I have a CNN-reporter-style crush on Candy Crowley.

I haven’t seen or heard the faith forum that McCain and Obama did last night with Rick Warren yet. BUT I’m very curious, especially after reading some of Crowley’s commentary. She writes:

“Huge applause when John McCain answers the question Barack Obama wouldn’t: when does a baby get human rights? McCain is clear: from the moment of conception.

McCain hints at approval for civil unions — but doesn’t go that far, just says his opposition to same-sex marriage doesn’t mean people couldn’t “enter into agreements.” Obama flat-out supported the idea.

McCain agrees with Obama that evil exists in the world. But these two men are so different — Obama is lyrical. McCain is staccato.” [I added the emphasis]

Read it all at CNN’s Political Ticker.

Maybe it’s the just the overwhelming presence of sporting events on people’s minds and in the media, but even arts folk seem to be writing and talking a lot about the Olympics.

First of all, we knew that Michael Phelps was going to be more important than Obama or McCain during these weeks. But it’s been interesting (although not terribly surprising I suppose) to see just how much the situation in Georgia is being pushed to the side. Bob Collins understands the situation far better than I do:

“Back in the day, this is the kind of thing that kept us up nights. We’re up late at night this week, but only because we’re watching the Olympics. The war, and the U.S. role in it, is playing second fiddle to Michael Phelps. The problem here is it’s 2008 and the world is more of a juggling act than ever before.”

Read what he has to say.

I really have to be careful not to hate on the Olympics, because I’ve probably been sucked in just as much as most people. NBC knows what they’re doing–and they’re good at making you care about stuff you normally wouldn’t.

I can’t help but get drawn into into gymnastics and swimming (which are clearly the most important Olympic sports judging by their constant prime time placement) but I still wonder what really is so wrong with less than perfect teeth, or how 12 year old girls got passports to say they’re 16, or why Matt Lauer and Bob Costas just played along when fake fireworks were used during the opening ceremonies. But isn’t that part of the appeal anyway? Deep down we kind of want to see someone mess up and prove their humanity.

Well, China seems to be determined to do whatever it takes to clean up their image. countercritic dives into the issue here and here.

“When I really started to think about the Chinese government and their endemic policy of manipulating everything and anything in order to achieve certain appearances, the more I began to see that China–as a government, as a culture–is engaged in a game of eroticism with its national identity.”

Meanwhile:

Amanda Ameer makes a point that the media is missing a good story comparing Chinese sports prodigies to Chinese music prodigies. Although we were mostly distracted by the overpowering orchestral music and bright green light-up costumes, Lang Lang’s presence at the opening ceremony was significant. You can listen to Lang Lang talk to Fred Child about the experience. I’d quote what he said about the director’s intention to have playing the piano represent the future of china. And there’s a lot of truth to that as the number of children who play the piano continues to grow (imagine that, in China of all places).

Molly Sheridan’s Mind the Gap pointed me to Randy Nordschow’s musings at NewMusicBox. He writes:

“Of course contemporary classical music isn’t exactly akin to the Olympic swimming competition (but watch out Michael Phelps-loving America, Dudamel is coming). No, new music is more like skeet shooting, canoeing, archery, handball, and the 50 kilometers walk—not as sexy, but still part of the games”

Reading this made me think of something else I had meant to share on here. Turns out it was an earlier Mind the Gap post.

“There was an anecdote I heard once, I think it was at the Lincoln Center Festival’s Merce Cunningham retrospective six years ago, that put Merce and Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg all together in a vehicle crisscrossing the nation. John Cage was driving. This was back in the early days of their careers, when few people were paying attention and even fewer were actually paying serious cash to see their work. Anyway, ever since then I’ve wondered: Did they end up recognized as great creative minds because they were all friends and moved in the same circles? Or were they friends because they were some of the great creative minds of their time?” Read it all.

This certainly can’t be a new concept to arts organizations trying to promote the scary world of thins like new music, but when it takes money to produce art how can you not get trapped in the mindset of “the more people who see it the better”.

Hm. I really thought this post was going to be a lot more coherent than it is when I started.

CNN Reports:

“If there is anything I am lacking in, I’ve got to tell you, it is taste in music and art and other great things in life,” McCain joked. “I’ve got to say that a lot of my taste in music stopped about the time I impacted a surface-to-air missile with my own airplane and never caught up again.”

I suppose he’s “joking”. But it’s still horrifying to me.

(Don’t worry. I realize that this is a small quote taken out of its context, but I’d love to learn what kind of record McCain has with supporting the arts. Then I’ll be less likely to role my eyes at this sort of thing.)

