Repost and updated (3 March 2026).

Rick Steves’s trip to Iran:

Rick Steves has said it a million times:   “Travel tears down the walls that ignorance puts up.”  One of the “maga” pieces of trash — Conservative “MAGA” ideologue Matt Schlapp — recently called Iran a “barbaric society.”  He speaks from a position of willful-ignorance.  I suggest that he needs to get out more.  Like most “maga” — including the piece of shit in the white house — he’s another willfully-ignorant “maga” piece of trash.  Watch these videos, does this look like a “barbaric society” to you?:

Below, Shardad Rohani Conducts the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 2 with The Tehran Symphony Orchestra.  The video is a clip of the performance so it does cut off the performance after awhile.  I see they’re using a Bösendorfer piano, instead of a Steinway.  I think the pianist is Sepehr Tajpour.

For safety,  I think some people in Tehran have gone down into their metro.

Here’s a map of their metro system; more information here:

They have a beautiful metro, by the way, and an excellent Symphony Orchestra:

3 March 2026:  Well, the title should now be that the #1 and #2 Terrorist nations (US and Israel) are now terrorising Iran and much of the Middle East.  I’m expecting the City of Tehran to look like Gaza in the end, whenever that is.  And I guess their nice metro will be or is in the process of being destroyed.  See a video of their metro below.

Updated 22 June 2025:  More on James David Vance:  I apparently missed this, but after James David was chosen as vp, he desperately wanted people to know that he’s not attracted to men, as if anyone cares.  There was a time — according to his book — that he thought he was gay.  But his grandmother said he wasn’t, so that was that.  He made it clear he’s not a gay guy, if anyone believes that. That he’s married to a female of Indian ancestry — but MAGA is all about a “white America” — and he has kids is supposed to erase any notion that he’s gay.  Only to the most gullible people.  It doesn’t for me since there are many gay guys who are married to a female and have kids. They are specifically called closet cases. “The wife and kids” routine are their cover.  I can hear them now, “No, he’s not gay because he’s married.”  Only a Fool would say that.  Let me be blunt:  A (gay) guy does not have to fuck a girl to get her pregnant, although that is the most common way.  Many people don’t seem to know this, but a guy can cum on her pussy (the lips) and she can get pregnant that way.  Or he can finger his cum into her vagina.  In other words, a gay guy does not have to fuck his wife if he’s not bi and not into fucking girls.  It only takes one fast-moving sperm to make its way in to the egg to get her pregnant. Guys who are desperate for people to know that they’re not gay are the frauds. If he’s not gay, why did he even bring it up, bro? You’ve outed yourself in your desperate attempt to make people think you’re heterosexual.  Without his beard, one could say he has “a gay face.”

Updated 21 June 2025 (Part 2):   JD Vance.  That piece of work.  He serves as the regime’s arrogant resident troll.  Opportunist James David Vance.  Just another piece of redneck, hillbilly basura.

Before he was chosen as the convicted felon’s vp, James David called the convicted felon and adjudicated sexual predator an “idiot,” a “moral disaster” and a potential “American Hitler.”  That all changed after he was selected as vp — and from what I read — he went online and immediately deleted all of that, and began to take up permanent residency in the convicted felon’s upper colon where he has resided ever since, mostly serving as a nasty resident troll for anyone in disagreement with his messiah as a member of the MAGA cult and Project 2025.  James David is really a blank slate.

James David seems to stand for nothing, other than whatever the convicted felon spews on any given day.  James David is clearly not in the right job because he doesn’t know how the US system of governance works.  He said that the ultimate decision to attack Iran is up to the convicted felon and sexual predator.  That’s another lie.  The final decision rests with the US Congress and congressional authorisation, but James David doesn’t know that.  Not that the convicted felon thinks that he needs congressional authorisation since he thinks he’s above the law.  How can some idiot be a vp and not know how the US system of governance is supposed to work?  But upon reflection, the convicted felon doesn’t know how the US system of governance works either.  All of this heinous regime consists of some of the nastiest, vile, angry, most ill-informed and most stupid people one will find anywhere.  And apparently they all swarmed to MAGA.  Like attracts like.  Interesting that MAGA is for a white “America.”  Considering that, how does James David explain/justify his non-white wife of Indian ancestry and his kids with Indian names?  What verbal calisthenics does James David use to justify that with the MAGA cult’s “white America” septic thinking?

Updated 21 June 2025:  Insanity:  The insane and childish convicted felon and sexual predator says that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, whilst he’s considering launching a nuclear terrorist attack on Iran.  So it’s alright for him to have and use nuclear weapons, but not for Iran to have one?  I see.  He and Republicans have long abandoned the concept of hypocrisy.  By the way, he’s currently remodeling la casa blanca, the white house even though he’s only a tenant.  The Rose Garden is gone; it’s been paved over and he’s planning to install a Ballroom like the one he has in Florida.  Anyone who resides in the white house is a tenant.  Tenants don’t have the right or privilege of changing the premises they live in because they don’t own the place.  This fool doesn’t seem clear on that concept.  He seems to live under delusions that he owns the white house.

