2. "It Sounded Like Dancing, Drinking and Sex. It Blew People’s Minds" by John McWhorter: "We moderns can’t feel ragtime as the hip, naughty thing it was to people when Theodore Roosevelt was president. Jazz, rock, hip-hop and so much else came in ragtime’s wake, all of them syncopated (and hip-wiggly) to degrees beyond anything [Scott] Joplin, who died in 1917, ever knew." (Interesting use of language: "hip, naughty... hip-hop... hip-wiggly....")
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I sense a reaction to the immersion in 2024 electoral politics. Those who'd been hoping to leap forward are drawn instead into the past, and when they look back, the human marker of time who stands out is Theodore Roosevelt.
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Seems like a subtle hint that when the country needs a true change candidate the answer is an atypical Republican like Teddy Roosevelt or Ronald Reagan or Trump.
...not the Roosevelt I imagined they’d turn to in their hour of need…
Unfortunately Theodore Roosevelt was literally Hitler…
The legislative program that we call progressivism — cleaning up local government, breaking up the monopolies, regulating clean food, water and air
If that was progressivism, then they are certainly not doing that now under that name. Local governments run by progressives are the most corrupt, see Tiffany Henyard as a prime example. Small and Medium businesses have been devastated most by progressive policies in this century. I can give them credit for regulating, but that is David Brooks. He uses one kernel of truth to tell 2 big lies.
Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket. Eric Hoffer.
I'm so hip I call my girlfriend "man"... (nods)
I'm Hip - Blossom Dearie
What is it about the nostalgia of the left for things that have never been.
Interesting and good catch. Teddy Roosevelt would seem a proper past comparison to the unlikely Trump. Interesting that that thought is leaking through the media.
Well roosevelt was atypical republican advanced by mckinley assasination and probably ratified by the perdicaris incident
I'm heaving my lunch just thinking about David Brooks.
the word they are Actually looking for, is GROVER CLEVELAND
When was the 19th Amendment. Back before things started falling apart.
It was 1901, so Theodore Roosevelt was literally Keizer Wilhelm.
Do I sense a sudden return to male leadership…actual heterosexual, intelligent fathers that NEVER SURRENDER.
We shall see. But barring a mass voter fraud operation we are about to see that happen. From Trump, and Vance and DeSantis too.
Decent music with no hip swinging in 1925 Bloch Concerto Grosso 1 see also 2. A composer who apparently missed the trendy trend.
“ How can we create a morally cohesive and politically functional democracy amid radical pluralism and diversity?" Start deporting illegal aliens.
Mckinley was more like trump in that he was more war weary he had been at antietam after all
Internet and media declarations that some sort of sexual thing is outrageous and that the rubes were or are shocked are invariably boring bullshit. Beethoven invented syncopation. I play a lot of Joplin. He’s so safe that you can buy the standard yellow Schirmer’s Music Classics portfolio of his rags. I play his rags routinely as postludes in church.
Is it pedantic to point out we don't live in a "democracy," but a federal republic instead?
Theres medicine for that
I'd like to say that both David Brooks and John McWhorter suck hairy goat nads but it's not the critic who counts.
TR’s most odious legacy is that, by running as a 3rd party candidate in 1912, he paved the way for Woodrow Wilson.
TR took a bullet and he finished his speech. Fight!
My favorite Prez
Not Wilhelm. Keyser Soze.
"We moderns can’t feel ragtime as the hip, naughty thing it was to people when Theodore Roosevelt was president. Jazz, rock, hip-hop and so much else came in ragtime’s wake, all of them syncopated (and hip-wiggly) to degrees beyond anything [Scott] Joplin, who died in 1917, ever knew."
Sheesh, McWhorter, don't blame Scott Joplin! It was the Zeitgeist, not his fault.
It's their congenital antebellum attitude.
Good catch Dave, to borrow a phrase.
It's been awhile. You choose your place and time well. TGIF
Beethoven invented syncopation.
That is quite a statement, I assume you left out some caveats. I know Bach (JS type, not the more famous PDQ type) liberally sprinkled syncopated phrasing in his music. He certainly pre-dated Beethoven.
There's probably a whole monograph's worth of material exploring that theme Thomas. Didn't several old English pub songs, which tended to reuse chords and melodies, get reworked into hymns in early America?
