February 27, 2009

Eonnagata

I know a little girl named Sylvie. She's named after Sylvie Guillem, the dancer, so last night I took her and 4 other distinguished ladies to Sadlers Wells in London to see this:



The subject matter was gender - a topic dear to ballet dancers for some reason. I'm increasingly of the view that gender is not destiny, but that the unsexed human spirit makes its destiny and our externals are just that, externals. That's a conceit of course, but it's my conceit and I like it. A lot of Eonnagata was brutally slow for my attention span, let alone a young child's, but Sylvie endured and one day she'll astonish her children when she tells them that she saw the great Sylvie Guillem.

Lest we forget

Right Wing News was almost the first blog I read. (I think Normblog was the very first.) I enjoyed John Hawkins' directness and the man can write. Lately RWN has dropped off my daily tour. It's grown into a less pithy, slightly snarkier, group blog which is plenty meaty but less flavoursome. Don't get me wrong - I like what they say and they say it well, but vita brevis and all that. Hawkins is still a good read after all these years. Sometimes he sounds like me:
The Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, is a tax cheat. Let me repeat that: Timothy Geithner, the guy who is the head honcho of the IRS, is a tax cheat. One more time, Tim Geithner, the guy who will be in charge when the Obama administration institutes what will probably be the single largest tax increase in American history, later in Obama's first term, is a tax cheat.
Moi:
I can be a bore on this Geithner thing. It doesn't take a holistic view to condemn Geithner. There's no nuance required. It's black and white. You can't appoint a tax cheat as Tax Chief. One more time. You can't appoint a tax cheat as Tax Chief. It destroys consent and taints the whole Administration.