Updated 19 June 2025:  Overheard in the Conservatory’s Church Music Department:  What about “Thou Shalt Not Kill?” does the Christian-Fraud and insane/deranged, moronic convicted felon and sexual predator not understand?  The commandment, “Thou Shalt Not Kill” is very specific, so a genuine Christian — of which none of these trash in his heinous regime are — would absolutely oppose bombing Iran/Tehran because they will be killing innocent people, whilst they pretend to be a Christian.  Again, they are all Christian frauds, fakes.  None of these scum of the Earth people live their corrupt life like Jesus did, from what we are told about the life of Jesus from learned theologians.

Updated 18 June 2025:  “Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons. Estimates of Israel’s stockpile range between 90 and 400 nuclear warheads.“—AI   No nation should have nuclear weapons, but since the #1 Terrorist nation on the planet (the US) and the #2 Terrorist nation on the planet (Israel) both have a nuclear weapons’ stockpile, I fail to understand why Iran or any other nation should not have the same.  These political trash — that netanyahu nut/war criminal and the convicted felon and sexual predator — reek of hypocrisy.  And again, the US (which pretends to be a “Christian nation”) is the only nation to have ever used nuclear weapons on a civilian population.  What purpose will it serve to turn the beautiful and ancient City of Tehran into another Gaza, killing millions of innocent people and  destroying their beautiful metro (see video below)?

So the convicted felon and sexual predator in the White House has ordered Tehran to evacuate.  Who does he think he is?  The mayor of Tehran?  Apparently so, since it’s the mayor of Tehran who would be the official person to order such an evacuation. And where does this damn fool expect 10 million people to evacuate to?

“The city of Tehran, Iran, had an estimated population of 9.729,740 in 2025. The Tehran Metropolitan Area, which includes surrounding areas, has a population of approximately 14 million.”—AI

Iranians were asking the same question.  Does the convicted felon criminal not know that Tehran is a major city?  By comparison, Los Ángeles has a population of approximately 4 million (2023:  3.8 million).

More from the Tehran Symphony Orchestra:

It should be pointed out that the US is the only nation to ever use nuclear weapons on a civilian population and they have a large stockpile. And the #2 terrorist nation in the world is sacrosanct Israel.  Israel is a pariah on the planet led by a war criminal.  He is absolute trash.

Why shouldn’t Iran have a nuclear weapons’ programme like other nations do?   I can hear the answer now:  “Oh because they are loony because of their religious beliefs.”  Well, again, it was the so-called “Christian nation” — the United States of North America — and their religious loons that used nuclear weapons in the first place. The hypocrisy is blatant.

I noticed that the convicted felon and sexual predator in the White House does that childish fist-pumping nonsense anywhere he goes, not just in the US.  I think he now does it on automatic pilot as habit.

And who does the convicted felon criminal think he is in telling Iran they cannot have a nuclear weapons’ programme?

At his cult rallies, the convicted felon and adjudicated sexual rapist promised his MAGA cultists that he would not engage in regime change, yet things are being put in place exactly for that in Iran from all credible news reports I’ve seen.  One of his cultists (initials:  TC) have already described him as “complicit,” and the convicted criminal has turned on his cultist by trolling him, but I doubt that the convicted felon even knows what the word “complicit” means.

Some Iranians were interviewed in Tehran and they said they weren’t going anywhere.  If anyone is going to evacuate, they suggested that it should be Israel.

And as usual with the media, we have the two different pronunciations for the people of Iran.  How do they get “rain” out of “ran” (pronounced “ron?)

Related:  Don’t miss the oval office “prayer scene” in this video.  A bunch of Christian frauds, all of them.  Prayer and bombs.  More insanity.

Here’s the Service Leaflet for this Choral Evensong.

The Trinity Choir is a consistent example of the highest level of choral excellence.

I had gotten through part of Choral Evensong by the stellar Trinity College Choir from Oxbridge (Trinity College of the University of Cambridge specifically) and noticed that The Trinity Choir was performing the Noble Service in b — some Conservatory training:  a lower case b means in b minor; an upper case B means in B major — which I performed years ago.  I got to the section where the text is, “He remembering his mercy (pronounced more like “mussy”…”) and The Trinity Choir sang that especially well.  It moved me.

