Sunday, April 30, 2017, 8:30 pm: White House Correspondents Dinner – Hasan Minhaj

Tonight’s post is another “comedy+think” post. Okay, it’s mostly comedy with a little bit, though an important bit, to think about.

Last night, the annual White House Correspondents Dinner was held, with Hasan Minhaj, one of the correspondents on “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” as the featured host/comedian. I think that he did a great job.

Donald Trump announced some time ago that he would not be attending due to “a scheduling conflict”. (It was actually one of the first things that he did after he took office.) For once, he kept his word. Surprise, surprise, he scheduled a conflict! He went to Pennsylvania to give a campaign rally speech to his base of supporters.

It is my understanding that Trump is the only sitting President who has refused to attend the annual dinner. Typically, the host comedian roasts the President, his administration, other politicians and the media, and the President responds by roasting the press and other politicians.

It was a gutless, cowardly, chickensh!t move, but not a stupid move, on Trump’s part. This way, he can/will complain that the “fake media” were having fun and laughing at him instead of covering his rally/speech aka “the real story”. That way, he can also keep telling his base that he’s spending his time on them, not on partying and having fun (though that doesn’t explain all his trips to his resort in Florida and his golfing, which, during the campaign, he said he would not be doing because he would be too busy working for them!)

Note that Minhaj took as many, if not more, shots at the media as a whole and those in attendance in particular, than he took at Trump and his administration. (That’s the “think” part of tonight’s  post.) I doubt that Trump will acknowledge that balance when he and his spokespeople respond over the coming week to Minhaj and the other speakers at the dinner.

(Both Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, the reporters who investigated and broke the Watergate story/crimes that brought down disgraced former President Richard Nixon, spoke at the dinner. I’ll post their (short and sweet) speeches with some commentary in a separate post. Both were excellent and said serious, important and timely things worth listening to. However, I thought that readers might enjoy some good laughs tonight to end the weekend and start the new week ahead.)

YouTube title: Hasan Minhaj COMPLETE REMARKS at 2017 White House Correspondents’ Dinner (C-SPAN)

Sunday, April 30, 2017, 10:30 am: Rowan Atkinson – Reading of the Will

Here’s a link to a clip from an old interview of a young Rowan Atkinson, in which he performs a short sketch about a doddering old lawyer reading a client’s will. It’s a great example of dry British humour.

By way of background for younger readers who were too young or not around in 1985, there is a reference at the end of the sketch to the Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the ultra-fundamentalist Iran after the revolution that overthrew the Shah of Iran. Current political and social concerns about Iran and its leaders (over things like nuclear weapons, support for terrorists, and suppression of women’s and other human rights) trace back to him and that revolution.

I found the clip linked below yesterday by accident while I was preparing my evening post. Curiously, it was one of several YouTube recommended comedy videos that popped up when I searched for a link to Deep Purple’s “Child in Time”: Saturday, April 29, 2017, 10:00 pm: Deep Purple – Child in Time. I guess that the YouTube search algorithms must have recognised, over time, some association between Deep Purple fans and British comedy fans.

I wish that I could have shared this with my father. I know that he would have loved it.

Fair warning, this is (barely) PG.

YouTube title: Rowan Atkinson Sketch – Reading Of Will – approx. 1985

Saturday, April 29, 2017, 10:00 pm: Deep Purple – Child in Time

This is a follow-up to my post last night: Friday, April 28, 2017, 8:30 pm: Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture”. I mentioned that I used to listen to Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” and Deep Purple to psych myself up for exams and hockey games. In particular, I listened mostly to their song, “Child in Time”, and a couple of their other songs.

I was a goalie, and I identified with, even became, the Child in Time in the song. The lyrics talk about bullets flying and ricocheting, and the music builds up from subdued to scream-singing, from intricate and sophisticated to raw and primal, alternately back and forth, reminiscent of the “1812 Overture”, and Ravel’s “Bolero” (see my post of Wednesday, June 8, 2016, 8:30 pm: Ravel’s Bolero). For me, it was the goalie experience set to music, about not being afraid of a shooter or the shot or getting hurt, of rising to and beating, stopping, the unstoppable challenges headed my way.

Unlike my usual practice, I am providing only one link to the song, the version that I listened to most often. There are other good versions available, which I will post separately, as well as other songs from Deep Purple. Hope you like it.

YouTube title: Deep Purple-Child in Time

Saturday, April 29, 2017, 9:30 am: Right On!

Fair warning, this “comedy+think” post and the video linked below are PG 14.

Below is a link to a brief segment from Trevor Noah about former President Obama’s speech earlier this week and the hypocritical criticism levelled at him for being paid for it, just like his predecessors from both the Republican and Democratic parties.

Though it is bleeped out, there is heavy use of the f-word, but it is judicious, not gratuitous. There really is no other word that would convey the same meaning. I’m just glad that Noah has the ba!!s to tell it like it is!

Don’t even think about trying not to laugh.

