Sundry

Busy, work, etc. This is a “catch-up” post.

Music

Has anyone seen these cool commercials for Lexus music systems? One of my favorites is the one of Diana Krall listening to Jazz pianist Oscar Peterson's Night Train:

Oscar Peterson, wow, what a great musician!

Speaking of which, here's a very interesting article about Pete Seeger, dubbed in the article as “America's Most Successful Communist.” It traces the history of the somewhat malevolent (at least to me) Leftist politicization of American music personified in Seeger and his ilk.

Hurricane Assholes

I learned in the news (CNN) this morning that in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Feds provided trailers, free of charge, to house evacuees. Guess what happened to these? Showing their superior sense of decorum, gratitude, and above all, citizenship, a lot of them were trashed and ransacked. These people stole the air conditioners in them, all the appliances, lights, and even the toilet!

Some of them were used as meth labs, even. FEMA is now attempting to sell these trailers at auction for a fraction ($600) of the cost of purchase ($20,000). Your tax dollars at work, people.

Movies

I just saw, for the first time, the 1996 movie, The Crucible. I liked it very much as it had all the great touches and none of the onerous baggage of historical movies. I later learned it was adapted from the 1954 play by Arthur Miller. Brilliant.

Daniel Day Lewis, apart from a very few moments in which he over-emotes, is terrific and very sympathetic. Winona Ryder delivers a great performance. The movie is filmed brilliantly—there were some utterly suspenseful scenes shot dynamically from absurd angles that briefly elicited heart palpitations.

Highly recommended.