(by H Kissinger) World Order is a knotty concept prone to interpretations of violent subjectivity. On the one hand, we have the seers of doom, who see only a world in chaos and inevitable decline (e.g. Mark Steyn). Farthest from this on the spectrum are the utopian promoters of one world governance (to whom one recommends an urgent reading of Thomas More). Along the way are those who deprecate the notion of order at all, preach heterogeneity and the cult of small-as-beautiful, the barrackers of old powers, cultists for the new such as the revived Middle Kingdom or ISIS, or…
Continue Reading →To the Mortlock Chamber in the State Library of SA, to hear L’Arianna abbandonata e gloriosa and Lamento d’Arianna (1608), works reconstructed from Monteverdi’s fragmented scores, with solo voice and harpsichord, accompanied by the odd stage effect to evoke waves crashing on lonely Naxos, where (failed Argonaut) Theseus has parked Ariadne to show his gratitude for her help surviving the labyrinth on Minos. This paring away eschews the go-for-baroque approach that could overwhelm the purity of the harmonics, which are quite reminiscent of Purcell’s Dido pieces…
Continue Reading →Walk into any Chinatown in the world and you will struggle to find these. You can buy them online but they are not cheap. Yet they seem to show up, unbilled, in every other film and television show. Our list is below, suggested additions are welcome: Affliction AGL gas advertisement Anchorman: the Legend of Ron Burgundy The Bank Bewitched Big Bang Theory Bobby Borgen (Danish TV) Bugsy The Caretaker Catch Me if you Can Columbo Curb Your Enthusiasm Decoding Annie Parker Deconstructing Harry Dexter Election End of Days Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Family Guy A Few Good Men…
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