Happy Birthday, Mozart

Yesterday was the 250th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's birth, and probably only a month or two from now will be the 250th anniversary of when he started composing.

Mozart was not, as most people think of him, simply a composer of light, fluffy minuets and coldly perfect serenades that provide accompaniment for little girls to scatter flowers and drink tea. He tackled a range of issues which landed him in hot water with the censors, from the rising tension between the social classes (The Marriage of Figaro) to the abuses of the nobility and sexual liberation (Don Giovanni) to Freemasonry (The Magic Flute).

His music can be tender, sweet, harrowing, life-affirming, and even - especially in his unfinished Requiem and in the finale of Don Giovanni - tempestuous and fiery. The amazing thing is not only that he managed to write such amazing music, but that he never wrote anything bad which wasn't meant as a joke. Genuis, as we think of it, isn't supposed to be like that. It's something unpredictable, which burns brightly one minute and is gone the next. Yet Mozart kept the light shining his whole life.

So happy birthday, Mozart you genuis.

Iran?

I've been neglecting this blog alot lately; and while I don't have a decent post in me at this point, I can at least say: I hope Iran doesn't develope nuclear weapons and blow up the whole world. Profound, no? Let's see Achmanij..Achmedijen...Achmidejin... Mr. Iran President Guy squirm out of that one.

Of course, if he had a nuke (and had the authority to use it, which the President of Iran does not), the real targets would be either the US or Israel.

I honestly don't think Iran would use a nuke against Israel. What are they going to say; "Oops, I blew up the Dome of the Rock"? I don't think that would cut it for the Islamic Republic of Iran. Even so, I'm sure Israel can take out their nuclear plants if need be, and the threat of a nuclear strike is something that might even convince the almost unanimously hostile 'international community' to give them the green light. But then, maybe not.

As for the US, it's not really an issue until Iran devleops ICBM, though their new Jihadi Avenger Catapult is pretty fearsome.

Speaking of which, Iran guy just accused the West of having a Dark Ages mentality, which, if you remember that the European Dark Ages were the Muslim Golden Age, doesn't even make sense as an insult.

But... He Was Good to His Mother

I must say, even though Jack Abramoff is a corrupt, lying, cheating, law-breaking scoundrel who has disgraced my alma mater, I gotta love his style.

Good health to him

I've been too busy to update lately, but let me just say one thing about the situation with Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon. Although I strongly disagreed with some of his policies - most particulalrly, the decades of settlement building - I hope he will recover and allow the democratic process to move forward.

A Note On Christmas From A Grinch

I am sorry to have to introduce the subject of Christmas . . . . It is an indecent subject; a cruel, gluttonous subject; a drunken, disorderly subject; a wasteful, disastrous subject; a wicked, cadging, lying, filthy, blasphemous and demoralizing subject. Christmas is forced on a reluctant and disgusted nation by the shopkeepers and the press: on its own merits it would wither and shrivel in the fiery breath of universal hatred; and anyone who looked back to it would be turned into a pillar of greasy sausages."

- George Bernard Shaw

Happy/Merry/Joyous Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanzaa/Festivus to everyone!