cultural highlights

[dream_labyrinth]

The holidays turn out to be very interesting from a cultural viewpoint.
We went to see Richard Wagner's "Meistersinger" - 5 hours of quite good music and horrible, horrible libretto -he really should have left the writing of the text to somebody else.
But it was the first Wagner I saw and I must say he's much better than his reputation.

On New Year's Day we will see the "Amadeus" ballet, based on the musical based on the movie. I know the movie, so this is going to be interesting, and the ballet company is really good, so that's going to be a treat.

And today, between some political cabaret shows, I got to watch the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, which was hilarious. They represent a kind of humour that seems to be found only in the country of bad food and bad teeth*.

Speaking of humour, I got a good laugh out of Sarkozy lately. Okay so our last chancellor got himself an oil pipeline to have something to do once the chancelloring was over, but letting yourself get invited on holidays by people with a well-known interest in French politics and not even having the decency to at least try and cover it up takes a special kind of person.
It is said that every country gets the government they deserve. We have Angela, who might not look as good as Sarko on TV, but whom I still prefer any day.

Oh, and btw, Wikipedia says his full name is Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarköczy de Nagy-Bocsa. Nagy is a Hungarian name. And I never knew the French president was also co-prince of Andorra. That is weird.
*wikiwandering*
Did you know that Andorra was at war with Germany until 1957 because they were not included in the Versailles treaty? How weird is that?

Okay, I'm off to bed before I write more nonsense.

HUGE HUGS to martianmooncrab and quietselkie!! You rock!



* Okay, the bad food is prejudice, but you can spot Brits by their teeth. I don't know why.

Comments

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

I know too little about her to guess whether she would have stayed on just for the sake of being first lady. But considering the fact that he had no trouble soothing his pain over the divorce with another woman, I don't think he was heartbroken. It's very hard to cover up that fact.

Then again, aren't the French famous for their affairs? ;-)

[foudebassan.livejournal.com]

Oh I'm sure that affair is 1% genuine feelings, 4% opportunism and 95% mediatic plan to cover up his failures on the diplomatic stage. And what's worse everyone is falling for it and talking about his sex-life more than about his work as President.

*gagging noise*

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

I wonder why that is. Schröder had four wives, and that was generally seen as a sign of his great people skills, even though the CDU had a campaign saying three women couldn't possibly be wrong - he was the wrong man.
If Merkel had used up four husbands, I wonder what the media would have to say about that.

[foudebassan.livejournal.com]

Up to now most of our presidents had lots of affairs - it got known about Giscard because he had a mild car accident when driving home alone at 4 am with his mistress' car. Mitterrand had a long-time mistress and a hidden daughter, the first time they had their official picture taken was at his funeral when his wife invited them to mourn with her. Chirac is widely known as "three minutes, shower included" because he apparently has a premature ejaculation problem and so many women he couldn't keep it a secret. But until now it was all gossip that everyone knew but no one talked about openly - no articles, no pictures, nothing, at most a couple of paragraphs in some biography or other. Sarkozy is all about doing things that have always been going on in the shadows in the open - his divorce, his affair, his pay increase, etc. I find it sordid - there are things that really don't belong out there, that are only worth knowing about when they're semi-private. This makes him look like some Britney Spears celebrity with his every move on camera: where is France's dignity in all this?

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

Undoubtedly, he markets it as a sign of his honesty, but I do agree that it looks like Britney Spears fighting for the headlines in the yellow press.

Personally, I think that what a politician does in his private life should remain private (as long as it isn't connected to corruption or any other behaviour that could damage the country he's supposed to be serving). I much rather have a politician who, when it is discovered that he has a mistress, tells the press it's none of their concern than one who tells everyone and their grandmother before they even asked about it.
It does look like trying to turn the attention away from his actual work record.