stop, collaborate and listen

I enjoyed reading about these rather timeless tunes that were sampled from elsewhere from Mental Floss.
Though most I think know that the anthems of the US are not original in their scoring and reflect a kind of awkward musical appropriation, I had never known that the carol “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” or in Charles Wesley’s first composition Hark! how all the welkins (heavens) ring, glory to the King of kings, was set to the tune of the popular Gutenberg cantata (der Festgesang) by Felix Mendelssohn that celebrated the four hundredth anniversary of the printing-press, that’s a fitting bombastic torch-song tribute to the printed word, first performed in 1840. The carol’s lyrics were adapted to the tune fifteen years later as part of a Christmas medley.

degenerate art

Predictably, Trump announces that his administration will eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and privatise the Corporation for Public Broadcasting—not because they are particular budgetary drain nor rarefied plaything of the elite but rather because he does not care for them, which is also what he believes his supporters want to hear.
Of course these assaults against government support for the arts are perennial and these institutions have withstood the likes of far more savvy opponents, but we could sure us some help. The financial support is not about dictating taste or indoctrinating the young—which ironically is more amicable to tyrants than the virtues of citizenship and critical thought that they espouse and are charged with exposing people to. As bad as things are and with art under threat, I don’t think that even this regime could compel Elmo and Grover to don their Gestapo uniforms and disappear Mister Johnson in the night. Support your local station and chapter (those smaller museums and expositions that the NEA and the NEH make possible) and spread the word.

thumbs up or speculation is 20/20

Apparently already thoroughly disgusted with the prospects for world peace and prosperity for the next four years, political augurs are already prognosticating a candidacy for US president on the part of a major social media network founder, whose been rather coy about putting out feelers—at least in their interpretation.
The media billionaire (who’ll be barely of legal age by 2020 to hold the office) is embarking on a tour to engage with people in all fifty states of the Union—which sounds like something an aspiring politician would do—to help all people finding meaning and authenticity in interconnectivity, which also sounds sufficiency rousing. It’s a little soon—maybe, but what do you think? I don’t think that the face of Facebook is exactly the antidote and antithesis to what America is awakening to presently—and the site and the cultural norms it has fostered are certainly not of unimpeachable character, no matter how reflective that they are of us. Perhaps by the time the campaign season begins, it will be a super-human act to refrain from glancing at one’s cheering section and only one who is already acquainted with the dirty laundry and the skeletons in one’s closets might be able to practise restraint and thus appear weirdly disciplined and relatable.

affront national oder petry le pen

Riding a wave of populism, the city of Koblenz is host to a counter-summit of the right-wing hardliner parties from across Europe.
The conference, which is mostly a publicity stunt since by their definition, they seek no grander supra-national coalition, rather than a strategic meeting to spin straw into political capital, was announced under the hashtag #wewillmakeourcountriesgreatagain and aims to redress (or pander to) concerns over lost sovereignty and anxieties regarding security and immigration. Many mainstream media outlets are being disinvited for allegations of bias and labels that sow disdain and dismissal, yet this event is also seen as a staging platform for the news, opinion and commentary network that helped propel Trump to victory expansion to Germany.

at honex, we constantly strive to improve every aspect of bee existence

Coverage of the inauguration ceremony in Washington, DC, whether mediated or immediate, presented a strange compulsion—maybe the aching yearning of the thin crowds that lined segments of the route from the Capitol to the White House who wanted this spectacle to be presidential and dignified—to frame it in such a way, in the tradition of apologists, that the breach and breaking is somehow normal and acceptable. This stunt was none of those things and disturbing to the core on all counts.  It wasn’t enough to eviscerate the Affordable Health Care Act as the first order of business, but to do so without a clear path forward despite having been salivating over this moment for six years makes it even worse.

It was not enough that the ideological tenor of the White House underwent radical changes instantly, white-washing talk of global-warming and climate change (however long or short this reign of terror runs and no matter what other geopolitical blunders are made, the failure to save the environment will be its enduring legacy), emphasising respect for authority over community cohesion and getting rid of its little gay corner, endowments for the arts, public broadcasting, and all mention of civil rights, those messages were replaced with Dear Leader touting his own merchandise. Of course, things are not looking good for education and the sciences either, which are long-term economic-indicators as much as they are there to inspire and uplift.  Repeated mentions of the peaceful transition of power does not make it so and certainly does not dispel the darkness. There are one-thousand four hundred sixty-one days left in this term, and while that segment of his inaugural speech was sadly not plagiarised (though other examples abound) perhaps like that inexplicable editing of that movie about those cartoon bees where they sped up the film every time some character said “bee,” we can accelerate through this with every “great” and “bigly.”