My choral friend was nearby and I said:  I want you to hear this even though you don’t know the piece (beginning at 24.39 in the video), but listen to how well they sang this.  So I started playing that section for him and he said, “I’ve never heard it sung like that.”  I asked him:  Well where have you heard this sung to begin with to make that comparison?  He was just as moved as myself by the beauty of their singing.  As it turned out, he had heard this canticle setting as a boy.  His parents took him to the local podunk very Low Church Episcopal parish nearby (but his parents didn’t “attend church” themselves) — which he has nothing but negative remembrances about — and what they called “the Choir” in that parish tried to sing the Noble.  Since they didn’t have Choral Evensong, I guess they used the Magnificat part as an anthem.  He said it sounded nothing like the way Trinity sings it.  From what he’s told me about his childhood church, the parish was barely Episcopal.  They did some strange things with lots of guilt tripping the few who showed up.  But he does remember this piece (the Noble Service in b) from his childhood.  I said:  Well it would have to be from that time because I don’t remember playing this canticle setting for him.  Or maybe I played it for myself and he overheard it sometime in the past.  He said it was ina blue book.  They had “the blue book, a red book, and the bible.”  I said:  Well, the blue book would be the hymnal, but canticle settings are not in the hymnal, because canticle settings are not sung by the congregation.  The red book would be The Book of Common Prayer.  And the bible?  What was that doing there?  The bible is not there in the pews.  I asked:  Did they have a service leaflet where parts of the bible along with text from the BCP that they’re using for that liturgy would be printed?  He said they had a service leaflet of sorts but it didn’t have the liturgy on it.

He asked me, “do the choristers hear how gorgeous they sound?”  Yes of course they do and it’s why they’re able to listen to each other and to hear the entire Choir to perfectly blend their voices, and their balance of sections is perfect as well.

He asked:  When you sang the Noble Service in b with the Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys was it that good?  I think so.  The Cathedral Choir at that time was superb — they’re not now; I think something happened to them during COVID and they never recovered — but I remembering us singing this and that section I played for my choral friend has stayed with me because of its beauty.

He said, “Anglicans have the best Choirs.”  I agree and it’s part of what is known as the “Rich Anglican Choral Tradition.”  I’m not aware that any other Christian “denomination” has that distinction or what is known as a “Choral Tradition.”

I’m slow to talk about best this and best that because that’s what the US does when trying to convince themselves — with chest-beating — about how they think they’re the “greatest country on Earth” and all that nationalistic rubbish.  Well, they, along with the #2 terrorist nation of Israel (the US being the #1 terrorist nation), are the greatest at killing (innocent) people whilst they claim to be Christians (and Jews) and believe in the Commandments, one of which is “Thou Shalt Not Kill.”  What part of that very basic and straight forward Commandment do these Christian Fraud trash not understand?  That commandment does not come with any exceptions or caveats to it, such as, “That Commandment really applies only to such and such” excuses or “That doesn’t apply to the State so the States can kill anybody they want,” nonsense.  And how do Jews rationalise that in their minds?  Or are they just as fraudulent and fake as the Christian Frauds?  I. suspect. so.

As of this writing it is Lent, so most Anglican/Episcopal parishes and cathedral churches choose more “toned down” repertoire.  There’s a run on Renaissance music during Lent.  With some exceptions, you’re not likely to hear the Howells’s St Paul’s Service or Gloucester Service during Lent or anything “grand and glorious.”  “Grand and glorious” is saved for the First through Seventh Sundays of Easter.  (Yes, Southern Baptists:  There are seven Sundays in Easter, but you wouldn’t know anything about that).  In recent years, I’ve noticed some churches bucking that silly tradition of having to programme all “toned down” music during Lent.

Anything to get the news cycle off of the Epstein files.

There’s a lot I could write about this, but I’ll just say this:

Why have the two major terrorist nations on Earth launched an illegal terrorist attack on Tehran?  Answer:  To get the news cycle off of the Epstein files.

And because the dictator never served a day in his pathetic life in the US military (claiming bone spurs), he wants to play war, as if it’s just a video game to him.  As of this writing, Mr Hypocrite is talking about this war — he calls it a war — lasting at least 6 weeks after he campaigned against and made many statements opposing wars, opposing regime change and opposing unending wars.  Now look, he’s doing just the opposite.

Bombing Tehran is like bombing any US major city. Tehran is a major city with a population of 8.3 to 9.7 million people.  Parts of Tehran are now starting to look like the genocide in Gaza and what the terrorist nation of Israel did to that city.

I read that the anti-war “maga” cult opposes these terrorist attacks, but the “maga” Republicans in the US Congress are — as expected — remain in cult formation in support of their cult dictator (who, like a dictator, did not get congressional approval).

The Christian fraud dictator loves to kill people, including innocent people whilst he pretends to be a Christian. And the Christian fraud can’t exist without bullying someone.

I’m no supporter of Putin, but he released a statement saying, “…the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader was committed in cynical violation of all norms of human morality and international law.”

When may we expect someone to launch a regime change in the US?  That’s where it’s needed.

