The World Is Flat

The thing I find most interesting about Thomas Friedman's new bestseller isn't that the world is going flat - people here in the Silicon Valley have known that for years. No, what I find most interesting is that even as businesses and economies around the world are being fundamentally changed by the rapid advance of new technologies, political institutions, at least here in the U.S., seem to be headed in the opposite direction. Technology is pushing us towards new economic freedoms, while politics seems to be pushing us towards medievalism. The new economy empowers the individual, while under the new politics the government becomes a tool of evangelicals bent on crushing individual freedoms under the weight of official church doctrine.

I think they call that a paradox, and my bet is that the world will continue to modernize despite our politcal leader's predilictions towards running back to the past. Let's face it - in the end it all comes down to money and jobs, and while it's true that money and politics are inextricably intertwined, if forced to choose one over the other I think most people would choose money and jobs over moral absolutism. Then again, you never know about the growing power of these social conservatives. They've won the Congress, they've won the White House, and I wouldn't be too suprised to see Thomas de Torquemada appointed as William Rehnquist's replacement on the Supreme Court. Now that would be an interesting Republican convention. Speeches, balloons, confetti and a little Auto da fe to round out the evenings entertainment. Ahhh..., and I bet it would get good ratings too.

Anyways, I'm reading this book about the flattening of the world and I should probably mention that I haven't finished it yet. In fact I'm only about a third of the way through it but it's one of those provocative type books that gets your mind going in all different directions and thinking "what about this" and "what about that". The style is little off-putting, what I'd call "Zig Ziglar", and at times it reads more like a sales pitch than a piece of non-fiction. But it's full of facts and details and the author, being a famous talking head seen regularly on TV news shows and roundtable discussions, is very adept at hammering home his talking points and keeping the viewer (er, reader) entertained and disinclined to reach for the remote.

If you haven't read the book yet then I'd go ahead and pick up a copy. The basic premise is that the combination of powerful hardware, sophisticated software and high-speed networks are creating a new digital economy which is breaking down the traditional borders between nations and corporations and flattening the world. We see this effect primarily in the outsourcing of jobs and the offshoring of companies, and the new economy is in fact becoming a kind of global meritocracy wherein the best talent at the best price wins the job regardless of where they might be situated geographically.

No arguement with that, although not much of a shock to anyone who has followed the goings on in the world.

In what I've read so far Friedman gives a history of how these technological changes came to pass, and it's a pretty entertaining post-1989 romp through the history of high tech. I might argue a few points here and there but it's still remarkable to reflect back on it all and wonder at how fast it all seemed to happen. It seems like only yesterday that I was writing a Trumpet Winsock script to get my little 28kbs PPP connection going, and now here I am blogging over an always-on connection with over 100 times the bandwidth.

Pretty amazing.

So, anyways, that's all I have for tonight. I'm kinda in my "read" mode right now and digging into all these books and magazines I've had stacked up and never got around to reading. I started that Guns, Germs and Steel book by Jared Diamond that everyone's been so hyped up about but I only made it about 2/5 of the way through. I think Jared Diamond must have learned to write books at the same place that Richard Wagner learned to write operas, although not acquiring Wagner's sense of brevity and pace. Everytime I pick it up and start reading I get about halfway through a chapter and think "didn't he already say all of this a few chapters ago?" Oh well, I'll finish it - just not all at once.

Of course I've got the trashy stuff too. Yes, my first (and last) Nora Roberts book, and I didn't even know she wrote it because the the book cover said the author was J.D. Robb who, it turns out, is really Ms. Roberts in disguise. Anyways, what a read, huh? I thought it was a mystery when I downloaded it, but it's not really what I'd call a true, Agatha Christie type mystery. Basically, the plot is as follows: A horrific crime is comitted, the heroine investigates, goes home to rich, handsome husband, passionate lovemaking ensues, next day she investigates some more, goes home to rich, handome husband, passionate lovemaking ensues, next day another horrific crime occurs, heroine investigates, goes home to rich, handsome husband, passionate lovemaking ensues, etc, etc, etc...

