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Posts published by “David Yearsley”

Obama’s Opening Campaign Video

Berlin — Just as wallpaper sometimes tells you almost everything you need to know about the people who live in the house it decorates, so too can even the most banal soundtrack to a political…

A Depressing Lesson

It’s not only dangerous to have the headphones on or the earbuds in when on the bike; I want to hear what’s going on, whether it’s the blackbirds whistling in the chestnut trees or the metrobus bearing down on my back tire.

The Sound Of Shellac

The man credited with convincing the global consumers that it is worth the effort and money and environmental degradation to condense their music libraries onto a matchbook-sized (or somewhat larger) gadget has announced his retirement.…

The Lost Glories Of The Great Castrati

There is no such thing as old music. Regardless of when a piece was composed, it comes to life only at the moment when someone plays or sings it. Music only exists as sound, even…

Triumph Of Will

When a friend tells you he is going to make a feature film, it’s rather like hearing him say he plans to climb Mt. Everest. You immediately want to mention the obvious fact, already known…

The Soccer Choruses Of Anfield

For an American musical expatriate with ample means and the right connections that money brings, a musical tour of Europe might include Wagner in Bayreuth and Verdi at La Scala. Tickets for these two houses…

Blade Runner’s Many Lives

Recent news that Ridley Scott has signed on to do a sequel to his 1982 film Blade Runner fills that movie’s devotees with a mixture of dread and anticipation. The overwhelming likelihood is that any…

The Debt Cantata

That debt and sin are synonymous in Christian thought and liturgy might help explain the righteousness of Tea Party discourse, as well as the genuflections of Obama and his acolytes. It’s true that the Sojourners…

Die Walküre Blazes In The Burbs

They were still there long after the last showing of Kung Fu Panda 2, the vampire-tracking Priest (in 3D!), and The Hangover 2 had released their meager midweek audiences out beneath the canted neon crown…

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