From Nederlands: Cappella Amsterdam and Orkest van de 18e eeuw/Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Daniel Reuss conductor and Chorus Director. Vocal Soloist: Carolyn Sampson [sopraan] Marianne Beate Kielland [alt] Thomas Walker [tenor] David Wilson-Johnson [bas]

This performance from Amsterdam is a model of choral excellence.  The Chorus is Cappella Amsterdam.

My friend asked me: Why are there soloists in the Missa Solemnis? Yeah well, I’ll go even farther: Why are there vocal soloists in any symphonic choral work?  Someone would say, “It’s to give the Chorus a break.”  Reality:  The Chorus doesn’t need a break since they don’t get to perform that often to begin with or during the season, especially these days where — with few exceptions — there are about three symphonic choral works that are programmed for Chorus and Orchestra.  It wouldn’t be bad if the finest choristers were allowed to sing the vocal solo parts, but that’s usually not the case unfortunately. Usually screamers from the opera genre are invited in even though opera and symphonic choral works are two completely different genres.  And some people who don’t know anything about music will go to hear the Beethoven Missa Solemnis thinking that it’s opera because of the screamers who serve as “soloists.”  Opera = costuming, scenery and a story line.

 Just like with Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, the only live performance I have heard of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis is the performance I saw years ago in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall with Dr Paul Traver’s outstanding 150-voice University of Maryland Chorus and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam with Claudio Abbado conducting.  This was a superb performance, just like this performance from Amsterdam. The Washington Post music reviewer wrote, “The University of Maryland Chorus was glorious throughout.” Margaret Hillis (Founder and Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chorus) had recommended the University of Maryland Chorus to Claudio Abbado when he called her in Chicago asking for a recommendation of a Chorus in the DC area.  She had worked with The Maryland Chorus — as they were also known — during a workshop on the University of Maryland at College Park campus.

The soprano soloist, Sheila Armstrong, for the Kennedy Center performance was interviewed by the local classical music station at that time, WGMS, and she said in the interview (it came sort of out of nowhere), “I’d like to make mention about this Chorus.  This Chorus is one of the finest I’ve ever heard.”  (I was shaking my head in complete agreement and thanking Sheila for saying that because up until this point in the interview, one would not even know that the Missa Solemnis was a choral work; instead the interview up until this point was all about her and her career).  The interviewer at WGMS said, “We should mention that the Chorus is that of the University of Maryland.” 

Later, when I sang with The Maryland Chorus, one of the sopranos was still in the Chorus who sang the Missa Solemnis and I talked with her.  I mentioned to her that I noticed that she smiled throughout the performance and I asked her about that.  She said, “It was such a pleasure for us to sing with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam.  Not too many people get that opportunity.”  Indeed, and especially a University Chorus, but the University of Maryland Chorus was not your average University Chorus by any definition.  They were a major Orchestra Chorus in the Washington Metropolitan Area with many performances primarily in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall with the National Symphony Orchestra, and also in New York’s Carnegie Hall, in London and in Europe (the Hallé Music Festival).

These days, the Missa Solemnis is not being performed often, well, like much of the symphonic choral repertoire.  We’re down to The Big Three.  That’s especially true in the States.  The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus performed it last season, I believe it was.  I was surprised to see that. 

Performed in Munich by the Bavarian Radio Choir and Bavarian Symphony Orchestra

Updated: The juvenile “maga” cultists love to jump up and down — like that beer-drinking, juvenile FBI director, Kash Patel, was doing in the men’s locker room at the Olympics — and shout how the US is the “greatest country.” The immature and rude/crude dictator says the US is “the hottest country.” Both of these cultists like to say these things to try to convince themselves that this is the case. The thinking is: Say it often enough and they start to believe it. And it really depends how “greatest country” is defined, and why does there have to be a “greatest country?” Many nations are great.

The ensembles in the performances on this page (both Orchestra and Chorus) are part of the public broadcasting system in Deutschland. The US has nothing like that. The US has no musical ensembles associated with what remains of public media. In fact, under the dictator’s regime, federal funding has been ended for public broadcasting/public media. That’s how little the US thinks of public broadcasting under the current stupid, draconian and barbaric regime and thoroughly corrupt and incompetent “maga” cultists.

There is a saying that is quite true and that is any Chorus can sing loudly — which they can but they may not be singing loudly and beautifully with choral excellence — but only the finest Choruses can singing beautifully quietly, as these two (make that three) Choruses do in these performances below. Listen to their hushed choral excellence/diction, and they’re also sitting for the quiet sections which makes it more difficult to sing quietly.

I’ve been slow to feature this piece because of the screamers (vocal soloists).  Some people will say that because Mahler never wrote an opera and that all of his symphonies are considered operas or operatic of sorts because of the vocal soloists, even though there is no costuming and scenery involved, which is part of the definition of opera.

