Classic! Somewhere, some time, 'Larry' told me that for the first time in my life I was actually right about something. I was duly grateful and hoped that it wouldn't be too long before the same happened to him! Anyway, this week I enjoyed another 'first time in my life' experience, I went to the Albert Hall. I like classical music (selectively) and from time to time I scan the ads in the heavy Sundays. I spy the main event, say the Brahms 4th, and think I might treat myself, but then I look down at the supporting programme and see something like 'Skratchitoff's Tone Poem for Flugal Horn and Timpani' and I think, the hell with it and just stick Brahms in the CD player. However, last Wednesday good old Classic FM put on a concert made up of six pieces all of which I like, Bernstein's Candide overture, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, Franck's Panis Angelicus, Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries and, finally, Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto. None of those would make it into my 'Top Ten' but I do like them all, so it was a hugely enjoyable night. I think Classic FM haver recorded it and will be playing it in the next week or two. As I say, I have never set foot inside the Albert Hall before and as the rest of the world knows, it is a magnificent auditorium. I would be interested in anyone else's suggestion for a good classical concert.
When East meets East! Once again The Business does the business. It always carries on its back page a column called 'Futurewatch' in which it points to areas and difficulties likely to be the stuff of tomorrow's headlines. This week it points a prescient finger at Taiwan and the growing tension with China. Apparently the Americans are soft-pedalling in an attempt to keep everyone calm but there are hotheads on both sides raring to go. In addition, Japan, with a newly elected Right wing leader, is considering its options. So far, they have stuck to their post-war agreement to raise only 'self-defence forces'. This might change. In the meantime, China and Russia are holding huge joint naval manoevres; and the American commander of submarines in the Pacific has been called back home for an urgent conference. Not the least of the American worries is that if China starts selling American bonds, which they hold in their zillions, it could destabilise the American economy. Who was it who said that is was never easy to live in 'interesting times'?
Pick and choose: Talking of the American economy, president Bush has another difficult problem to deal with, choosing a successor to the outgoing Alan Greenspan, as 'Head of the Fed.' What a great man Greenspan is, and how the world is going to miss his cool judgement! Hopefully, the president will choose well, although his judicial appointments do not augur well.
The Return of Darwin! I apologise to my 'Darwinista' readers. I promised them another attack on the great man's theory, but I have to write them slowly and carefully and from a base of absolutely no scientific qualifications with the knowledge that they will descend on me with a ton of expertise. Next week, Ladies and Gentlemen, I shall return to the fray.
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