Sep 20 2014

The Breakfast Club (Prima Donnas)

breakfast beers photo breakfastbeers.jpgI’ve often opined that “classical” music (also called “art” music to distinguish it from the time period) is the “rock” music of it’s age.  You have the dysfunctional artists (why do you think they call them divas?), the groupies, and-

a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.  There’s also a negative side.

Just as in contemporary times there are works that feature the talents of a small group and those that highlight a virtuoso individual performer.

And that is the difference between a Sonata and a Concerto.  A Sonata is a piece of several movements composed for one or two instruments as an ensemble.  A Concerto is a piece of several movements featuring a soloist accompanied by an orchestra or band.  The Sonata is the older form and originally meant a work without a vocal component (as opposed to a Cantata which means, literally, “to sing”).

The essential component here is several movements.  In Baroque music there were two types of Sonata- Sonata da Chiesa, which is one suitable for Church and always consists of several movements, “a slow introduction, a loosely fugued allegro, a cantabile slow movement, and a lively finale in some binary form suggesting affinity with the dance-tunes of the suite“, and a Sonata da Camera which was used at Court and basically a Prelude and then a Medley of popular dance tunes.

Rock, what am I telling you?

Gradually the form of the Chiesa came to predominate along with the content of the Camera so that during what we can properly call the Classical era the format of a Sonata evolved to 4 movements rather than 3 (or 2) including an Allegro with exposition, development, and recapitulation; a slow movement, an Andante, an Adagio or a Largo; a dance movement, usually a Minuet or a Scherzo featuring a trio; and a big windup, often a Rondo.  Because it was “art” music, melodies and rhythms were frequently repeated with variations in tempo and key and sometimes inverted and reversed notation.  Think of it as “sampling” especially as most of it was stolen from whatever people were grooving to at the moment.

As noted the Sonata is mostly scored for very small groups, typically a piano or harpsicord and the featured intrument.  So it’s like hiring the local garage band (keyboard, guitar, drums?) to play your backyard party.

A little aside-

I was studying (hah!) in Syracuse and my next door neighbor needed a ride to his buddy’s down in Binghamton where they were having a big blow out.  I already had plans for that day but I had some time so I said sure.  I got him there and helped the band set up and looked at my watch and said- “Woops, gotta go.”

What?!  You’re not going to stay for the party?

I have another party.  I’ll pick you up tomorrow.

Anyway I come back the next day and as I thought the party is still happening and other than having to pick my way through the beer cans and mud I didn’t miss a thing.  He, on the other hand, was totally impressed.

So, like that in wigs and frock coats.

A Concerto is an entirely big deal, like tickets for Springsteen.  There’s Bruce, and then there’s the band.

Once you have a background in the forms I expect I’ll be reduced to 17th to 19th century gossip and calumny which suits me just fine.  CT stands for COMPLETELY TRUE! (also Connecticut where we’re happy to sell you a chunk of wood and call it Nutmeg).  Today I’ll highlight 4 pieces, a Sonata and Concerto by Vivaldi from the Baroque period when the form was developing, and a Sonata and Concerto by Mozart which represents the Classical era archtype.

Vivaldi Sonata for Bassoon and Harp in A minor

Vivaldi Concerto for Two Cellos in G minor

Mozart Violin Sonata No 32 in B flat major

Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A major

Oblgatories, News, and Blogs below.

Obligatories

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

I would never make fun of LaEscapee or blame PhilJD.  And I am highly organized.

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.

–Julius Caesar (I, ii, 140-141)

This Day in History

News

NBC Admits Error On Christie Bridgegate Report

By Andrew Hart, Huffington Post

09/19/2014 10:59 pm EDT

On Friday, NBC News admitted Nightly News anchor Brian Williams’ report that federal charges for Christie had been ruled out in the “Bridgegate” investigation was incorrect.

In fact, the probe into the closing of lanes on the George Washington Bridge in September 2013 ] has not found [Christie to have had prior knowledge of the closure “thus far.” “The investigation is continuing,” Rebekah Carmichael, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Paul Fishman told the Asbury Park Press, who was first to catch NBC’s correction.

…

Dienst’s report went on, “Federal officials caution that the investigation that began nine months ago is ongoing,” and “When the final report is issued, Christie may still face complications from the scandal,” making the inaccuracy of Williams’ report clear.

The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple noted the irony in Williams’ false statement, as MSNBC — NBC’s sister news organization — has been among the media sources applying the most intense scrutiny to a possible Christie link to “Bridgegate.”

