Author Archives: jsl915@aol.com

When I mention the “Kirov’s” current Raymonda performances, yes I know that they re now the Mariinsky once again, but they were Kirov during the 1950s when Konstantin Sergeyev’s somewhat revised Raymonda premiered in St. Petersburg (yes, I know that … Continue reading →

You know how, when you see the Kirov’s Raymonda–last performed here in Washington, D.C. in 2016– it looks very authentic, the least subject to Soviet- era revision of all the nineteenth-century repertory? I mean, apart from the Vikharev reconstructions. Well, … Continue reading →

You can’t make this stuff up.  Joe Biden and Michelle Obama are actually participating in the normalization of George W. Bush’s presidency by presenting him with a freedom medal. In the Nation, Steven W. Thrasher is aghast at the foolishness … Continue reading →

The right-wing Supreme Court majority begins, with Wilbur Ross, to shield the Trump would-be dictatorship from any legal accountability.

The fact that the Democrats don’t seem to be campaigning against Trump’s devastation of the air we breathe, the soil we grow our food in, and the water that nourishes those crops and our own internal ecosystems, is yet another … Continue reading →

who have lots and lots of family money to throw around. Is analyzed by Chris Hedges at Truth Dig as part of an analysis of the larger sociopathology of the uber-rich.

One part drag queen, one part carny barker, and one part walrus. What have we-the- people gotten ourselves into?

Trump is now openly, explicitly (once again) endorsing violence against reporters. And the GOP supports him every step of the way. This has become America.

He only dresses like one. I’m afraid that Justice Sotomayer is wrong–there is no longer a chance that the Supreme Court can retain its legitimacy. It has been unconditionally corrupted and de-legitimized. Justice Roberts, one of the most rabidly anti-democracy … Continue reading →

I eulogize Sergei Vikharev and chronicle some of Robert Barnett’s thoughts on Balanchine’s Serenade. And there’s much, much more!