And those are his good qualities.
.
UPDATE: Did you know that if you do a google search for “racist rethuglican sheepletard,” Treacher features in every one of the top ten twenty forty fifty one hundred hits? It must be true!!!111!1!!! (Oops.)
UPDATE 2: thefrollickingmole in comments offers a relevant (if disturbing) video from the Australian music programme Rage. Oh, and yes. We really are going to launch a write-in campaign for next year’s Webbies: Best Racist Rethuglican Sheepletard Blog.
Adrian Munsey confused the world in 1979 when he released his composition ‘The Lost Sheep’ on Virgin records.
Adrian Munsey is a classical composer; working mostly in the field of film and video.
It’s not certain whether Adrian would like to forget this piece or not.
.
January 25, 2009, 1:20 am at 1:20 am
But he’s such a cute racist rethuglican sheepletard.
January 25, 2009, 1:20 am at 1:20 am
You forgot “crackerass hillbily” [sic].
January 25, 2009, 1:48 am at 1:48 am
“racist rethuglican sheepletard,”
WOW! That breed not long ago got recognized by the American Kennel Club. Congrats, Treacher. Can just see him at the 2009 Westminster Dog Show.
Monday and Tuesday, February 9-10, 2009
Madison Square Garden Center
I’ll be tuning in.
January 25, 2009, 2:16 am at 2:16 am
Wow Jim, you must be doing something right to irritate an imbecile like that.
Keeps up the good work.
January 25, 2009, 8:21 am at 8:21 am
And on the upside, Treach, you’ve got next year’s Weblogs Award for ‘Best Racist Rethuglican Sheepletard Blog’ in the bag now
January 25, 2009, 9:59 am at 9:59 am
Here Here, Spot. I’m votin’ for ya’ Treacher, regardless.
January 25, 2009, 12:03 pm at 12:03 pm
Just by-the-by, good to hear from you again, Rodrigo Díaz, El Señor El Cid.
January 25, 2009, 1:49 pm at 1:49 pm
Damn. Treacher has the BRRSB award sewn up, and all this time I thought Rodrigo and I were fighting over that. LOL!
January 25, 2009, 7:33 pm at 7:33 pm
I have the new theme song for Treachers blog right here.
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=MzPYgA8GgHM
(Pinched from Margos Maid)
January 25, 2009, 9:51 pm at 9:51 pm
That video is … disturbing, Mole.
The 70’s were kind of a weird time all around though, I guess.
January 26, 2009, 4:41 am at 4:41 am
All right, Mole. You’ve friggin’ cracked me, OK??
Still not sure where to go from here, though… perhaps even less so.
I mean, WTF? I’m broken. http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=gBEHFFnV3RY
I swear modern kids’ shows are pure evil.
January 26, 2009, 5:22 am at 5:22 am
Ha! The seventies were tacky – I know, I was there – but the garbage in contemporary “classical music” has only gotten worse and more virulent, not better. Same with the rest of contemporary *scarequotes* art */scarequotes*
Contemporary “artists” are only interested in shock schlock now, and they are utterly devoid of any technique that demonstrates craft… and that shit gets government funding with our tax dollars all the time.
Personally, I’m hoping for a deep and protracted worldwide depression, because that will get rid of the crap that has been masquerading as art for the past fifty-odd years.
January 26, 2009, 10:20 am at 10:20 am
It’s all “concept” visual art, nothing to do with skill or technique. In one art gallery I saw a rock about the size of a basketball, as far as I could tell completely unaltered by the artist, just sitting there on a small plinth and entitled “Spectrum”. From this I suppose I’m meant to extrapolate some meaning. I looked for spectra on the rock – nada. I thought of the spectrum of light generated by crystals, which this plain dull rock was not and wondered if it was meant to convey one of those cliched “your reality is so different from what you’re supposed to think” messages. I guess it got me thinking! I also remember a French modern art exhibit with a kind of suburban theme, like having a uniformly red-painted clothesline with little identical white singlets pegged all over. Deep.
Some modern stuff, eschewing realism for abstractness, can be interesting, even powerful when done right. But most of it’s just dross, as exemplified by a toddler’s splash paintings being lauded by some art critics recently.
Since most modern classical music I’ve come across sounds awful, I tend to avoid it. Stravinsky has a lot to answer for! Maybe there’s good stuff out there, but we are in the post-Enlightenment period, so gone are quaint little ideas such as form, purpose, confidence, heroism, beauty and excellence, these days we celebrate chaos, confusion, depression, ugliness and mediocrity. No more symphony, the very word is anathema to these modern sensibilities. Instead, there is the ’soundscape’. I’d rather listen to Metallica…well, maybe Rolling Stones.
Mind you, that Satriani piece you played so beautifully, Angus, was almost Bach (very reminiscent of the E minor prelude from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1). Might check him out a bit more.
January 26, 2009, 11:35 am at 11:35 am
This is modern art you can love.
Well, I love it.
As for the sheep….. disturbing is definitely the word. Even the Godmother was gobsmacked.
