2024, if he runs and wins the nomination.
Rufus T. Firefly
“He’s a hard guy to like”. That’s a first world problem. When your country is heading in the direction we are results and vision count the most. Makes perfect sense. His path can save us, but….we dont like him. Points off for style.
I’ve got Amazon Music streaming and today I thought to check out “Hot Tuna,” a love from my hippie past.
“Hot Tuna” — no reason for most readers here to know — was a side project from the Jefferson Airplane, composed of guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady. They eschewed the Airplane’s psychedelic visions for straight country-blues-rock.
They’ve had numerous side guys, but it’s still Jorma & Jack performing as “Hot Tuna.” Amazon Music has a very recent live performance from 04-22-2022 in Hartford.
I swear to you, “Hot Tuna” in 2022 sounds no different from “Hot Tuna” on their first album in 1969. (OK, Jorma’s vocals dropped a couple notes.)
It’s a weird sort of conservatism, but I’ll argue the point. “Hot Tuna” is playing in the Church of the Blues. There is and will always be such a church.
Every so often I remember to check Michael Ramirez’ cartoons. He’s very talented and I often agree with his takes. Obviously, he is a NeverTrumper.
Because I know I am biased and as capable as anyone of fooling myself, I try to use my disagreement with people with whom I usually agree to examine that disagreement to check myself. Am I missing something?
Ramirez appears to believe that it is impossible for anyone to have any doubts about the 2020 election. Given the massive number of statistical red flags, as well as all the evidence of illegalities and improprieties, and the failure to investigate them, I don’t see how it is possible to KNOW that the election could not have been stolen. Simply as an exercise in logic his conclusion fails. So I presume that he has let his dislike of Trump flavor his opinion. He’s fumbled his humble.
Recently, he made fun of Trump for arguing that he is being framed. But in order to accept that the FBI and DOJ are acting in good faith, one has to ignore mountains of evidence of their dishonest, corrupt and illegal actions in dozens of different matters over the last decade (a lot of them against Trump and his aides). So, again, I presume he has let his dislike of Trump flavor his opinion.
I’ve seen a lot of people who normally vote GOP talk of DeSantis as “Trump without the baggage”. I love DeSantis. But I’m shocked that anyone could believe that DeSantis by 2024 will not be saddled with every bit as much “baggage” as our enemies dumped on Trump. I ask myself once again — am I missing something? This seems obvious to me. Trump is and has always been far cleaner and free of scandal (in any honest and legitimate world) than Biden. Or Hillary. Or any of a large number of Democrats. Sure, he’s abrasive, an exaggerator, vain, thin-skinned and a self-promoter. But so are Hillary and Biden. And they are ugly and nasty even when in conversations with voters. Both are far worse on those metrics and I can’t imagine that any fair observer could disagree. Evidence matters. Or it should. All of Trump’s “baggage” is manufactured by fraudulent, corrupt enemies. And given their success, we should expect the same gameplan against DeSantis.
I guess I’m curious why some conservatives seem obsessive in their insistence that Trump be held to standards that no else is held to. Am I missing something?
Is it a desire by some to avoid being labelled an “extremist” by lefties? They don’t want to be considered part of the “icky” group of redneck Neanderthals by their friends who are Democrats?
its a style thing, trump is a blunt instrument, desantis is a smoother character with fewer sharper edges, I appreciate both, but he faces an institutional army that is hellbent on dismantling this country,
stan,
I’m not really a fan of Trump. I didn’t like him in the ’80s, when many people embraced his “art of the deal” persona. He always came across as a carnival barker to me. I did not vote for him in 2016. He did some incredibly tone deaf and stupid things while President.
However, he held to the Constitution more than any President in my lifetime since, maybe, Reagan. He accomplished some amazing things; the U.S. became a net exporter of fuel, he got Mexico to hold immigrants on their side of the border, the middle east peace deal, Europe funding for NATO, reduction and streamlining of U.S. regulations. And, most amazingly, I don’t think Roe would have been overturned had he not been President*! So, I voted for him in 2020. His behavior on election night was abominable and much of his behavior from then to January 6th was ignorant. He says a lot of outrageous stuff. Some of it makes me laugh. Some of it makes me cringe. Some of his threats and verbal attacks against U.S. citizens while President were way over the line coming from the head of the Executive Branch.