This made me think of Blender’s White House DJ Battle. Both Presidential candidates shared their top 10 songs:

BARACK OBAMA
1. Ready or Not Fugees
2. What’s Going On Marvin Gaye
3. I’m On Fire Bruce Spingsteen
4. Gimme Shelter Rolling Stones
5. Sinnerman Nina Simone
6. Touch the Sky Kanye West
7. You’d Be So Easy to Love Frank Sinatra
8. Think Aretha Franklin
9. City of Blinding Lights U2
10. Yes We Can will.i.am

JOHN McCAIN
1. Dancing Queen ABBA
2. Blue Bayou Roy Orbison
3. Take a Chance On Me ABBA
4. If We MakeIt Through December Merle Haggard
5. As Time Goes By Dooley Wilson
6. Good Vibrations The Beach Boys
7. What A Wonderful World Louis Armstrong
8. I’ve Got You Under My Skin Frank Sinatra
9. Sweet Caroline Neil Diamond
10. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes The Platters

I kind of wonder how honest they’re both being. But really?

Amanda Ameer gives a scolding to the typical concert-going crowd, but her point on the orchestra dress code is rather valid.

“Everyone is so dressed-up! When did that happen. Is it because going to a classical concert is a “night-out” and people want to dress-up for it? Is it because tickets are so expensive that folks assume they have to bust out their finest? When people ask me, I always encourage them to wear what they would wear to work, whatever that may be (granted, Amanda Beard has never asked me). I wonder if this can be fashion-policed by venue ads and posters: include photographs of audiences of all ages wearing nice, normal clothes. How many people are avoiding classical music because they assume there’s a dress code?

But it doesn’t stop there. Though maybe not rowdy, she claims that concert-goers are generally not well-behaved.

Read the whole thing. She finishes:

“I had gone to the Batman IMAX earlier that day. The audience was better behaved. I went to a Radiohead concert the night before. That audience was better behaved. The assumption that new, young audiences “wouldn’t know how to act” at Lincoln Center is absolutely correct; they wouldn’t know how to behave that inappropriately.”

“…Sussex University has been testing volunteers to see if they could spot the difference between a piano sonata being played by a computer or by a pianist, and concluded: “The brain responses showed that when a pianist plays a piece with emotional expression, the piece is actually perceived as meaningful by listeners.’”

In a Telegraph article, Julian Lloyd Webber tries to understand why there is so much scientific research done on music. His response after explaining a study concluding that men who make lots of music have a higher sperm count?

“Surely, this is a case where even the scientists will have to admit they are talking balls?”

I haven’t talked much about musicals on here, and the fact that this is my second reference to West Side Story may imply that I’m a huge fan of it. In reality, I’m not a huge fan, but I easily consider the 1961 movie a crucial part of my early music/theater education. (Interesting. I’m always intimidated when I hear stories about great musicians who sat in their basement as children pouring over opera scores and symphony recordings. Meanwhile, I was in my basement with my brother singing along to West Side Story–being irritated because he took the boy parts and made me sing the girl parts.)

With all of the hub about a London revival and the upcoming 2009 Broadway revival, Geoffrey Wheatcroft criticizes not the most recent production he saw, but the musical’s legacy as one of the greatest American musicals.

“I like to be in America - but should I like to be at West Side Story? The 50th-anniversary revival just opened in London has produced a flood of nostalgic adulation and, like anyone of my age, I can still whistle half the numbers. But renditions a good deal better than my own have only increased my doubts over the years. There have been greater American musicals, and there is something wrong with West Side Story.”

Read the whole article here.

I really appreciate this kind of criticism actually. It’s a little too easy for art to become a masterpiece; the result is something that is revered as much as it is boring–especially when you’re dealing with an artform where the work needs to be interpreted and recreated over and over again to exist. I suppose this kind of criticism is done frequently with opera and classical music (enter Susan McClary, Catherine Clement and Nicholas Till), and maybe it’s simply too soon to treat American musical theater as a reputable genre. Or maybe we never will.

Am I the only one who heard “La Boheme” playing in the background during the gymnastics at the Olympics?

The Wall Street Journal explores the whole online streaming issue in classical music, and raises the point that I still can’t come to a conclusion on: whether it’s legit to be charging for this stuff. Certainly someone needs to be paying the musicians and the people producing these webcasts, but it seems like it could be an exciting market for outreach (which I realize is a terrible and vague word).

But I’ve really fallen for Medici.tv, which I’ve now gotten a hang of and could probably spend an entire night exploring. Part of it is thanks to my oversized performer-crush on Measha Brueggergosman, for whom I would open my wallet in a heartbeat to see live. But paying to watch her online… I doubt it would happen any time soon.