This is one of the problems of the classical music tradition.  The reality is that it doesn’t matter what piece it is of the symphonic choral repertoire, when there are vocal solo parts involved, who is brought in to the performance to scream out those parts?  It’s always opera divas from artist management companies.  That’s what they sound like, even when the piece has nothing remotely to do with opera.  And because of this, some people who know nothing about music think that all symphonic choral works are opera because of the  opera divas screaming out the solo parts, when that is not the case at all.

As for Mahler’s Symphony No. 2:

The piece is really about the power of love.

• The “Resurrection”:  Mahler noted that the title refers not to a traditional, narrow, religious dogma but to the “resurrection” of the human spirit after the trials of life. It is a highly, emotional and, ultimately affirmative statement about the power of love.
• Though Mahler converted to Catholicism, he was not a strictly practicing Christian. The symphony is seen as a deeply personal, philosophical work, grappling with the suffering of existence, and offering an often non-dogmatic, spiritual, almost pantheistic, vision of afterlife.
  Pantheism is the belief that a deity and the universe are identical, viewing the cosmos, nature, and the divine as a single, all-encompassing, self-organising unity. It rejects a personal, transcendent creator in favor of an immanent divinity found within all things. Core beliefs emphasize that everything is interconnected, sacred, and part of one divine substance.

You would think that the religious nuts would try to make this piece all about their fundamentalist religious beliefs, but the sense I get and have always had is that most people think this is a strictly secular piece.  I suppose they see the word “Resurrection” in the title, but they don’t make anything about that.

As for Mahler, easy going and easy to get along with he was most certainly not. The singers and instrumentalists who performed under his him loathed him: to them, he was a small, pale tyrant who gave them no quarter and rehearsed works — they thought they knew — for hour after unending hour.

Management, likewise, usually detested him, with his endless artistic demands and constant threats to quit if those demands were not met. But no one could argue with the results, because audiences loved him, and everywhere he went he raised the level of performance to the degree that his actions and behaviors were tolerated; had to be tolerated.

I have wanted to feature this piece for some time, but I couldn’t find an Orchestra Chorus that I found acceptable, trained in choral excellence until now where I found this performance from the Bavaria Radio Choir and Symphony Orchestra, and later the performance from the combined WDR Radio Choir and Berlin Radio Choir, and WDR Symphony Orchestra.  Both performances were in Deutschland.  I think Deutschland has the finest Orchestra Choruses these days trained in the highest of choral excellence.

Unfortunately, Mahler viewed his symphonies as operatic in nature and felt the need to stick all of these vocal soloist parts into the piece, which ruins it for me and for my choral friend.  This is especially true for the vocal soloists (aka screamers) who have poor vocal technique that they use so much vibrato that you can tell what pitch they’re aiming for.

The Vibratobots(TM) always say that one must sing (they really mean scream) with heavy vibrato to be heard over an orchestra.  They never consider that orchestras are quite adept at accompanying a screamer. And with technology being what it is today, no one has to scream over an orchestra or a piano accompanist for that matter.  All opera divas can sing “normally” and wear discreet mics and or headsets on their person to be easily heard with the orchestra. So there’s no more need to “sing (scream) over the orchestra” to be heard.

In the second performance of this piece (second video below), the screamers were parked on the front of the stage and they had microphones in front of them.  The reality is that neither needed a mic as their obnoxious voice could be heard in the next city over.  In fact, the soprano screamer ruined the perfect intonation of the soprano section of the Chorus on their High B Flat as she was wobbling and fluttering.  At first I thought it was the sopranos of the Chorus, but my choral friend said, “No, that’s the soprano screamer,” which I had forget was also singing-screaming at the time.  He was correct.  They are one of my favourite Choruses so I was surprised that to hear noticeable vibrato from them did I don’t usually hear from them.  In the quietest choral section, the soprano screamer comes in with fucking wobbling which does not at all match the smooth sound of the Orchestra and Chorus.  She ruined it and seemed clueless about it.  It only takes one voice with wobbling vibrato to ruin perfect intonation and that’s what happened here.  The Chorus was well-trained in perfect intonation, but the soprano screamer’s wobbling contaminated the perfect intonation from the soprano section especially on the high B Flats in the finale.  Like I said, she ruined it.