January 26, 2009, 2:33 pm at 2:33 pm
I have a love-hate relationship with Stravinsky, D. I love Firebird, Petroushka, and the Vom Himmel Hoch Variations, which are Bach re-imagined as though the old man ate the wrong kind of mushrooms, but I detest Rite of Spring and virtually everything else Stravinsky wrote.
Actually, the modern shock schlock movement in music can be traced directly back to the Paris riot that the Rite of Spring premier caused: It was considered press to die for by every other lame-o composer in the world at the time, and so it went…
January 26, 2009, 5:29 pm at 5:29 pm
That looks like a really neat link, Nilk – I’m going to bookmark it to go explore at greater length later.
Speaking of “the modern shock schlock movement in music,” Angus, our ABC is advertising a special on Philip Glass coming up. Our ABC, of course, is the home of Rage, which is where Mole got that Lost Sheepletard music video from …
Question for our Music Guys: I have an ooooooold not-great CD (like, I think it’s AAD, for starters) of The Well-Tempered Clavier, and I’d like to replace it with a better one. Would appreciate your suggestions as to your favorite rendition. Ta.
January 26, 2009, 5:56 pm at 5:56 pm
Spot
Try here: http://1dollar.yudo-games.com/pianoman/
Cheers
January 26, 2009, 8:19 pm at 8:19 pm
Maybe check out the Gould version of TWTC, Spot. Tell the truth, I don’t have it, and I don’t think Gould gave the best interpretation of every little bit of Bach he played (which was, basically, all of it for the keyboard), but he won’t be terrible and when he’s good, he’s God. I’ve got Ton Koopman on harpsichord – excellent for the most part but a tad harsh on some of the fugues. Andras Schiff is recommended by the Penguin guide but has the opposite problem – too soft in places. Naxos has an historical recording of Fischer who plays like a demon (the Cminor prelude of Book 1 is by itself a revelation) but I think he could have slowed it here and there, plus the recording is very old.
There, that should make it harder for you.
January 27, 2009, 3:13 am at 3:13 am
Ack! WTC – as well as ALL of Bach’s keyboard music – is best appreciated on the HARPSICHORD! Pianos suck for counterpoint, and are primarily responsible for the decline of contrapuntal music: The attack is too harsh and percussive. Works great for romantic harmonies, but NOT FOR COUNTERPOINT!
January 27, 2009, 7:40 am at 7:40 am
Bach would agree with Angus but I’d still strongly consider going with piano. Harpsichord does bring clarity but the piano is more expressive and easier to listen to after a while. I bought nothing but harpsichord for Baroque music at first, but trust me, piano sounds fine. Beethoven wrote more counterpoint in his later years than many of Bach’s contemporaries, and none of it for harpsichord.
Having said that, given the desert-island choice, I’d probably pick a harpsichord version, everything else being equal. But I’d want a really good recording technically, because the harpsichord is very unforgiving of poor recording techniques.
If you’re not a complete nut about it like me, I’d recommend piano. Softer on the ears.
Hannibal Lecter prefers his Bach on the clavichord, precisely because both other instruments have their limitations. And since “Clavier” refers to all period keyboards, Bach may very well have had instuments other than the harpsichord in mind.
January 27, 2009, 2:48 pm at 2:48 pm
Good point about “clavier,” but most of Beethoven’s late counterpoint wasn’t for the piano either. LOL!
You NEED this recording, D:
Die Kunst der Fuge – Davitt Moroney.
I’ve corresponded with Mr. Moroney, and he is a scholar of the first order, as well as a virtuoso contrapuntist and period keyboard player. All of the keyboards are harpsichords that are replicas of Bach’s and all of the tunings are “well tempered” versions that Bach used. Plus, he has written the only truly convincing completion of, “The Unfinished Fugue” that I’ve heard, and I’ve heard them all.
January 30, 2009, 11:06 am at 11:06 am
Thanks for all that, Gus and D! I’ve gone and treated myself to the Andras Schiff, performed at the Walthamstow Assembly Hall London, Sept. 1984. Am abut to crash on my upstairs window-seat/daybed, stare out at the sea, and give it a listen.
I’m obviously not as knowledgeable about music as you all are, but I’ll let you know what I think.
Oh, and I’ll look into the other recordings you mention as well, a bit later.
Thanks guys!!!
February 22, 2009, 8:11 pm at 8:11 pm
[...] consider yourselves now on notice! Conversative ignorance is a curse up with which we Rethuglican Sheepletards will not put. (You will later be joined in Coventry by those happy haters willing to [...]
March 14, 2009, 9:08 am at 9:08 am
[...] is a Liar” March 14, 2009, 9:08 am — spot_the_dog So sez our favourite Racist Rethuglican Sheepletard Jim Treacher, adding, “Not that I’m not convinced by the plethora of evidence, but [...]
March 15, 2009, 12:17 am at 12:17 am
[...] 12:10 am — bingbing “What is White Day?” you may ask. Na, it’s not a racist rethuglican sheepletard thing. It’s a Korean (Japanese? ) thing and was celebrated yesterday. The deal is this: on [...]