Yep. Turns out that this "mystery" is really nothing more than a romance novel with corpses. As you might have guessed I don't read many romance novels but it was nice to see what the other side is reading for a change. You know, take a little peek at every woman's secret fantasy. Hmmm., very interesting stuff ladies, but, I gotta tell ya'. Even though this may be your secret fantasy, personally, I think the woman's husband is biologically impossible. I mean he's this amorous every night? Hot, passionate and not stopping until he's satisfied his savage desire? Every night? EVERY NIGHT?

C'mon. If that was real life he'd be dead by Chapter 10.

You Never Give Me Your Money

Now what did I tell you. Back in January I told you the stock market would be headed lower and we're down about 3 or 4 hundred points since then. Last year I told you that housing was underpriced and prices here in the Bay Area have risen around 15%. You can check the archives if you don't believe me, and it just goes to show how easy this investment advice business really is.

So, given the 100% accuracy rating of my last forecast I know you're eager to hear my predictions for the next 6 months. Well, glad you asked, and if you send me $500.00 I'll mail to you the very next issue of my investment newsletter "The Tony Report". In it you'll find all the strategies and information you need to prosper in the months ahead using my patented "flip-a-coin" process - insights you won't find anywhere else on Wall Street. This is a no obligation offer. If you are not completely satisfied I'll gladly refund your money and the first issue is yours to keep. That's timely information, valuable insights, and a free money-back guarantee, all for less than $1.40 per day. But wait, there's more! Act now and I'll also include a copy of "10 Secret Tips that only Wall Street Millionaires and Investment Gurus Know". Crucial knowledge you'll need if you want to make money in todays up and down markets. This is a limited time offer so don't delay. Send in your money today.

No, no, no...just kidding. Don't send any money. I'll tell you where the markets are heading.

First the stock market. Everyday I hear experts saying that the stock market is oversold and full of good invesment oppurtunities so I'm pretty sure we're going to keep drifting lower. Nothing dramatic, but when you hear this many people telling you stocks are going up, then you just know they're gonna go down. So what do you do? Well, don't be like this guy I saw on the news last month. They were doing one of those man-in-the-streets interviews and they asked this guy if he was investing in the stock market.

"No", he said, " the stock market's been down lately. I'm gonna wait till it starts picking up again and then maybe I'll buy some stocks."

In other words, stocks are cheap right now so I think I'll wait till they get more expensive before I start buying. Uh dude, that's not the way to make money in the stock market.

Anyways, my advice to all of you out there (which I'm sure is worth every penny you paid for it) is to be looking for buying oppurtunities when the market is down and then think about selling them when the market is up. You know there are people who pay good money for advice like that. And I should also add, in keeping with the new disclosure laws, that I own mutual funds and not individual stocks and I dollar cost average each month. So that being the case, I say pffffttttt - who cares if this is the right time to buy or not.

As for the real estate market, well I think we should all stop and give a moment of thanks to Mr. Greenspan of the Federal Reserve. As you may have read he has been raising the federal funds rate over the past year, and with each gradual increase the bond market has rallied and housing prices have soared. Of course it's not supposed to work that way, but that's what's happening. Matter of fact I think the treasuries rallied again today and the yield on the 10 year note is all the way down to 4.17%, or thereabouts. A few more rate increases by the Fed and we just might see the yield on the 10 year note go negative. Now wouldn't that be a kick.

Of course the psychology in the housing market these days is to get in before the rates start going up, so every new increase by the Fed seems to spark these little mini-rallies of panicked buyers rushing to buy while the getting in good. It's like feeding the housing market little shots of adrenaline that send prices up another 5 or 10 per cent with every increase in the interest rate. Some are calling that a bubble, saying the whole market is overstimulated right now, but I say housing is still underpriced, at least in the Bay Area where there is an enormous demand and a very tight supply. As long as the Fed keeps feeding us our adrenaline and the psychology stays in place, the market should continue to rise for quite some time.

So there you go. I could of charged you $500.00 for these pearls of wisdom but I didn't. I hope you appreciate that. Just remember, stocks down, bonds up, housing up and up and up. And if I'm wrong, then...well, that's your problem. Serves you right for getting your investment advice from some blog.