The only live performance I’ve heard of this piece — where I was also in the Concert Hall — was in the Kennedy Center years ago with the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) and the University of Maryland Chorus. I had seen on the NSO’s subscription series that The Maryland Chorus (as they were also known) seemed to be the Official Chorus of the National Symphony Orchestra at that time and I was determined to hear them. They were outstanding which is why they were Antal Doráti’s favourite Chorus and he invited them to perform with the NSO as often as possible. This didn’t set too well with the Choral Arts Society of Washington because they didn’t get as many invitations to perform with the NSO as they thought they should have — although one of the seasons I sang with them I remember us having 5-6 set of engagements with the NSO — because of the number of engagements given to the University of Maryland Chorus.  I liked both Choruses so I didn’t take part in the silly, one-way rivalry and lies that were said about Dr Traver and Maryland.  This was at the (what I call) height of the symphonic choral movement in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall where lots of works for Orchestra and Chorus were programmed, as compared to today where that is not the case at all.  Related:  The Big Three.

Have I told you how much I can’t stand vocal soloists, with few exceptions to that.  And of course the Vibratobots have umpteen rationales, lies and justifications to support the screamers,

Regardless of the piece, the soloists seem to think they’re on an opera stage.  I’m not into opera.  My choral friend has even less patience for this piece than I do.  I know where the choral parts are so I go to those and bypass the rest of it where the screamers are.

As I said, the vocal screamers — officially known as “soloists” — ruined it for me.  But at least the conductor — in the second performance down — parked the screamers away from the front of the stage and off to the side, back on the left side of the Chorus.  I think the screamers were mic’d even though they didn’t need to be as both could overpower the full Orchestra and Chorus without being mic’d.

I finally found a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 from a Chorus prepared in choral excellence, meaning, in part, that they sing in all voice sections (SATB) without wobbling vibrato. And the Orchestra played superbly as well. As for the vocal wobbling and fluttering screamers (commonly called “soloists”) who ruin it, well, I don’t have much to say about them and I’m not even saying who they are.  I was listening to the Chorus and their very smooth choral entrance and that was followed by one of the screamers. She came in with wobbling vibrato which completely ruined the moment for me. She seemed clueless that she wasn’t at all matching or trying to match the sound of the Chorus. Someone in the comments of the video complained about “too much vibrato.” So it wasn’t just me who was turned off by this noise.  I don’t find wobbling and fluttering to be music, and in some cases it’s used to cover up bad vocal technique.  I find wobbling and fluttering to be noise when it clashes with the smooth perfect intonation sounds of the Orchestra and Chorus.

In the first performance, from what I could tell, neither screamer was mic’d so production must have felt that neither screamer needed to be mic’d as they both had the ability to scream over all the other musicians on stage, which is usually the case.  Yes, they have the ability to scream over the Full Orchestra and Chorus and pipe organ.

This piece is not an opera — although Mahler considered his symphonies to be “inclusive” meaning, I guess, that his symphonies included aspects of opera (such as screaming) —  so the screamers took advantage of this and seemed to think it is opera and used the same obnoxious wobbling and fluttering vocal techniques that they use in opera.  As if to say, “Guess what pitch I’m singing?”  They made no attempt to blend with the Chorus and still be tastefully heard.

Did the conductor think there was “too much vibrato?”  Well, if he did, he apparently didn’t correct the screamer.  From my Orchestra Chorus experience, I don’t remember any conductor correcting a screamer on anything, at least not on stage. That’s something that is not done.

The screamers come from artist management agencies so they are seen as sacrosanct or above reproach and that’s how conductors approach them, as if they arrive on stage “perfect” even when they’re not.  Another double standard.  Although the conductor has no problem correcting the Symphony Chorus or the Orchestra on something, but not the screamers.

Notice the “bells up” for the French horns in the finale in the first performance, and also the wind section doesn’t play in part of that.  The violin section really has to work in the finale with their fast bowing although it looks like synchronised bowing to me, and not staggered bowing (to create a pedal point effect) as is sometimes used to keep the sound going nonstop in other pieces.

Interestingly, I see some of the same choristers in this performance that performed in the Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony.  They were in the Gaechinger Cantorey for that performance from Deutschland with the SWR Symphonieorchester.

I also found this performance (below) — with one of my favourite Choruses from Deutschland.  I was hearing some screaming vibrato on the top high B Flat in the finale and I mistakenly thought it was the soprano section.  I listened again with my choral friend and he said the Chorus was excellent and the screaming was from the soprano soloist which I realised was the case.  Both screamers were unfortunately mic’d even though they didn’t need to be as their screaming could be heard in the next city over, especially with the soprano screamer.  This is not artistic singing, this is screaming and any fool can scream.  Screaming is noise; screaming is not music.  With few exceptions, this is especially true with soprano screamers who seem absolutely unable to control their voice.  One wonders where some people trained — they would need thick walls and soundproofing to block her obnoxious voice from travelling throughout the halls of the Conservatory or a University’s School of Music — and Voice Departments are turning out people like that whose obnoxious voice can overpower a Full Orchestra and Chorus.

Here’s a third performance from Deutschland I found. It’s not the same Chorus, but some of the same choristers are in this Chorus. From a choral sense, I think the Chorus may be better recorded in this performance.