YouTube title: Obama Should Make That Money – The Daily Show | Comedy Central

Friday, April 28, 2017, 8:30 pm: Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture”

For this Friday night, I thought that I would present some music. One of the good things that my mother did was to introduce me to classical music. One of my favourite pieces of music, not just classical music, is Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture”, commemorating the Russians’ defeat of Napoleon and the French Army.

I have fond memories of listening to it on vinyl at home in Montreal or at our country house north of Montreal in St. Donat or on 8-track in the car travelling between the two. I also used to listen to it to psyche myself up the day or night before an exam, or in the afternoon before a hockey game against another school. (I would follow it up, as it got closer to game time, with some hard-driving Deep Purple !!! which I will post separately. It’s hard to explain, but both got my adrenaline pumping, and the combination of the two was dynamite – the good kind!)

In order to let readers listen and decide for themselves, I will say only that the “1812 Overture” is a truly epic piece of music. That describes much of Tchaikovsky’s music, who also wrote the music for the ballets “Swan Lake” and “The Nutcracker Suite”, among other pieces. I have used the word “epic” only a few times in this blog, such as in my post of Friday, April 15, 2016, 8:30 pm: An Epic Tale by the Grateful Dead with Symphony Orchestra. I referred to Tchaikovsky in that post, with the “1812 Overture” in mind, though I did not name it.

As usual, I present links to a number of different versions below. There are two basic versions, the original by Tchaikovsky without a chorus, and an arrangement by American conductor Igor Buketoff with a chorus. I grew up on the original version and learned of the choral version only recently. The other major differences between versions is the use of real or simulated cannons in the finale, and the relative emphasis of strings and bells (and types of bells played) in the latter part of the piece. Almost all of the versions below use real cannons. Beyond those differences are the usual differences in interpretation of different conductors and orchestras.

(I have provided a brief description of each so that you can decide which one(s) you want to watch or listen to, and in what order. You do not have to follow my ordering, but there is a deliberate ordering below. My suggestion is that if you like the piece after watching/listening to any version, watch/listen to all the versions over time, so as not to over-saturate yourself with it. Also, be aware that the volume goes up and down through the piece, with a very loud finale. In particular, the cannons and bells can be quite loud, so use caution about volume and bass settings especially if you are using headphones – it can sneak up on you!)

The first link below features Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic Orchestra​. I am fairly sure that this is the version that I grew up on. It is audio only.

YouTube title: Bernstein -Tchaïkovsky 1812 overture

The next version is a video recording, giving you a sense of “being there” and of the orchestra as a whole which is greater than the sum of its parts. It features the Hallé Orchestra, conducted by Mark Elder. As you can see, the cannons are simulated.

YouTube title: [ P. I. Tchaikovsky 차이콥스키 ] 1812 Overture Solennelle 1812년 장엄서곡 (Royal Albert Hall, BBC Proms 2004)

The next version, audio only, is an “audiophile” recording, as described in the comments under the video screen on YouTube. Personally, I am not into all that detail/info. It’s just a great recording, with very loud real cannons. It features Erich Kunzel conducting the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

YouTube title: Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, Op. 49 – TELARC Edition in HD – FOR AUDIOPHILES – WARNING! Live Cannoms

The next version, audio only, features the Ljubljana Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Anton Nanut. The bells are spectacular in this version.

YouTube title: 1812 Overture – Tchaikovsky (Full)

The next version is a video recording of the choral version of the Overture, performed live outdoors, complete with fireworks, in the Italian town of Siena, near Florence, Italy, one of the most beautiful, friendly and interesting towns and cities, respectively, that I have ever visited. It also gives you a sense of “being there”.

YouTube title: P I Czajkowski 1812 OUVERTURE SOLENNELLE direttore Zubin Mehta

The last version below is an audio recording of the choral version featuring the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy, with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

YouTube title: Eugene Ormandy: Tchaikovsky – 1812 Overture

Friday, April 28, 2017, 10:30 am: Rick Mercer – “Talking to Americans” – Part 3

“Talking to Americans” was a regular segment presented by Rick Mercer on “This Hour Has 22 Minutes”. It was later spun off into a one-hour special that aired on April 1, 2001 on CBC, combining previously-aired clips and new clips made for the special.

Below is a link to Part 3 of the special. In case you missed them, click on this link for Part 1: Wednesday, April 26, 2017, 10:30 am: Rick Mercer – “Talking to Americans” – Part 1 and this link for Part 2: Thursday, April 27, 2017, 10:30 am: Rick Mercer – “Talking to Americans” – Part 2. The uploader’s title to the video is misleading in that Mercer was talking to Americans at large, from across the political spectrum and across the country; he was not talking just to Republicans.

By the by*, although this special is over 15 years old, most (not all) Americans are just as ignorant about Canada in 2017 as they were back then (perhaps even more, because Canada has changed so much since that time). “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” – literally “the more it changes, the more it’s the same thing”, usually translated as “the more things change, the more they stay the same”!

(*For my American friends, that’s not a typo or autospell error. It’s an old English/Canadian version of “by the way”, still used sometimes.)

YouTube title: Rick Mercer Talking to american republicans Part 3