Turning now to the California news. It's official folks, the revolution is over. Seems kind of sudden too. I mean the governor has barely even fledged and already he's a lame duck. I've already covered all of this before and it's really his own fault, so I'm not going to belabor the point anymore. What is interesting is the State recently looked over it's revenue projections for the year and things are looking pretty good. In fact a stronger than expected economy means we just might have a little more money coming in than we thought. Woohoo!!! Now we can start to pay down some of that deficit that we've built up over the past couple of years. Right?

Well, not so fast there, because no sooner did we find the money than the capitol was besieged by public minded citizens anxious to get their hands on some of it, and, of course, plenty of civic minded (and vote hungry) democrats more than happy to dish it out. Oh ok, maybe I'm being a little premature here. Nothing's actually been decided but I get the feeling we're going to get something resembling the Max Bialystock plan out of all this.

You remember Max don't you? From the Producers? I figure we'll just do like Max and dole out the surplus without too much attention being paid to the math. Teachers Union, you want some of the surplus? Well, here's 80% for you. Police and Firefighters? How about another 80% for you too. Health care workers? Prison Guards? Transportation workers? 80% for each of you, and thank you for doing such a good job. And please, remember who your friends are when the next election comes around.

"But Mr. Democrat, sir, you can't give everyone 80%. You don't have enough money to cover all that. How will you balance the budget?"

"Budget? We don't need a budget. We've got credit cards now. A few billion more in deficit reduction bonds ain't going to make any difference."

You just watch. I bet that's what happens. Come next year when it's time to pass last years budget (we Californians aren't known for our punctuality) we'll be facing another hole and the dems will be pointing fingers and blaming everyone but themselves for the mess. It happens every year.

Turning now to the local news...BART is coming to San Jose! Yeah! (We think)

In case you're not from around here I should explain that BART refers to the Bay Area Rapid Transit System. Basically, it's a train system connecting San Francisco with the East Bay Area counties, and while it does a good job of going East and North it's never connected San Francisco with the big dog around here. That would be us of course. San Jose, the Bay Areas largest city.

Now it looks like that's all going to change. At least we thought it was going to change when we came up with this plan. That was back in the Dot Com days when the South Bay was rich and had revenues coming out our ears, but, unfortunately, things have gotten decidedly bleaker since then. Still, we thought we could make it work with some federal funding and the feds were all for it until they did this study.

Oh yeah, the study. You see, the plan is to connect San Jose to the existing line that runs from Fremont (northeast of San Jose) to Oakland creating a San Jose to Oakland line that would run up along the eastern side of San Francisco Bay. Like I said everything was looking good until someone did this study and found out something interesting. Turns out no one in San Jose really wants to go to Oakland. In fact, the predicted ridership was so low that the feds asked us why they should give us a billion dollars to run a bunch of empty trains back and forth to places no one wanted to go.

Not so, not so, we said, plenty of people want to go to Oakland, but the feds were pretty adamant about it and shoved us way down on their list of priorities. And that's where we stand. Poor San Jose, we want to be all grown up just like our big brother to the north, but everyone keeps telling us to wait till we get older. It's so humiliating.

So no BART for now, and probably not in my lifetime either. I mean even it does get funded it'll still take a hundred years or so to work through all the delays and lawsuits and studies and cost overruns that inevitably crop up when taking on a project of this size. But it'll be cool if they ever do get it built. And Oakland's not such a bad place. They've got parks and museums and restaraunts and all of that stuff, and it's a perfectly safe place to take a stroll and do a little shopping...

As long as you're heavily armed.

At The Moulin Rouge

Pity that new college grad or that twenty-something. Not only are they up to their ears in college loan debt, but now it looks like they'll be funding their parent's failing Social Security System and private pension plans as well. United Airlines may be the first shoe to drop, but there are plenty of others dangling out there as well. And when they start falling, well, private industry may be asked to foot the bill but at some point I get the feeling the heaviest burden is going to fall on you and me.

