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I had 8 hours of classes by my calculation today, so I don't feel like knowing Dick. Maybe I'll know him a bit. Couple of random thoughts: Remember Caroline Kennedy? Yeah, it looks like Kirsten Gillibrand will be the new junior senator from New York. Also, an intriguing item from Swing State Project. My guess is Charles Grassley, who covers all the criteria.

And in the random connections department - I commented yesterday that Dick Cheney was in charge of the Bush VP selection. Caroline Kennedy was in charge (at least in co-charge) of the Obama VP selection.

You might recall the clusterfuck 2000 election, when we found out about Jews for Buchanan and Katherine Harris's bust. That's all fine and well, but during that circus who was overseeing Bush's transition to the White House? (It was ongoing during the recount mess.) If you haven't said Cheney, you really don't know Dick. What is perhaps interesting about that is that VPs usually don't run the transition team. (John Podesta ran Obama's transition team.) You understand the importance of Cheney's oversight - he put people he knew into key positions. His influence caused Bush to appoint folks like Rumsfeld and Paul O'Neill to the cabinet. He didn't influence all the appointments, but he influenced enough. Anyway, the point of the chapter was - Cheney had much greater influence than most vice presidents, and woe to them who crossed him.

Anyway, let's be a little more pointed. Right after I posted that Cheney entry yesterday, some big news broke about the NSA on Daily Kos, and disappointingly I haven't seen it covered in the media. I can't say I am completely surprised by the news, because when talking about the NSA, you should probably assume the worst. Here's story 1 and here's story 2. Sometimes life just sucks.

Angler

(alterna-title: You Don't Know Dick)
(alterna-alterna-title: )

Seeing Dick Cheney yesterday in that wheelchair was a pretty powerful sight. He was impotent, the dark heart of the administration humbled at last. As I flew back to Philadelphia, I read the book Angler (after Cheney's secret service code name). It focuses most on the first Bush term, which in retrospect was the truly damaging one, the one when Cheney's influence was greatest.

The book opens with a recap of Bush's vice presidential selection process. Cheney, you recall, was in charge of the VP search. He sent out a questionnaire to various candidates that was excruciatingly detailed. (That I can understand - McCain '08 didn't do much VP vetting.) But what interested me was that Cheney never filled out that questionnaire. In fact much of the selection process seems to have been a sham. Bush conducted sham interviews with some contenders after he offered Cheney the job. In fact, the traits Cheney was looking for in a VP seemed to be traits that were strong in himself.

To be clear, the sending out of the questionnaires was not a sham - but the information Cheney received could be easily used for blackmail. That points to what I viewed as the underlying theme of the book: Cheney wanted to concentrate power, power that could be easily misused.

And I want to talk about that some more. I haven't even explained the Frank Keating story that occupies some of Chapter 1. It's revealing, but I'll pass over it for now. What I do know is that I am zonked out from translating Horace, and do not feel like knowing Dick. (Sorry.) But I'll help you know Dick a bit better over the course of the coming days. Another theme I'll introduce - I did a series on Senator Church earlier in the month. Cheney is the anti-Church, and I'll talk about that.

Mandatory Inauguration Post

Well, we made it. You made it. Finally we have a president we can be proud of. Yep, I watched the inauguration, and I enjoyed it. There are three images that particularly stand out for me: 1. Dick Cheney in a wheelchair. 2. Yo Yo Ma's face as he was playing that John Williams piece. 3. The massive crowd size. A sea of people.

...And it's that sea of people that inspired my strangest reaction - I was briefly creeped out. I suddenly remembered images of rallies for totalitarian dictators. And then I remembered: can you imagine 2 million people at either of Bush's inaugurals? No, of course not. Bush sucked, and those 2 million people (and the rest of us) deserve to celebrate his removal and the arrival of a new, much better president. Also, I've noticed that Obama tries to make his events about you instead of him. It's "Yes We Can". The first person plural is crucial. I hope the two million people had a hell of a day, a day they will remember forever.

The other big event of the day was my algebra seminar, in which I had to explain the dihedral group and be peppered with lots of questions. Fun fun! But the inauguration will stick in my head for far longer.

