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The late, great political cartoonist Jeff MacNelly, who drew the “Shoe” comic strip, once said of his chosen profession, quote, "when I first started out in journalism, i was going to be a one-man truth squad. But as time went on, my hair turned gray, and so did the truth."
Indeed, the truth is shades of gray rather than the black and white we would have it be. Or that our political leaders like to think it is.
Take the big wildfires that raced through nearly 1 million acres of Arizona's beauty in the last two and a half months.
Some politicians, in full throat, say it was environmentalists who torched the state, as if they had proof that a group of greens had walked through the forests flicking lit matches into the pine straw.
On the other side, another gaggle of politicians at the same decibel level blames businesses for causing it all by spewing carbon and other poisons into the atmosphere and raising temperatures.
Who's right and who's wrong? Both, as it turns out. The issues are much more complex than what they say.
Yet we're led to think in black and white, right and wrong, and little gets done to bring about consensus and make progress.
Where’s the leadership? Where are the politicians who will take charge and lead us where we ought to go rather than playing to their bases of support?
Coming to consensus is hard work, much harder than firing off a few zingers about their opponents not meeting the desires of the American people.
We’re seeing that in almost every realm of public governance, whether it’s coming to terms with the country’s fiscal complexities or seeking ways to protect people’s lives and livelihoods and at the same time preserve the environment.
Of course, in today’s media frenzy, politicians find the sound bite more easily crafted than the solution.
People protecting owls are made out to be tree-hugging hippies. People running businesses are labeled as evildoers in suits.
The truth? It’s lost in the gray clouds of mingling black and white smoke.
July 15th 2011 at 12:42 —
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posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel
A review I wrote for Fanfare:
POULENC Chansons françaises; Chanson à boire; 7 Chansons; Petites voix; Un Soir de neige; Figure humaine • Jörg Straube, cond; N German Figuralchor • MDG 947 1595-6 (SACD: 65:19 )
Put aside your preconceptions about Germans performing French music, for this is a very fine survey from North Germany of all of Francis Poulenc’s a cappella secular choral works. (Of course, because this collection ignores the sacred works, Poulenc’s greatest choral hits must be sought elsewhere.) The booklet photo shows this group, founded in 1981 by its present conductor, Jörg Straube, to consist of approcimately 40 members, which is about the maximum for this music; more voices could overwhelm the light textures and clear part-writing, which periodically blends into lush harmonies. The very clear surround recording does not quite expose individual voices, but gives the impression of a highly unified chamber choir, singing with both sensitivity and gusto.
The selections range from the witty little Chanson à boire (Drinking Song) of 1922 through the childhood scenes of Petites voix (Little Voices, 1936, sung here by adult women rather than children) and very sensitive settings of Paul Éluard poem in the Sept Chansons of 1936, to the masterly Figure humaine of 1945, a 19-minute cantata of wartime resistance again using Éluard texts. In general, Poulenc’s choral writing here may be less seductive than in his more voluptuous religious works, but it is entirely characteristic of this composer, a man who was hardly the trivial boulevardier his lighthearted instrumental pieces have led some people to believe. James Reel
Classical Music,
July 15th 2011 at 9:13 —
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I recently returned from a vacation in the White Mountains and took several pictures of the destruction caused by the Wallow Fire. The visit was quite eerie.
Enjoy a sampling of the photos from in and around the town of Greer.
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July 15th 2011 at 8:46 —
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A crew of three, 1000 miles in four days and three nights through eastern and northern Arizona to gather stories for upcoming Arizona Week episodes. We experienced a fascinating range of people, topics and tales.
Six months into the program, it was our first road trip, and we declare it a success by any measure. Look for the following stories:
-- Friday's program on how White Mountains residents and businesses are coping with the aftermath of the Wallow Fire.
-- How the Navajo Nation is seeking to expand economic opportunities among its people, for which the unemployment rate approaches 50 percent. We talk with Navajo Nation President Ben Selly.
-- Flagstaff is the big nugget in a northern Arizona gold mine of tourism. Mayor Sara Presler tells us how businesses and the community as a whole leverage their advantage and share the wealth in the region.
-- Wildfire history in Arizona shows a century of trying many approaches. The state should focus on fire the way it does on water, with a strategy and an infrastructure to deal with it on a daily basis, rather than only in crisis, ASU fire historian Steve Pyne recommends.
Those and more coming from a most fulfilling road trip, the first -- and certainly not the last -- for Arizona Week.
July 14th 2011 at 16:44 —
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The summer has already been busy for city elections, even though the races are just getting started. Several candidates were knocked off the ballot when they failed court challenges and, even more recently, write-in candidates have joined the crowd.
Additional write-in candidates still have time to officially file with the city Clerk's office, the deadline is July 21.
Here's a look at the races as they stand now:
Mayor
Dave Croteau (Green)
Mary DeCamp (Green)
Rick Grinnell (write-in Republican)
David Karr (write-in Democrat)
Joseph Maher (write-in Democrat)
Jonathan Rothschild (Democrat)
In the race for mayor, the write-ins have different thresholds to meet to advance to the general election. Grinnell must get a little more than 1,000 votes to earn a spot on the general election ballot. That mark is equal to the number of signatures he would have had to collect if he had instead filed as a primary candidate, instead of a write-in candidate.
For one of the Democrat write-in candidates to make it to the general election ballot, they must receive more votes than Rothschild, since he's already qualified for the primary ballot.
Ward One
Joe Flores (Democrat)
Regina Romero (Democrat)
Ward Two
Paul Cunningham (Democrat)
Jennifer Rawson (Republican)
Ward Four
Shirley Scott (Democrat)
Tyler Vogt (Republican)
Tucson
election,
July 14th 2011 at 9:12 —
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posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel
July 14 is Bastille Day, the big national holiday in France, commemorating the 1789 storming of the Bastille, Paris' fortress-prison (which at the time was holding only a handful of political prisoners), and becoming a seminal event in the French Revolution. (The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen was proclaimed just a few weeks later.) At KUAT-FM, we're joining the celebration with a full day of French music. You'll get an idea of the range of possibilities just by looking at the schedule for the 6 a.m. hour, which, among other things, sandwiches the Harp Concertino by 20th-century composer Germaine Tailleferre between pieces from the 16th and 17th centuries. The most substantial works through the day will include the Violin Concerto No. 3 of Saint-Saens, the complete incidental music that Bizet provided for the play L'Arlesienne, the full ballet score Coppelia by Delibes, Ravel's Valses nobles et sentimentales (and much else by that composer), the Berlioz Symphonie fantastique, the rarely heard Symphony No. 2 of Charles Tournemire, Roussel's ballet The Spider's Feast, Poulenc's Aubade, and selections from Rameau's delightful opera-ballet Les Indes galantes. Many Gallic hors-d'oeuvres in between, as well. Bon appetit!
Classical Music,
July 14th 2011 at 6:20 —
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