Then there's this other news item I read today. According to CNET, declining research spending is leading to drop off in Information Technology innovation in the U.S., at a time when research spending by Asian nations such as China and India is rapidly increasing. In fact, at a recent Collegiate Programming competition the U.S. finished in 17th place, its worst showing ever, while Asian nations held four of the top 12 spots. It just seems like in the U.S. the old institutions are beginning to fall down, and they're building the new ones overseas.

So it's the end of the world, right? Maybe not, but we do seem to be approaching an edge. Just what edge that is I don't know. The edge of a precipice perhaps, or maybe just the end of our post-war expansion. Whatever it is I think anyone under the age of thirty had better keep their eyes and ears open and be ready for it, and by "it" I mean the end of the pretty lie. You know like the old Joni Mitchell song - "when you gonna realize they're only pretty lies". I tell ya' we're starting to run 0ut of them, and I'll give you some examples.

Let's see, how about the lie that we can continue to live beyond our means forever, even as we see the explosive growth of debt counselors and payday loan companies. Or how about the lie that if we work hard enough for long enough then one day we'll be able to stop working and retire, even as it's becoming more and more apparent that many of us will have to continue to work into our old age just to afford the prescription drugs. And of course there's the lie that we can fail to provide our children a world-class education and still be the world leader in innovation and technology, even as we watch China and India take the first tentative steps towards economic dominance in 21st century technologies.

Yeah, the pretty lies aren't going to keep working forever, folks. They're already beginning to show their age. The crows feet are forming around the eyes, the thickness settling in around the waist, and the bosoms beginning to sag. Youthful illusion is gone and reality seems to be sinking in.

Anyways, that's the feeling I had today, and there I was sitting at this meeting thinking over the news of the day and feeling surrounded by all this posturing and pretense and puffery and wondering if there was a single real person left in the world anymore- and it was like I was transported back to La Belle Epoque or something. You know the part where it's all coming to an end and all the beautiful people are sitting around cafes not noticing that the world was about to change forever. It was that kind of scene, and I realized ol' Joni got it right - it is all just pretty lies. That's all we're living on anymore.

Oh well, I'm sure the sun will still rise in the morning, and when we look in the mirror we'll still be as beautiful as ever. But we're walking towards an edge. I can just feel it.

Happy Mother's Day (I've Cast A Lot Of Stones)

There's a park where I walk on the weekends, one of those suburban California parks with canyons and trees and squirrels and jays and a rippling creek and grassy playgrounds and shady picnic tables. In the summer there are barbeques and birthday parties and squeals of laughter, and in the winter only joggers and middle-aged amblers such as me, donning our sweatshirts and running shoes and determinedly trying to clear chloresterol-clogged arteries.

And if you walk there often enough you always notice the kids down by the creek, and you always notice them doing the exact same thing. In fact, I bet you that there has never been a kid born who, when standing by a creek, or a river, or any body of water for that matter, doesn't immediately throw a rock in it. You've probably noticed it too, and it makes no difference if it's a boy or a girl. A small stone at first perhaps (ploop!), then another bigger one (plop!), and then, if the kid is big enough, a great, big, granite-like boulder of a rock is pried loose and thrown in (Gagoosh!).

So, I was asking myself as I walked by, why is it that a child can't look at a creek without throwing a rock in it? It's weird, isn't it? It's got to be something psychological, something to do with the developing brain - some kind of neural growth or synaptic connection that can only form when throwing large heavy objects into water and listening for the sounds. It has to be something central and primal within us because all kids do it, and for the most part only kids do it. I mean it's pretty rare to see a father or mother do it, and honestly, when's the last time you saw grandma pick up a 10 pound boulder and chuck it in the stream.

And yet, what better way to spend Mother's Day than to take the kids to the park and watch them play in the creek. Just let 'em romp and splash and strike terror into the heart of tadpoles and minnows. Mama's little angels.

My mother, of course, passed away 5 years ago and I was there in the room with her when she died. I'm not trying to be dramatic here - lot's of people have gone through the same thing, but it did take me a long time to come to terms with those last moments. You know, that whole "was I a good son" thing, and that gnawing sense of uncertainty I got from not really knowing what her last judgement of me was before she passed on, knowing that it couldn't be a good one as I relived every transgression, every forgetfulness, and every lack of consideration I'd ever shown her. You know as you go through life you don't always stop to notice every detail, but I'm telling ya' it's those things you've left hanging, those obligations you've never tended to that will wind up haunting you in the end.