He’s a hard guy to like and he seems to revel in making it hard. And, like you, I think Michael Ramirez is very talented. I don’t always agree with him, but he is fantastic at what he does.
*I know that happened after he left office, but his judges made it possible.
I wasn’t a fan of trump, i’ve made that point clear, largely because of his iraq war statements, and his groveling to obama, that first year, then choosing the tired birth certificate gambit, hence I voted for cruz in the primary, (who is signing on to that minitrue bill, that will make samizdat site like this impossible) but I warmed to him, because the alternative is pure hillary evil, make no mistake all the horrors we face now, would have come with this slithy tove’s accession,
so what should he have done, we know they committed fraud by the evidence of what they have wrought, january 6th was a toga party that got out of hand, except for the live ammunition, whether it was merely the mail ballots or the digital backup this was the mechanism to seize the ship of state, I still trust Sydney Powell because she has a reputation for speaking truth, Lawfare doesn’t legitimate objections, it’s the tool the terrorist financiers used to silence critics,
as with one of obama’s key money men, who was a baathist bagman,
I described in the other thread, the caliber of the men, that have been hunting trump, mueller shut down bcci investigation on barr’s orders, he learned to do that with whitey bulger’s blood strewn boston, comey, of a similar breed that guiliani bred in the southern district, mccarthy is perhaps the dimmest of these, as the sheikh trial bore out, and he let ali mohammed skip town in order to plan the embassy bombings, (from all indications, mohammed was the primary source for the August 6th PDB which left out as much as it included,)
a little stand up comedy
https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/09/gavin-newsom-blames-trump-for-people-leaving-california/
Nicely put stan.
I suggested the obvious some weeks ago, that the smear campaign against DeSantis would escalate dramatically and quickly. I’d be curious to hear from hard core Dem voters when they think they began to hear or form negative opinions of DeSantis. Recently, or earlier?
_____
There is this provocative but semi-obvious thesis put forward today.
Are Democrats Deliberately Choosing Impaired Candidates?
It must be at least partially true. However, I suspect the author’s thinking that Kamala is very intellectually deficient is not really correct. I think that she is getting a large amount of presentation instruction that is yielding these abysmal media appearances.
I’ll guess that there are two motivations for her presentations. 1) They are targeting the dumbest of the electorate. 2) They don’t want her to say anything substantive and remain a “blank slate” or screen upon which voters can project their wishes or hopes.
Number 2) was Barack Obama’s stated goal which worked marvelously IMO. Unlike Kamala, he was very good at addressing topics at some length without really saying much. He could talk around a topic in a way that seemed relevant and he could run down the clock with that pleasant sonorous voice of his. One of the goals of this is to avoid pressing any hot buttons. And if he or she ever did press one, supporters could always say, or better yet imply, that he or she is black and the detractor is racist.
Hate to be a party pooper(!)…but, um…DeSantis is a Nazi, too!!
(Just ask the latest boy-wonder expert on the Holocaust….well, at least he has the right surname…)
…Or at least a semi-demi-hemi Nazi…
(OK, OK, I’m exaggerating, OK….a semi-demi-hemi FASCIST!…)
(Hey, not to worry—we all are!!…)
well fetterman is dumb as a stump, and very dangerous, like a kitten playing with firearms, now harris is just lazy at the prog table, like she doesn’t even pretend to make the argument,
I think patty murray, who may finally be accountable, is in the similar version for white women, she was the beta version, saying nothing at great length,
we are all wolverines*, my self more c thomas howell than patrick swayze
yes ken burns crossed the tufnel line between clever and stupid, like a 18 wheeler on the PCH, see sunny hostin a more presentable version of joy reid,
*high school mascots, and red dawn resistance,
Patty Murray, the beta version. Nice.
Biden is getting worse, a lot worse. See the video below
https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2022/09/22/the-saddest-most-senescent-joe-biden-video-yet-n1631446
I was a Cruz primary voter, but voted for Trump twice. Lots of smaller things bothered me about Trump, but only one jumps to mind that shocked me. That was his inauguration speech. It was very ill considered. Where was his team or did he override them?
