It’s been leading up to this, the past several months, as we have tracked the descent of the twentieth century into its mid-century madness through the course of its music. Alex Ross’s book is quite clever in this—but it seeks to illuminate the music of the century through its intellectual and social history. The focus […]
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ArtSunday: You can take the boy out of the working class, but can you take the working class out of the boy?
As I’ve noted before, I grew up working class in the South. My neighborhood, my school, my family and friends, it all oscillated between “redneck” and “white trash,” and yes, there’s a difference. I wrote not long ago about the challenges facing those of us trying to climb the socio-economic ladder when nothing in our upbringing […]
Unsolicited museum review: Ice Age Art, at the British Museum
The British Museum’s astonishing exhibit, Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Human Mind, is one of the best shows they’ve had since we’ve been in London. It’s a collection of carvings from the dawn of modern history in Europe, mostly on mammoth or reindeer ivory. The carvings are of a variety of objects—women, mostly, but […]
Traveling to Istanbul (I)
This is farther east and still in Europe than I’ve ever been, outside of Moscow—farther than Bucharest, farther than Athens. A lot like both, though—even though the place has been Islamic for five hundred years, it still feels pretty Orthodox as well—you can’t just disappear that 1,300 years of Christianity. What it mainly feels like, […]
A quick history lesson: Falklands or Malvinas, it’s complicated
Thirty years after the Falklands War, the islands where the sheep to people ratio is 200:1 are back in the news. First, 99% of the voters in the March 12 referendum voted to remain a British territory. Second, many of Margaret Thatcher’s papers relating to the war were released on March 22. It seems that […]
London Underground: Happy birthday to the Tube
After a year in which the celebrations never seemed to end—the Queen’s Jubilee, the Olympics, and lord knows what I’ve already forgotten—the celebrations have barely paused for breath in the new year. Because 2013, it turns out, is the 150th birthday of the London Underground—The Tube. This is a big deal. Residents in larger cities […]
Dumb jock? Hardly: Scott Fujita absolutely nails it on gay marriage (and civil rights generally)
If you only read one thing today, make it this. Scott Fujita of the Cleveland Browns reflects on what it means in a society when some people are regarded as “less than” others. A snip: I support marriage equality for so many reasons: my father’s experience in an internment camp and the racial intolerance his […]
S&R Honors: Military historian John Keegan democratized the study of war
When John Keegan died on August 2, 2012, it escaped me — I’m embarrassed to admit that I was unaware of his existence. Keegan, a lecturer in military history of the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst and later military affairs editor at the Telegraph, wrote influential books on military history designed to appeal to the […]
Redistricting: by deceitfully moving a line, I can rule forever
In America, most — but probably not all — citizens who seek public office do so with initial good intent. They wish to perform a public service. That quaint, altruistic notion lasts, on the national level, perhaps 10 minutes after the swearing-in ceremony. Lobbyists descend. Party leaders demand fund-raising success now. The novice lawmaker is […]
Recreating Shackleton’s unbelievable voyage
In the annals of polar exploration, there are any number of extraordinary journeys that have reached mythic status. Scott’s failed return from the pole, with its simultaneous overtones of tragedy and inspiration; the journey of Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Birdie Bowers, Edward Wilson and Henry Robertson on that same expedition to harvest some Penguin eggs in the […]
ArtsWeek: The Rest is Noise (5)—Ravel, Vaughan Williams, Bartok, Janacek, Satie and Stravinsky
The first two decades of the 20th century saw a remarkable rise in nationalism in music. As we indicated in our last post, this wasn’t unusual in and of itself—composers such as Dvorak and Brahms had been doing this already in the second half of the 19th century. But what emerged in the early part […]
The European Union’s next crisis
The European Union has surprised people over the past year with its resilience. Much of 2012 was spent listening to commentators predicting the imminent break-up of the EU, with Greece the first to go, followed in short order by Portugal, Spain, and perhaps even Italy. That most of these commentators were British or American should […]
Richard III’s body discovered—world rejoices
Well, it sure seems like it, anyway. Practically everyone I know on Facebook, for example, which is mostly Americans, has mentioned this. As has just about every news organization in the world. There will always be an England, apparently. Anyway, for those just returning on holiday from Venus, a body discovered beneath a parking lot […]
ArtSunday: the Tokyo telephone book
by Dan Ryan I have owned or had the use of a personal computer since 1982, when my dad bought me an Osborne 1 to take to college. In some areas dad was a bit of a forward thinker. His experience as an upper mid-level executive for Electronic Data Systems (EDS), a now-defunct information services […]
Inconceivable: civil gun control debate – does gibberish trump reality?
In response to my recent post, President Obama expresses optimism: now in super-sized gibberish, my friend, mentor, fellow Scrogue (and Executive Editor), and all around swell guy, Sam Smith, had this to say: Come on, Frank. Sometimes we simply misspeak. You’re going to let that, in a case where you know the man knows what […]
The Rest is Noise (4) – Debussy and Sibelius
So tonight we resumed our tour of 20th century music. The theme is still The Rise of Nationalism. Tonight this theme continued with a performance of Spanish and Finnish music—or, more precisely, music about Spain, and Finnish music. First up was Iberia, by Claude Debussy, followed by Sibelius’s Violin Concerto and Symphony Number 4, once […]
S&R Honors
Click here to learn more about past honorees...- Pope Francis says atheists can go to heaven: Sweet Jesus! The College of Cardinals done elected a hippie
- Magic Hat vs. West Sixth brewhaha: will MH win the battle that costs them the war?
- WordsDay: Postmodernist Xerism at it most discontentedly hopeful…
- How to stop journalists: Say they might be criminals
- Denver FOX News affiliate caught making shit up
- Mystery Unraveled: How a white, moderate, married, churchgoing, middle-class, middle-aged woman could vote for Obama
- An open letter to Burt Rutan, regarding his WSJ commentary on human-caused climate disruption
- Meet the men of Match.com: Really, guys, are you serious?
- Climate scientists still besieged
- Pelosi on Bush: “He’s not worth impeaching”
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Frank Dilatush: Thank you Rathmone, you are a scholar and a mind r…
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rathmone: As awesome as it would be for Dudley Moore to be A…
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Brian Angliss: To answer your question, no, the Cook et al 2013 r…
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populartechnology: Brian, By rating the abstracts are they implyin…
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