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I suspect this would make the Blogmaster’s head explode, but fortunately he doesn’t read my posts. The NYTimes reports on Tom Stoppard’s latest project:
In his 2006 hit play, “Rock ’n’ Roll,” the British playwright Tom Stoppard examined the relationship between music and politics, shuttling back and forth between England and Czechoslovakia over a 25-year period. Now, in a new work, a one-hour radio play called “Darkside,” he has narrowed his focus to a single famous album, Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon.”
Commissioned by the BBC to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the release of a recording that has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide, “Darkside” was broadcast in August and this week will be released in CD form (Pink Floyd Music). Mr. Stoppard has stripped the record of most of its lyrics, writing his own text to be recited over the original music while intermittently drawing on the band member Roger Waters’s words to provide commentary on what has just happened.
The subject matter of “Darkside” will be familiar to anyone who has ever taken a college course in ethics or moral philosophy. The cast, which includes Bill Nighy and Rufus Sewell, acts out familiar thought experiments from that realm, like the Prisoner’s Dilemma and the Speeding Trolley, with plenty of jocular asides and subtle jokes inserted…
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What’s on the agenda, as we gradually slide into the Thanksgiving vortex?
NotMax
Merely seeing or hearing the name Tom Stoppard makes me ache.
Was in a play of his way back when. My character had to fall between 8 and 9 feet down onto my back, landing in a particular pose.
At one rehearsal, the director insisted on running the scene with the fall like 6 times in a row.
OzarkHillbilly
And I’m sure he thinks he makes it better. This mf’er needs to be shot and pissed on. Better yet, just shoot me.
Splitting Image
Dark Side of the Moon is about my seventh or eighth favourite Pink Floyd Album, after Meddle, Obscured by Clouds, and Wish You Were Here.
One critic described it as the perfect example of how sales for one record could go completely haywire without it being any better than its immediate predecessers or follow-ups.
Still, there is something to be said for a work of art that is designed to sell consistently for decades rather than smash a record the first week and taper off rather quickly thereafter.
fka AWS
Just, no.
Sherparick
And Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are still Dead.
Dolly Llama
Like many Gen Xers and older (and younger, for that matter) I cut my musical teeth on Dark Side. It and The Wall were the first two CDs I ever purchased, and I went on to purchase many hundreds. I still respect it as a work of art.
But God damn, it’s like “Stairway to Heaven.” The world’s heard enough of it.
ETA: And I agree with the comment above that this project sounds dumb as shit. Roger Waters? The biggest, most pretentious asshole in popular music.
Mustang Bobby
@fka AWS: “Just, no.”
Agreed. I wonder how Mr. Stoppard would like it if a musician took one of his plays, stripped out most of the dialogue leaving just the characters standing on the set with the director delivering a few notes.
(Well, there are those among us in the theatre scholar community who think that would be an improvement.)
amk
Guess stoppard is unemployed now in Broadway?
geg6
This is the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard. But then, I’m neither a Stoppard fan nor a Floyd fan. Both pretentious and assholish, most especially Roger Waters. Stoppard wrote the screenplays for two of the worst movies ever made (one of the Star Wars prequels and the Indiana Jones one with Sean Connery) and I can never forgive him for that.
My junior high and high school years were absolutely polluted with “Dark Side of the Moon” and Led Zeppelin IV and I hated both of those albums with a white hot heat. I still can’t listen to either of them. I’m convinced that both of those albums are what sent me to explore punk. For which, I suppose, I should be grateful to them.
hildebrand
Roger Waters really needs to get over his hatred for the rest of the band – it is amazing what he is willing to do to piss on them.
JGabriel
… and set it as the soundtrack to The Wizard of Oz.
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Raven
This is my brother’s Floyd cover band in LA
http://www.whichonespink.com/
They are really fine musicians but it has always struck me that my baby brother picked a band that just wasn’t on my radar.
Rainin like hell here on the gulf coast but may be warm enough for me to fish.
Ben
@geg6:
Counterpoint: He also wrote one of my favorite movies (Brazil)
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I see the GOP has taken the lead in the generic ballot. You got to love the reasoning of the public in general “Oh sure, the Republicans want to destroy the county, but that website was buggy”. Up there with “Sure the economy was great under Clinton, but Clinton got a hummer so I am voting for Bush”. Much like bosses they find it easier to demand perfection from the competent ones than confront and punish the useless bums.
geg6
@Ben:
Hate that movie. But I know a lot of people who like it. IRL, the same people who love that movie also seem to love Dr. Who, which I also hate. I just don’t see it the way they do. My brain must be wired very differently.
JPL
It’s a rainy day in Georgia.
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: It’s still a long way to the election but turnout will be key. The democratic members ran away from the President in 2010 and that didn’t help.
