Iranian radio and TV
This will seem like a very obscure topic for many readers, but it is a very serious issue.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has banned all Western music from their state-run radio and TV stations.
I think Lee Harris sums this up pretty well.
Ahmadinejad isn’t just banning Eminem, Fifty Cent, and Arnold Schönberg’s Moses und Aron, which might be reasonable; nor banning the musicals of Andrew Lloyd Weber, which would be positively commendable.
No, Ahmadinejad is banning Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (obviously); Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde; the wonderful songs of Harold Arlen, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, and Jerome Kern. Also forbidden are Handel’s endlessly diverting Concerti Grossi, Opus 6, Gabriel Fauré’s chamber music, Eric Clapton’s guitar, and Anton Bruckner’s vast cathedrals of sound.
Equally outlawed are Schumann’s Dichterliebe, Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, Lerner and Lowe’s My Fair Lady, along with The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and the complete works of Lully, Couperin, and Rameau. No more will the music of Verdi, Tupac, and Petula Clark be heard in the land of the Islamic faithful.
None of the feet of the true believers will tap to rap or dance to the ballets of Tschaikovsky. No one will sway to the beguiling Cole Porter when he begins the beguine; no one will be hypnotized by Ravel’s Bolero. Out with Puccini, out with Irving Berlin -- who will care about the tear-jerking fate of Madame Butterfly, or the much happier one of the Annie who got her gun? No one in Iran will be allowed to.
How sad! Thankfully BBC World Service broadcasts in Farsi (Persian) but they need to play more music! Now it is time for Voice of America to get their act together.
When all that remains of President Ahmadinejad is dust, the music he tried to ban will still live on...
*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.
........ooooooooOOOOOOOOoooooooo........
Merry Christmas everybody. I hope Santa PAWS came to visit you!
I can't believe my human left me to spend time at Jimmy and Lily's place with Jimmy on his lap before partaking in what he described as a delicious Christmas lunch!
At least he did return in the mid-afternoon and we had time for a nap together on the couch.
keisercat@wildmail.com
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has banned all Western music from their state-run radio and TV stations.
I think Lee Harris sums this up pretty well.
Ahmadinejad isn’t just banning Eminem, Fifty Cent, and Arnold Schönberg’s Moses und Aron, which might be reasonable; nor banning the musicals of Andrew Lloyd Weber, which would be positively commendable.
No, Ahmadinejad is banning Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (obviously); Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde; the wonderful songs of Harold Arlen, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, and Jerome Kern. Also forbidden are Handel’s endlessly diverting Concerti Grossi, Opus 6, Gabriel Fauré’s chamber music, Eric Clapton’s guitar, and Anton Bruckner’s vast cathedrals of sound.
Equally outlawed are Schumann’s Dichterliebe, Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, Lerner and Lowe’s My Fair Lady, along with The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and the complete works of Lully, Couperin, and Rameau. No more will the music of Verdi, Tupac, and Petula Clark be heard in the land of the Islamic faithful.
None of the feet of the true believers will tap to rap or dance to the ballets of Tschaikovsky. No one will sway to the beguiling Cole Porter when he begins the beguine; no one will be hypnotized by Ravel’s Bolero. Out with Puccini, out with Irving Berlin -- who will care about the tear-jerking fate of Madame Butterfly, or the much happier one of the Annie who got her gun? No one in Iran will be allowed to.
How sad! Thankfully BBC World Service broadcasts in Farsi (Persian) but they need to play more music! Now it is time for Voice of America to get their act together.
When all that remains of President Ahmadinejad is dust, the music he tried to ban will still live on...
*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.
........ooooooooOOOOOOOOoooooooo........
Merry Christmas everybody. I hope Santa PAWS came to visit you!
I can't believe my human left me to spend time at Jimmy and Lily's place with Jimmy on his lap before partaking in what he described as a delicious Christmas lunch!
At least he did return in the mid-afternoon and we had time for a nap together on the couch.
keisercat@wildmail.com
posted by Keiser at 20:13
1 Comments:
Merry Christmas Keiser! I hope you and your human had a very nice holiday, and that Santa brought you both lovely goodies.
Take Care,
Nick
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