But it's been 5 years now and there's nothing I can do about any of that now. So, happy Mother's Day mom, and I'm sorry for all the grief I caused you. Sorry for the time I set the field on fire, sorry for the time I got sent to the principals office for fighting, sorry for the other time I got sent to the principle's office for fighting, sorry for the time I cut P.E. for an entire school year and almost didn't get to graduate junior high school, sorry for the time I got caught stealing hall passes from Miss Zoria's desk, sorry I never cleaned my room, sorry for the time I forgot to pick you up at the airport, sorry for playing my guitar in my room with the amp turned all the way up, sorry for...

I sure did cause you a lot of grief, didn't I? And geez, that was only the things you knew about. Well, Happy Mothers Day just the same.

Viva Zaragoza!

I want to talk about the Mexican American War. In case you forgot, that was that little border dispute we had with our neighbors to the south back around 1846 or so, a conflict precipitated by Mexico's stubborn refusal to accept what we had always felt was our manifest destiny to populate and own the North American continent. Remember? We tried to buy the land from them at first but they refused, so then we just said the hell with it and declared war, sent a couple of armies down south and more or less forced the issue.

One of the armies, led by General Zachary Taylor ("Old Rough and Ready"), went down first and bloodied some noses around the Mexican city of Monterrey, but even though their army was defeated the Mexican government still refused to yield. A little put out by this we sent another army under the command of Winfield Scott (old "Fuss and Feathers") to launch an amphibious assault at Vera Cruz and march across Mexico and occupy the capital Mexico City. They probably went over all of this with you back in high school, but you might have forgot to take notes.

Anyways, after we occupied Mexico City we went to the Mexican Congress and putting a knife to their throats we asked them if they would like to consider a treaty. "Do we have a choice?" they asked, to which we replied "Of course" and made them an offer they couldn't refuse.

"Tell you what" we said, "if you give us California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, we'd be more than willing to let you keep Ensenada and Tiajuana". Naturally, the Mexicans thought this was very generous offer, especially coming from someone with a knife to their throat, but they still weren't to sure they wanted to make the deal. This was very exasperating to the U.S. and we certainly didn't want to seem like we were trying to bully anyone, so we said "Listen. You know we're going to take what we want whether you sign the treaty or not, but, tell you what, just to show what nice guys we are and how reasonable we can be, how about we chip in a little extra cash to sort of smooth over the rough edges." "How much?" the Mexicans asked, and so we slipped a cool $15 million in their pockets and in 1848 the Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo was signed.

And that was the Mexican American War - well, the condensed version. After we had our treaty we quickly got our maps out and started drawing lines throughout the Southwest. "Look" we'd tell the Mexican people, "this here line is a border. I know this line never used to be here before, but we're making a rule that everything south of that line is Mexico and everything north of that line is us. So you gotta stay on your side of the line, Ok?"

"But senor" the Mexicans would say, "there won't be any place for my cattle to graze." "But senor, my brother and my sister live over there. How will I visit them?" "But senor, I have lived there all my life. Does this mean I will never get to see my home again?"

"No, you don't understand. This land up north is the United States. See? We drew a line. Once you draw a line and make a rule then it isn't Mexico anymore. Now I want you all to stay down there where you're supposed to and don't be causing us any trouble. You hear?", and with that settled we quickly went about the business of building organic food stores and tanning salons.

Of course, the Mexicans didn't pay any attention to us or our lines and have continued crossing back and forth ever since. That's also why today I'm living in a city called San Jose, in a county called Santa Clara, south of the city of San Francisco, north of Monterey, east of Santa Cruz, and west of the San Joaquin valley, in the state of California, whose capital is Sacramento and whose largest cities are Los Angeles and San Diego, sitting in a taqueria and listening to some white guy named Todd complain about all the "non-natives" and "illegal aliens" that are slipping across our borders.

