Open thread 3/21/23
One take for their entire number, which begins around minute 1:00:
Continue reading →Category Archives: Arts
The Good Place
I finally got around to watching a Netflix series someone close to me had recommended: “The Good Place,” which premiered between 2016 and 2020. I don’t tend to watch much TV, but I felt the need for some distraction, and … Continue reading →
Galina Ulanova in “Romeo and Juliet”
Take a look. No one could run like Ulanova, and no one even comes close now. Same for her bourrées, which are those quick and tiny steps all on pointe that make it seem as though the dancer is skimming … Continue reading →
Plisetskaya: Style. Musicality. Power. Flow.
Here’s a variation from the ballet “Raymonda” that features a dance with a scarf (or shawl, if you prefer). It’s not a bravura variation, technically, although it requires strength and control – as all ballet does, actually. Also, the dancer … Continue reading →
Who’s Zoomin’ who?
Joe Biden, that’s who. From a recent interview: "Are you planning on traveling to East Palestine?" BIDEN: "At this moment not. I was, I did a whole video, I mean, uh, you know, the uh, what the hell? On…" "Zoom?" … Continue reading →
Why I don’t read novels anymore
This article claims that giving up novel-reading can be a sign of senility: Fiction, on the other hand, requires you to exercise your memory, as you proceed from beginning to end and retain a variety of details, characters and plots. … Continue reading →
Valentine’s Day: some thoughts and a poem
Today is Valentine’s Day and I’m feeling somewhat raw, for obvious reasons. And yet I’ve never been really big on Valentine’s Day celebrations. After all, for the last thirty years or so I haven’t been able to eat chocolate without … Continue reading →
The Met jumps on the “even abolitionist anti-slavery artists were actually celebrating slavery” bandwagon
Heather Mac Donald describes the latest art-world insanity, this time at the Met. You may have to concentrate very very hard to follow it: Why Born Enslaved! has been understood since its creation as an antislavery work. The Met, however, … Continue reading →
Rings are in the news
File under “things we don’t understand”: Astronomers have discovered an entirely new ring system within the solar system, and it’s located at such a great distance from its dwarf planet parent that it should be impossible. The ring surrounds Quaoar, … Continue reading →
RIP Burt Bachrach
At 94. That’s a pretty good run. My favorite Bachrach songs were the rhythmically-interesting ones he made for Dionne Warwick, who tossed them off with her characteristic light touch:
Continue reading →Ivan Illych and history
[NOTE: Here’s a repeat of one of my earliest posts, written in my very first year of blogging: May, 2005. Back then I didn’t have all that many readers, so I thought I’d bring it out for another go-round.] I … Continue reading →
It gets harder and harder to shock people
Sam Smith went Satanic at the Grammys. But that’s probably not going to shock most people’s actual Grammy and Grampy: I regret to inform you that singing in a devil costume may not have the intended shock value on your … Continue reading →