Also, Roberts and Obama needed to practice that oath a little more. Heh.

There was also a fourth picture I saw today that made a very, very strong impression on me, and here it is. Tomorrow I write about Dick Cheney! Join me as I discuss the finer points of angling, shooting your friend in the face, and the Cheney-Church axis.

Cook is Wrong

Back to school for me! I feel like boring y'all to tears as I tear down Cook's senate race rankings.

Washington, California, Wisconsin: Likely Dem
Should be: Safe Dem
The incumbents are all entrenched. My objection to these as Likely Dem is that they seem as safe as many of the other Safe Rep or Safe Dem seats. I can't think of someone who would make any of these seats competitive. Arnold doesn't count. If these seats are competitive, Obama has had a troublesome first two years.

Oklahoma: Likely Rep
Should be: Solid Rep
Pretty much the same reasoning as above. OK was McCain's best state.

Illinois: Tossup
Should be: Not tossup (probably Leans Dem)
Yeah, Blagojevich sucks. We know that, and so do the voters of Illinois. That's why I'm confident that Roland Burris (if he runs for reelection) will be primaried. And when he loses the Democratic primary, we will find out again that Illinois is a Democratic state.

Louisiana: Tossup
Should be: Likely R
The incumbent, David Vitter, had a sex scandal in 2007, if you don't remember. But...Louisiana is just such a Republican state now. It was one of four states to give a greater percentage of the vote to McCain than to Bush 2004. I'm not saying Vitter isn't in trouble. I think he will be primaried, and maybe lose. Also, I can't think of a top-tier Dem who would run. Kathleen Blanco? Haha, no. Mitch Landrieu? His sister is the other senator. Ray Nagin? If I'm suggesting Ray Nagin as a top-tier Dem, the pickings are slim. For this to be a tossup, we need a good Democratic opponent, Vitter as the Republican nominee (or someone really extreme), and a good Obama first term. So, likely Republican.

New Hampshire: Solid R
Should be: Leans R
After the 2004 elections, New Hampshire had 2 R representatives and 2 R senators. After the 2008 elections, New Hampshire has 2 D representatives, 1 D senator, and 1 R senator. Judd Gregg needs to watch himself. He can win reelection, but New Hampshire's trending Democratic.

North Carolina: Solid R
Should be: Solid D
The last time someone was reelected to this Senate seat was 1968. Richard Burr is running for reelection. Will he win? Not a chance. Interestingly, this was John Edwards's Senate seat.

Texas: Solid R
Should be: Likely R or N/A (probably N/A)
This is worth a whole entry in itself. Briefly: Governor Rick "Goodhair" Perry will have been governor for 10 years by 2010. He is running for another term. He's pretty unpopular - got 39% of the vote in a 4-way race in 2006. Senator Kay Bailey "Bailout" Hutchison wants to move back to Texas. She's rather more popular than Perry. She is seriously considering running for Governor and primarying Perry. But I refuse to believe that she is running until she resigns from her senate seat or files the paperwork to run for Governor. Up until that time, the race rating should probably be N/A - she is up for reelection in 2012.

But people believe she is running. Democrats like John Sharp (former comptroller) and Bill White (mayor of Houston) have declared their candidacy for a senate race that does not even exist yet. Could they win? I think White, at least, has a shot. He's a good mayor. Problem is, if you're outside the greater Houston metropolitan area, you've probably never heard of him. Also, Texas is still a pretty Republican state. That will change, but maybe not in time for 2010.

Snow watch: Yep, there was snow today. I measured 0.75 inches, probably including a bit from yesterday. Not too much, but any snow is exciting to me.

Algebra seminar tomorrow! Only 3 hours!

Hey, I came back.

Deep thought: I only had to spend $150 or so on textbooks this semester - my smallest amount yet. Two of my classes are using textbooks I already have. (For instance, my algebra seminar uses the algebra textbook that I used last semester.)