Putin considers plan to unplug Russia from the internet ‘in an emergency’

Luke Harding, The Guardian

Friday 19 September 2014 12.17 EDT

President Vladimir Putin will convene a meeting of his security council on Monday. It will discuss what steps Moscow might take to disconnect Russian citizens from the web “in an emergency”, the Vedomosti newspaper reported. The goal would be to strengthen Russia’s sovereignty in cyberspace. The proposals could also bring the domain .ru under state control, it suggested.

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The move comes at a time when Russia has been bitterly critical of the western media, which Moscow says has adopted a biased attitude towards events in Ukraine. Russian channels have portrayed the conflict in Ukraine as a heroic fight against “fascists” in Kiev. They have disputed western reports that Russian soldiers and heavy weapons are involved. A BBC team that went to investigate reports of Russian servicemen killed in Ukraine was beaten up this week.

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Andrei Soldatov, an expert on Russia’s spy agencies, described the plans as big news. In an email from Moscow he said he “didn’t actually believe” Russian officials would disconnect the internet. But he said the moves were a “real step forward in the development of a besieged fortress mentality”.

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Soldatov said it would be technically possible for Moscow to shut off the internet because Russia has “surprisingly few” international exchange points. All of them are under the control of national long-distance operations, like Rostelecom, which are close to the authorities, he said.

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“The thing might be approved very quickly, and this means it shows a way to the next step – to force all domains in the .ru zone to be hosted in Russia,” Soldatov said. Kazakhstan, an authoritarian state intolerant of online criticism, did something similar two years ago, he said, adding that such a move would affect his own website Agentura.ru, which is hosted in Germany.

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While Putin enjoys popular support, with his approval ratings boosted by Russia’s takeover of Crimea from Ukraine in March, the danger of mass unrest is not lost on the Kremlin. In 2011-2012 tens of thousands of Russians protested in Moscow after Putin announced he was returning as president and shoving aside his temporary successor Dmitry Medvedev. The protests fizzled out following a series of arrests, harassment of opposition figures, and high-profile trials.

Ukraine leader gets support in U.S., but not lethal aid

By Kevin Liptak and Laura Smith-Spark, CNN

updated 7:38 PM EDT, Thu September 18, 2014

After an address to a joint session of Congress, Poroshenko met with Secretary of State John Kerry and later with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office, where he requested help arming his troops to battle Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine — a request that once again was rebuffed.

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Speaking in accented English, Poroshenko said during his emotional remarks that “blankets, night vision goggles are also important” in fighting Russian-backed troops but “one cannot win the war with blankets.”

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After Poroshenko’s speech to Congress, legislators on the Senate Foreign Relations panel voted unanimously to advance a bipartisan package of new aid to Ukraine that includes both military and non-military assistance to the country. The measure allocates $350 million for the effort.

The Senate measure would include sending weapons and equipment to Ukraine’s military to help defend against Russian troops, a move that thus far hasn’t gained support from the White House.

Some analysts and officials worry sending ramped-up military aide to Ukraine’s military could further escalate tensions with Russia, and argue the ceasefire agreed to by both sides earlier this month needs time to solidify.

Anti-Islam ad campaign to run on New York City buses and subways

by Nicky Woolf, The Guardian

Friday 19 September 2014 18.00 EDT

Controversial blogger and activist Pamela Geller has paid $100,000 to place advertisements on New York City buses and in subway stations that feature anti-Islamic messages and images including one of James Foley, the American journalist beheaded by Isis in August.

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In 2012, after the MTA at first did not allow Geller to buy advertising space, a court ruled that the posters were “political” in nature, and therefore covered by the First Amendment. “We review every viewpoint ad,” said Kevin Ortiz, deputy director of external communications at the MTA “but a series of court rulings have made clear that our hands are largely tied.”

Mona Eltahawy, the Egyptian-American activist and writer, was charged with “criminal mischief” after spray-painting over the posters. Four other people were also reportedly arrested for defacing the posters with stickers.

Linda Sarsour, the executive director of the Arab-American Association of New York said that she fully respected Geller’s right to exercise her free speech, but pointed to the fact that anti-Muslim hate crimes are up 143% since last year, according to figures released on Thursday by the NYPD’s hate crimes task force. Sarsour was herself the target of a hate crime this September, after a man chased and threatened to behead her in New York.

“The question here is what could be the consequences of these ads going up at a time like this,” Sarsour said. “We have ignorant people walking around who are waiting to act on their hatred for Muslims. We don’t need ads across New York City that try to link Islam and Isis.”

