David Elliot of WHRB last week announced that old-time classic opera singer Maria Jeritza, appearing in Tosca, at one point had been “supine” rather than “prone.” After hearing from a listener who corrected him by asserting she was prone, Elliot took it upon himself to apologize promptly.
Avatar
As of last week, my friend Rachel had already seen the smash hit movie “Avatar” five times. Once she brought her 85-year-old father. Her fears that he might not like it proved altogether unwarranted.
So count Rachel among those providing the more than two billion dollars that Avatar has grossed worldwide. She has joined millions of other viewers in adding to director/producer James Cameron’s huge pot of gold. Monetarily, if not artistically, he has build on his earlier blockbuster, “Titanic”.
Song
Watching Renée Fleming conduct a master class proved one of the great pleasures of last week. This renowned opera singer came to Harvard on a Tuesday afternoon to help four undergrads with their singing and to answer questions from the audience. She was in the area to prepare for three Boston Symphony concerts later in the week.
Courageous Journalist
Along with students and others, I had the pleasure of gazing on a journalistic hero last week. David Rhode is the courageous New York Times reporter who escaped from captivity after being held for seven months by Taliban militants in Pakistan. He did so by climbing down a 20-foot wall with another captive, an Afghan colleague.
Googler
“The Jesus tablet,” is what the wags are calling the iTab just unveiled by Steve Jobs. Other wits have dubbed it “an iPhone on steroids.”
New Yorker writer on media, Ken Auletta, shared these descriptions during a discussion at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center this week. His book, “Googled: the End of the World As We Know It,” appeared last fall.
Headline
The headline “Many Catholics react favorably to Brown’s election” occupied a front-page slot in the Boston Pilot of January 22, 2010.
I nominate it as among the most biased newspaper leads in recent history and one of the most banal. Were a respectable secular newspaper to have published such a one-sided head, surely it would become the target of outraged protest. This official house organ for the Archdiocese of Boston, however, can expect to get away with pro-Republican propaganda.
Decade Departed
Americans consider the ten years just past the worst decade in the last half century. Only about a quarter of us hold a generally positive view of the 2000 – 2009 period.
These findings come from the Pew Research Center, a reliable source I sometimes use as a launching pad for columns. These particular results strike me as helpful for weighing the relative importance of historical events we have lived through.