We had a rather classic Christmas--enjoyed great dim sum at Hollywood East in Wheaton and then saw Les Miserables at the movies on its opening day. We'd seen the musical years ago at the Kennedy Center prior to its arrival on Broadway and enjoyed it. I wish I could report that it spurred me to read Victor Hugo's massive novel, which I'm sure would give me a whole different feeling about the story...but it didn't.
The movie made me recognize that this show is indeed nothing less than an opera, but having said that, it's an opera with some nice songs but falls short of total success in that genre. I liked many of the performances, including Hugh Jackman as Valjean and Russell Crowe as Javert, yet Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter stole the show as the delightfully villainous Thenardiers. It's probably been more than two decades since I last (and first) saw the show, but the songs are familiar so the surprise effect was lacking this time.
My prevailing feeling about the movie was that it was slow and long. It may have been caused in part by the use of sung recitatives. I tend to feel that these have diminished in impact once Mozart and Da Ponte had completed their operatic masterpieces together, which was near the end of the 18th century. There was an overlaying heaviness from which the movie never seemed to escape.
Some of the scenes were indeed spectacular, but in the end, this film demonstrated that putting anything resembling opera on film requires approaches and techniques that vary from even the more standard form of musical. The subjects and emotions are big--but they can overwhelm the project unless channelled effectively.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Safety and Security
On an extremely local level, there seems to be a never-ending run of people who push safety as a value overshadowing all others. In Washington, this manifests itself in pedestrians striding in front of traffic against the light, secure in their attitude that every driver will inevitably stop for them. The D.C. Department of Transportation encourages this attitude by putting signs in the middle of the road warning drivers to stop at every crosswalk. This department has always made little secret that its denizens hate cars and will do everything possible to make life miserable for motorists.
When right turn on red first was advanced as a time-saver, the then-director of this department ran around D.C. posting no-turn-on-red signs at every conceivable location. Now this department responds to local loudmouths who demand speed humps so we have those scattered all over the city. The signs warning of them are posted adjacent to the hump so by the time you see it, you have smacked the underside of your car.
Safety laws--most of which are totally unnecessary--are introduced as innocent-seeming rules which then are turned into strictly-enforced enactments and revenue producers. So it is with speed cameras--we first were told they were for safety; when everyone recognized that the fines were set at absurdly high levels, the Mayor and Council responded with revenue concerns. This was also true of seat belts. Recall that police were not to stop anyone for a mere seat belt infraction. Now we are subjected to "click it or ticket" threats from police who would prefer to stop seat-belt violators than pursue homicide or robbery suspects.
This trend also underlies the never-ending pursuit of total security. Some administrators have realized that you can't guarantee total security and you can go broke trying to get it. The security industry is happy to recommend more and more expenditure, of course. So federal bureaucrats whom no one wants to visit much less commit acts of violence against are protected by magnetometers and other fancy equipment.
The problem for someone in charge of a facility is the uproar he or she will face if an incident occurs. Media and others along for the ride will always jump on anyone who doesn't spend their entire budget on augmented security. And you can spend your whole budget on it--easily.
When right turn on red first was advanced as a time-saver, the then-director of this department ran around D.C. posting no-turn-on-red signs at every conceivable location. Now this department responds to local loudmouths who demand speed humps so we have those scattered all over the city. The signs warning of them are posted adjacent to the hump so by the time you see it, you have smacked the underside of your car.
Safety laws--most of which are totally unnecessary--are introduced as innocent-seeming rules which then are turned into strictly-enforced enactments and revenue producers. So it is with speed cameras--we first were told they were for safety; when everyone recognized that the fines were set at absurdly high levels, the Mayor and Council responded with revenue concerns. This was also true of seat belts. Recall that police were not to stop anyone for a mere seat belt infraction. Now we are subjected to "click it or ticket" threats from police who would prefer to stop seat-belt violators than pursue homicide or robbery suspects.
This trend also underlies the never-ending pursuit of total security. Some administrators have realized that you can't guarantee total security and you can go broke trying to get it. The security industry is happy to recommend more and more expenditure, of course. So federal bureaucrats whom no one wants to visit much less commit acts of violence against are protected by magnetometers and other fancy equipment.
The problem for someone in charge of a facility is the uproar he or she will face if an incident occurs. Media and others along for the ride will always jump on anyone who doesn't spend their entire budget on augmented security. And you can spend your whole budget on it--easily.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
No Chanukah Songs, Please
Seeing a plethora of Chanukah songs recently posted by an online enthusiast made me realize the awful truth about all of them. As with everything else about Chanukah when it is blown up in a desperate attempt to put it in the same bracket as Christmas, it comes up short. There are hundreds of years of Christmas carols -- enough to suit any taste -- and some of them remain musical delights. Now, I'll make no arguments for "Christmas-related songs"of the "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" stripe, but on the whole, Christmas carols have that quality of time-tested music: you find yourself humming them.
Not so with Chanukah songs. I'm pleased to see that there's no ancient tradition involved in "I Have a Little Dreidel" because I've disliked it almost as long as I've abhorred dreidels themselves, and the idea of enjoying a stupid gambling game as part of the holiday. Chanukah also presents one with the unhappy prospect of consuming latkes, potato pancakes fried in oil, and greasy at best, inedible at worst.
