RIP Stephen Sondheim

The New Neo Posted on by

Stephen Sondheim, one of the giants of the American musical theater, died three days ago at the age of 91. Sondheim’s Wiki entry describes him this way:

Sondheim was praised for having “reinvented the American musical” with shows that tackled “unexpected themes that range far beyond the [genre’s] traditional subjects” with “music and lyrics of unprecedented complexity and sophistication”. His shows addressed “darker, more harrowing elements of the human experience”, with songs often tinged with “ambivalence” about various aspects of life.

He initially gained fame as a lyricist, however, having composed lyrics for “West Side Story” and “Gypsy.” And it is as a lyricist that I appreciated him, because although I definitely like some of his more tuneful songs, I’m not really keen on his work as a whole because of what I perceive as a lack of melody and melodic hooks. I may be in the minority there, though.

I also admire Sondheim for his more recent criticism of a newer production of “Porgy and Bess,” a production I saw in Cambridge, MA before it opened in New York City, and I agree with Sondheim 1000 percent. Simply put, the production was abominable.

In doing a search of my blog, I’m surprised to see I never wrote about it, because for a while I was incensed at what I’d seen and I wrote a couple of very lengthy drafts for a post about it and about the black feminist directors who “re-imagined” it. Perhaps some day I’ll polish it and publish it…

But here’s Sondheim on the matter – for which he was heavily criticized, of course:

[Director] Ms. Paulus says that in the opera you don’t get to know the characters as people. Putting it kindly, that’s willful ignorance. These characters are as vivid as any ever created for the musical theater, as has been proved over and over in productions that may have cut some dialogue and musical passages but didn’t rewrite and distort them.

What Ms. Paulus wants, and has ordered, are back stories for the characters. For example she (or, rather, Ms. Parks) is supplying Porgy with dialogue that will explain how he became crippled. She fails to recognize that Porgy, Bess, Crown, Sportin’ Life and the rest are archetypes and intended to be larger than life and that filling in “realistic” details is likely to reduce them to line drawings. It makes you speculate about what would happen if she ever got her hands on “Tosca” and ‘Don Giovanni.” How would we get to know them? Ms. Paulus would probably want to add an aria or two to explain how Tosca got to be a star, and she would certainly want some additional material about Don Giovanni’s unhappy childhood to explain what made him such an unconscionable lecher.

Then there is Ms. Paulus’s condescension toward the audience. She says, “I’m sorry, but to ask an audience these days to invest three hours in a show requires your heroine be an understandable and fully rounded character.” I don’t know what she’s sorry about, but I’m glad she can speak for all of us restless theatergoers. If she doesn’t understand Bess and feels she has to “excavate” the show, she clearly thinks it’s a ruin, so why is she doing it? I’m sorry, but could the problem be her lack of understanding, not Heyward’s?

Much much more at the link. And let me just say that Sondheim is being kind to these people, who ruined the opera for political reasons, as well as (I believe) aesthetic envy of the work of an actual genius whom they felt the need to cut down to their own size.

But back to Sondheim. Here is my favorite song of his about ambivalence, from “Company”:

And a big favorite here, performed excellently by an unlikely singer:

The Waukesha killer/racist: down the memory hole

The New Neo Posted on by

As soon as it was revealed that the Waukesha mass murderer was a black career criminal who hated white people, it was a no-brainer to state that the huge story would fade from view as quickly as possible and that any reference to it would eliminate the perpetrator as much as possible.

We also know that the opposite would have occurred if the perpetrator had been on the right and had hated black people and been a Trump supporter. The media is dedicated to amplifying whatever it thinks furthers the leftist narrative and stifling what it thinks does not. And of course it’s not limited to the media – it involves social media and virtually the entire Democratic Party, in concert.

But if you want to read some articles about the expressed thoughts of the Waukesha perpetrator, repeated felon and now mass murderer and terrorist Darrell Brooks – who finally was given the high bail level of five million dollars, unlike some of the January 6th deomnstrators who to this day have not been allowed bail at all – see this as well as this (the latter is from a British paper, which as usual states some of the facts from which US papers shy away).