Woodrowfan
many of you probably saw the white supremacist who found out that he’s 14% African decent. Where does one get such testing? Anybody here have such genetic testing done? I’m curious what I would find. TY
Sherparick
I guess the secret is not listening to the same damn song to often. I love Beethoven’s Ninth, Ellington “A-train,” & Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five,” but I try to only listen to them once or twice a year. I pretty much enjoyed Stoppard’s plays. Remember seeing “Night and Day” with my Mum on a visit to Dublin in 1981 at the Abbey Theater. I don’t know if it was the actors (naturally great) or the setting (the Freaking Abbey, in Dublin (Synge, Yeats, Casey, Beckett, Behan, etc.), but I loved it. I assume he and the BBC to sign off on the project. If Shakespeare can survive “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,” I expect Pink Floyd will survive this.
Violet
I generally like Tom Stoppard’s work. I don’t care one way or the other if he’s creating this work. It’s not like he’s destroying the album and no one can ever listen to it again. It’ll still be there.
From the article:
Yeah, the play will stand on its own. Either people will like it or they won’t.
rikyrah
In case you missed it…
Hope that it gets posted:
http://on.msnbc.com/1cM4grx
Violet
@JGabriel:
Also from the interview:
Mike E
@Splitting Image: Meddle!
Saw Waters post-Wall when he toured Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking with Eric Clapton(!) on lead guitar. It was odd to see Slow Hand doing Floyd songs, but the 2nd half was the new album which had a decided blues bent…he absolutely shredded! This saved the concert for me, because Roger was a total fuckhead (no offense, JSF-TL) projecting images of evisceration & agony, and yelling at the audience for whistling during the quiet parts. Dick.
David Gilmore’s Floyd show was and is 1000x better.
rikyrah
The President of Peace
Monday, November 25, 2013 | Posted by Spandan C at 5:20 PM
I know I have been absent from the blogging scene, but today is a fantastic day to return. It’s a good day because of what happened over the weekend – President Obama, one more time, has proven to be the anti-Reagan. From the moment he took office, this president has been enamored with accusations of weakness from the Right and warmongering from the Left when it came to international affairs. From the media, the accusations have been alternating between the two, with seemingly no hint of irony.
But it has been this president who has been the most effective advocate of peace on the world stage of any American president since John F. Kennedy. President Obama has ended two wars started by his predecessors, disarmed Syria of its chemical weapons without firing a single shot (even if no one in the media noticed, it did happen), and now is poised to permanently keep Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon. In the agreement unveiled over the weekend, it seems that President Obama, Secretary Kerry and their team has had yet another major Middle-East breakthrough:
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2013/11/the-president-of-peace.html
rikyrah
I cannot find Rachel Maddow’s blog with Steve Benen at all these days.
Please leave a link to it. I would appreciate it greatly.
Violet
@rikyrah: I found this link. Maybe it’ll help? http://steve-benen.people.msnbc.com/
rikyrah
Obama Brilliantly Turns an Immigration Heckler Into a Triumph of Free Speech
By: Jason Easley
Monday, November, 25th, 2013, 5:49 pm
President Obama demonstrated what free speech is all about today by refusing to throw a heckler out, and discussing the issue of deportations with him during his speech in San Francisco.
The president didn’t have the heckler removed. He didn’t insult or try to humiliate the heckler. Instead, he listened and had a dialogue about his concerns. The president also made an important point during the conversation.
He can’t wave a magic wand and stop the deportations. It will take comprehensive immigration reform to change our system. Even if Obama could magically stop the deportations, is that the way we want our country to be governed?
If President Obama stopped the deportations, there would be nothing to stop the next president from reversing his policy and adopting a harsher policy. The way to get lasting change is to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill through Congress.
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/11/25/obama-brilliantly-turns-immigration-heckler-triumph-free-speech.html
bemused
How long can the rightwing keep talking about Obama lying about ACA? Heard it mentioned again on Morning Joe. Maybe it’s just liberal me but at this point I think they’re beating a dead horse. BorIng. Yawn. I have to wonder if many Republican voters are just not as outraged by this meme anymore. If they are hearing from their neighbors, friends and family members who have successfully signed up for health care they can finally afford, I doubt many people who haven’t been able to get or afford health care coverage before are going to refuse to apply for it. Saving money and lessoning worry about health issues will hold more sway than anti-ACA rhetoric as time passes. I sure don’t hear any Republicans not yet retirement age saying they will refuse Medicare when they are eligible either and I think they will eventually sign up for Obamacare one way or another.