I’m not hot on the idea of seating the screamers up in the front row center of the Chorus. But since the Chorus was seated up on what is essentially the second story of the building in those seats, I guess the conductor thought it would look better to have the screamers seated where they are, than separated on the left side of the Chorus:

Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks
SWR Vokalensemble
SWR Symphonieorchester
Dirigent: Christoph Eschenbach

I was asking myself: Why should I write anymore about the belligerent and childish US dictator in the white house when he’s just going to keep going and get worse and worse with every passing day.  His “show” is getting very tiring/exhausting to watch.  Aren’t the ratings dropping?  He’s like the worst of an out-of-control child with his temper tantrums, such as the last one directed at the Supreme Court for their ruling on his tariffs.  I don’t think there’s ever been someone in his position who engaged in a temper tantrum just because he didn’t get his way with a Supreme Court decision.  Just like a spoiled child.  He referred to two of the justices as “slime balls.” He’s like watching The Jerry Springer Show.  He’s clearly unfit for office.  He also called the justices “fools,” “lapdogs,” “unpatriotic” and controlled by “foreign interests” without offering any proof, as usual.  He also called Gorsuch and Barrett’s decisions to rule against tariffs ’embarrassment to their families’. Who the fuck does he think he is?  Does he know their families to make such an unhinged judgment?  And he has no sense of decorum or what is right and what is wrong. He also called the justices “a disgrace to our nation.”  Again, he behaves like an out-of-control child.  He’s an international embarrassment.  UPDATE:  I read that Los Republicanos at that tradition known as “the state of the union” were shouting juvenile chants of that simplistic “USA” nonsense.  Any fool can chant three letters, and most of them reside in the dictator’s upper colon.  How pathetic that they never learned how to deal with a bully, and from I read they are terrified of their “maga” cult leader.  These are adults?  Only in their chronological age.

One wonders if the dictator is literally in some aspects of — what is known as — “a second childhood?”  The guy surely has no maturity which confirms what I’ve said that chronological age and maturity don’t necessarily match at all depending upon the person.  He only has arrogance, which in some cases can be misinterpreted as “maturity.”  And he thinks he’s very entitled, and I’ve never seen anyone who demands that his name be put on as many places as possible.

Of course that “maga” cultist, hypocrite JD Vance — who has his head firmly planted in the dictator’s upper colon — is just as bad.  For attention, he had to open his puss and referred to the justices and their ruling as “lawlessness.”  JD only seems to care about the law and what’s legal when it’s convenient for him and when it benefits for the “maga” trash.  Related:  Sleeping with the Enemy: Is Usha Vance a Hypocrite or a Survivor?

It should be No Dictator

This again.  There’s going to be another “No Kings” demonstration.  I’m not promoting it because the name is wrong.  The previous ones accomplished so much, didn’t they?  [sarcasm intended]  In reality, nothing changed. Knowing that, my choral friend went to one of them and he said some people were using the correct word “Dictator” on their signs.  Dictator = fascism.  King = hereditary monarchy.  King is the wrong word because what the US dictator is installing is authoritarian fascism.  The appropriate word for that is dictator and regime (not administration).  He’s not installing anything hereditary.  His regime has nothing to do with a hereditary monarchy.  But apparently the organisers of “No kings” never looked any of this up — and still haven’t — so they continue to use the wrong word.

Many YT talking heads are using the word fascism to describe this regime, which is correct.  But they don’t seem to know that the word dictator goes with fascism.  Another disconnect.  Related:   Fascism:  dictator, not kings

There’s that piece of “never tr*mp” hypocrite who turned “maga” cultist, JD Vance, after he was selected as the 34-count convicted felon’s sidekick.

JD had previously warned about and referred to the now-dictator as “America’s Hitler.”  But now being a proud hypocrite, JD can be seen pounding the table with laughter at every racist joke and far-right thing said in the oval office.  Like all the other Christian fraud maga cultists, JD pretends to be a Christian by licking the Pope’s ass.  Well, the Pope wants nothing to do with this Christian fraud.  Hypocrite JD doesn’t even know who the fuck he is as a person.  Related:  Sleeping with the Enemy: Is Usha Vance a Hypocrite or a Survivor?

Like other “maga” cultists, JD resides in the dictator’s upper colon and routinely keeps his puss in the news by agreeing with most anything the dictator says.  Most recently JD referred to the “lawlessness” of the justices on the US Supreme Court because of their ruling on the dictator’s obsession with tariffs.

Now, do you remember when white nationalist Nick Fuentes had dinner with the dictator?  The chronic liar dictator said he didn’t know who Nick was.  Yeah sure.  Yes, white supremacist Nick Fuentes was a participant in the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017 where the dictator said, “There are good people on both sides.”  And one side consisted of nazis.  So of course, one always has dinner with someone they claim to not know or know anything about.  Related:  Donald tr*mp dined with white nationalist, Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.  (The 34-count convicted felon and adjudicated sexual pervert assaulter hosted Fuentes and Kanye West at Mar-a-Lago. He said it was “quick and uneventful.”)

