One name kept popping up in the international coverage of last week’s Democratic National Convention, and it wasn’t John Kerry. The name was H.L. Mencken, the famous journalistic curmudgeon who covered political conventions for nearly a half-century, and whose words describing the process have never been equaled: “There is something about a national convention that makes it as fascinating as a revival or a hanging… It is vulgar, it is ugly, it is stupid, it is tedious, it is hard upon both the higher cerebral centers and the gluteus maximus, and yet it is somehow charming.”
Tag: 07.31.04
Liverpool’s Setback As Philharmonic Music Director Contract Not Renewed
Liverpool is scrambling to deal with two cultural setbacks as the city gears up for its gig as European Capital of Culture in 2008. The Liverpool Philhramonic recently decided against renewing music director Gerard Schwarz’s contract. It “follows hard on the heels of the city’s decision against going ahead with Will Alsop’s controversial ‘fourth grace’ on the Pier Head. The Philharmonic now faces a race against time to find a new music director who can be in place to take over the baton in the 2006-07 season.”