I found all this stuff after reading a chapter from Al Franken's book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. None of which - strangely enough! - I'd heard on the radio or seen on the TV when the Republicans and their campaigning for the Presidential Election was mentioned. Franken says things like:
Remember how I'm a nut for statistics? Well, not too many people realize this, but show biz celebrities make up just .000000001 percent of the world's population, and yet consume nearly 37 percent of its resources. For example, every day, seventeen acres of rain forest are consumed by Barbra Streisand alone.Anyway, I reckon this is interesting stuff. Let's get to it:
That last point is, actually, probably the most interesting for me. Aside from the Bob Jones University bit, which I'm astounded at: here's a speech which John Ashcroft (who is the USA Attorney General) gave there. Girls and guys aren't even allowed to hold hands in the uni, by the way - it leads to sin. And so does having a web-based email account and unrestricted internet access. And this place (weirdly) still offers what looks like a wide undergraduate syllabus.
And then Nick Berg, a civilian contractor aged 26 who went to Iraq to help rebuild communications equipment, is pushed onto his side, the knife cuts into his throat, his screams get frantic and he gurgles, the bastards who are doing it shout "Allahu Akbar" over and over again. Finally his head is held aloft. [
Via the excellent 
And so 
And what's happened? Well, the water's changed colour a bit, and the jetty has, predictably, 
And (if this photo is real) it's come to this. A British soldier urinates on a young Iraqi prisoner, clamps his boot over the hapless detainee's throat... well, the picture's there. Take a look. 
Not that the expense matters in the least. I'm putting it up here because I think it's haunting and the boy is nice and has great legs and, by the looks of things, unless Pablo was exaggerating, a big package.
is how I'd describe 
The way it's put together is the first thing you notice, and the first thing Tarantino emphasises with his titled freeze-frames. And you need them there to let you know when you are in the story, because it's all so damn smoothly done. The characters, too, are smooth - every single one of them sports the trademark sardonic calmness, often linked to the funny use of props. For The Bride, her sword. For Pai Mei, his beard. For Elle, her mamba. For Bill, his... gun. Every single character has balls, and knows exactly where to throw them for the best effect. Samuel L. Jackson gets in for a few minutes, and there's a brilliant appearance by Michael Parks as Esteban Vihaio near the end.
And due to that last post, I'm thinking about London and can't think of anything I'd rather do more tomorrow than wander into the National Gallery and sit in front of 
At least that's what some people here in the UK actually believe. The actual story is that in a survey of over 2,000 adults, many could not tell 
There's also a 
To start with, the instrument (all 6,551 pipes of it) sounds glorious. I've played a *much* smaller instrument by the same builder, and, in a way, that gave me a firsthand ability to foresee the quality of pretty much anything they would build in the future, and hearing this instrument I'm not disappointed. The hall is large and its auditorium, which was designed by the same people who did Symphony Hall in Birmingham, UK, has an acoustic which is clean and focused, but warm and just reverberant enough to give music room to breathe and mature. But this must all take a close second place to the musicality of the soloist. And on this disc, it does.
Dealing with this first, it is a work which is not often recorded because it's technically difficult to play and takes a lot of physical and emotional stamina, as well as an instrument which can do it justice. Herrick phrases the music carefully, and his choice of sounds fits the emotional content like a glove at all times: the light, glittering statements of the theme in the first section, the celestial whispering of the quietest, most beautiful flutes in the middle and the godlike, thunderous statement of the chorale in the triumphant and shattering final bars. Every note's placement is carefully chosen, even down to the precise articulation of every last pedal crotchet. At all times the different timbres and layers of sound so characteristic of Liszt are clearly distinguished and, as in every other track on the disc, the musicality of the soloist and the care of Hyperion's sound engineers shine through.