And we can now say that it wasn’t a very good team. Where were the shrewd political mechanics? OTOH, a few shrewd GOP political mechanics are actually doubly shrewd Democrat mechanics (effectively or literally).
Carnage is exactly what they delivered on our streets, for at least the last two years, this was within hours of an actual insurrection, i would call it a terror attack on the dc streets, not to mention an aborted effort to poison delegates, see I remember the important things,
Chris Christies list of blanc mange, he recommended his atty Ray, kissinger and co recommended Tillerson, would I have trusted Michael Cohen, with anything more than picking up lunch, no, but he was doing a favor for a family friend
What was so terrible about Trump’s inaugural address? It was politically pointed, but I don’t can’t find any of the offensive things he said in other appearances in that speech. It was less “unifying” that Biden’s address, but also less clichéd, less windblown, more plainspoken, and more direct. To me at least, Trump came closer to achieving the goals outlined in his speech than Biden has to his own professed goals.
The media singled out “American carnage” with appropriate visual and audio effects to make it appear that the speech was darker than it actually was. Washington DC is a company town, and the DC media is very protective of their hometown’s only industry, so criticism of the political establishment and bureaucrats goes down much less smoothly there than it does in the rest of the country.
Off topic for this Open Thread
Best laid plans of Vlad go agley?
https://www.rigzone.com/news/russia_losing_gas_war-22-sep-2022-170450-article/
Time will tell.
M Smith,
I thought it was much too pointed, and blunt, and inartful. It really is an event that calls for skilled rhetoric and word-smithing, or so I believe. It is largely a style issue, but for so much of the country, style and inflection is about the only thing they take away from such things.
om,
If that natural gas forecast plays out through this winter that will be very good news!
On Trump vs DeSantis. The main argument, in my view, for DeSantis over Trump is their respective appeal to the more middle of the road voter. Anecdotal, but I know quite a few voters (friends and family) who are not as conservative as I am, who voted for Trump in 2016. Why? because they couldn’t stand Hillary and rightly thought she was a liar and a disaster. 4 years later, after getting a full dose of Trump braggadocio etc, they voted for Biden. Personality matters a lot to these people, not so much results. Thus, despite the coming smear campaign against DeSantis, or whoever the GOP nominates, that person will be viewed in a more favorable light than Trump. And the GOP needs those voters.
Rufus T Firefly:
There was a Perun YouTube presentation about a month ago regarding the war in Ukraine that included steps that European countries were already taking to mitigate Vlad’s grand energy plan. I also hope that their actions are successful and that the winter isn’t severe.
I wish there were more FBI agents like this guy. Of course, he ended up losing his job over actually having principals. If there were many, many more agents who were willing to put their principals ahead of their careers, maybe there might be real change at the FBI. Yeah, it’s hard to risk a government gig with all its benefits, but huge numbers of Americans no longer trust the FBI at all and no longer believe that there are any number honest field agents.
It’s truly sad.
And this just in from the “Uncontested Election” Desk (even if, to be sure, that horse has already bolted):
“Mark Zuckerberg hit with legal complaints over alleged attempt to influence 2020 election;
“Zuckerberg’s alleged actions were ‘beyond disgraceful,’ the Center for Renewing America said”—
https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/mark-zuckerberg-hit-legal-complaints-alleged-attempt-influence-2020-election
(Not sure that Zuckerman knows what shame is though, at least not in this particular context.)
– – – – – – – –
And…they found that fat fugitive in Venezuela…and strangely enough arrested him.
(Probably for his own protection. Wonder if they’ll give him a cabinet post—Minister of Nutrition?)—
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/navy-bribery-defense-contractor/2022/09/22/id/1088579/
Physicsguy:
The middle of the road voter you’re talking about is someone right now. In two more years our media betters will have besmirched DeSantis’ reputation. far worse than they did Trump’s. They know how to do it now, and they have a two year head start.
In re DeSantis – at least one Democrat in Florida likes him.
