Alexander Hamilton on Standing for Something

The Attention Hogg (sic) Laments that "Politics Is All Spectacle and I Hate It"

In the wake of the February 14th mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglass High School, senior David Hogg has become a prominent progressive tool for push for Gun Control. Hogg was a leading figure in the so called March for Our Lives in Washington DC. 

Hogg then parlayed his tragic celebrity into bullying media personalities like Laura Ingraham on social media who questioned his credentials and  chaffed at his simplistic solutions towards the Second Amendment.  The mainstream media then sought to turn it into a feeding frenzy to try to take down a popular conservative voice and further denigrate Fox News.

Of late, Hogg has been involved in organizing die ins at Publix grocery stores because of a supposed linkage between political contributions and Second Amendment advocates.

Hogg opted to take a year off from his education in order to pursue partisan politics.  Hence,  the Attention Hogg (sic) tweet which rails against politics as all spectacle was puzzling. But consider the timing of the tweet. 

Hogg sent this as the group of students was trotted out on stage during the Tony Awards virtue signaling.  Melody Herzfeld, the drama teacher from Parkland High School Drama Teacher who was given an education award and some of her students  performed a (relatively) non-political song from Rent. 

But Hogg was not front and center nor were enough of them wearing March for Our Lives paraphernalia. Hogg may have been miffed that he was not given "equal time" to rally against the NRA.  Moreover, this moment dedicated to the tragedy was upstaged by Robert De Niro  rallying the crowds' rage in the Two Minute Hate. 


Perhaps Hogg was still stinging about being proverbially spanked about the intersection of his rabble rousing. Hogg made an appearance at the Boston Gay Pride parade, in which he pushed for raising the minimum wage.  When questioned about the matter, Hogg revealed the product of his education.

In lieu of a gap year toiling in the trenches of partisan politics, Hogg ought to have opted to learn English.  Res ipsa loquitur. But considering the content of Hogg's apologia for #Fightfor15, he might want to brush up on logic, political science and learn to better disguise his white privilege. That sort of causality is not going to rally minority voters to the polls for the midterms.

Honestly, Hogg made a bad choice as he should have brushed off campaigning and schooling and immediately jumped into his career of choice: mass communications.   When you are broadcast and hold politically correct beliefs that prevail, you are not held accountable for saying something stupid.

Remembering MLK: In the Name of Love

Fifty years ago today, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee by a racist shooter. Many cities burned, including Washington DC, in reaction to this murder.

One of the early anthems of the rock super-group U-2 is "Pride--In the Name of Love", which commemorated this horrible event as well as reinforcing the peaceful messages of the Reverend King. 

Savoring Sakura on the Potomac

The 6821 Quintet performing at the National Gallery of Art, March 26 2018

For the last few years, the National Cherry Blossom Festival has been privileged to feature the 6821 Quintet, an ad hoc group of musicians, which was formed in 2015 and is comprised of members from Japan, New York and Philadelphia with through the support of the Ryunji Ueno Foundation. The 6821 Quintet derives its name from the distance between Washington, DC and Toyko, Japan.   This year’s ensemble is comprised of violinist Mayu Kishima, violinist Eric Silberger, violinist Meng Wang, cellist Clancy Newman and pianist Jason Solounias.


Sakura on the Potomac, which premiered at the 2018 National Cherry Blossom Festival was composed by Japanese composer and producer Kunihiko Murai.   Sakura is the Japanese word for Cherry Blossom Tree, which includes the twelve species of Cherry Blossom Trees that encircle the  Tidal Basin in the Nation's Capital since Japan’s generous gift to America in 1912.



The 6821 Quintet also played Songs of Spring and Portraits of Sakura– our memories of bloom, which were respectively the prior two years commissions for the National Cherry Blossom Festival.

During the final performance at the National Gallery of Art, two of the three composers of National Cherry Blossom Festival commissions were present.  Michael Djupstrom had performed with the 6821 Quintet for a couple of years, but also composed Songs of Spring for the 2016 Cherry Blossom Festival.  Mr. Djupstrom commended the 6821 Quintet for their remarkable cohesiveness in their artistry, especially since they only perform together one week a year.

Kunihiko Murai had written over 300 songs and 30 film scores, so composing a tone poem like Sakura on the Potomac was a new adventure.  Mr. Murai revealed that he associated lyrics in his head for Sakura on the Potomac but did not reveal them.  The composer, however, noted that he was inspired by the T.S. Eliot quotation “April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land”.  This seems apt as the blossoming of the Sakura on the Potomac signals Spring in the District of Calamity (sic), a.k.a Washington, DC.

The 6821 Quintet pose with Sakura on the Potomac composer Kunihiko Murai 

Shamrockfest 2018 Memories

Despite the mostly mild winter in the DMV, St. Patrick's Day 2018 had weather which mimicked the Emerald Isle as it was chilly, overcast with a touch of rain.  Still hearty partiers shook their fists at the sky and danced a jig at Shamrockfest, which was held on the grounds of RFK stadium.

Shamrockfest featured three stages.  The Electric Isle featured DJs spinning tunes under a big tent. DJ Clinton Matthews kicked things off at what became quite the popular venue. 

Watching DJ Clinton Matthews while wearing the green at Shamrockfest

The Shamrock Gold and Shamrock Green stages rotated with bands playing high energy rock with a touch of the Irish.  One had to marvel at the guitar playing prowess demonstrated by Reel Big Fish.  

Reel Big Fish performing at Shamrockfest

And it was craic to rock to Carbon Leaf.

Carbon Leaf playing at Shamrockfest 

Of course there was plenty of festival food and libations to enjoy, with plenty of Guinness and Jamison. 