No. But they know what they're doing, even if the repetitious talking heads do not.
John McWhorter, the prissiest, fussiest old lady on the internet, schools us all on the seamy low-down about Joplin's ragtime music from the tenderloin districts. *snort*.
I play a lot of Bach. I never thought of him in that light. I’ll pay attention to that when I play him and see what I think.
If you know where to look, you can find a dandy little tango section in Bruckner's Sixth.
"How can we create a morally cohesive and politically functional democracy amid radical pluralism and diversity?"
Well, you don't do it with institutionalized dishonesty and corruption.
It was not just societal change, but institutionalized dishonesty and corruption that resulted in the need for "cleaning up local government, breaking up the monopolies, regulating clean food, water and air" in TR's time.
We're kind of right back in the same place, led here by the Progs and their partners in crime, Conservative, Inc. The cause became a business and degenerated into a racket.
Don't get me wrong, technological change is a big factors. America has been a high trust society for a long time, but as the internet claims an ever-increasing portion of every aspect of our lives, that is changing, because the internet is a low trust world.
I still say, check out Louis Napoleon for analogies. He did some good things! Didn't end well though.
The progressives had some practical problems to deal with, and they left a mixed legacy. They weren't total failures or totally depraved, but they did get intoxicated with the idea of change and control, which led them astray. They also had to deal with what for the time was "radical pluralism and diversity." Their answer was to put or keep college-educated White Protestant professional men in charge. They weren't always fair to people who didn't fit that description.
Today's progressives have the same penchant or predilection for elite rule, but elites, and colleges, aren't what they used to be -- and the core Americans that the progressives drew from aren't either -- so unity and good government aren't likely to be the result. Without anything worthwhile to assimilate to or anything in the country to take pride in, our current multicultural project isn't likely to be successful.
TR and Napoleon III is an interesting analogy. In some ways, Teddy was our first real imperial and imperialist president.
what is difference between federal and federated
would TR have been a la RFK jr? to foil Wislon
Thanks for the Blossom Dearie link Mezzrow., I started listening to j=her a couple of decades ago, because I'd heard the name, knew she had sung some Dave Frishberg stuff, and thought she looked kinda sexy on the CD cover. She seems to be undergoing a mini-revival because I hear her something by her every so often. I'm liking the Bloch (never heard it or of him) but I don't want to wait 25 minutes for a full review before I hit "publish"
My grandma was a flapper back in the 20's and seems to have gone to some pretty happening parties, to judge by the old photos I have. I bet her parents were absolutely aghast when they caught her dancing the Charleston.
Napoleon III thought he was some kind of Napoleon. He declared war on Prussia and personally led the army to its debacle. He can be held responsible for most of France's and our problems in the twentieth century. He declared war in such a way as to cause Bavaria to come in on the side of Prussia. He conquered Algeria in such a way as to cause the Algerians to hate the French forever. If he hadn't taken over Vietnam, there would have been no cursed Vietnam of our youth. On the plus side, he supported Baron Haussmann in his remaking of France, but two world wars, Vietnam, and Algeria are a steep price to pay for scenic boulevards.
The most consequential 20th century election was the one between Taft, TR, and Wilson. If Taft had won, he might have kept us out of WWI. If TR had won, we perhaps would have gotten into the war sooner, but he'd have been better at negotiating a just peace. Wilson was god-awful in many dimensions. I think even Democrats admit that now. He used to be their poser boy though.
And, 25 minutes later, I can say that the Bloch is excellent, I especially like the last section. I wish I was more musically literate but I don't know a sharp from a flat or a key from a chord, I just know what I like and in my old age I'm liking orchestral music more and more and I've at least reached the point where I can name composers who I really like versus those I' m so-so about.
Shouting,
Aight Severn beat me to it, so let me just contribute that if you want some good Bach syncopation, try the first movement of Brandenburg # 3.
I will grant you that Beethoven sort of invented boogie woogie - - some of the piano sonatas...
I've long thought Trump is our version of TR and have seen nothing to persuade me otherwise. I was very relieved when he secured the GOP nomination so he wouldn't have felt the need to create a third party.
I've never heard Blossom Dearie before... Wow! How can a person sing so precisely exactly out of tune? Is that the result of a lifetime of practice, or is she just an idiot savantess?
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