One line in that Daily Mail article indicated that, according to his social media postings, Brooks appeared to support the Black Hebrew Israelites. That rang a bell – it was the group that initially harassed the Covington kids before the Native American drumbeater Nathan Phillips got in Nick Sandmann’s face, and set that whole media attack in motion.

Indeed, it was:

The Black Hebrew Israelites are an offshoot of a broader religious movement scholars often call Black Israelism, which dates back to slavery and Reconstruction, if not earlier.

Writing for the Washington Post, journalist Sam Kestenbaum explains that Black Israelism is “a complex American religious movement” whose various sects are loosely bound by a belief that “African Americans are the literal descendants of the Israelites of the Bible and have been severed from their true heritage.”…

The Black Hebrew Israelites who were at the Lincoln Memorial on January 18 were not immediately connected to a specific sect, but appear to fit into this latter group. Their version of religious practice developed in the years after the civil rights and Black Power movements, as some members wanted to distance themselves from “white” Jews and Judaism. Kestenbaum traces the development of these more radical groups back to the 1970s and 1980s, noting that several offshoots developed around the Israeli Tanack School in Harlem, also called One West..

The differing offshoots or “camps” affiliated with One West have some common beliefs, including a strong sense of black nationalism and an ardent belief in the end of the world being imminent. When compared to other facets of Black Jewish groups and Black Israelites, this group is largely seen as a fringe sect, and has fractured further since 2000, spawning groups like the House of Israel.

But the internet has helped these groups spread their message. If you live in a city like Washington, DC, Philadelphia, or New York, there’s a good chance you’ve seen members of the House of Israel or other offshoots of One West engaged in a highly confrontational form of street ministry.

Sounds as though some of them have entered the field of public education.

Even the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center considers them a hate group:

The SPLC refers to them as an “extremist sector within the Hebrew Israelite movement whose adherents believe that Jews are devilish impostors and who openly condemn whites as evil personified, deserving only death or slavery,” and also have a history of sexist and anti-LGBTQ remarks.

Ah, I guess it’s all the Jews’ fault.

At any rate, Darrell Brooks now will almost certainly join James Hodgkinson, the leftist perpetrator of the Congressional baseball shooting, which targeted Republican members of Congress, in being nearly forgotten by all but the right. Hodgkinson was killed by a security guard who happened to be there; Brooks was not and he will most likely stand trial, but my guess is that the coverage of that trial will be quite muted. So far, the contrast between the media treatment of the wholly innocent Kyle Rittenhouse and the murderer (I suppose I should write “alleged,” but I don’t think there’s much doubt that Brooks did it) Darrell Brooks could not be more stark.

[NOTE: Victor Davis Hanson compares Kenosha and Waukesha.]

Are the mullahs of Iran seriously threatened?

The New Neo Posted on by

It seems to me that I’ve been reading for over a decade that the fall of the Iranian government is imminent.

That’s never even come close to happening, as far as I can tell.

And so I take this article with a hefty grain of salt. Here are some of the issues listed there that the mullahs apparently face, however:

Eighty percent of Iranians are currently living below the poverty line…Inflation has crossed the 45% threshold. Point-to-point inflation of necessary items is 66.7 percent, according to the state-run ISNA news agency. Institutionalized corruption and bribery permeate the economy. The unbridled import of goods by the IRGC has effectively destroyed local manufacturing, resulting in high unemployment. Furthermore, the Iranian regime is unwilling to enact standards consistent with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)—an intergovernmental anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (CFT) organization. It refuses to do so because it wants to continue financing Hezbollah and other terrorist proxies…

“If the hungry and unemployed army starts to march, its ferocity will be much greater than the 2019 uprising. People do not see hope for their future,” said an engineer working in Tehran. “The situation in the country is like a building whose foundation is collapsing.”…

Today, the Iranian regime is facing a major crisis in the form of water shortages, which is simply one among other noteworthy environmental crises. The water supply from Afghanistan to Iran is likely to be cut off, and this will deepen an already debilitating crisis for the Iranian regime, perhaps even provoking armed conflict.

In the past, all protests have been put down without hesitation by the government. Any successful revolt would have to involve the armed forces that the mullahs employ to subdue the people.

