City Desk: Soul on Ice

This political moment in mid-concert seems formalistic, a convention of the genre; as the lady herself has said, “Strike a pose; there’s nothing to it.” And, after her heartfelt cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” that moment is over; we’ve imagined what it would be like to have a world without countries, and now—if we are politically engaged—we return to thinking about the world as it really exists, and how we can implore al-Qaeda to go along with our fantasy of a world without bloodshed. Fortunately, we have little time for pesky questions like that, because our star launches into “Crazy for You,” which she turns—by a few introductory comments—into a love letter of gratitude to her fans for sticking with her for 20 years.

She closes with an unusually anthemic rendition of her sparkly old hit “Holiday,” which is greeted by huge flurries of confetti from the ceiling of Madison Square Garden—which makes my imagination fast-forward to a couple of months from now. In September, confetti and balloons will shower down on this very same stage, as President Bush accepts the GOP nomination for a second term. Incongruous? Not if you listen, beneath the melodies, to the deeper harmonies. NR

About the Author

Richard Brookhiser

Historian Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute.

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This political moment in mid-concert seems formalistic, a convention of the genre; as the lady herself has said, “Strike a pose; there’s nothing to it.” And, after her heartfelt cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” that moment is over; we’ve imagined what it would be like to have a world without countries, and now—if we are politically engaged—we return to thinking about the world as it really exists, and how we can implore al-Qaeda to go along with our fantasy of a world without bloodshed. Fortunately, we have little time for pesky questions like that, because our star launches into “Crazy for You,” which she turns—by a few introductory comments—into a love letter of gratitude to her fans for sticking with her for 20 years.

She closes with an unusually anthemic rendition of her sparkly old hit “Holiday,” which is greeted by huge flurries of confetti from the ceiling of Madison Square Garden—which makes my imagination fast-forward to a couple of months from now. In September, confetti and balloons will shower down on this very same stage, as President Bush accepts the GOP nomination for a second term. Incongruous? Not if you listen, beneath the melodies, to the deeper harmonies. NR