One of the podcasts I listen to regularly is the BBC Newspod. Obviously, like every other news forum, they’ve recently been dominated by the financial crisis. On yesterday’s podcast, as a way of covering the crisis in “Europe’s largest economy” (Germany), one of their representatives visited the medieval town of Oldenburg in Lower Saxony. The [...]
Entries from October 2008
October 23, 2008
All-American Woman!
The line between satire and politics has been so blurred in the last two months, that I’m no longer able to refrain from political commentary. This is just too good. I am assuming this is for-real, though at times it’s hard to tell: “She dresses a moose and ad-dresses a nation!?” [...]
October 16, 2008
Meat never tasted so good
I stopped eating meat a couple of months ago, not because I have any problem with killing animals, but because I have problems with the way industrialized meat production treats animals while they’re still alive. I like meat in moderation – I expect I will be getting my annual craving for pepper steak soon – [...]
October 12, 2008
Bringing sexy back to opera (II)
Wow. Who would have thought opera in the 21st century would be making theatre look bland and puritanical? (Well, New York/Broadway theatre, anyway). There is on major difference, however, between Don Giovanni at the Royal in London, and Salome at the Metropolitan. In London, it was the whole production, that heightened the eroticism and the sensuality [...]
October 9, 2008
Cold War Chic
This one is admitted a bit late – it’s now been over a week since I was at the Victoria & Albert in London – but since the exhibition “Cold War Modern” is on till January, you have plenty of time to get there. And get there you must. As a historian, I tend to [...]
October 9, 2008
No time for singing
Someone somewhere decided that 19th century novels make good musicals. Since I moved to New York – which isn’t that long ago – we had a Frankenstein (plus a young one), a Dracula, a Woman in White, and of course there was a Jane Eyre not long before that. Why not? It worked for Les Miz… [...]
October 6, 2008
Bringing sexy back (to opera)
Apart from seeing a lot of old friends, the highlight of my visit to London was without question Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera at Covent Garden. I have seen Don Giovanni so many times now (and in so many media – see here) that I almost didn’t go – I was also a bit [...]
