I have turned Q&A into an old-fashioned Need to Know podcast, with my singular friend and colleague, Mona Charen. Go here. Mona is in cracking form. We talk Trump-Ukraine-impeachment, of course. This leads to memories of “1998 and all that.” (I once titled a piece about Clinton-Lewinsky-impeachment just that way. Mona and I were in the thick of that drama, from a writing point of view.) Today, we also talk about Greta, the Swedish climate girl. Is she fair game, so to speak? We further talk about China, Turkey, Egypt, and other matters. The whole conversation was refreshing to me, and will be to others, though not all, of course. Who is refreshing to all? Ella Fitzgerald? Maybe — but even she has her detractors, I bet.
Let me note, too, that I posted today, at The New Criterion, a review of Jan Lisiecki, a young Polish-Canadian pianist who played in Carnegie Hall last night. Go here. I first heard Mr. Lisiecki when he was 17; he is now 24. My review opens with my first encounter with him: I was driving to an airport and he was on the radio, and I was hoping to find out who the pianist was before I arrived at my destination.
My review ends with a footnote, as I dub it. Check it out:
All through the Mendelssohn, there was a crying baby, or crying toddler, in the balcony. The cries continued during the Bach encore too. What can you do on an airplane? But in a concert hall, you can take the troubled tot out. Strange that it didn’t happen.
Yes, strange.