JPL
@rikyrah: This is what I have bookmarked… http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show
rikyrah
Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
Follow
The pundits won’t tell you, but these #ObamaCare success stories are why Pres. Obama fought hard for the law. http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-obamacare-success-20131125,0,1801769.story#axzz2lfQJeiCY …
8:09 AM – 26 Nov 2013
rikyrah
Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
Follow
These Californians are ecstatic their crappy insurance is canceled because under #ObamaCare they get better coverage. http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/11/26/246798207/these-californians-greeted-canceled-health-plans-with-smiles …
8:02 AM – 26 Nov 2013
rikyrah
Charles Pierce:
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/iran-nuclear-programs-deal-112513
I am a simple man. Years ago, I made it a policy of mine that I would approve of any deal with Iran so long as it didn’t involve selling missiles to the mullahs. I developed this policy in January of 1981, when I was in Washington covering the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan, and the Iranians, in one last attempt to stick it to Jimmy Carter, refused to release the remaining American hostages until Reagan had taken office Almost immediately, the propagandists in the employ of the new president
started floating to a credulous media that the Iranians had done so
because they were terrified of the awesome awesomeness of Ronald Reagan.
Turns out, of course, that they did it in exchange for Reagan’s
unfreezing their American assets and also because Reagan’s people opened
up a yard sale at the Pentagon where the Iranians could get good deals
on TOW missiles. Ronald Reagan, as we all know, would never negotiate
with — let alone sell weapons to — nations that sponsored terrorism.
That is why Ronald Reagan was a great man who has many large and ugly
buildings named after him…
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Consequently, I am very happy with the deal struck over the weekend between certain western powers and Iran as regards the latter’s nuclear programs. Nobody is selling weapons to a country that sponsored the killing of our Marines. (Also, nobody is flying around the world acting like a jackass carrying a Bible and a cake shaped like a key. Bonus!) To me, this makes this a good deal, but the bar is obviously set pretty low. Call it the Ollie North Meridian. Also, consequently, I am less than saddened by the howling of the Republicans, especially those who were old enough to have been around when Reagan and his people sold those missiles and who never have purged their party’s foreign-policy establishment of the people who thought it was a swell idea. (The Bush State Department, especially the parts of it that dealt with Central America and the Middle East, was like an Iran-Contra Old-Timers Game. Recall especially that the egregious “minority report” of the congressional Iran-Contra investigation — the report that pretty much argued that Reagan could’ve sold the missiles to Khomeini personally — was written by a rising young authoritarian lycanthrope named Richard Cheney.) Nor am I particularly saddened by the various Democrats — Chuck Schumer, come on down! — who are posturing for the cameras. Suffice it to say I never really cared what Bibi Netanyahu’s opinion was on anything.
CollieDad
Interesting development in Western Pennsylvania.
Pittsburgh-area Episcopal priests get ‘local option’ in blessing ceremonies for gay couples
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A few years back, the rabid homophobe Robert Duncan was the Episcopal Bishop in Pittsburgh. Duncan and others left the Episcopal Church in a big hissy fit after the openly gay Eugene Robinson was ordained as a bishop. Duncan and other similarly narrow-minded cretins formed the Anglican Church in North America a group which bans the ordination of women and holds views similar to the Roman Catholic church on contraception and abortion. Good Riddance!
rikyrah
John Boehner’s Socialism: Taxpayers Pay 75% of His Premiums and His Wife is On Medicare
By: Sarah Jones more from Sarah Jones
Monday, November, 25th, 2013, 2:58 pm
“Next year Mrs. Boehner will be on Medicare.” This news was brought to you by Michael Hiltzik at the LA Times, in the midst of his fact-checking of John Boehner’s claims to be paying tons more money post-ObamaCare (shockingly a lie).
Also, “Boehner’s premiums are partially covered by his employer, the federal government, which pays up to 75% of employee premiums, up to a cap of $426.14 a month (for 2014).” This is confirmed by Factcheck.Org, which finds that the government pays on average 72% and up to 75%.
Not only do we, the taxpayers, fund 75% of Boehner’s premiums, but his wife is going on Medicare.
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/11/25/tax-payers-fund-75-john-boehners-premiums-wife-medicare.html
rikyrah
NYT: In the Health Law, an Open Door for Entrepreneurs
In the weeks since the health insurance marketplaces of the Affordable Care Act went online, a well-publicized ripple of alarm and confusion has permeated the ranks of small-business owners. But less well known is the response of another contingent: newcomers to entrepreneurship who see the legislation as a solution to the often insurmountable expense of getting health insurance. Some even view the Affordable Care Act itself as a business opportunity.
The hopeful include founders of start-ups who otherwise wouldn’t have access to affordable health insurance — people like Rajeev Jeyakumar, a co-founder of Skillbridge, a Manhattan-based online job marketplace for business consultants.
