|
Slogans for Specter
Re Dan Rottenberg’s “Campaign slogans for Arlen Specter” (Editor’s Notebook)—
Love this piece! I thought I was the only one who remembered the single-bullet theory was Specter’s brainchild. I actually heard him explain it in person in ‘64.
Richard Bank
Upper Dublin, Pa.
May 13, 2009
You got that right. When he left to become a Democrat, I thought, “Who wants you.” And as a 70-year old who can’t remember what movie she saw last week, do we really want a Senator turning 80 who, sadly, is battling recurring illness to do battle for Democratic principles, of which he has had few?
Joan Myerson Shrager
Elkins Park, Pa.
May 13, 2009
Arlen Specter? That dinghy of his can’t capsize fast enough for me. The obscure prosecutor who gave us the magic bullet theory was the point man in covering up the biggest case of domestic terrorism in American history. The man who, from his eminence on the Senate Judiciary Committee, gave us Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, and Samuel Alito, has done more than any single person to undermine habeas corpus and due process.
Already his vote against foreclosure relief has helped strike down the centerpiece of any decent economy recovery program.
I met Arlen Specter only once, at a campaign rally in which I raised the question of the 1991 Lower Merion plane crash that had killed several elementary school students and Specter’s Senate colleague, John Heinz, and that remains one of the most traumatic events in Montgomery County history. With the National Transportation Safety Board in full damage-control mode, I asked Specter if he would get the facts of the case on the table. “I’ll get back to you on that,” said Senator Cover-Up. Never did, though. Let that be his epitaph.
Robert Zaller
Bala Cynwyd, Pa.
May 13, 2009
Editor’s comment: Stop beating around the bush and tell us forthrightly: Do you like Specter or don’t you?
‘Tango With Style’
As a dogged devotee of print media, I was on-line tickled to see three reviews (by Jim Rutter, Robert Zaller and Janet Anderson) of the same Pennsylvania Ballet program, “Tango With Style,” better named “Tango With Neither Style nor Soul.” BSR’s readiness to publish multiple reviews is a refreshing antidote to the one-opinion hierarchies of the print media.
This threesome does present something of a dance review contest for readers, and in this competition Jim Rutter leaves the others sprawling on the dance floor in apparent awe of anything the Pennsylvania Ballet may present.
Rutter was right on to focus on the wonderful new Matthew Neenan work, Keep, and dismissing the other two works as “barely deserving commentary.” If ballet is going to survive, it’s going to be done through a post-modern sensibility, like Neenan’s, that seeks to re-invent the form with the unexpected and avoids the influence of other dance forms and ballet cliché vocabulary.
Zaller and Anderson ignore the soullessness and, yes, boredom of Hans van Manen’s Five Tangos. Anderson makes “radical deconstruction” of tango an apparent end in itself, when it was simply here an ill-used method producing little of visual interest.
The warmed-over Robert Weiss Octet for Strings could have received a more critical putdown from Zaller (his “eye candy") and Anderson (her “pretty"). How about “boring” or “gracefully tedious”?
It’s good to see Anderson take note of the large audiences and apparent commercial successes of the Ballet, but instead of cheering on one-third-successful programs, why not urge them to embrace new talents to revive the art form, and not go with household names— American or international— whose work, as Rutter noted, didn’t deserve much notice?
Jonathan M. Stein
Center City Philadelphia
May 15, 2009
It’s always nice to see an individual’s hard work and special gifts acknowledged and publicized. Roy Kaiser has done an amazing job on a budget that’s a fraction of that of peer companies in Boston, Houston, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Michael Scolamiero
Executive Director
Pennsylvania Ballet
Center City Philadelphia
May 12, 2009
Bach’s B-minor Mass
Re Dan Coren’s review of The Choral Arts Society’s concert of Bach’s B-minor Mass—
I was there and also felt something very special was happening, from the very first movement and the incredible beauty that followed, to the last solo by the countertenor, which was the crowning glory of this magnificent performance.
Michael Ciliberti
Chestnut Hill
Philadelphia
May 12, 2009
Hanging Out in the ‘50s
Re “Hanging out in the ‘50s,” by Bob Levin—
I was your Jersey ’burbs counterpart, bro, and you nailed it like Richie Valens with a claw hammer.
