In Memorium: William F. Buckley

William F. Buckley, the highbrow American conservative, has died. With his passing, an era has also passed.

I liked him, in spite of my finding much of what he said to be specious and sanctimonious. My sense is he always took the high road, avoiding the gutter that so many right wing apologists favor. He could have a very civil and intelligent discussion with someone such as John Kenneth Galbraith, who was from the opposite side of the political fence. He could respectfully challenge someone on their views. He could even agree with a political adversary on certain issues, showing that political differences do not require mutual demonization.

William F. Buckley was a man who represented the best and brightest among so-called conservatives. He kept the discussion on a thinking person's level. A rare breed. A loss. Bill, I may have disagreed with most of your premises, but I never resented you for it. Would that more of your fellow conservatives could emulate you.

Peru Negro

Last night I was treated to excellent front and center seats where I was able to fully experience a performance by the Peruvian music and dance ensemble "Peru Negro".

When thinking about Peruvian music, you might first imagine the pipes played by the native Peruvians, high up in the Andes. This is a part of the sprawling landscape of Peru. The part I got to experience last night you can get from the name - Peru Negro, or Black Peru.

Africans were brought as slaves to many places in the new world, and Peru was one of those places. For anyone with an interest in colloquial music, you will have noticed that where African cultures mixed with other cultures there have been some fascinating musical results. Peru Negro is one spectacular example of this. To me the music seemed a bit like what you might get by blending Salsa, Flamenco and African drumming.

In the program notes, the word exuberant was used. One definition of this word is "abounding in vitality; extremely joyful and vigorous". And it certainly was. It was exhilarating!

There were ten dancers, five young men, five young women. There were I think about 11musicians, including two lead singers and several backing singers. In spite of the name, not all members are black, indeed there are a variety of ethnic influences present.

The program was basically a dance, a song, a dance, a song etc. This allowed the dancers to change costumes, which they did often. It probably allowed them to recover a bit as well. The dancing was, shall we say, energetic.

The dancing and singing were not by any means segregated. The female lead singer would often dance a bit as she sang while the dancers were off stage, but she would also sing often during the dancing and move about in between the dancers.
The singers and dancers also worked on engaging the audience, which they managed to do quite well. They put on frequent stage antics, some of which included a young boy who was also a good percussionist and evidently a dancer in training.

Overall it was a thoroughly delightful evening. Peru Negro is on tour all over the country with what appears to be a frantic schedule. Check out http://www.perunegro.org/. If you have a chance to see a performance, do!

Political Rant II

This was another political rant that upon reconsideration I decided was over the top. Not that some people do not deserve excoriation, but I would rather devote political rants to real issues instead of attacking the character of someone I don't like.

Agreeing with the Wall Street Journal

Yes, I do sometimes agree with the editorial page of the WSJ. Even if I don't agree with the point being made, the writing is reasonably literate. Something I too often notice in opinion pieces from so-called liberal pundits is a writing style that is puerile and devoid of any substantive argument.

But I don't care for political labels. Liberal, conservative, libertarian, moderate, what do these labels mean? They used to mean something, but now they are tossed around with no regard to actual meaning and are nothing more than pandering party favors.

So even if the WSJ opinion page is conventionally labeled as conservative, I can agree with this page from time to time without incurring the label myself. Same with the Daily Kos - must I be tarred with the epithet "liberal" because I agree with some of the posts?

It's all humbug. I do not fit in any convenient category of political belief, and I wish more people would reject such categorization.