Oh hey, and I already have an assignment in that class! Luckily, it's on material (symmetry) that was covered last semester. I should probably work on that assignment more. >_< I finished Angler, the book on Cheney, but I'll hold off on reviewing that book for a few days. I've already started reading the textbook for the 20th century music class.

I only have one class tomorrow, and I'm considering dropping it, but Tuesday and Thursday will both be very rough. Maybe I'll have to start using the FUTURE POST ability.

It looks like Mexico is in deep doo-doo from the drug war. And war is not inaccurate: it's the cartels vs. the police (and the gov't in general), and I think the police are losing. I'll have to read up more on that. Here's an AP article on it.

First snow of the semester was tonight, probably about 0.5 inch.

Flying back

Travel day today, and one thankfully nowhere near as hellish as my flight to Houston for winter break. The plane was full, but it was on time. Probably the worst part was arriving in Philadelphia - it was 18 degrees outside, and I left my gloves in the dorm room over winter break. Gloves are important, especially when dragging my luggage across campus to my dorm. No snow on the ground, but as our plane descended I could see frozen rivers outside.

During the flight I got about halfway through Angler, a book on the Cheney vice presidency. I'll definitely review it on here whenever I finish it. Summary: You know Frank Church's views? Cheney's are the opposite.

Anyway, I should probably be unpacking my suitcase. No topics come to mind for a real entry today, except for Cheney, and I want to save that topic for another time.

Yep.

Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony

It's night and I go back to Swarthmore tomorrow. So I might as well discuss the symphony that always seemed to me to be a very long goodbye.

Movement 1: Andante comodo
The very long journey

Sometimes I hear about how the journey is more important than the destination. I agree with that. This movement is a very long journey, at 30 minutes. It has an epic, sweeping feel and puts me in mind of a past that may only exist in legends. When we were a lot closer to nature and to our origins, rather than our current sterile lifestyles. I hear the sun, flowing water, and the night in this movement. I hear the surprisingly important sequence of notes A D C# F# B, the first audible notes when I start listening. I'm tempted to say this would be good background music for the Baroque Cycle (or choose your favorite story in the past), but despite being epic, the music has none of the humor and vulgarity of real life. (That's in the second movement.) Other stuff: This movement is in D major, although there are many modulations to different keys. There is a real menace at times, which finds its fruition in the third movement. Mahler uses the motif 3-2 pretty obsessively. (That is, the 3rd scale degree followed by the 2nd scale degree, like F#-E in the key of D.) The 3-2 motif gives me hope. (Oh, the journey is long, but it is beautiful.)

So: movement 1. It's a very long journey. Actually, this movement (or any of the others except maybe the 4th) could be played by itself. It's very weighty and substantial. They all are. The end is worth mentioning - the music becomes more sparse, but the 3-2 motif is still going on in the strings and later winds. The final time it is played, the 2 (E) is sustained for several measures, before finally resolving to the 1 (D) high in the winds. That resolution is Mahler turning off the light.

Movement 2: Im Tempo eines gemächlichen Ländlers. Etwas täppisch und sehr derb
The evening dance

This movement is on firmer ground. For one, unlike the always flowing, somewhat rubato 1st movement, this movement contents itself with strict 3/4. You can always hear the beat. Structurally this movement consists of three types of dance: an unhurried landler (at the beginning, moderate and in C), a waltz (fast and in E), and a slow landler (moderately slow and in F). These are presented in sequence, but then the dance types are recapped in no particular order and often they collide. Don't think of it as a sequence of dances (like the Blue Danube waltz), just as an ever-mutating dance.

While the first movement may have taken place in some distant past, here we are clearly in 19th century Europe. It reminds me in particular of a chapter in a book called the Octopus, which I read last summer. At the end of part 1 (the first half), there is a country dance for an evening which all the main characters attend (and discuss how to beat the railroad, the titular Octopus). A lot of times the textures are pretty thin and I can imagine the music being played by local musicians. One of those local musicians must be a bassoon - this features the bassoon about as prominently as anything in Mahler. It's my favorite movement.

