“This little trick”—hovering in the air

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I’m currently reading I, Maya Plisetskaya, the autobiography of the wonderful Russian dancer about whom I wrote this tribute. She was known for vivacity, smoldering sensuality, and her powerful yet graceful jump, the latter of which she describes as follows:

I quickly grasped the “jumping” mazurka in “Chopiniana” in two rehearsals with the rehearsal coach…and I danced it with thundering success. Nature had not passed me over when it came to jumps, and I flew across the stage in three jetés…I deliberately tried to hover in the air at the top of each leap, and the audience responded enthusiastically. Each leap was accompanied by a crescendo of applause. I myself couldn’t have imagined that the audience would take such a liking to this little trick.

Is this possible? Continue reading →

Obama and the tax code: from each according to his ability, to each according to “fairness”

The New Neo Posted on by

Some of Obama’s slightly-less-publicized statements are the ones that concern me most.

Case in point: in this WSJ column by William McGurn, the author points out that for Obama, taxes are not just about collecting revenue. What are they for? Fairness.

Obama was being quizzed on his proposal to raise the capital gains tax. Continue reading →

Presidential snacks: Obama’s shopping spree

The New Neo Posted on by

Wow. I didn’t know you could buy babies at the Farmer’s Market (see paragraph two).

Obama’s purchase of biscuits, zucchini bread, pound cake, bread, tomatoes and peaches makes him a health-food nut compared to earlier Presidents.

We all are familiar with chow hound Bill Clinton. But do you recall the partician Bush Senior’s difficult-to-believe (and to stomach) predilection for pork rinds? Reagan liked jelly beans, and Nixon’s comfort food was cottage cheese mixed with ketchup. Yuk.

Whatever happened to really silly pop songs?

The New Neo Posted on by

They were called “novelty songs,” although I didn’t know it at the time. They occupied a special niche that doesn’t seem to exist anymore in this far less innocent age: a nonsensical bubble-gum type of music/lyrics, meant mostly to amuse in the lightest of ways. They were silly even back when they first came out, in the 50s and early 60s of my youth.

Here are the ones I remember best (and believe me, they’re memorable—good for an earworm or two, or perhaps three or four): Continue reading →

Meet Obama’s female doppleganger, Baldilocks

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Blogger Baldilocks has a fascinating story on her own. But it’s even more fascinating these days because it runs roughly parallel for a while to that of none other than Senator Obama, although it then veers off rather dramatically from his.

Please take a look at this LA Times interview with Baldilocks, aka Juliette Ochieng. Here’s an excerpt to whet your appetite: Continue reading →

Orwell on unhinged intellectuals

The New Neo Posted on by

As Norman Podhoretz points out in his essay “If Orwell Were Alive Today” (written in 1983), the highly regarded political writer George Orwell was often misguided in his specific predictions about the future. He also was wedded to socialism his entire life, once he converted to it at the age of thirty, although his life didn’t last that much longer (he died at forty-six).

Orwell was, however, such a keen observer of the political side of humankind and especially the danger of totalitarianism, that many other “isms” (including Podhoretz’s own neoconservatism) believe that, had Orwell lived long enough, he surely would have come round to their point of view. Continue reading →

Vice-Presidential picks

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Joe Lieberman is poised to be this year’s Zell Miller.

I loved Zell’s fiery speech at the 2004 Republican convention. Lieberman is considerably less colorful (as are most people). But I’m looking forward to his address anyway. However, I’m going to go out on a limb right now to say that LIeberman won’t be McCain’s VP choice, although I haven’t a clue who it will be. Continue reading →