Eric Ewazen

Pavane from an unusual trio

Look at me! Look at me! Look at me NOW! It is fun to have fun, But you have to know how!

Tribal witlessness

Everything is kneeling here. I believe Trump is a genius at distraction. The repeal of Obamacare just crashed and burned, and Trump’s endorsed candidate just lost a senate primary, but he has everyone talking about kneeling at NFL games. To his great benefit even aside from the distraction. This is a fight Trump cannot lose.  

What strikes me though is how blind the NFL was and is to what they done to themselves. A commenter name buwaya made an point I thought insightful. Sports fandom is based on a hallucination: the idea that your team are warriors for your tribe.

That might be true for high school football, but it’s not even remotely true for professional sports. That’s why the NFL’s mistake here is so big. Now people see their supposed tribal warriors being rude to them. People see disrespecting the flag as rude.

And worse than being rude to them, being rude about them.  Especially those to whom the main appeal of the NFL is rooting,  that tribal appeal I mentioned, the flag too is a tribal symbol that they value. Dissing it is dissing them. There's your tribal hero, attacking your tribe.  

So the NFL has punctured the illusion; hallucination is harder to maintain. This will be catastrophic for the NFL. One telling thing I have seen a lot of is people giving up fantasy football.  That should scare the NFL witless, but I think they already are witless. 

UPDATE: Ouch!

UPDATE Oct 19: Ouch!

Tyberg

An excellent symphony.

Charity

The NFL is a registered charity, and it claims tax exemptions available to charities. it doesn't look non-political to me.

"This lack of imagination is a common problem across most issues."

Russ Roberts

He links a Scott Alexander piece. It's loooong (as ever) but it's brilliant.

The apotheosis of Woke

Brendan O'Neill

Here. 17 minutes.

A forgotten but great cello concerto.

Vainberg aka Weinberg

Four Saints Again

I posted earlier about the new BMOP recording. It's currently on YouTube.

And it's spread DownUnder!

I have loved this for 40 years. I'm clearly a trendsetter!

Louis Andriessen - Symfonie voor losse snaren

Something unusual.

Bonus, some slightly less unusual Harrison.

Clive Crook

Clive Crook has been consistently insightful. And on cue we get immediate vindication!

Theory 1

Theory 2

Savonarola

reborn.

Let the menu purging begin!

1812

Last year I watch re-enactors play out a skirmish from the War of 1812. So I have questions.

This was in Ohio. Should the British re-enactors have been pepper-sprayed?

And when they re-enacted a battle in Ontario, should the Americans have been punched?

Romney

Finally someone in politics showing some moral courage.

I think Trump's response has been distorted and feelings whipped up, and that there’s hysteria loose upon the land, but none of that lessens Trump's responsibility to deal with it as it is. He hasn't, yet. I don’t know if he can succeed. Trump as moral clarion? It’s not plausible.  But, "comes the moment comes the man."  Clinton stepped up after the Oklahoma bombing. Johnson, even worse than Trump really, stepped up after the assassination. Will Trump?

When Did Gladys Kravitz become the role model?

Here.

UPDATE:

Normally I find this guy over the top, and I guess this is over the top too, but  today it resonates

You simply cannot say, in polite society, “basic fairness requires us to avoid a rush to judgment and to give people the right to respond to accusations.” To do so gets you lumped in with the criminals. Like a friend of mine said, “the only acceptable reaction to an accusation is enthusiastic and unqualified acceptance.”

and

Contemporary political culture is an autoimmune disorder.

  

Peas, podded

Here