Bob Ingram
Burleigh, N.J.
May 13, 2009
Bob Levin replies: In my fantasies, I was hoping to hear from someone who actually hung at Dewey’s. Then I thought: How many people were there? Forty? Fifty? A hundred? Two hundred? And what’s it been? Forty years? So I’ll settle for Joisey.
All in the family fan mail
Re “My mother’s greatest gift,” by Maria Thompson Corley—
A wonderful article by my daughter about my wife! She got it right.
Lloyd Thompson
Leduc, Alberta, Canada
May 9, 2009
Re Bob Ingram’s review of Roberto Bolaño’s 2666—
Bob Ingram unbundles this year’s most enigmatic novel and renders it crystal-clear. His crisp analysis is lovingly detailed and penned with the same poignant prose he attributes to Mr. Bolaño himself. A fitting memorial to a towering novelist.
Susan Schaefer
Maastricht, the Netherlands
May 13, 2009
I guess it pays to stay on good terms with ex-wives.
Bob Ingram
Burleigh, N.J.
May 13, 2009
Editor’s note: The writer was formerly married to Susan Schaefer.
FDR’s Hundred Days
Re “FDR’s Hundred Days,” by Steve Cohen—
I think Truman needs to be included in this discussion, in his first hundred days he met with Churchill and Stalin to divide up Europe, helped found the UN, had to decide whether to recognize Israel, oh and yeah, he launched the only nuclear attack in human history. All of this without actually having been elected.
David Marcus
Brooklyn, N.Y.
April 29, 2009
In his letter of April 29, 2009, David Marcus failed to mention that Truman’s use of the atomic bombs ended the war without the expected and projected million American casualties.
Andrew Kevorkian
West Philadelphia
May 6, 2009
Cohen’s review of The Forgotten Man is seriously at fault for mislabeling a book he finds “irritating” as a “polemic.” Amity Shlaes’s assessment of FDR is much more nuanced than Cohen acknowledges; she notes his “wonderful disposition.” Indeed, on purely economic issues, Shlaes is equally as tough on Hoover, noting the harm caused by the Smoot-Hawley tariff and other actions on his watch.
Shlaes points out that other nations had “depressions” in the early 1930s, as we did. But only the U.S. had a “Great Depression” that lasted for years, until the Second World War. Other nations emerged much more quickly. That is a key insight here— that the economy worsened for many years, despite FDR’s ability to inspire Americans.
Shlaes’s treatment of facts is much more candid than the reviewer’s. Take the issue of unemployment. Cohen asserts that the unemployment rate “was 25% when FDR took office, 21% a year later and 15% after four years.” Cohen describes this as “a considerable achievement.”
Maybe. But Cohen stops after one term of FDR’s presidency, omitting any discussion of Shlaes’s analysis of FDR’s remaining terms as president. The key point is that the rate climbed back up to 17.4% in 1938, and it remained in the mid- or high teens. Those are awful numbers— double what we have today— and they persisted in our country for years longer than they did in other nations.
I encourage BSR readers to read The Forgotten Man and decide for themselves.
W. Bourne Ruthrauff, Esq.
Bryn Mawr
May 8, 2009
Steve Cohen replies: It’s true that unemployment increased during FDR’s second term, wiping out the progress that had been made earlier, but this setback occurred because FDR listened to fiscal conservatives and cut spending sharply from his first-term levels. So Shlaes is on shaky ground when she argues against stimulus spending. Also, Mr. Ruthrauff remarks that European nations recovered from economic depression “much more quickly” than the U.S. in the 1930s. But the difference lies with the increased state spending for armaments, highways and railroads by Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Franco and others. As I mentioned in my review, FDR rejected militarism (until 1940). Was this wise? Would earlier re-arming by the U.S. have prevented the rise of Nazism? That’s a separate debate.
Wine on line
Re “Shopping for wine on line,” by Lynn Hoffman—
Yes, Pennsylvania is in the dark ages in regard to customers having wine shipped to their homes from another state. We need to change this law now.
Elizabeth Gutman
Center City
May 6, 2009
Great overview of the wine-on-line world. I looking forward to learning more details soon.
F. Loan
West Mount Airy
May 7, 2009
Your readers might also like to know about the two largest wine auction sites on the Internet: winecommune.com and winebid.com.