I think this next part is of special interest, and it’s something I had not read about before – which shows you how little mainstream coverage there is in the US these days of events in Iraq:

Iraq is moving towards building alliances with other Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia, and in the south, the Persian Gulf states are embracing peace with Israel. The recent Iraqi elections and the sharp decline in the number of votes for pro-Iranian groups reflect Tehran’s declining status when it comes to the regional balance of power. Although the regime wants to continue using its regional influence to wreak havoc, the shifting political landscape is setting palpable limits on its ability.

The article ends with two alternative futures for Iran. The first is based on the idea that the US and Europe don’t have the will to oppose it militarily (very true, especially at this point with Democrats in charge) and therefore Iran will continue its nuclear weapons program, which will help solidify its power. The second is this:

…[Iran] will be forced to sign on to a deal that would see the loss of its enriched uranium stockpile, accepting permanent monitoring by IAEA, signing on to FATF, accepting restrictions on its missiles program, and effectively dismantling the Quds Force and proxy forces from countries of the region.

It would surprise me if the second alternative comes to pass rather than the first.

Songs of broken hearts

The New Neo Posted on by

There are countless songs about broken hearts. It’s a natural subject, because the phenomenon of hearbreak is so common, and people undergoing the pain of the experience often turn to music to release their emotions, universalize them, and even for catharsis.

I confess to personal experience on the matter.

Folk songs have dealt with it for centuries. Here are two of the most popular songs on the subject:

The metaphor in that second song – of leaning against an oak tree thought to be strong, which then unexpectedly breaks – is common in many folk songs of the genre.

And then there are the Bee Gees – you knew they’d sneak in there, didn’t you? – with one of their most well-known songs, “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?” They wrote it after their own breakup as a group, which lasted about eighteen months at the end of the 1960s, during their first brush of many with fame. They suffered during that break, and wrote a few huge hits on the day they first reunited.

This was one of them. Note the ideas expressed about mending broken hearts contains a contradiction – or you might say a progression. Initially, it’s described with metaphors that make it seem impossible to do, and then possible with help. The lyrics contrast the naïve hopefulness of youth with the painful revelations of the sorrows of life, and the possibility of healing.

Of all the other heartbreak songs – and there are so so many to choose from – I’m going to select what might perhaps seem an odd choice: “Unbreak My Heart” sung by Toni Braxton. I find it to be a lyrically interesting twist on the nearly-cliched broken heart theme because it posits not just an ordinary healing or recovery or mending (or not), but some sort of going back in time to undo the heartbreak entirely. Braxton also has a remarkable lower register:

But in my book, this last one is the most heartrending of heartbreak songs. The cri de coeur in the third verse – “What I can’t understand/Oh please God hold my hand/Why it should have happened to me” – expresses a desperate appeal that comes from utter desolation.

Here’s to healing or even unbreaking.

If you want to understand the legal issues in the Arbery case…

The New Neo Posted on by

….watch this. It’s long, but you can get the gist of it by watching only some of it. The video was made shortly before the verdict was announced.

I do suggest you watch 1:08:10 to 1:12:37 (that’s just four and a half minutes of it), where they differentiate the facts in this case from the facts that would occur in a case involving self-defense against a home invasion, or the facts in Zimmerman/Martin. They also agree that malice murder did not occur with the McMichaels/Arbery case, and that malice murder was obviously an overcharge by the prosecution.

And yet the jury found Travis McMichael guilty of malice murder, which I think is a preposterous miscarriage of justice. I also – as previously stated – think felony murder is a dangerous law that often has bad results, as in this case. If the McMichaels and Bryant are guilty (and I don’t think Bryant is guilty), then it is of some sort of lesser manslaughter offense, and I think that’s obvious. But that’s not how the ruling went, because of the felony murder rule.

The left always has plans: “But take it we will”

The New Neo Posted on by

[Hat tip: commenter “AesopFan”.]

