The Friday Informer: If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Iran

The Friday Informer: If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Iran

You might have heard that the New York Phil was playing a few concerts this week.

Written By

Molly Sheridan

Photo of the Week:
Gonna Party Like It’s 1929



Via WFMU.
For those looking for a more progressive set, see cat DJ.

Okay, so you might have heard that the New York Phil was playing a few concerts this week. And while it wasn’t like they were off performing a full-on “Axis of Evil” world tour (though that might have made for better souvenir t-shirts), in this Rush Limbaugh-era, is it surprising that some people read it that way? There are genuinely scary uses of music out there these days, so let’s not get carried away.

Actually, whatever you think of the orchestra’s little turn on the world catwalk, it definitely boosted the cultural press’s profile around the news room—well, at least on our side of the curtain. Plus, it allowed the field to hug the internet more fully; hopefully, it will hug back.

Speaking of music and politics, the candidates might learn much from our road warrior stamina and maybe we’d do well to study their vocal technique (so might a certain Dow Jones board member, but that’s another matter entirely). But trained or no, there’s been a lot of singing on the campaign trail, some more direct than the rest. Next time they are rockin’ the house with another chorus of “9 to 5”, maybe they could make a note to remember the musicians who buoyed their float to the White House the next time they vote.

Riding the internet this week, it was easy to get cynical. I learned that you can’t believe everything you read, that everyone is selling something, that every lecture is a lie, and that the people in the bleachers are possibly all fakes, too. It’s (almost) enough to send me looking for inspiration in airport bars and strictly limit my internet reading to cute stories about cats.