And I think the dictator is a not-so-closeted nazi.  His senior policy advisor is Stephen Miller.  Miller’s actions and rhetoric have drawn intense criticism, with various opponents, activists, and officials accusing him of harboring white supremacist, fascist, and neo-Nazi views.

Well, apparently Nick has come out of his “maga” denial and is now telling it like it is about these “maga” trash and this lawless, cesspool/swamp regime.

Read post here.

The biggest threat to US national security is the insane, constantly unhinged nut, the US dictator from the Epstein Class who is vegetating in the oval office of the white house. He’s an international embarrassment. He is so unprofessional, especially for the position he holds. Here’s the link to an excellent article that attorney Scott Bolden wrote about that.

I agreed with the majority of Scott’s article, but him being a Democrat, he lost me at the last paragraph where he started talking as if he were in Dream Land. Now, assuming there will be midterms and assuming they will be legitimate — who still believes that after all that the dictator has said and done about “elections” and Steve Bannon calls for the dictator to deploy ICE and military troops to polling sites — the Dead Democratic Party taking back the House and Senate and then going up against the dictator and challenging him? WTF? What drugs are you on? The Dead Democratic Party/Cult is as terrified (if not more so) of this bottom feeder dictator piece of racist redneck trash as are the Republican Party/Cult.

Scott who wrote the opinion article is from the District of Columbia Democratic Party — that’s the official name of the party — and not what someone wrote, “that “Washington, D.C. Democratic Party” rubbish. There is no such thing. I’m not sure who wrote that, but either he or The Hill decided to cater to stupid rather than educate people. Someone must have thought that no one would know what or where the District of Columbia is — even though that’s what DC stands for that most people do use, so why the disconnect? — so instead they wrote the “Washington DC” rubbish.

But go to the site for the District of Columbia Democratic Party and you’ll see that is the proper/correct name for the party or DC Democratic Party and in fine print and blue font below that you’ll see District of Columbia Democratic Party.

From the site:

Quote: Chartered by the Democratic National Committee as the elected representatives of the Democratic voters in the District of Columbia, the DC Democratic State Committee provides input in the affairs of the Democratic Party at the block, precinct, state, and national level by ensuring, preserving, and protecting the principles of Democracy. End Quote

Why cater to stupid ?

Many people do so. I don’t; I refuse to.  One is complicit in the stupidity by catering to stupid.  As far as this catering to stupid goes, that didn’t used to happen. But with the dumbing-down of our society, this is the result.

I use official titles on this site since that’s what they’re meant for (to be used) and if someone doesn’t know what I’m talking about, that’s their problem. They can look it up, if they know how to use a search engine. If they don’t, again, that’s their problem.  I refuse to cater to stupid and dumbed-down on this site. I do my best to educate.

But unfortunately, I’ve noticed that people who write articles also go to such lengths as to cater to stupid by even rewriting the names of the courts in the District. There is no court in the District of Columbia with the language, “Washington DC” in it. Nada. Yet that’s what most writers put in articles, which is absolutely incorrect. You’d think that someone from the courts would ask the writers: Why are you changing the name of our court in your articles? The courts use the official name for the US nation’s capital and the official name — as I have written umpteen times — is District of Columbia, not that “Washington DC” sheeple rubbish. When I saw that at the bottom of Scott’s article, I said to myself: Now I know that is not the name of the party because people in the District know better. Then I went to the site for the DC Democratic Party and I found that I was correct in my suspicion.

This also reminded me of when I went back and visited the District sometime ago and I was over in Georgetown, I saw a school bus. The bus said, “District of Columbia Public Schools.”  They use the correct name for the Federal District.

Then they have another bus service:

The Conservatory was talking about Bad Bunny’s Half Time performance this past Sunday (8 February 2026). Everyone thought it was superb and celebrated a part of Latin Culture. Yes, indeed. To me, his performance was similar to what one would see on Univisión. It was that well done.

By the way, for the racists — such as the white house resident/Epstein Class — Bad Bunny is an American because Puerto Rico is a territory of the US. But even if it were not, Puerto Rico is in the Caribbean region of North America and is part of Latin America, so he’s an American. And the US is part of North America, just like Canada. The “maga” trash don’t seem to know any of that nor do they know that there are three Americas. They don’t believe in maps. Much of the hate directed at Bad Bunny is because he has brown skin. That’s the bottom line. You can watch the performance here. Enjoy!:

YT gives the option to “Share” which I chose, but apparently the NFL doesn’t want the video on other sites, so you’ll have to go to YT to watch it.