Group to Sue After M.T.A. Rejects Ad That Refers to Muslims Killing Jews

By ASHLEY SOUTHALL, The New York Times

SEPT. 19, 2014

A pro-Israel group behind a public transit advertisement that refers to Muslims killing Jews plans to sue the Metropolitan Transportation Authority after the agency rejected the ad. The authority said the ad would be seen as a call to violence against Jews amid turmoil in the Middle East and security concerns in New York.

The group, the American Freedom Defense Initiative, proposed an ad that included the quote, “Killing Jews is Worship that draws us close to Allah,” attributed to “Hamas MTV.” The ad, which pictures a man wearing a kaffiyeh wrapped around his face, also says: “That’s his Jihad. What’s yours?”

In a statement issued on Friday, the authority said that the ad violated its “viewpoint-neutral” advertising standards. The agency said it was “reasonably foreseeable” that displaying the ad on the back of city buses “would imminently incite or provoke violence or other immediate breach of the peace, and so harm, disrupt or interfere with safe, efficient and orderly transportation operations.”

…

Pamela Geller, the group’s president, said the authority’s decision violated the group’s freedom of speech. The group, which has courted controversy with ads promoting its views on jihad, Hamas, Islam and Israel throughout the transit system, plans to file a lawsuit next week, she said.

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Ms. Geller said the ad was part of a five-ad push parodying a “My Jihad” campaign sponsored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The “My Jihad” ads, which portrayed jihad as a concept of nonviolent individual and personal struggle, ran in cities including Chicago and Washington, but not New York.

Texas court upholds right to take ‘upskirt’ pictures

Tom Dart, The Guardian

Friday 19 September 2014 16.43 EDT

Criticising an anti-“creepshot” law as a “paternalistic” intrusion on a person’s right to be aroused, the Texas court of criminal appeals struck down part of the state’s “improper photography or visual recording” statute which banned photographing, broadcasting or transmitting a visual image of another person without the other’s consent and with the intention to “arouse or gratify … sexual desire”.

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Prosecuting lawyers argued that the constitutional right to free speech, which includes taking public photographs, should not be a factor because photography is essentially a technical recording process and that attempted lawbreakers should not be able to hide behind free-speech protections.

Attorneys for Thompson said that the statute was “the stuff of Orwellian thought-crime” and that it did not distinguish “upskirt” or “peeping Tom” photography from “merely photographing a girl in a skirt walking down the street”, so in theory it could criminalise the likes of paparazzi journalists.

The appeals judges appeared to agree, stating that although “upskirt” type-images are intolerable invasions of privacy, the wording of the law is too broad. Presiding judge Sharon Keller wrote in the court’s opinion published on Wednesday: “Protecting someone who appears in public from being the object of sexual thoughts seems to be the sort of ‘paternalistic interest in regulating the defendant’s mind’ that the First Amendment was designed to guard against.”

Rice case: purposeful misdirection by team, scant investigation by NFL

By Don Van Natta Jr. and Kevin Van Valkenburg, ESPN

September 20, 2014, 6:56 AM ET

Just hours after running back Ray Rice knocked out his then-fiancée with a left hook at the Revel Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the Baltimore Ravens’ director of security, Darren Sanders, reached an Atlantic City police officer by phone. While watching surveillance video — shot from inside the elevator where Rice’s punch knocked his fiancée unconscious — the officer, who told Sanders he just happened to be a Ravens fan, described in detail to Sanders what he was seeing.

Sanders quickly relayed the damning video’s play-by-play to team executives in Baltimore, unknowingly starting a seven-month odyssey that has mushroomed into the biggest crisis confronting a commissioner in the NFL’s 94-year history.

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After the Feb. 15 incident in the casino elevator, Ravens executives — in particular owner Steve Bisciotti, president Dick Cass and general manager Ozzie Newsome — began extensive public and private campaigns pushing for leniency for Rice on several fronts: from the judicial system in Atlantic County, where Rice faced assault charges, to commissioner Goodell, who ultimately would decide the number of games Rice would be suspended from this fall, to within their own building, where some were arguing immediately after the incident that Rice should be released.

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For its part, the NFL — which in other player discipline cases has been able to obtain information that’s been sealed by court order — took an uncharacteristically passive approach when it came to gathering evidence, opening itself up to widespread criticism, allegations of inconsistent approaches to player discipline and questions about whether Goodell gave Rice — the corporate face of the Baltimore franchise — a light punishment as a favor to his good friend Bisciotti. Four sources said Ravens executives, including Bisciotti, Cass and Newsome, urged Goodell and other league executives to give Rice no more than a two-game suspension, and that’s what Goodell did on July 24.