Even the ancient sages who decided what went into the Bible, and what didn't, had a problem with Chanukah. The Books of Maccabees, all three of them, were relegated to something called the Apochrapha, which is sort of like an Appendix to the Bible, as in not ready for prime time. So while I think those conservatives who bemoan a so-called "war on Christmas" are overstating their case by a lot, I do find myself agreeing with much of a piece Ben Stein wrote in which he proclaims that as far as he's concerned, he's got no problem with calling it a Christmas tree, since that's what it is, as opposed to a holiday tree.
Even our rabbi--when I was growing up--let down his hair where the futile and misguided effort to equate Chanukah in stature with Christmas was addressed. He laughed at Jews who seemed to want to decorate "Chanukah bushes" in lieu of lighting less-prominent menorahs. Yes, it remains a minor holiday, and since there are High Holy Days and Festivals, it is not at all dismissive to describe it as a third-level holiday. And there's no such thing as a good Chanukah song.
Not so with Chanukah songs. I'm pleased to see that there's no ancient tradition involved in "I Have a Little Dreidel" because I've disliked it almost as long as I've abhorred dreidels themselves, and the idea of enjoying a stupid gambling game as part of the holiday. Chanukah also presents one with the unhappy prospect of consuming latkes, potato pancakes fried in oil, and greasy at best, inedible at worst.
Even the ancient sages who decided what went into the Bible, and what didn't, had a problem with Chanukah. The Books of Maccabees, all three of them, were relegated to something called the Apochrapha, which is sort of like an Appendix to the Bible, as in not ready for prime time. So while I think those conservatives who bemoan a so-called "war on Christmas" are overstating their case by a lot, I do find myself agreeing with much of a piece Ben Stein wrote in which he proclaims that as far as he's concerned, he's got no problem with calling it a Christmas tree, since that's what it is, as opposed to a holiday tree.
Even our rabbi--when I was growing up--let down his hair where the futile and misguided effort to equate Chanukah in stature with Christmas was addressed. He laughed at Jews who seemed to want to decorate "Chanukah bushes" in lieu of lighting less-prominent menorahs. Yes, it remains a minor holiday, and since there are High Holy Days and Festivals, it is not at all dismissive to describe it as a third-level holiday. And there's no such thing as a good Chanukah song.
Monday, December 3, 2012
Corruption
This morning in the New York Times, we read about how pervasive corruption is in our society. States cut vital services to citizens so they can offer tax-free incentives to corporations that reduce the community's revenue and thus make it impossible to meet communal needs. This is done in return for promises of good-paying jobs that rarely materialize or endure for long.
Somewhat sleazier is the revelation that the Mets' benighted owners took into their investment ownership group the billionaire owner of a florist website that has specialized in defrauding customers for years. Wilpon and Katz were able to faze Madoff bankruptcy trustee Irving Picard into agreeing to a sweetheart deal that let them escape from refunding the truly ill-gotten gains they had taken from Madoff's phony investment pyramiding scheme. They continue to show total lack of perspicacity in selecting their business partners except that for some reason, baseball continues to let them get away with it.
Consider these examples when you wonder why no one commenting on the pending fiscal cliff dealings never seems to mention closing fiscal rat holes such as the ability of the hedge fund guys toreduce their effective tax rate below 15 percent or the continued existence of the oil depletion allowance. Better of course to threaten middle-class benefits such as the mortgage deduction or even valuable ones such as charitable contributions. That these business giveaways are unquestioned makes any effort to cut Social Security or Medicare obscene.
The more you look at the zillions of ways businesses can cut their taxes, you will realize the extent of legalized corruption that permeates our entire economic structure. The reason these deals do not come up on the public agenda is that both parties are bought by the corporate and financial interests; if you don't believe that, recall how Chuck Schumer defended the tax deals given to the hedge fund guys. They only helped sink our economy but don't dare touch their special deals.
Somewhat sleazier is the revelation that the Mets' benighted owners took into their investment ownership group the billionaire owner of a florist website that has specialized in defrauding customers for years. Wilpon and Katz were able to faze Madoff bankruptcy trustee Irving Picard into agreeing to a sweetheart deal that let them escape from refunding the truly ill-gotten gains they had taken from Madoff's phony investment pyramiding scheme. They continue to show total lack of perspicacity in selecting their business partners except that for some reason, baseball continues to let them get away with it.
Consider these examples when you wonder why no one commenting on the pending fiscal cliff dealings never seems to mention closing fiscal rat holes such as the ability of the hedge fund guys toreduce their effective tax rate below 15 percent or the continued existence of the oil depletion allowance. Better of course to threaten middle-class benefits such as the mortgage deduction or even valuable ones such as charitable contributions. That these business giveaways are unquestioned makes any effort to cut Social Security or Medicare obscene.
The more you look at the zillions of ways businesses can cut their taxes, you will realize the extent of legalized corruption that permeates our entire economic structure. The reason these deals do not come up on the public agenda is that both parties are bought by the corporate and financial interests; if you don't believe that, recall how Chuck Schumer defended the tax deals given to the hedge fund guys. They only helped sink our economy but don't dare touch their special deals.
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