What else - I've heard this movement referred to as a Dance of Death. I disagree, but the more I listen to it, the more charmless the music seems. There are no grand melodies. There are sometimes moving harmonies, and the slow Landler aspires to be something more. But the unhurried landler is crude, and the waltz just goes downward. At one point late in the movement, the waltz is so furious, always rushing down, that the movement really is on the verge of becoming a dance of death, but the unhurried landler drags it out of its tailspin for one last dance, one last chance. As the texture continually thins in the final unhurried landler section, the feeling of finality becomes stronger and stronger. The end is a true end, the likes of which I have rarely heard. Nothing in 3/4 could possibly follow this movement. The dance is over.

In that chapter in the Octopus, at the end, one of the characters wonders "Didn't they dance the night before Waterloo?"

Movement 3: Rondo-Burleske. Allegro assai, sehr trotzig
Trench warfare

No nineteenth century, no epic past. Here we are clearly in World War I. The ninth symphony was written in 1909 and 1910, but (like Mars from the Planets) this is clearly a prehearing of the Great War. I wonder what possessed Mahler to write such a violent movement. We're a long way from movement one: no melodies, no epic feel. What distinguishes this movement for me is the incredible disintegration: this is music as motives, mutating throughout the movement. It's counterpoint, but hardly Bach. One melody is the whole-tone scale going downward, similar to the waltz theme in the 2nd movement.

At one point, the music shifts to a much more ethereal D major, rather than the harsh A minor that is the key of the movement. And to continue the Great War metaphor, this is the Christmas truce. But the sound and fury resumes soon enough, and becomes louder and louder as it drives to the end.

This is the movement of the Turn. 1-2-3-2-(1) in most of the sections, and 3-2-1-2 in the D major section. The latter turn motif becomes the foundation of the fourth movement. But before that, we have to keep playing the other motif, 1-7-1 (scales are mod 7), which grows in strength throughout the movement, and almost inevitably closes the movement. Unlike all the other movements, this one ends very loud. Generally, if you want to annihilate everything, a big bang will help. This is nihilistic music.

Movement 4: Molto adagio
The very long goodbye

What comes after the end?

When I first burned this symphony onto my computer, I only burned the first 3 movements. (The fourth movement was on another disc.) So for the longest time I only heard this as a three movement symphony. I suppose it has merit in being heard that way, especially if you like symphonies to end in utter hopelessness. So the fourth movement will always be an interloper for me.

The title of this post is not original to me. It is the title of an essay by Lewis Thomas, and his new hearing of this movement as death everywhere. This is the death movement. Mahler started work on a 10th symphony, but this is his last completed symphony. Thomas ruminates on the young in the age of nuclear war. What is it like for a young person to not only be uncertain of their future, but of their life? If this view sounds strange, it is because he wrote the essay in the 1980s, when US-Soviet nuclear war was a very real, very terrifying threat. Very real indeed.

To go back to death - I said it was the death movement. Well, maybe. More properly, I view this movement as caught in the middle between life and death. The first movement is all about life. The second movement is all about life too - in the sense of partying before you go off to enlist in WWI, or go evacuate your home because of an oncoming hurricane. Might as well, you might never come back. The third movement is war and you die at the end. But...what is between life and death? For the music is not over. The conductor does not lower his baton for good after movement 3. Something is sounding. The death of the music requires the cessation of sound.

I must mention the end of the movement. As in the end of the first movement and 2nd movement, the texture thins out and the movement ends quietly. But I do not like saying the movement "ends". It just keeps on growing softer. The turn motif keeps growing longer, until finally it reverses and the music becomes inaudible. That's where the double bar is, so I guess that's the end. But there's never a point for me in which I can say "Here the music has stopped sounding." The very long goodbye never concludes. In an auditorium, the music concludes when everyone applauds, but when I listen to it myself, I determine when the conclusion is. I'm probably not making too much sense at this point, but these are late night thoughts. Perhaps I can best compare it to falling asleep. You get sleepier and sleepier, but you never know when you fall asleep. This movement is a very long goodbye to the world of wakefulness. Perhaps it is also a very long hello to the world of sleep - a sleep which is very long indeed. Eternal sleep.