“When we get ready to take the United States, we will not take it under the label of Communism; we will not take it under the label of Socialism. These labels are unpleasant to the American people, and have been smeared too much. We will take the United States under the labels we have made very lovable; we will take it under liberalism, under progressivism, under democracy. But, take it we will.”—Alexander Trachtenberg, member of the CPUSA’s Central Control Committee, at the Communist Parties National Convention, Madison Square Garden, 1944

When something is undertaken in stealth by dedicated and determined believers in the cause (and/or by cynical and amoral power-mad unbelievers), it is difficult for the majority of people to detect and therefore hard to combat. In the case of communism/socialism, you also have a doctrine that is pernicious in its effects but naturally appeals to idealistic and gullible people – until they finally experience it, and then it’s generally too late.

Relabeling something may sound trivial and merely rhetorical, but it is not – as Orwell well knew. (And yes, Orwell remained a socialist. I wrote about that here.)

I wrote at length about socialism/Communism’s enduring appeal in this post:

…[T]his persistence of the idea of socialism/Communism despite evidence of its awfulness when put into practice in the real world should not be at all surprising. And I don’t think we’ll ever find the proper stake to drive into its still-beating heart, because the nature of this beast is that it represents an idea with strong appeal to a vast number of human beings. No amount of empirical or historical evidence can permanently teach enough people otherwise.

The rhetoric of Socialism/Communism has intrinsic appeal to certain groups of people and some members of each group are always likely to fall under its spell: the guilt-ridden wealthy and/or their even-more-guilt-ridden spawn, the poor who feel they’ve been screwed by society, the politically and economically naive intelligentsia who feel they know better than others, the religious and/or idealistic who want everyone to be loving and good and selfless, and those who just like the idea of power and control over others and plan to be the ones in charge.

Combine all that natural appeal with the undeniable propagandist skill of the left—including their willingness to lie in the most brazen manner — and you have an even greater effect. And then combine all of that with ignorance of history and economics, our culture’s reluctance to teach the young our good points and its eagerness to harp on our bad ones, and the fact that people only tend to really learn something through bitter and personal experience.

The wonder is that more people don’t believe that socialism/Commmunism is the answer to the world’s prayers, not that so many succumb to it in the first place. Never imagine that the fight, especially in the intellectual and educational and propaganda spheres, can be over. It would be too bad if each generation had to learn the lesson through personal suffering rather than in the realm of ideas.

During the Biden administration, the American people have been getting a small yet up-close-and-personal taste of it. Polls have reflected that and approval of Biden et al has dropped precipitously.

Fortunately for the US, the voting bill numbered HR1, which would have changed the voting laws of every state – whether the state wants it or not, and that includes all red states – in a way that would destroy many of the safeguards against voting fraud that still remain in some states, and would have enabled the ability of the Democrats to be elected no matter what the people actually think or want, failed to pass the Senate. That bill only failed by a hair, though, and that hair is named Manchin/Sinema and their opposition to ending the filibuster (although I’m not sure how they would have voted on the bill itself and they might have voted against it, too, but it never even came to that).

However, the House had already voted for the bill along strict party lines, and therefore every single Democrat member of the House who holds him or herself out to be a moderate is obviously lying. That fact should be used by all Republicans who run against them, especially in swing districts. I hope it will be used in that way, but I’m not sure enough people have long enough memories to recall what the issues were, nor am I sure that most people knew what the bill was about and what the Democrats were trying to do in the first place.

That’s one of the problems, isn’t it? The public has to be very alert in order to understand just what is happening with each bill and what is likely to occur as a result of its passage, because the left tries to obscure those things. A failure as with HR1 is considered by the left to be only temporary, and therefore it pushes on and on with its plans.

But perhaps they’ve pushed too far, too fast, this time. Perhaps they’ve woken up the average American in a way that will backfire on them. But understand that such a victory for those who are against the left is never permanent, and constant vigilance is necessary.

Open thread 11/27/21

The New Neo Posted on by

Choruses often are loud and memorable. But this pop song from my youth is effective by getting quiet in the chorus. There are even crickets to add to the effect of something clandestine going on at night:

It’s the day of…

The New Neo Posted on by

…the leftovers. Turkey soup and turkey salad and turkey sandwiches, anyone? I like my turkey sandwiches with cranberry sauce.

