I would choose Stauss’s “Blue Danube Waltz” over all of Taylor Swift’s song and performance catalogue. I could not live and thrive without the former over the latter. One remains a zenith of Western civilization music over the other.

glamorous superstar Taylor Swift is lowered from a helicopter to perform the half-time entertainment. The Chiefs win their 3rd recent Super Bowl. And Taylor and her football hero macho man are married right there onstage as the Chiefs receive their trophy.

Nothing less will suffice for the bored, dumb, salivating American masses, who are largely unwilling to hold Trump legally accountable for the myriad ways in which he’s destroyed the country, its democracy, the legal system, SCOTUS, and the Constitution.

by offering a course in Taylor Swift.

as read by Charlton Heston.

The battle of the sexes, the action anti-hero male, a major life challenge, man alone against Nature, resolving memory and the long past.

Harry, the protagonist, is an American writer and an African big-game hunter, dying absurdly of a self-inflicted gangrenous leg infection.

He quarrels constantly with his most recent, “rich bitch” wife. ( There aren’t too many modern women readers who would likely get very far with suspending judgement on misogynist Harry). But I will point out that he does apologize and appreciate her despite his early nasty moods as he literally dies on the plain. He later objectively and sympathetically reviews her character and the choices she has made . She is loyal, loving, as well as a good shooter and mutually keen lover.

But the main thrust of this story is about Harry’s memories about many past events (many of them dramatic and violent) that he wanted to get into fiction and never had. Ironically, as he thinks about these events, Hemingway is, in fact, capturing them and preserving them for posterity in this story. He is immortalizing Harry’s past and honouring his major life choices. (I should, incidentally, mention that Harry’s memories are presented in memorably sensuous detail.)

There is also some of what Hem called “grace under pressure” as Harry stoically meets his fate head-on as he waits for a plane to arrive to rescue him. The last two story segments and surprise ending are a perfect completion of the story complete with irony, transcendence, and fulfilment. Amazingly, the whole rich, complex story takes place within a mere 47+ minutes it takes to read or listen to it being read.

“The Snows of Kilimanjaro” is a brilliant tour-de-force story about impending death and taking stock; it works well for older, mature readers (especially men) to read and ponder as they mull over their own respective pasts. And it is easily Hemingway’s most powerful, moving, significant short story.

-Celine Dion, looking fine and to be in no distress, as she presented an award, despite her terrible stiff person condition of the last few years.

-Tracy Chapman’s rendition of “Fast Car”, one of my favorite modern folk songs, lyrics of which I included in one of my old senior high English textbooks in 1990 thereabouts.

-Billy Joel introducing his first new song in decades; maybe the beginning of a comeback?

-a beatific Joni Mitchell in her first Grammys appearance surrounded by a complementary cast of performers doing “Both Sides Now”. She was in fine voice and has come a long way since her debilitating stroke.

What an astounding, delightful concert from beginning to end! Cohen was in great form in 2008, at age 74, 8 years before his sudden passing.

Easily the best band he had ever assembled with Bob Metzger on guitar from his early days, Sharon Robinson–his late co-writer, and the Webb Sisters vocalizing like angels.

He brought down the house many times, especially with his introductory recited lyrics to several songs he was about to perform and a long, beautiful, moving spoken adaptation of “A Thousand Kisses Deep”.

One of the three splendid encores included “I Tried to Leave You” performed with solos by every member of the band including the singers. Simply a knockout finale about love and male-female relationships per se.

There Will Be No Peace – W.H. Auden