Shamrockfest is said to be one of the largest outdoor St. Patrick Day festivals around.  People really try to dress to impress to show their Irish.   Some chose to sport some udderly crazy costumes (sic) to have a good time. 

Having an udderly good time at Shamrockfest 2018

Shamrockfest is produced by Red Frog Events.  In mid June, they will hold Firefly Music Festival in Dover, Delaware, which is a four day music extravaganza which will feature scores of bands, headlined by Eminem, the Arctic Monkeys and The Killers. 

Hope to see you at the Woodlands.

William Butler Yeats on the Irish

Bob Marley on Solutions

Trick or Treat Today for Megyn Kelly

For Megyn Kelly's first (and perhaps last) year with NBC News, the highly paid anchor was coerced to dress up like  Shania Twain.  Unbeknownst to her, Ms. Kelly's karaoke was interrupted by an ambush by the country superstar.

R.I.P. Tom Petty

Rock legend Tom Petty died today after being found unconscious after suffering a massive heart attack at his home in Malibu, California.  The 66 year old rock iconoclast was taken to the hospital and put on life support.  However, since Petty showed no brain activity, it was decided to pull the plug.

Petty had been around the entertainment world for four decades.  Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were induced into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. Petty was also a successful solo artist as well as a member of the 1980s supergroup "The Traveling Wilburys".  Petty also hosted a music channel on Sirius XM.

Never Forgetting 9/11 Video

Queen Elizabeth II on the Royal Family

Telling Cultural Citations In Coverage of the Syria Strikes

While covering the American Tomahawk air strikes on Syrian air bases, MSNBC's Brian Williams made a telling cultural citation.  Williams fused his reportage with a literary allusion from recently deceased poet/songwriter Leonard Cohen. 

Williams keyed off of the fragment "I am guided by the beauty of our weapons."  But the lyric was lifted from the 1988 song "First We Take Manhattan", which was a sui generis take on terrorism.




Leonard Cohen said of the song "First We Take Manhattan":

I think it means exactly what it says. It is a terrorist song. I think it's a response to terrorism. There's something about terrorism that I've always admired. The fact that there are no alibis or no compromises. That position is always very attractive. I don't like it when it's manifested on the physical plane – I don't really enjoy the terrorist activities – but Psychic Terrorism. I remember there was a great poem by Irving Layton that I once read, I'll give you a paraphrase of it. It was 'well, you guys blow up an occasional airline and kill a few children here and there', he says. 'But our terrorists, Jesus, Freud, Marx, Einstein. The whole world is still quaking.

Notwithstanding the uncomfortable admiration for the beauty of weapons of violence being used, it hardly seems apropos other than to appeal to those living "in the city".  In addition, it is dubious that knowing the full context of the quote that Leonard Cohen would play well in Peoria. Which would explain the twitter-storm over William's bon mot.

Maybe the disgraced ex NBC anchor could sound more convincing selling Conflate-Gate material.

Sufjan Stevens on Music and Communication

Ronald Reagan on Character and Jellybeans

Toss the Tam to Honor the Life of Mary Tyler Moore

Actress Mary Tyler Moore died at the age of 80 in Greenwich, Connecticut from complications stemming from pneumonia.  Moore had battled adult onset diabetes for decades and in 2011 she had undergone elective brain surgery to remove a benign meningioma.  

While Moore had several notable silver screen roles, including an Academy Award nominated performance in the drama Ordinary People (1981), she is best remembered as an actor for starring in two extremely successful television situation comedies, The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-1966) and the eponymous Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-1977).  

Moore and her husband Grant Tinker ran a production company which spawned many successful television series, such as the Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spin offs Rhoda, Lou Grant, Phyllis along with The Bob Newhart Show and WKRP in Cincinnati. 

The Mary Tyler Moore show depicted a thirty something news writer working in a television newsroom in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  At the time, it was daring to feature a career woman trying to make it on her own.  The opening credits famously finished with an exhuberant Moore tossing her tam in the air in a crosswalk, as a valedictory gesture that "you're going to make it after all".



The iconic sequence was immortalized in bronze by TV Land in 2002 as street art near a shopping center.  The statute is currently on location at a Visitors Center in Minneapolis while the sidewalks are being repaired.

In honor of Ms. Moore's passing, it is right to figuratively toss our tams and fondly remember one who turned the world on with her smile and know that she made it after all.

Debatable Humor for Election 2016

After enduring 4 1/2 hours of Presidential debates and a painful to watch Al Smith Dinner, we ought to try to laugh at Election 2016 so that we don't cry.

Robert Fripp on Music

Hillary Clinton-- "C" is for...?

There was a fury when Libertarian Presidential nominee Gary Johnson (L-NM) blanked on a question about Aleppo.  Representative Justin Amash (R-MI 3rd), who is a libertarian leaning Republican 

The FBI's pre-Labor Day document drop of notes regarding Democrat Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's (D-NY) interview about the Clinton offical e-mails on a private server contained an incredible conceit.

The notes revealed that the former Secretary of State told her FBI interviewers that that she did not realize that a "C" marking of a paragraph in official messages indicated "Classified".  Wags wondered what Mrs. Clinton thought the "C" stood for.

Cheers to a Toasted Candidate

And with Coke's help, they could make Cuba Libre!

But if such a campaign became drunk on power then it might be like the Pogue Mahone.

Nota Bene for all the cunning linguists out there:  I am aware that the Gaelic is póg mo thóin but most American readers would remember the original title of the traditional folk Irish punk band by their bastardized name "Pog mo hone" before they had to change it to get on Top of the Pops.

  

Frank Rizzo on the Streets of Philadelphia