Month: December 2006

[Andrew]

Coming to Baghdad, as described by the Onion.

[Clive]

Another musical bites the dust. The Broadway adaptation of Nick Hornby’s novel, High Fidelity was due to be put out of its misery today after a pitfully short run. That ever-readable theatre-blogger, The Playgoer, had a hard time finding any positive reviews. (Twyla Tharp’s Bob Dylan show suffered a similar fate.) There’s a touch of unintentional humour in the comments section as a reader waxes indignant about this line in one of the very few raves:

…Impressive last year as the best of the Lennon‚Äôs in the musical "Lennon," he sings and acts with a truthfulness that makes you want to jump right up and buy a 45.

It’s obviously a generation thing. Most of us know a 45 is a record, right? I don’t know why that makes me laugh, but it just does.

[Alex]

The most predictable yet idiotic response to Augusto Pinochet’s death was the notion that "well, shucks, he was iffy on human rights but at least he believed in free markets and lots of lefties like Fidel Castro who is even worse, so motes and beams and all that, you know."

As though that makes everything ok!

So, credit to the Weekly Standard for publishing  John Londregan’s article "Don’t Cry for Pinochet":

Are we to admire Pinochet because his murderous regime was more efficient than tyrants on the left at producing higher GDP? Without the torture, rape, and killing, would economic and political freedom have been impossible in Chile? Hardly! But this is the argument insinuated by Pinochet. He successfully appropriated the utilitarian fallacy to which many on the left fall prey: that murder and torture are acceptable if they hasten the advent of the utopia implied by one’s ideological model.

[Of course, it’s a depressing commentary that the Standard merits praise simply for being decent.] 

[Clive]

A High Tory grapples with Robert Kagan’s neoconservative history of America’s role in the world. It goes without saying that Geoffrey Wheatcroft has doubts about the thesis of Dangerous Nation. But he still enjoys the asides:

One more throwaway nugget is the fact that from the 1860s to the 1880s, Chile had a larger navy than the United States; in his next volume Kagan will perhaps remind us that in 1939, the Belgian Army was larger than the American Army.

If you fancy an account of British conservatism, triumphs, scandals, gossip and all, Wheatcroft’s The Strange Death of Tory England makes a ripping yarn. We’ll see if David Cameron can bring the corpse back to life. There are certainly signs of a pulse at the moment. No wonder Britain’s leading blue blog is in a cheerful frame of mind.

[Alex]

I fear that the Christopher Caldwell op-ed on Darfur Clive cited earlier is depressingly accurate. Maybe the killing in Darfur doesn’t amount to genocide as the term is generally understood. I don’t know. I’m far from an expert on the matter. But I do know that there is something morally repugnant about declaring genocide and then doing almost nothing to stop it.

It may be that there is little that the US can usefully do in Sudan, but in that case it would be better to say nothing than to stand on the sidelines arguing that something must be done so long as we’re not expected to actually do any of it ourselves.

You can always count on the Bush administration for fine words but if we’ve learnt anything these past six years it’s to look at what they do, not just what they say.

We’ve been here before of course. Perhaps the most disgusting passage in Bill Clinton’s shabby memoirs is the moment he declares his failure to act on Rwanda "became one of the greatest regrets of my presidency" – a statement that might carry more weight had he devoted more than a handful of paragraphs to the subject in the course of his 1,000 page apologia.

Will bush’s ghostwriter also have to wash his hands in this manner?

[Alex]

Clive is probably too modest to mention this, but as far as I can tell he has near-impeccable taste in music. I had never heard of the remarkable Paolo Conte until the other day. If you know his work you’re fortunate; if you don’t then you have a great discovery ahead of you.

It’s droll, deceptively simple, charming Italian jazz of the sort you might imagine your favourite uncle might perform just for you when you’re a kid and he’s feasted and drunk well…

Switch the phone off, pour yourself a glass of (good) bourbon, light a fine cigar and chill. For a few blissful moments you’ll think you’re at a Roman jazz club and all’s right with the world.  It’s super-groovy stuff and the way life ought to be lived.

[Alex]

Greetings, people. And a big thank you to Andrew for entrusting part of his blog to me for the next couple of weeks. Brave of him. Still, it should be fun and I’m looking forward to seeing what Clive and Danny will be writing.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we find ourselves pondering the history and future of the transatlantic relationship, plus America’s problematic public diplomacy efforts. Most Britons I know consider this a problem – a sense that is compounded by the lack of importance this administration seems to attach to the issue. What do you think? What can be done to improve matters?

I’ll also be considering the future of the United Kingdom itself (portentous drum roll please!) as the prospect and appeal of Scottish independence and hence the break-up of Britain seems strangely and suddenly possible.

Now, in a shameless rip-off of Danny’s list of things he likes about America, let me give you Today’s Top Ten Things I Love About This Crazy, Mixed-Up, Marvellous Country:

Breakfast at a diner in small town America

College football (Go Blue!)

Proper old-time country music (bluegrass too)

Nightime champagne with a pretty girl on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial

Motels off the interstate

Bagels

Raymond Chandler

Central Park

The West and its exhilerating sense of freedom, possibility and romance

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – that still rocks, folks

[Daniel]

Ok. So I said I would be introducing you to some great things on the British blogging scene. Tom Whitwell’s Music Thing is constantly inventive. And to prove it, here’s the YouTube video he posted of a man playing guitar with his feet. Unlike the Michel Gondray Rubik Cube film, I think this guy is for real.

Some of Music Thing’s comment makers point out that people are just walking by while this amazing feat/feet is taking place. Good point. Though to blame it on "Bush’s America" goes a bit far.

[Daniel]

Time’s

[Clive]

One of my minor addictions is the five-of-the-best culture lists that run in the Wall Street Journal every weekend. The latest offers Joe Keenan’s take on the sharpest literary satires about Hollywood. Budd Schulberg’s What Makes Sammy Run? takes pride of place, with Michael Tolkin’s The Player close behind. I wonder how long it will be before Tinseltown’s excesses become so bizarre that they make any fiction look puny? I mean, can you really satirise someone as unreal as Tom Cruise?