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Song of the Day #1188
Song of the Day: I
Know A Place, words
and music by Tony
Hatch, was one of those perennial
favorites requested by the regular clientele of the Stonewall
Inn. On the weekend of 28-29 June 1969, the site became Ground
Zero for a drag
queen-led riot against police harassment of gay and lesbian
establishments. It is among the events that gave birth to the
modern American movement to protect the individual rights of gays and
lesbians, and it is in honor of that event that I post this song
on this date. The song was recorded most famously by Petula
Clark, but has also been recorded by Sammy
Davis, Jr., with the Buddy Rich Band [YouTube links], and Vi
Velasco, whose rendition features jazz guitarist Carl
Barry, my Bro.
Posted by chris at 11:35 AM | Permalink |
Posted to Culture | Music | Politics
(Theory, History, Now) | Remembrance
Song of the Day #1187
Song of the Day: Rock
the Boat, words and music by Waldo
Holmes, was a #1 Billboard Hot 100 single, that was
bubbling in the Top Ten on this very date in 1974, when Derek
Jeter was born. On this date, on the occasion of his fortieth
birthday, I think we can safely say that Derek has "rocked the boat" for
fans of the game throughout his stellar career. Having announced that this
will be his final year as a professional baseball player, Derek leaves us with
many rockin' moments to remember throughout a stellar career.
Check here [YouTube
link] for the original Hues Corporation single and Celebrate Jeter, Captain
of the Yankees, and of my pinstripe heart, now and forever.
JARS: Exciting July 2014 Issue!
The July 2014 issue of The
Journal of Ayn Rand Studies (Volume 14, Number 1) will be in
the hands of subscribers shortly, and it is filled with a host of
provocative essays by Rand scholars, many of them new to our pages.
The issue features the following essays (see abstracts here and
contributor biographies here).
Introduction: Life, Death, Renewal - Chris Matthew Sciabarra
Barbara Branden�s Bibliography - Roger E. Bissell
Why James Taggart Is No Prince Charming: Ayn Rand and Fairy Tales - Caroline
Breashears
The Problem with Selfishness - Marsha Familaro Enright
Preference Formation, Choice Sets, and the Creative Destruction of
Preferences - Russell S. Sobel and J. R. Clark
REVIEWS
Ayn Rand Society Philosophical Studies (reviews of Metaethics, Egoism,
and Virtue: Studies in Ayn Rand's Normative Theory and Concepts and
Their Role in Knowledge: Reflections on Objectivist Epistemology (edited
by Allan Gotthelf and James G. Lennox) - Fred Seddon
DISCUSSION
Symposium on Robert L. Campbell�s essay, "An End to Over and Against"
(published in the July
2013 issue):
Reply to Robert L. Campbell: Thoughts for the Future - Jennifer Burns
Reply to Robert L. Campbell: The Mainstreaming of Ayn Rand - Mimi Reisel
Gladstein
Reply to Robert L. Campbell: Landscapes Overlooked - Anne Conover Heller
Rejoinder to Jennifer Burns, Anne Conover Heller, and Mimi Reisel Gladstein:
Psychology, Jewishness, and Noting and Working Around - Robert L. Campbell
This symposium is certainly a highlight of the issue. Imagine this: a writer
reviews two recently published biographical-historical studies of Ayn Rand,
and receives written replies from the authors of these books, as well as
another scholar in Rand studies, and the reviewer writes a rejoinder. It may
sound like a novel concept for a periodical dealing with Rand studies
(though it is, or should be, business-as-usual for journals claiming to be
"scholarly"). But through the years, Rand-oriented periodicals have been
notoriously sectarian, their editors never dreaming to allow authors to
reply to their critics for fear of sanctioning something vaguely or
explicitly "evil" (thankfully, that trend is changing, as Fred Seddon notes
in his review of the recent Ayn Rand Society publications, which feature
essays and replies, and "Author Meets Critics" formats). In JARS,
however, it is, indeed, business as usual, and we are extraordinarily proud
to present such a civilized and illuminating exchange in this exciting
issue.