Mr. Jeyakumar is uninsured. But unlike many people who were thwarted by the government’s faulty health care website, he was able to sign up for individual coverage three weeks ago. He will pay just $74 a month, after tax credits, for his new plan through the New York State exchange.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/business/in-the-health-law-an-open-door-for-entrepreneurs.html?_r=2&
Rex Everything
Tom Stoppard’s latest project is the most annoying thing I’ve ever heard of.
Matt McIrvin
@rikyrah: This is probably my one pet peeve about health reform, that alleged advocates for small business do not see this. The existing system is terrible for small businesses! It’s probably the single biggest obstacle to starting one. A system that didn’t involve employers at all would probably be best for them, but as it is, the ACA helps a lot.
Granted, change always creates some trouble for people who actually have managed to wrangle something half-decent out of the existing system. But they’re not the only ones to talk to. They’ll also be prone to the sunk-cost fallacy: “what, I went through all that for nothing?”
handsmile
As this is a KULCHA! open thread and one of its topics is the thee-a-tah, last night I saw the film version of Harold Pinter’s play, The Homecoming, based on the legendary 1967 production directed by Peter Hall. (NYC”s Film Society of Lincoln Center is presenting a mini-festival of his filmed plays and his screenplays.)
Ka-pow! It helps to be reminded every so often just what a towering genius Pinter was/is as a playwright. A good production and you come away shaking.
As for Stoppard and Pink Floyd, I think a one-radio hour radio play will do little damage to the reputation of either. But just what was the BBC thinking with this commission: most Stoppard fans will dismiss it, most PF fans will denounce it. Wasn’t Sarah Brightman available to warble Waters’ lyrics if cross-market pablum was what they were after?
Matt McIrvin
@rikyrah: I remember reading the key-cake-and-Bible story buried somewhere in the back of Section A of the Washington Post and having a moment of WTF about it. Reagan’s selling arms to Khomeini?! Very strange: this story that seemed to make no sense kind of floating in the aether. The connection to the Contras came out a little later.
NotMax
@handsmile
Not my cuppa, but word from the mater is that Antonia Fraser’s book about her marriage to and life with Pinter was worth the time.
Although one can’t help but suspect it is repetitious.
handsmile
@NotMax:
And with extended periods of silence.
The Homecoming film featured Pinter’s first wife, Vivien Merchant, who had appeared in the original and Hall’s later production of the play. Pinter began an affair with Fraser during his marriage to Merchant and it all ended rather bitterly. Merchant died of depression and alcoholism two or three years after the divorce.
I’ve noted here your discerning taste when it comes to movies. With your comment above on Stoppard and now Pinter, I’m curious to know what (or if, for that matter) mid-late 20th-c. playwrights capture your interest.
NotMax
@handsmile
Shall have to do some old-fashioned cogitatin’ on that question.
Directly off the top o’ the noggin, though, Robert Bolt, Miguel Piñero, Paddy Chayefsky, Edward Albee and Joe Orton are names which pop up.
Samuel Beckett and also Peter Sheridan too, but only some of their stuff.
Curious what your list might look like.
Seanly
That sounds positively awful.
rikyrah
Folks, I remember Godfather III and the one month Pope.
Keep Francis in your prayers.
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@ehcsztin
Pope Francis attacks unfettered capitalism ‘new tyranny’ urges rich people share wealth in 84-page document http://www.breakingnews.com/it… …
handsmile
@NotMax:
Appreciate your replies!
Samuel Beckett is one of the cultural gods I pray to. (An atheist on all other matters, in the arts I’m a proud pantheist.)
Among those I hold in lesser reverence would be Richard Foreman, Caryl Churchill, Mac Wellman, Pinter, and Robert Wilson, though he’s as much a director as playwright.
(If it’s not screamingly obvious, my taste in theater runs to the experimental.)
Recent/current American playwrights whose work I respect would include Albee, Maria Irene Fornes, Mamet, Miller, Suzan-Lori Parks, Wallace Shawn, and Shepard.
From those you mentioned, I certainly agree with Orton; know Bolt only through his screenplays; not familiar with Sheridan at all.
rikyrah
Taxpayers’ $1.2 million propped up owner’s 2nd charter-school bust
By Bill Bush
After resigning this year as superintendent of a financially troubled Internet charter school amid allegations of nepotism, James McCord had a new plan, and it again involved a charter school employing him and his family.
This summer, McCord opened eight Olympus charter schools, including four in Columbus. They would be managed by a for-profit corporation formed by McCord called Education Innovations International, or EII, which would get most of the state money each month, own all the schools’ property and employ all the workers.
His wife, brother, children and an in-law all had jobs with the company, former employees said.
And again, it all collapsed. The school’s sponsor suspended it last month.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/11/19/ohios-1-2m-propped-up-owners-2nd-charter-bust.html