When worlds collide
Hey there! Yes, I have done a good job of maintaining radio silence. No, it has not been because of 1) a lack of things upon which to comment, 2) a lack of time in which to comment upon the aforementioned things or 3) those pesky black helicopters.
That last one was a joke. Really.
So, since the hour she be late and the diva she be tired (despite having done absolutely nothing to earn said fatigue), this will be a brief post. Mostly to tease Peter, who (unless he gave up on us completely) has been out of his mind waiting for just such a tasty morsel as this post.
Two news items slid across my consciousness a short while ago. They are essentially unrelated. Neither was unexpected. Both are extremely distressing to my being. And both are timely in their own way.
Once upon a long time ago I saw a movie with Demi Moore called The Seventh Sign. Or maybe The Seventh Seal. One is by Bergman and is Art. The other is Not. Anyway, the Creepy Harbinger Of The Apocalypse Knowingly Intoned By A Very Odd Stranger is about a thing called the Guff, where souls wait to be reborn into babies. The Guff thing is sometimes infinite, but for some reason unremembered by me, it is now finite and nearing Empty. And when it's empty, the first baby born without a soul will be the Antichrist or some minion thereof. (Sorry, it's been a while.) Something about dead birds being the tip-off and such.
Well, I haven't seen any dead birds (but I'd love to see some dead damned spiders– a tale for another day), but as for the Harbingers, they be about. Back to those news stories:
1) Famed Opera Singer Beverly Sills Dies of Cancer at 78
2) Bush Commutes Libby Prison Sentence
Both of these were the proverbial other shoe dropping. I'd read a news item that Sills was ill and checked in at Opera-L (those folks know EVERYTHING there is to know about the world of opera–and if they don't, they know where to send the hounds), discovering that she was pretty much days away. I had hoped against hope that Bush wouldn't intervene in the Libby case, but again– foregone conclusion.
This is not an original thought, but it is about the biggest possible kick to the arse of a country in the throes of a hotly contested war that is allegedly about democracy to essentially set aside the democratic process because it "isn't fair." Here's a news flash. Lying in court is wrong. If you get caught lying in court, the chances are really good that the punishment will involve incarceration. "Fair" is not part of the equation. Try that "fair" crap on people who can't afford high powered Washington lawyers and even higher placed friends. Actually, friends is kind of a strong word. It was those same highly placed friends who hung old Scoot out to dry on the whole Plame thing in the first place.
As for the sadly late Ms. Sills, her death did not make it onto the pages of CNN.com; which is more or less the news source of record for the country these days. Couldn't even find it on the entertainment page, which was prattling on about the movie Transformers and Larry the Cable Guy. This woman sang, entertained and educated this country for decades. She was Britney (pre-nutso Britney, to be sure) before Britney was Britney and was better at it than all of her wannabes put together. Has opera become so marginalized that the death of one of its brightest lights is less news than 7-Eleven changing its name to Kwik-e-mart for a movie promotion?
Maybe these are the birds.
That last one was a joke. Really.
So, since the hour she be late and the diva she be tired (despite having done absolutely nothing to earn said fatigue), this will be a brief post. Mostly to tease Peter, who (unless he gave up on us completely) has been out of his mind waiting for just such a tasty morsel as this post.
Two news items slid across my consciousness a short while ago. They are essentially unrelated. Neither was unexpected. Both are extremely distressing to my being. And both are timely in their own way.
Once upon a long time ago I saw a movie with Demi Moore called The Seventh Sign. Or maybe The Seventh Seal. One is by Bergman and is Art. The other is Not. Anyway, the Creepy Harbinger Of The Apocalypse Knowingly Intoned By A Very Odd Stranger is about a thing called the Guff, where souls wait to be reborn into babies. The Guff thing is sometimes infinite, but for some reason unremembered by me, it is now finite and nearing Empty. And when it's empty, the first baby born without a soul will be the Antichrist or some minion thereof. (Sorry, it's been a while.) Something about dead birds being the tip-off and such.
Well, I haven't seen any dead birds (but I'd love to see some dead damned spiders– a tale for another day), but as for the Harbingers, they be about. Back to those news stories:
1) Famed Opera Singer Beverly Sills Dies of Cancer at 78
2) Bush Commutes Libby Prison Sentence
Both of these were the proverbial other shoe dropping. I'd read a news item that Sills was ill and checked in at Opera-L (those folks know EVERYTHING there is to know about the world of opera–and if they don't, they know where to send the hounds), discovering that she was pretty much days away. I had hoped against hope that Bush wouldn't intervene in the Libby case, but again– foregone conclusion.
This is not an original thought, but it is about the biggest possible kick to the arse of a country in the throes of a hotly contested war that is allegedly about democracy to essentially set aside the democratic process because it "isn't fair." Here's a news flash. Lying in court is wrong. If you get caught lying in court, the chances are really good that the punishment will involve incarceration. "Fair" is not part of the equation. Try that "fair" crap on people who can't afford high powered Washington lawyers and even higher placed friends. Actually, friends is kind of a strong word. It was those same highly placed friends who hung old Scoot out to dry on the whole Plame thing in the first place.
As for the sadly late Ms. Sills, her death did not make it onto the pages of CNN.com; which is more or less the news source of record for the country these days. Couldn't even find it on the entertainment page, which was prattling on about the movie Transformers and Larry the Cable Guy. This woman sang, entertained and educated this country for decades. She was Britney (pre-nutso Britney, to be sure) before Britney was Britney and was better at it than all of her wannabes put together. Has opera become so marginalized that the death of one of its brightest lights is less news than 7-Eleven changing its name to Kwik-e-mart for a movie promotion?
Maybe these are the birds.
posted by YankeeHobbit | 12:16 AM
3 Comments:
Give up on the aimless prattles of a diva? Never!
Actually, there has been extensive coverage of her passing and legacy on NPR radio this week, including a very moving interview with her good friend Carol Burnett. And, her passing was noted on Good Morning America this week (ABC) and
also on the nightly news - again ABC.
Anonymous
I saw (and had seen/heard) all the coverage-- high profile coverage-- on the other outlets (and *loved* the interview with Carol Burnett). My specific lament was the lack of attention by CNN. Which, let's face it, is where much of the world tunes in for news. I did eventually find an article buried on the Entertainment page.
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