The issue begins, however, by noting the passing of two figures important to
Ayn Rand studies: Allan Gotthelf and Barbara Branden. As the author of the
introduction, "Life, Death, Renewal," I had personal dealings with both of
these individuals. I write:
With this issue, the journal wishes to acknowledge the passing of two
individuals who made a significant impact on the development of Ayn Rand
studies: Allan Gotthelf, an Aristotelian and Randian scholar; and Barbara
Branden, Ayn Rand's first authorized biographer, who later went on to write The
Passion of Ayn Rand, until recently, the only available full-length
biography of Rand.
Gotthelf (Brooklyn-born, 30 December 1942) received his master's degree in
mathematics from Pennsylvania State University, and his Ph.D. in philosophy
from Columbia University. His doctoral dissertation, "Aristotle's Conception
of Final Causality," won first prize in the Dissertation Essay Competition
of The Review of Metaphysics, where it was published in December 1976
(vol. 30, no. 2, 226-54). Gotthelf subsequently edited a number of works in
Aristotle studies, including a Festschrift in honor of David M. Balme,
entitled Aristotle on Nature and Living Things: Philosophical and
Historical Studies (Mathesis, 1985), and a coedited volume with James G.
Lennox, Philosophical Issues in Aristotle's Biology (Cambridge
University Press, 1987). A collection of sixteen essays on Aristotle by
Gotthelf was published by Oxford University Press in 2012, entitled Teleology,
First Principles, and Scientific Method in Aristotle's Biology, as part
of the Oxford Aristotle Studies series.
Gotthelf also authored and edited a number of works on Ayn Rand. His primer
on Rand for the Wadsworth Philosophers Series, On Ayn Rand (2000),
was reviewed
in these pages by Aeon Skoble (The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies 2,
no. 1, Fall 2000, 131-35). He also coedited, with James G. Lennox, the first
two books collecting lectures given before the Ayn
Rand Society, where he served as secretary from 1990 until his
death in 2013. These books, published by the University of Pittsburgh
Press---Metaethics, Egoism, and Virtue: Studies in Ayn Rand's Normative
Theory (2011) and Concepts and Their Role in Knowledge: Reflections
on Objectivist Epistemology (2013)---are reviewed in the current issue
by Fred Seddon.
For several years, Allan Gotthelf and I exchanged correspondence, both
before and after the 1995 publication of the first edition of my book, Ayn
Rand: The Russian Radical. I acknowledged his criticisms of
my work in my book---indeed, it was he who provided the precise wording with
which he felt most comfortable. But when the book was finally published, he
felt obliged to tell me that he would do "scholarly battle against" my work
and its "obfuscation" of the ideas of Ayn Rand (correspondence, 26 May
1996).
That battle sometimes took on a bit of partisan ugliness. When our journal
was first published, we worked diligently to get it included in indexing and
abstracting services across disciplines and geographic boundaries. Our
efforts paid off considerably; we are now indexed and abstracted by nearly
two dozen services in the humanities and social sciences. But getting JARS into The
Philosopher�s Index was something that Allan Gotthelf opposed strongly.
At a meeting of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical
Association in December 1999, he took exception to the very idea of
including The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies in The Philosopher�s
Index. He could not outright oppose the inclusion of Rand scholarship
per se in an index aimed at reaching academia, for he was a cofounder of The
Ayn Rand Society, itself affiliated with the Eastern Division of the APA.
But he made it very clear that, in his view, JARS was not a
legitimate scholarly undertaking---despite the fact that several members of
its founding advisory board had been officers of, and presenters to, the
very society that he chaired. Nevertheless, as required, we submitted the
first three issues of our journal to the Philosopher�s Information Center,
and JARS was added to the Index immediately thereafter.
