Last weekend I went to Goetterdaemmerung, Part IV of Wagner's Ring Cycle at the Royal Opera House. This was the same production group that produced Part III last year and which I wrote about on SOLOHQ.

I came out of that concert hall seriously wondering how I could ever going go back to the three minute wonders of the rest of the opera world after that. I can't get over the feeling that Wagner is for people who like their passion to last ALL NIGHT LONG. And if the crowd came out thinking they had been through a marathon session, it was because they had - 4 hours, 45 minutes of unrelentingly intense music (plus 1.5 hours of intervals).

I'm always incredulous at the things people say against their own culture. Everywhere one goes one encounters hatred towards George Bush, the US, Tony Blair and pretty much everything that is making an attempt to stand up for justice in the face of Islamo-fascism. And yet while George Bush is hated and equated with Hitler, I rarely hear anyone express anger towards Bin Laden, Saddam, Islamic beheaders, or any other mass murdererer - in fact the very sort of people who are actually threatening our lives right now.

What the fuck is wrong with people?