I’ve bid and bought wines from the latter for more than six years now, including a number of spectacular first growth Bordeaux (sorry, I rarely drink whites) and some outstanding Rhone varietals. Interested parties can find wines in vertical and horizontal lots. Why I’m increasing my competition for bids by telling all of you is beyond me.
Sellers on both of these websites care little about the legal restrictions placed on bidders by their respective states, and will gladly ship wines to Pennsylvania residents.
Broad Street Review readers might also like to know that eBay sells wine (usually unrestricted to location).
Like eBay, winebid.com and winecommune.com offer seller ratings and buyer feedback that discourage fraud. And no matter where a person chooses to buy/find their wine, readers should be aware that most sellers won’t ship during the months of April to September. The conditions in the airplanes during these seasonal months would ruin any wine they carry!
Jim Rutter
Center City Philadelphia
May 15, 2009
Baroque revival
I agree with Tom Purdom (”The Baroque revival”) that there is really a wonderful newness component to hearing Baroque on authentic ancient instruments. This is an attractor especially at a time when our national (and city) financial crisis is impacting many organizations. Sometimes we don’t know what we don’t know, and might miss out on opportunities to attend these kinds of inspiring and exuberant musical events.
There are actually a few other groups in the local area who firmly dedicate themselves to the genre, such as Tempesta di Mare, Brandywine Baroque and Vox Ama Deus (the group I represent). Vox’s chamber orchestra group, Camerata Ama Deus (including cellist Vivian Barton Dozor), completed its season on April 17, performing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, including the composer’s Concerto in A minor for two violins, Concerto for Flute in A minor and Concerto for Two Trumpets in C Major. We had to add more seats at the Perelman to accommodate those buying tickets at the door.
Clearly, audiences are very appreciative of this music and jubilantly applauded Tom DiSarlo (the concertmaster) and others.
I believe audiences are seeking out the “ancient newness” and also, simple “good old-time vibrations” to offset the (sometimes oppressive) mood that the general media tend to highlight. Wouldn’t it be great if our local mass media highlighted these kinds of events instead? The truth is, there are other moods that “create the zest in every bar,” not just in the music, but also in our lives.
Mike Hayden
Director of Marketing
Vox Ama Deus
Gladwyne, Pa.
April 29, 2009
Tom Purdom replies: In my 21 years as a music writer, I’ve probably devoted more words to Philadelphia early music organizations than any reviewer in the area. I haven’t reviewed any Vox Amadeus events this year because of the accidents of scheduling and the finite amount of time I can devote to reviewing. I write about an event when I think I have something to say that readers will find interesting. In this case, I happened to hear three different kinds of Baroque concerts in four days, and I seized the opportunity to discuss some of the effects of the Baroque revival.
Wagner’s Ring cycle
Re “Wagner’s Ring Cycle (Part 2),” by Steve Cohen—
One assumes that a composer creates music inspired by the libretto. The contemporary conceptions and alterations of the libretto have nothing to do with the music played. The next step will be altering the melodic, harmonic and rhythmic aspects of the score as well as the instruments of the orchestra, using saxophones instead of clarinets, perhaps adding electronic sounds— and, of course, everything amplified.
Pierre Medard
Chestnut Hill
April 30, 2009
Steve Cohen replies: I too believe in preserving traditions— but also in presenting some alternative interpretations that may bring out the psychological aspects behind the words. I would not approve, and I am not aware of, any production of the Ring that changed Wagner’s libretto or his orchestration (except to reduce the orchestra’s size in smaller theaters). When I write about re-interpretations of the Ring I refer to variations of scenery, costumes and stage movement.
Orchestra’s Damnation of Faust
Re “Faust is damned (and I’m bemused),” by Tom Purdom—
What a wonderful review! I wish I could have attended this performance.
I am perplexed, however, that Tom did not mention the Philadelphia Singers Chorale at all, as they have a rather important role in this work and I would love to hear his thoughts on their performance.
Holly Phares
Fairmount
May 2, 2009
Editor’s comment: Readers are gently but forcefully reminded that BSR, unlike most newspapers and magazines, functions entirely as an open forum where writers are free to choose their own topics.
♦
Respond to this Article
|
