About a month ago I started a parody Bluesky account purporting to be King George III. At first I thought of it as a way to make some political jokes. I should have known that it would lead me into a new rabbit hole of research. These things always do.
(more…)
Yesterday I uploaded a video of the famous 1902 silent film, A Trip to the Moon or La Voyage dans la Lune by Georges Méliès, with my original accompaniment, to YouTube. Today I got a notice that it’s blocked because somebody called “CPR Agency for MK2” claims to own the movie. This is obvious nonsense. I’ve disputed the claim and hope the video will be available before long.
(more…)
Getting back to the inappropriate use of the term “Alligator Auschwitz,” I’ve noticed several cases on Bluesky where people have argued, in effect: The facility called “Alligator Alcatraz” is a concentration camp. Auschwitz was a concentration camp. Therefore the two are morally equivalent.
This is an example of the false equivalence fallacy. It claims two things are equivalent on the basis of some similarities while ignoring significant differences. Often, as in the present case, they’re differences of degree. Wikipedia gives the example: “They are both Felidae, mammals in the order Carnivora, therefore there’s little difference between having a pet cat and a pet jaguar.” It’s most likely to turn up in emotionally loaded comparisons. “Overstaying one’s visa and armed invasion are both illegal, so overstayed immigrants are an invasion force.” “Kissing someone without prior verbal permission and rape are both impositions on a person, therefore an unrequested kiss amounts to rape.” “A 5G phone and a nuclear reactor in meltdown both emit radiation, therefore 5G phones are a severe danger to anyone in the area.”
(more…)
The theme for the August 2 protests coordinated by the 50501 group shows a disturbing shift from the earlier ones. “Hands Off” and “No Kings” were excellent themes, addressing governmental overreach and the centralization of power. The theme for tomorrow, though, is “Rage Against the Regime.” The name is an obvious reference to the group “Rage Against the Machine,” whose songs are characterized by protest and mind-numbing repetition.
(more…)
A couple of days ago I was saddened but not surprised to learn that Tom Lehrer had died. He was 97 years old, after all. He remarked many years ago that “It is sobering to consider that when Mozart was my age he had already been dead for a year,” but he went on to surpass the lifespans of nearly every well-known writer of music. Irving Berlin and Elliott Carter broke the century mark, but that’s about it. His songwriting career was only a short interlude in a long academic career, but his fans know nearly all of his thirty or so songs.
The lyrics of those songs are widely quoted and discussed, but not as much is said about his music. He set his satirical lyrics to tunes that are inventive, catchy, and full of solid musicianship. I’d like to say a few things about that music, to restore a bit of balance.
(more…)