Not enough has been said about Barbara Branden's scholarship and the
importance of the early contributions she made to the articulation of the
content of Objectivism and to the biography of its founder. She was born
Barbara Weidman in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (14 May 1929). She and her
future husband, Nathaniel Branden (born Nathan Blumenthal), met Rand in
1950. Barbara received a master's degree in philosophy from New York
University, where her thesis on free will was developed under the direction
of Sidney Hook. Barbara and Nathaniel conducted a profoundly important
series of biographical interviews with Rand in 1960-1961 that formed the
basis of Barbara's biographical essay, "Who is Is Ayn Rand?" the title essay
of a book coauthored with Nathaniel (Random House, 1962). It was the only
authorized biography published in Ayn Rand's lifetime---one that Rand
considered part of the Objectivist canon even after her bitter break with
the Brandens in 1968. But those recorded interviews also served as the basis
for Barbara's sprawling biography of Rand, The Passion of Ayn Rand (Doubleday,
1986). It was Barbara Branden who developed a comprehensive course on the
"Principles of Efficient Thinking," taught during the operative years of the
Nathaniel Branden Institute, which disseminated Rand's philosophy worldwide,
with live and audio-recorded lectures. Barbara's course was based on Rand's
epistemology. And it was Barbara Branden who first brought the field of
"psycho-epistemology" to the attention of Rand.
I should mention that my own personal dealings with Barbara began, like my
dealings with Gotthelf, out of the work I was doing in preparation of the
first edition of Russian Radical. But my contact with Barbara was of
an entirely different nature; what she offered me was generous amounts of
unambiguously constructive criticism and, over time, the
depth of her friendship and love. I also worked closely with her
a few years after the publication of Russian Radical, as she prepared
the lead essay for a collection that Mimi Reisel Gladstein and I coedited,
entitled Feminist
Interpretations of Ayn Rand, part of the Penn State Press
series "Re-reading
the Canon," which now includes thirty-five volumes, focusing on
thinkers as diverse as Plato, Aristotle, Arendt, and Daly. It was an honor
to bring her and Nathaniel together in publication for the first time since
their 1962 book. Each provided a contribution to the book. "Ayn Rand: The
Reluctant Feminist," by Barbara, told a tale of a woman philosopher who
denounced feminism, but who nonetheless influenced a generation of thinkers
in the emergence of an alternative radical individualist form of feminism,
which can be found in the writings of authors such as Camille Paglia and
Joan Kennedy Taylor.
It was therefore with great sadness that I learned of Barbara's passing on
11 December 2013. It is my hope that the annotated bibliography that
follows, compiled by Roger E. Bissell, will, at the very least, bring to
light Barbara Branden's significant contributions to the Objectivist
literature, so important to the ever-expanding world of Ayn Rand studies.
It is also apropos that in the current issue we feature a symposium on
Robert L. Campbell's recent JARS review of biographical and
historical work published by Jennifer Burns, author of Goddess of the
Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right, and Anne C. Heller, author of Ayn
Rand and the World She Made. The exchange includes replies from Burns,
Mimi Gladstein, and Heller, and a rejoinder from Campbell. Much of this
discussion is enriched because of the crucial early biographical work that
Barbara Branden provided for future scholars, in the extensive interviews
she conducted with Rand and her contemporaries, and in the material she
published in her lifetime.
Notes and references appear in the published article.
That's just an introduction to what is going to be one of the most talked
about issues of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies ever published.
Check out subscription information here.
Posted by chris at 08:21 AM | Permalink |
Posted to Periodicals | Rand
Studies
Song of the Day #1186
Song of the Day: The
Love You Save, music
and lyrics by The
Corporation, Motown's Berry
Gordy, Freddie
Perren, Alphonzo
Mizell, and Deke
Richards, went to Number One, the third of four straight number
one singles released by the Jackson
5, which held that position on the Billboard chart
for two weeks, 27
June through 4 July 1970. But Casey
Kasem, who passed
away yesterday, was always one week ahead of the curve, giving us
a weekend countdown that reflected the chart of the following week's Tuesday
release of Billboard. So the song had actually dropped to the number
two position on the
4th of July debut show of Kasem's classic, "American
Top 40 (AT40)." I can't help but credit Kasem with
stoking my love of pop music as I grew up listening to his show on the
radio, whether it was in the dead of winter or on the hot sands of Manhattan
Beach through Brooklyn's steamiest summers. This song was one of
my favorite early Jackson
5 songs, made all the more poignant because its
lead singer is no longer with us either. Check out the original
single here,
and while you're listening, save a little love too for screen and stage
actress Ruby
Dee, who passed
away on June 11th, the great and endearing Don
Zimmer, who
passed away on June 4th, and the ultimate gentle man of
baseball, Tony
Gwynn, San
Diego Padres Hall of Famer, who sadly
passed away today, at the young age of 54. All of them gone too
soon.