(h/t Barry on another thread)
https://www.dailywire.com/news/ex-democrat-mayor-of-3rd-largest-blue-county-in-florida-endorses-desantis-i-will-not-remain-silent
no they don’t want him back, probably face the fate of that benghazi suspect, anwar al libi, who died on the boat back,
Here’s a new discovery which AesopFan may appreciate. It’s Terry Riley’s “Olson III” performed by a Swedish high school orchestra and chorus.
Riley was one of the founding American minimalist composers from the sixties and the first I fell in love with on the basis of his “Rainbow in Curved Air.” There’s a good chance you have heard a snatch of that piece without knowing it.
Riley’s first triumph was the groundbreaking piece “In C,” which is to say in the key of C. It didn’t have a standard classical score. Instead it was a sequence of musical phrases. The musicians were instructed to play each phrase as many times as they wished before proceeding to the next, while listening to the other players. Eventually everyone arrives at the last phrase, then plays the last invocation of the last phrase, and the piece resolves.
It doesn’t sound like a promising idea. It is indeed chaotic. But quite organic, like listening to the rain or watching shadows change on a wall. I found it oddly powerful. I knew a bookseller who bought four vinyl copies, figuring he would eventually wear them all out, he loved the piece so much.
Terry Riley moved on to an electronic style using phase loop tape delays, which allowed him to get similar effects playing solo, as in “Rainbow in Curved Air.”
“Olson III” follows the same rules as “In C” with a different set of phrases, and in this case with an amateur group of musicians. I’d never heard it before. It was wonderful to find another piece like “In C” and I swear, as the reviewer below says, you can hear the excitement of the kids playing.
___________________________________
Recorded live in Stockholm in 1967, this archival release appeared in 1999 to much anticipation, as it represents a vital chapter in the rediscovery of American minimalism. Terry Riley premiered this phenomenal work, Olson III, in Sweden — a 53-minute composition for orchestra, chorus, and his own soprano sax. A Swedish high school orchestra performed his composition with renowned local minimalist composer Folk Rabe at the controls. The music allows a large degree of improvisation in order to create the phase variations that are one of the signatures of Riley’s hypnotic music. The delight of the young students indulging in the ecstatic drones of this highly experimental new music is audible in the explosive performance that they give to the piece.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/riley-olson-iii-mw0000396139
Listen here:
–“Terry Riley – Olson III”
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xx6280
But I’m shocked that anyone could believe that DeSantis by 2024 will not be saddled with every bit as much “baggage” as our enemies dumped on Trump. I ask myself once again — am I missing something?
stan:
That’s a good faith question. I agree and disagree.
Sure, every Republican candidate going back to the days of FDR and Truman has been saddled with Fascist! accusations, but Trump’s blunt, blowhard, carnival barker persona coupled with some shady business dealings is tailor-made to cement a Fascist! image moreso than previous Republicans.
Participants here understand, or have come to understand, that’s a false appraisal of Trump. But Democrats can shoot at that image like fish in a barrel for partisan gain more than if DeSantis were the candidate. I think it’s something of a problem.
Of course, I will vote for Trump in 2024, if he runs and wins the nomination.
Rufus T. Firefly
“He’s a hard guy to like”. That’s a first world problem. When your country is heading in the direction we are results and vision count the most. Makes perfect sense. His path can save us, but….we dont like him. Points off for style.
I’ve got Amazon Music streaming and today I thought to check out “Hot Tuna,” a love from my hippie past.
“Hot Tuna” — no reason for most readers here to know — was a side project from the Jefferson Airplane, composed of guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady. They eschewed the Airplane’s psychedelic visions for straight country-blues-rock.
They’ve had numerous side guys, but it’s still Jorma & Jack performing as “Hot Tuna.” Amazon Music has a very recent live performance from 04-22-2022 in Hartford.
I swear to you, “Hot Tuna” in 2022 sounds no different from “Hot Tuna” on their first album in 1969. (OK, Jorma’s vocals dropped a couple notes.)
It’s a weird sort of conservatism, but I’ll argue the point. “Hot Tuna” is playing in the Church of the Blues. There is and will always be such a church.
Amen.
______________________
–Big Bill Broonzy, “Sun Gonna Shine In My Back Door Someday”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSILeYaCDaQ