Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 127
February 24, 2014
Americans Hustled?
Wash Post fact-checks the Oscar nominees for best picture based on true stories (that's six out of nine). Or at least the trailers. Here's just one:
What's the Temperature, Darling
Another from Rosanne Cash, live, from hit new album.
February 23, 2014
First Openly Gay Player in...NBA Tonight.
While all the focus has been on--and remains on, thanks to current "combine"--Michael Sam as the likely first openly gay NFL player, much overlooked is that Jason Collins, who came out as the first NBA player in the off-season and then never got picked up by a team, will make his debut tonight as first openly gay in that league. He was just picked up by the Brooklyn Nets, after an injury, and will be in uniform tonight and possibly play.
Barry Bad News
Like other cheaters before him (see: McGwire, Mark), Barry Bonds now being welcomed back to baseball, this time by his old SF Giants, in a spring training role as instructor. What, instructing young players how to get away with shooting up and masking the results? And, of course, we've seen cheaters like Melky and Jhonny and now Nelson Cruz rewarded with big contracts even after serving ban time. Buster Olney defends it here, but Buster has been on wrong side of Hall of Fame controversy from the beginning. Barry, like ARod, cheated for years and years, not just a brief period, and lied, and lied, for years.
'Hammer' Time
Completed a series of four programs at my local Nyack Library last night, with pianist Yashar Yaslowitz playing many of Beethoven's most famous sonatas after I screened clips from various documentaries, docu-dramas and Hollywood depictions of the composer. It was another sellout (as was the first screening of the film on Beethoven's Ninth that I co-produced complete with amazing flash mob). Last night one of the sonatas was the "mighty" (as it's often called) late Hammerklavier, though the word that occurs to me most is "profound." Reminded that it holds the single greatest movement in all of the piano reportory, the slow 3rd movement, here from Barenboim--not my favorite version (see: Uchida) but you get the idea... Below that, incredible Raiford Rogers modern dance based on the Hammerklavier and two of the other late LvB sonatas. Showing how "modern" Beethoven still is.
Sunday Morning in the Church of Beethoven
Several weeks ago I posted a video here that captured the first night of the mass protests in the Ukraine--featuring thousands singing the "Ode to Joy." This, of course, illustrates the theme of our new, acclaimed film "Following the Ninth"--which follows the Ode and the Ninth Symphony arund the world as it is used in protests and other social gatherings. Now here's a little video of a small group Ukrainians in D.C. singing the "Ode"--with the words of the Ukrainian national anthem. As they write, "This is not a new anthem for Ukraine - this is in the tradition of playing Beethoven's brilliant 'Ode to Joy' during revolutions as a symbol of the invincible human spirit." Another vid. --G.M..
February 22, 2014
Meow Detectives
As you may recall, I'm a big fan of True Detective--and opening song from the Handsome Family, and posted it in its entirety a few weeks back. Now comes this fun parody--with Warrior Cats as Marty and Rust evil twins? Starting from scratch.
February 21, 2014
Friday Cat Blogging
Continuing the Internet tradition since, whenever, who knows.