I was visiting relatives for Thanksgiving, so no leftovers for me this year – although I’m going over there later today, so I may just sponge some leftovers off of them.

What about you?

We seem to be turning into a low trust society

The New Neo Posted on by

Or at least a lower trust one.

Commenter “Snow on Pine” puts it well:

One way to appreciate just how profound and deep a fundamental transformation is already on the way to being brought into being here in the US is to view this creation of tribalism, violence, uncertainty, insecurity, mistrust, and lack of confidence in our key institutions as a transformation intended to transform the US from having been an almost uniquely workable, cooperative, and relatively safe and peaceful “high trust” society — one in which substantial social and economic progress has been made — into the type of unsatisfactory low trust society which generally prevails in the rest of the world.

A “low trust” society in which any and every person and institution outside of your immediate family or group is just naturally an object of suspicion—is your natural enemy—someone or some institution which is out to hurt you, cheat you, or to rob you of what is yours, out to do you or your family, neighborhood, city, state, or particular group dirty.

Such a low trust society is—to one degree or the other — a “failed society”, one in which very little trust and cooperation is evident, chaos and violence are high and, thus, a society in which it is very hard to make any substantial or lasting social or economic progress.

It does seem intentional. The left/Democrats have long seen their own road to greater power as appealing to a bunch of special interest groups that together will add up to a majority, if only a bare majority. To that end they pit group after group against what used to be the US majority, and seek to alienate, vilify, and demonize the largest racial group in the US, which is white people. They believe that the divisions and enmity work to favor the left, and the distrust and suspicion can enable the federal government to take on more power.

The more distrust and chaos and fear, the more the feds can say “we’ll solve your problems!” Even the war against local police serves that end, because then the idea is that a federal solution will be required and even welcomed. Neither individuals nor communities will be allowed to protect themselves, and they will be so divided and feel so threatened that they would have difficulty mounting an effective response anyway.

That’s the plan, but it’s running into some snags so far. One is that increasing numbers of people in the left’s favorite ethnic groups (black people, Hispanic people) don’t like the idea and are starting to see that they’re the ones who are suffering most at the hands of the left. If that phenomenon increases, it may reach a point that will make it very difficult for the left to accomplish their ends. The same is true if white people see themselves increasingly threatened as a group, and significant numbers of white Democratic voters start abandoning the party as well. We may start uniting against a common enemy: the left.

Let’s hope so.

And introducing – the Omicron variant

The New Neo Posted on by

As expected, a new COVID variant has emerged. This time it seems to have come from South Africa, and it’s been named Omicron (I wonder – should Greek people feel insulted that the variants are designated by Greek letters?).

I’ve read a few articles about it and the consensus is that we know very little at this point except that it has a higher-than-usual number of mutations, which in turn indicates that it evolved in an immune-compromised person such as an AIDS patient. In other words, it had a longer time to remain active and replicate in that person’s body without being fought off.

Everything else is speculation, most of it alarmist. The variant “may” carry a bigger risk of reinfection. It “may” be more transmissible. It “may” be resistant to the vaccines. There’s no indication it’s more serious in the type of COVID cases it causes or the populations it infects.

The general rule of subsequent virus mutations is that they become more transmissible but less virulent. There are exceptions to that rule, however. This variant may or may not be an exception. We simply don’t know yet.

One thing we do know is that variants will come. We also can predict that many governments will use the news of those variants to clamp down further on people, and that the media will use that same news to frighten people.

The US and other nations have now banned travel from South Africa. The South African health minister says that’s unwarranted:

He slammed other nations for “wanting to put blame” and ascribing the variant to South Africa rather than working collaboratively to address the situation as guided by the WHO.

“Covid-19 is a global health emergency. We must work together, not punish each other,” Phaahla said…

Phaala said preliminary studies suggest the variant may be more transmissible due to is genetic composition but noted that vaccines are still effective in preventing severe Covid from the variant.

That sounds a lot like the Delta variant to me, if it’s true.

[NOTE: The US travel ban is for the following nations: South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi. Do I hear cries of “Joe Biden is a racist”? No? Why not? Is it because his name isn’t “Donald Trump” and he’s not a Republican?]