Ricochet Podcast #91: Classic Prager
Months in the planning, this podcast finally came together this week and it does not disappoint. Dennis Prager, renaissance man, radio raconteur, and all around good guy joins us. The conversation ranges from pens, to Mahler, to the Arab spring, vinyl versus CDs, what the what the biggest problem in the country is today (hint: it's not who you think), and much more. Plus, the significance of 1947 to both Peter and James.
Listen in here and let us know what you think in the comments:
Music from this week's episode:
- Mozart Symphony #40 In G Minor, K 550 - 4. Finale Allegro Assai -- Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
- Symphony #9 in D Minor -- Anton Bruckner
The direct link to this week's episode (great for mobile devices!). But be a mensch and subscribe! Not an iTunes devotee? Visit our Feedburner page for a number of other subscription options.
Our thanks to the great EJHill for the graphic.
The Ricochet Podcast is proudly sponsored by Encounter Books. This week's featured title is New Vichy Syndrome by Theodore Dalrymple, now in paperback. Available at EncounterBooks.com and Amazon.com.
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Comments:
Re: Ricochet Podcast #91: Classic Prager
And just for fun, here's the EJHill photoshop we didn't use:
Dec '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #91: Classic Prager
Peter always looks so nice. And James! Well, I think that first picture settles it. He was simply born in the wrong era.
I've been looking forward to Dennis' Ricochet visit for two weeks now, you naughty teases! Now if we can just get you to follow up with a Steyn-Golberg-Long podcast, all will be forgiven.
May '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #91: Classic Prager
What? No Wagner?!
Re: Ricochet Podcast #91: Classic Prager
Great work as usual, EJ. I have to send you a series of poses with a background you can knock out. It would make your life so much easier.
May '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #91: Classic Prager
Peter is enjoying himself way too much on that keyboard, with those sleeves, and that wig.
Apr '11
Re: Ricochet Podcast #91: Classic Prager
Blue Yeti: And just for fun, here's the EJHill photoshop we didn't use: · Oct 26 at 7:07pm
Waaaaaaiiiiit a second. These are photoshopped?!
May '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #91: Classic Prager
I'm imagining Peter playing the harpsichord backwards, pounding out "Good Golly Miss Molly" while straddling the lid, like in that scene from King Ralph.
(You all saw King Ralph, right? Right? Anyone? Hello???)
Dec '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #91: Classic Prager
My life is complete. Worlds have collided. My boss/mentor/friend Dennis Prager was on my favorite podcast with Peter and James. Awesome jobs all around! LOVED the interaction between these three master talkers!
Linking to it on my site.
Apr '11
Re: Ricochet Podcast #91: Classic Prager
Post of the week! Wow I never expected that. The pressure really is on me now to take even more radical positions, to defend my title.
I too agree with Western Chauvinist about bringing back the Steyn-Golberg-Long podcast. Also what happened to Young Guns? I need my podcast fix guys. I feel one new podcast a day, that should be your goal.
May '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #91: Classic Prager
The musical selections this week have been amazing: Sex Pistols, Sammy Hagar and Bruckner. Whodathunkit? Ricochet is über-diverse, and much more creative than bongo circles!
Re: Ricochet Podcast #91: Classic Prager
EJ, you have surpassed yourself, and that's saying something. In all the long roster of western civilization, only Antonio Salieri might dissent from the otherwise unanimous acclamation of your genius.
Sincerely,
Wolfgang Amadeus Robinson
May '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #91: Classic Prager
Please send me your modeling portfolio. Especially more yellow muscle shirts.
On the serious side, early in the podcast you all mentioned about the disappearance of the middlebrow culture. I lay this at the feet of Congress. What, you say? Let me explain:
The men who founded the broadcast networks, David Sarnoff (NBC), William Paley (CBS) and Leonard Goldenson (the man who took over ABC in 1953) took their role as broadcasters seriously. All three nets presented serious documentaries, plays, opera, etc.
In 1967, Congress created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and relieved the commercial networks from their responsibilities and pursue the lowest common denominator. And they did.
Few today remember that the first opera commissioned for television was for NBC (Amhahl and the Night Visitors), and they were the very same network that had its own symphony orchestra led by the legendary Arturo Toscanini.
ABC was the home to Jacques Cousteau and National Geographic while CBS gave us Omnibus, See It Now, and the aforementioned Ed Sullivan Show.
By the 1970's it was all gone.
Re: Ricochet Podcast #91: Classic Prager
Valiuth: Post of the week! Wow I never expected that. The pressure really is on me now to take even more radical positions, to defend my title.
I too agree with Western Chauvinist about bringing back the Steyn-Golberg-Long podcast. Also what happened to Young Guns? I need my podcast fix guys. I feel one new podcast a day, that should be your goal. · Oct 26 at 8:06pm
Young Guns returns on Friday (clearly you don't listen to Law Talk). As for SGL, well, ...someday. That's the best answer I can give you.
And congrats on the Member Post of The Week. I'll be in touch, so watch your email.
Edited on October 27, 2011 at 5:16amMay '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #91: Classic Prager
And if you missed it on the member feed I explain why Rob missed the podcast today.
May '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #91: Classic Prager
Isn't the boombox to the nice stereo what the Corvette is the to European supercar? That is, they represent the democratization of recorded music and the sports car that every man can afford. Is that a bad thing?
Apr '11
Re: Ricochet Podcast #91: Classic Prager
Blue Yeti
Young Guns returns on Friday (clearly you don't listen to Law Talk). As for SGL, well, ...someday. That's the best answer I can give you.
I listen to Law Talk I must have been distracted by science and missed the good news. Hey! That means that you did have a podcast a day! Monday was Radio Free Delingpole, Tuesday Left Coast Right Coast, Law Talk Wednesday, Richochet Thursday, and Young Guns Friday...good job. Now how about the weekend?
Oct '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #91: Classic Prager
On the topic of classical music, part of this has to do with age (biologically, I mean). When I was a child, classical music was the most scratchy, high-pitched, incredibly-painful-to-listen-to music I'd ever heard.
Later, I learned that as adults age, their ability to hear high-pitched tones diminishes. Classical music, thus, sounds much better to someone in their mid-40s than to a child. I doubt it's a coincidence that my favorite composer doing classical type stuff, Bear McCreary, is in his 20s.
Dec '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #91: Classic Prager
For some reason my bird really likes James. He sings almost as much when James talks as he does when my wife plays his man-crush Josh Groban.
Mar '11
Re: Ricochet Podcast #91: Classic Prager
I dunno, Joseph. I think that its more likely the case that classical music just isn't for everybody. That's why I think that 3 percent figure referenced in the podcast stays steady through the years. Also, as for youth not getting it, I discovered Tchiakovsky in my late teens, the same time that my main musical tastes were a heapin' helpin' of Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, and Guns N' Roses. I think it just takes a particular brain to like classical. One thing that I do agree with is the "middlebrow/highbrow" stuff. I started listening as an effort to "improve myself", as Prager put it. No one forced me to listen. I started listening to classical for the same reason that I started reading the classics. I wanted to be educated, and I guess I just liked what I heard/read along the way. Maybe it takes that mindset.
Mar '11
Re: Ricochet Podcast #91: Classic Prager
BTW, for you Bruckner fans, if I were to ask you what the essential work of his would be, where would I start? The 9th? Something else?