A couple of nights ago, I decided to take a break from my near-incessant studying and stretch my legs with a walk around campus.

There was a time, years ago, when I looked forward to middle school and the beginning of proper English classes.

I've just arrived home from the movies, and I'm happy to say that I was delighted by what I saw. Ratatouille made me happier than I've been in a long while with its exaltation of passion and fine taste.

I can't do this beautiful television moment justice.

Just watch.

I wanted to scream at something when I read this, and so will you. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a hero for speaking out the way she has, and this rabble seeks to discredit her because she isn't towing their fucking party line.

Today, April 18th, the Phillips Exeter Academy had the distinct privilege of being picketed by members of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church. When we were notified yesterday that this would be happening, the entire Academy community was mortified and appalled. You see, several weeks ago, an Academy alumnus gave his life serving in Iraq, and that was what led these diseased abominations to profane the street that runs through this venerable school.

"Don't talk to me about rules, dear. Wherever I go I make the damn rules."
-Maria Callas

Much has been written about the great Mario Lanza, and I feel that a piece is long overdue about the woman who was his counterpart in some ways, and was so much more than that in others. That woman is Maria Callas, the greatest diva of the twentieth century and, perhaps, of all time.

Occasionally a television show comes along that is so god damned good that one has no choice but to declare it a masterpiece. Battlestar Galactica, a sci-fi drama about the last remnants of the human race, is just that kind of show.

In my experience, theater is one of the most misunderstood and maligned art forms. Painters, sculptors, novelists, musicians...all produce something in which one can, at least to some extent, see the process involved in producing. Actors, however, are somewhat veiled in mystery.

Earlier this year, I inquired as to whether any fellow SOLOists had any experience learning with the Harkness method, the extraordinary educational method that I've been working under for this school year. Shortly after that, I started delving into just what it is that makes a class like this effective.

I had the privilege this past summer of working under Cantus, a men's choral group based in Minneapolis, MN. They were excellent instructors, and they happen to have been founded (and still led) by a group of honest-to-goodness Objectivists!

Saw this baby on YouTube and thought that everyone here would get a kick out of it. A comedian tears into Pachelbel's Canon in D, then rants about how it follows him everywhere he goes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM

I have just received the indescribable privilege of watching a filmed version of the Metropolitan Opera's production of Turandot. This was my first time actually seeing the opera played out, and now words fail me.

Recently, I managed to procure a DVD version of La Boheme, both so that I could enjoy watching the opera and so that my friends could finally see this art that I almost never shut up about.

I've just had the great pleasure of reacquainting myself, after a long absence, with the work of P.G. Wodehouse.

I couldn't believe this when I read it, but apparently people do think this way after all. Holy Wesley Mouch, Batman!

The New York Times: 'The Post 8/10 World'

Sadly, today's culture (especially among my age-mates) is losing respect for the achievements of the mind. I had an argument today with a friend who happens to be big into open-source software. Now, I'm a fan of it myself, since I like to be able to debug something right away without having to wait for a patch, but there are far too many who, like my friend, take the idea far past its reasonable limit.

A couple of weeks ago I was in New York and had the pleasure of seeing the musical Wicked on Broadway. All I can say is WOW! Truly a great show. For those who don't know, it's the "life story" of the Wicked Witch of the West from L. Frank Baum's classic The Wizard of Oz, and it turns out she really isn't so wicked after all. Elphaba (the Witch) is an enormously clever and talented individual rejected by her parents on the basis of being born with bright green skin. She attends Shiz University, where she exhibits enormous talent for sorcery and starts to dream that someday she might work side by side with the Wizard. The Wizard, however, begins passing laws against Oz's sentient animals, and Elphaba sees their effects firsthand when her professor of biology (a goat) is taken away. She journeys to Emerald City to challenge the Wizard on the issue and finds him to be nothing more than a petty dictator with an irrational "social consensus" vision of reality; he wants her to help him, because she is the only one able to read the spells from an ancient book of magic in his possession. She, however, refuses, and a massive propaganda campaign is launched against her. That's where I'll stop my summary, so as not to spoil the rest of it

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4870933885859313904&q=%22Ayn+Ra...

Thought I'd share this with my fellow SOLOists; it got posted on Google Video at the end of April. To my great surprise, he's treating Rand and her ideas with more respect than I've ever seen from him.