The Detroit Symphony Orchestra has started a Beethoven Festival. They'll do all 9 symphonies over the rest of the month. I'll attend Symphonies 3 and 8 tomorrow. The festival got underway today with a marathon of all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas. They started at 8:00 this morning and are scheduled to end at 10:00 tonight. Students from area universities with substantial music programs are the performers, with each student tackling one sonata. I was at my own school this afternoon (quiz time in Theory), but headed to the concert venue afterward and got there just before 5:00. By the time I left at 6:45 (dinner break) I heard sonatas 22-27. The guy who played the "Appassionata" sonata did a good job, though a couple wrong notes. A piano student sitting near my said, "I guess I'll never be playing that one." Most of the rest came off rather bland and one even choked for a moment. So two hours of mediocre Beethoven was enough.
We've been hearing for a week that the Boy Scouts were about to end the national ban on gay youth and leaders, allowing individual troops (and their sponsors) decide for themselves. Alas, they punted. The Executive Committee decided to leave it all up to the National Council (all 1400 of them) when it meets in May. Lots of theories about the political calculus of that move were offered, but I won't speculate.
Prez. Obama, backed up by a host of gay organizations are calling for the inclusion of bi-national gay couples when the immigration reform package is put together. Senator Marco Rubio's GOP response is the least offensive: the issue is already complicated and adding gay issues will just make it harder.
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