Kind of peculiar when you stop to think about it.

Well it's still all over the news of course. The governor is talking about closing our borders and meanwhile we've got these white guys in pickup trucks cruising up and down the border with high powered rifles searching the sand and scrub brush for Mexicans. (Well, to be fair, they're just there to "observe". "Observe", that is, through the scopes of their Remington rifles). They call themselves Minutemen and although I've never seen a poll I suspect that most Americans would see them as patriots out to protect us from those brown people coming over our borders to take away all of those good lettuce picking jobs.

Kind of peculiar and I get the feeling that if these were French Canadians coming over the northern border to take those lettuce picking jobs then the outcry wouldn't be quite so loud, but it's probably not really a racial thing. In fact if you took a poll of the Latino community here in California I bet you'd find there are quite a few legal immigrants and children of immigrants who would harbor many of the same "send 'em back to Mexico" feelings. Well that's what I suspect from what I hear, anyways, and my guess is that the border dispute probably has less to do with ethnicity than it has to do with poverty and not wanting to have a bunch of poor people hanging around.

Either way none of that has anything to do with Cinco de Mayo, which is really what I intended to talk about tonight. If you live in Iowa or North Dakota then Cinco de Mayo is probably nothing more than the 5th of May to you, but out here in California and the West it's a big deal. We've got the parades and the dancing and the music and the food and all that, and of course like a lot of holidays nobody is exactly sure what everyone is celebrating about but it doesn't seem to matter as long as the food is hot and the beer is cold.

But not me.

"What is Cinco de Mayo?", I ask myself, and here's the answer. It's the anniversary of an 1862 battle in which a Mexican militia under the command of General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin defeated the French Army of Napoleon III at the town of Puebla, just east of Mexico City. As you may recall (here we go again with the high school history lesson) the French Army had invaded Mexico back around the time of the American Civil War with the intention of occupying the country and installing the Archduke Maximillan, a Hapsburg and friend of Napoleon III as leader. However, at Puebla the outnumbered Mexican militia was able to stop the French invading force cold and force them to retreat and regroup, effectively ending the campaign for the remainder of that year and beyond.

Now what any of that has to do with burritos and a six pack of Corona's is beyond me, but every 5th of May the Mexican American community gets together and throws a big party to commemorate the victory. Of course what they fail to mention, or at least choose to forget, is that the year after the victory at Puebla the French returned with 30,000 troops and crushed the Mexican resistance and Maximillan did indeed become ruler of Mexico for a time...that is until they assasinated him.

But you know what? Who cares, that was all a long time to go and isn't it ironic that 150 years later we Californians, residing in what once was the northern part of Mexico, should once again find ourselves with a Hapsburg on the throne.

Ok, maybe Arnold isn't a Hapsburg, but he is Austrian. Kind of peculiar isn't it?

La Belle Musique

It's hard to pick the one worst song lyric ever written because bad songs can be bad in so many different ways. Do you pick the most nonsensical lyric as the worst ever. Well, in that case my nomination would have to be Stairway to Heaven. Just try to make sense of this, and then imagine what sort of drugs Robert Plant must have been taking when he wrote it:

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow don't be alarmed now

It's just a spring clean for the May queen.

That would certainly be a strong candidate for the most strange and obtuse award, but is it bad enough to be crowned king of the truly awful. Maybe we should also consider grammar and abuse of the english language. For example, how about this gem from America:

I been through the desert on a horse with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert, you can remember your name
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain.

Yes, yes - who can ever forget that classic. But still, obtuseness and bad grammar aren't really enough to win the award for bad song writing. I think you need something more. I think you need to write something so contrived, so dumb, that the memory of it just stays in your mind and rings through your consciousness long after the song itself has faded. In that spirit I nominate as the worst song ever written Los Bravos' Black is Black:

Black is black
I want my baby back

Man, I haven't heard that song in 30 years and the sheer dumbness of it still gnaws at me. But that's not what I want to talk about tonight.