Most sources spoke with “Outside the Lines” on the condition of anonymity, citing the NFL’s just-launched, self-described independent investigation by Robert S. Mueller III, the former FBI chief, which is being overseen by John Mara, the New York Giants’ owner, and Art Rooney II, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ co-owner. Mara and Rooney are close confidants of Goodell’s. The interviews, viewed together, paint a picture of a league and a franchise whose actions — and inaction — combined to conceal — or ignore — the graphic violence of Rice’s assault. When evidence of it surfaced anyway, the NFL and the Ravens quickly shifted gears and simultaneously attempted to pin the blame on Rice and his alleged lack of truthfulness with Goodell about what had happened inside the elevator.

Roger Goodell apologises for handling of domestic violence cases but refuses to resign

Lauren Gambino, The Guardian

Friday 19 September 2014 17.53 EDT

Goodell and the NFL have come in for further criticism after further incidents involving NFL players came to light. The Minnesota Vikings’ star running back Adrian Peterson was eventually deactivated from all team activities, after he was indicted on charges that he abused his 4-year-old son, while the Arizona Cardinals running back Jonathan Dwyer was arrested on aggravated assault charges for allegedly head-butting his wife and breaking her nose. On Thursday, the Cardinals placed Dwyer on the reserve/non-football illness list.

Two other players are currently involved in domestic violence cases. The Carolina Panthers have deactivated the defensive end Greg Hardy, who is appealing a conviction for assault on a female and communicating threats. The San Francisco 49ers defensive end Ray McDonald, who was arrested and bailed for allegedly assaulting his fiancee, has not been deactivated.

Roger Goodell must go: Why today’s press conference is too little, too late

Joan Walsh, Salon

Friday, Sep 19, 2014 04:09 PM EST

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell came out of hiding Friday, almost two weeks after TMZ released a video showing Ray Rice brutalizing his fiancé that rocked the league permanently, with a bizarre, defensive press conference. “I got it wrong in the handling of the Ray Rice matter, I’m sorry about that,” he announced early. “But now I will get it right.”

But Goodell went on to essentially say he made all the right moves in August, when a public backlash to Rice’s two-game suspension resulted in new penalties for domestic violence offenses and a new program of league-wide player education on sexual assault and domestic violence. He pledged to expand those programs with new “expertise” and to donate money to two groups who work with abused women.

In a particularly tone-deaf moment, Goodell promised the process would be complete in time for the Super Bowl. Woo-hoo! Pass the nachos.

He never once mentioned any of the women his players assaulted.

It’s way too little, too late: Goodell has to go.

I might mention the man makes $4 Million a year from a non-profit (hah!) organization.

French jets strike in Iraq, expanding U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State

By Oliver Holmes and Alexandria Sage, Reuters

Sat Sep 20, 2014 7:49am EDT

President Francois Hollande said Rafale jets hit “a logistics depot of the terrorists” near the city of Mosul, which has been held by Islamic State for more than three months. It promised more operations in coming days.

The French military action, which follows U.S. air strikes in northern Iraq and near the capital Baghdad, appeared to win qualified endorsement from Iraq’s top Shi’ite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

In a Friday sermon, delivered by one of his aides, the elderly cleric acknowledged Iraq needed foreign help but said Iraq must not become subservient to outside powers.

“Even if Iraq is in need of help from its brothers and friends in fighting black terrorism, maintaining the sovereignty and independence of its decisions is of the highest importance,” Sistani’s spokesman Sheikh Abdul Mehdi Karbala’i said.

Powerful NSA Official Potentially Self-Dealing With Defense Contractor

By Murtaza Hussain, The Intercept

9/19/14

DRS Signal Solutions, a contractor offering signals intelligence (SIGINT) services to the defense industry, appears to be providing or seeking to provide services to the NSA even as it employs a vice president married to Teresa H. Shea, the head of the NSA’s Signals Intelligence Directorate. Buzzfeed’s Aram Roston, who broke the story, writes.

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Neither the NSA nor any of the individuals involved in this story would provide a direct response to inquiries by Buzzfeed. In turning down a public records request from the publication for Shea’s financial disclosure forms, the NSA cited the 1959 National Security Agency Act, which shields the NSA from being forced to disclose its activities or “the names, titles, salaries, or number of the persons employed by such agency,” among other things.

In other words, even when it comes to some of the most basic questions of ethics and integrity in federal service, the NSA invokes its right to stay in the shadows.

Blogs

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