Posted by chris at 05:29 PM | Permalink |
Posted to Culture | Film
/ TV / Theater Review | Music | Remembrance | Sports
Song of the Day #1185
Song of the Day: Friday
the 13th ("Opening Theme") [YouTube link], composed by
jazzman Henry
Manfredini, clearly exhibits the composer's Bernard
Herrmann "Psycho" lineage. What better way to mark a
rare full-moon Friday the 13th on a rainy and grim New York June
day. ("I love New York in June, How
About You?"... but this one's been too rainy and it feels like
March!). Nevertheless, a few thunderstorms will add to the atmosphere of
watching this film. Manfredini actually composed for the whole "Friday the
13th" franchise,
but the original 1980
Jason was the best (especially in that famed Hockey mask, so
appropriate on a weekend in which the New
York Rangers are struggling for the Stanley
Cup, right now having won only 1 frightening game to the LA
Kings, who are one game away from winning that horror series).
The first two John
Carpenter produced-"Halloween"
films are, in my view, better examples of the post-1960s evil
slasher genre, all of which owes its spirit to Hitchcock's utterly brilliant
"Psycho."
In any event, Friday
the 13ths have been typically "good luck" days for me, having
signed contracts for books on those days, in fact, but it's always fun
revisiting a horror film from the vault.
Posted by chris at 08:37 AM | Permalink |
Posted to Film
/ TV / Theater Review | Music | Sports
Song of the Day #1184
Song of the Day: Love
Never Felt So Good features the music
and lyrics of Paul
Anka and the late great King of Pop, Michael
Jackson. Is there any doubt that this lifelong fan of MJ would
not have fallen in love with this new release from a posthumous collection
of previously unreleased MJ tracks ("Xscape,"
an album critic
Jim Farber gave Four Stars)? It's even better because the single
features a duet with the very much alive Justin
Timberlake, who has long credited MJ as being one
of his greatest influences. JT gave an utterly amazing concert at
the mint-condition Barclays
Center in my home town of Brooklyn last year that I had the
privilege of seeing; he is a remarkable, multi-talented (okay, and adorable)
performer, and MJ would have been proud of the ways in which JT integrated
MJ influences, including a cover of "Human Nature" in a medley with his own
"What Goes Around" [YouTube
clip here]. Check out the
official video of this song, which is a true paean to MJ in and
of itself. There's also an extended
dance mix. And check out the
original cover of this tune by Johnny Mathis, who released it in
1984. I'm moved to tears for all that was lost with MJ's passing, but in the
sadness there are tears of joy for all that he's left behind.
Posted by chris at 07:37 AM | Permalink |
Posted to Music | Remembrance
Song of the Day #1183
Song of the Day: Wicked
("For Good"), music
and lyrics by Stephen
Schwartz, is from one
of the finest Broadway musicals I've ever seen. If ever there
were a musical showing us a kind of "transvaluation
of values" in such an entertaining way, I don't know of one. But
it was terrific, precisely because of its clever inversions, twists and
turns, fabulous music, and stirring performances (in the original run that I
saw ten years ago, with standouts, Tony-nominated Kristin
Chenowith and Adele
Dazeem). Oops, I mean, Idina
Menzel, who won the Tony for Best
Actress in a Musical. The show endures. And so does Dazeem!
This past week, the 68th
Annual Tony
Awards celebrated the tenth
anniversary year of this charming musical, which actually opened
on Broadway in October of 2003, with a performance of this song, one of the
best. Check it out in its Chenowith-Menzel
incarnation on YouTube.
Posted by chris at 04:16 PM | Permalink |
Posted to Film
/ TV / Theater Review | Music