I ordered a DVD from Amazon.com about a month ago and it finally showed up in my mailbox last week (so much for Super Saver shipping). It's called Thais and it's an opera written by this guy named Jules Massenet. The funny thing is that the same week it arrived I also got my latest issue of Opera News and wouldn't you know it they have a review of the same DVD. It wasn't a bad review, but it wasn't a ringing endorsement either. Now I don't claim to be an opera expert by any stretch of the imagination, and I've certainly never studied opera or voice or attended any conservatories, but I think even a layman is entitled to his impression. I mean my opinions, however uninformed, are no less valid than some fancy-dancy music critic. So here's my review.

If you like music, then buy this DVD.

There. You don't need any more review than that. Ok, ok, maybe I should qualify it a little. First, despite what you may have heard, french opera is not as bad as all those music snobs say it is. If you're a neophyte's like me then I know it's hard not to be a little put off by the remarks that are bandied about by the critics, calling french opera billious and dull at best, and a trivial waste of time at worst. Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion, of course, but as far as I'm concerned it's all a bunch of arrogant bull.

Thais is, in fact, one of the most beautiful operas I've ever heard, with the emphasis squarely on the 'beautiful'. If you've ever heard the 'Meditation' from Thais then you know what I'm talking about. I know it's almost blasphemy to talk about art as being beautiful in this modern angst-ridden age, and while I agree that art does not have to be beautiful to be good, I don't think it should be denigrated and mocked if it isn't harsh and unpleasant either. I may be overstating the dispute, but there does seem to be this unstated opinion among certain people that beautiful art is for simpletons, not edgy post-moderns. At least that's the feeling I get.

Anyways, this is some beautiful music, and whatever misgivings you may have about the rest of the piece, it's hard not to be charmed by the sheer loveliness of Massenet's score. And if that's too french for your tastes, then so be it.

If I have to point to a flaw on this DVD it's in the performance of bass Michele Pertusi as Athanael, the male lead. Athanael is a monk who travels to Alexandria to find Thais and deliver her from wickedness and sin, but somehow Pertusi seems to lack the presence or charisma to make this character work. It's hard to believe that Thais would ever be captivated by this dull presence and escape with him to a convent in the desert, but unlikely as it seems off she goes. I, for one, was unconvinced. Still, this is a small criticism, a nitpick really, which subtracts little from the sheer beauty of this work.

I should also mention the nudity. There is, um, lots of nudity in this production, and if that's something that bothers you then you best stay away. I know I've always found naked people walking around on stage a little distracting myself, but in defense of the DVD I should add that I didn't think it was a problem here. There is a lot of ballet in Thais and the somewhat underdressed ballerinas appear quite often in dream sequences (or meditations) that play upon the sexual tensions that the pious Athanael feels in the presence of Thais and the members of her court. Unlike a lot of operas where the ballet feels tacked on, the ballet in Thais integrates well with the drama onstage and the eroticism plays in quite naturally with the overall feel of the action. So, the nudity wasn't a problem for me, but if you're a little squeamish about such things, then you have fair warning.

Other than that, Eva Mei sings the title role beautifully, and that music...did I mention how beautiful it is. It just lingers with you. Forget what you've heard about french opera and buy this DVD. It's a keeper, and that comes from someone who knows nothing about opera.

Now to completely change gears I'd also like to mention one more thing. I get emails from time to time from people who've read my blog and I'm always happy to get them, although for the life of me I can't figure out why anyone reads it. I mean, out of the millions and millions of blogs out there, why anyone would read this one is beyond me. It's not about anything and I don't have anything particulary cogent to say, but I guess that's it's all a part of being in the blogosphere.

Anyways, I got an email from Dave Ciccone from Dave's Ipaq thanking me for mentioning his podcast in one of my blogs a while back, and I just want to say thanks to Dave for taking the time to read my incoherent ramblings. If you own a IPAQ (or any Pocket PC or Smartphone device for that matter) then I highly recommend a subscription to his podcast or a visit to his website. I think he mentioned on one of his podcasts that he'll be changing things around later this year and expanding his borders beyond the IPAQ world, per se. I look forward to that, but even if stays strictly IPAQ I still think he's got lots of good stuff that any Pocket PC user would be interested in. Definitely worth your time, and thanks for the email Dave.