the big time

And when I say bombarde, I mean the guy on the left

Oh, and btw, there is no way that microphone is on.

daze of yore

A. O. Scott writes in the NYT about the cultural legacy of Margaret Thatcher.  (Will history prove that, in tandem with Ronald Reagan, she created a bubble in the music industry the Post-Thatcherite world could never sustain, and thus contributed to the downfall of major label domination?)  A biopic is due in December, directed by Phyllida Lloyd, who brought us the most recent stage iteration (in the anglophone joint) of Schiller's Maria Stuart.

"Police hunting the individuals who have threatened to kill Mrs. Thatcher say that their investigations are making good progress, and that 47,000,000 people are helping them with their inquiries." - Not the Nine O'Clock News

Excellent Neologism of the Week

"Trafalgarcast"! That just leaps off the page it's so awesome. Find it in Jessica Duchen's report on the not all that sorry state of opera.

We beg to differ on her disdain for the Met nosebleeds, though, where it isn't about staging, it's about sound. (Try Peter Grimes up there if you want to check out the dramatic possibilities of reverb.) Also, considered in its historical context, it's one of the few legacies of the Johnson Administration that many people's lives would suck to be without. Certainly it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, or the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.