Comment of the Fortnight
18 May 1998
The China Connection
Well, I'm certainly not going to join the callers to right-wing radio talk shows
who are calling for Clinton to be impeached and/or tried for treason. However, the
money trail and the technology transfer is more than simply "disturbing," as
Rep. Henry Waxman puts it.
This one is definitely worth further investigation, and I am surprised that the
media aren't all over this one like a cheap suit.
Speaking of right-wing radio talk shows...
A Matter of Class
The San Francisco area has two talk radio stations,
KGO and
KSFO.
KGO is liberal to middle of road; KSFO is middle-of-road to far right. I've noticed
that the callers to KSFO often resort to ad hominem attacks, insulting a
person's looks or making fun of his/her name.
On KGO, by contrast, callers tend to concentrate on attacking a person's ideas
and insulting the philosophical position they take. As the title of this section
says, I think it's a matter of class.
Record Recommendation - The Ernie Kovacs Record Collection
I picked up this disc,
Varèse-Sarabande VSD-5789, this
weekend, and
it is just fabulous. It's a collection of the music that was used on
Kovacs' comedy shows; it is not a collection of comedy routines.
Tracks I especially liked:
- Oriental Blues - Kovacs' theme song. The very beginning is a clever
musical trick.
- Moritatensanger - this is "Mack the Knife" sung in the original German as
Brecht and Weill intended it.
It is a song about "murderous deeds," which is what "moritaten" means. As far
as I'm concerned, this version
is far superior to the god-awful, bouncy, upbeat Bobby Darin rendition.
- Oye Negra - as performed by the piano duo of Ferrante and Teicher.
I had always thought of them as playing elevator music. I was wrong.
- Kije's Wedding - by Prokofiev. I'm going to have to get the entire
score for Lt. Kije after hearing this.
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