There are two funerals on tap this week at CBS, Inc., the company where I spent the first decade of my professional career. When I joined it in 1974, it had recently changed its name from the Columbia Broadcasting System to better reflect its position as a major media company, not just a broadcaster. Its four core lines of business were Broadcasting (TV and radio), Records (music), Publishing (books and magazines), and Musical Instruments/Toys.
Read more
Free speech is a pain in the rear. Always has been. Always will be.
It is a nice idea. If you have freedom of speech, you have the right to say whatever is on your mind without fear of repercussions. But there is a rub. It also means the guy standing next to you has freedom of speech. That means he can say whatever is on his mind, even if you find it to be abhorrent, disgusting, threatening and maybe even dangerous.
The men who designed our government met in secret and wrote a historic document detailing the structure of the national state and enumerating the powers and responsibilities of its parts. When the document was made public, the people were not pleased. They demanded a guarantee of their rights be written into the document.
Read more
The bromance that brought Donald Trump and Elon Musk together seemed like an unlikely combination from the start. The real estate mogul turned politician, and the technology entrepreneur turned richest man on the planet both tended to absorb all the oxygen in any room they inhabited. It was hard to envision that both could occupy the same space at the same time for long.
Still, the speed and violence of the inevitable explosion of the relationship was breathtaking. In the space of a single day, the man who wreaked havoc on the federal government, and the man who encouraged him and gave him the authority to act in violation of law and Constitution were calling each other names on their respective social media sites and threatening retribution.
Read more
For most of us Thanksgiving was a respite from the turmoil of politics. It was a time to spend with family and friends. To eat well. And, even if it meant a deliberate avoidance of election discussion, to enjoy some peace, quiet, and perhaps football.
Unless of course you are Donald Trump. Trump found time, while enjoying the parade of syncopates who sojourned to Mar-a-Lago to grovel at his feet, to air his usual grievances. His “Happy Thanksgiving” post on social media says it all:
Read more
I still remember the first time I heard the music of P.D.Q. Bach. On the program at New York’s Town Hall were the Echo Sonata for Two Unfriendly Groups of Instruments and the Schleptet in E♭ major. I was immediately hooked.
Each piece was introduced by Professor Peter Schickele of the Music Pathology Department, University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople. Schickele claimed to have discovered the work of P.D.Q, who he described as the 21st and least of the children of the great baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach. Here is where things get a little dicey. J.S. Bach was certainly prolific. But he stopped at 20 children. And while there is a Hoople in North Dakota, there is no university there. I should have noted that the program listed P.D.Q.’s dates as “(1807–1742)?“
Read more
Scott Gurvey's Public Offerings 