Category Archives: Transhuman News

[This is a review ofBeing HumanSeason 4 Episode 10. There will be SPOILERS.]

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AsBeing Humans time winds down, its natural to think that the four-year-old show will do everything to make the most of these last few episodes, but following the initially bold and then woefully short-lived trek to the alternate timeline, fans of the show received little more than an episode that stood in place, occasionally shuffling its feet before a burst of action at the very end.

Speaking of standing in place, its easy to look at both Aidan and Josh and forget that while weve seen them sprint through an entire contrary existence, these versions of the characters have done little since we left them behind in issue 7, Gallows Humor.

Following his evening of truth-telling, crying, and captivity, Aidan and Suzanna are right back into their conflict and she wants to put a stop to Kenny, the self-made vampire-boy-King of Boston. Holding strong, paternal feelings for the boy that he sired, Aidan asks for and is given a two month stay to reform Kenny.

As for Josh, hes coming to terms with Noras rejection of him (and his wolf) with uncommon briskness; further surprising us when the healing process takes him back to Marks pack. Josh feels accepted there, he can be the alpha, but when the group gathers in a house before the monthly turn, their true plan is revealed: Mark and company want to bring wannabe wolves to Josh so that he will turn them, thus growing the wolf pack and an army for the supposedly pending war between werewolves and vampires. Naturally, Josh rejects this idea, only to get thrown into a small cage, something that Nora and Aidan find out about thanks to Astrid, Kennys werewolf girlfriend.

Prior to the rescue mission, the pace of Oh Dont You Die For Me can be described as glacial. Once Aidan rolls up to the wolf den/lovely cottage, things begin to get a bit more exciting as he frees Josh from his cell before telling Nora to get him far away. The odds against him, Aidan then takes on the entire pack, holding his own for a moment before the wolves overtake him. Refusing to flee, Sally starts possessing the wolves one by one to even up the odds, even though doing so drains her. The wolves dealt with, she lingers in one of the wolves in an effort to make Aidan remember their affair from the alternate timeline.

Were also going to see Sally transported back to the room where Lil Smokie was sacrificed earlier in the season (we keep forgetting about that lingering plot thread); however, the trailer for next week indicates that Aidan is going to rip right through the wall to discover some kind of hidden room, so were not giving into some kind of panic or worry that Sally, in her weakened state, transported back in time again.

See the rest here:
Being Human: Oh Dont You Die For Me

Though I typically love Washington Post music critic Anne Midgettes reasoning and writing, her March 14 column on whether classical musicians should take political stands forcefully argued and written is deeply disturbing from the first sentence.

Midgette thoughtfully examines the public roles of musicians, asking if they have a duty to speak up for human rights, particularly when the countries that nurtured them are in significant turmoil. For Los Angeles Philharmonic music director Gustavo Dudamel, its the uprising against the current regime in Venezuela. With conductor Valery Gergiev, its Russia.

Her piece begins as follows:

Theres a myth, in the popular imagination, that classical music is higher, better and more exalted than much of the rest of life.

Myth?

Having lived and worked in Washington, D.C., I know that those who champion the fine arts there are always under the shadow of the anti-elitism police we all know we they are and thus tend to head them off at the pass, so to speak, with self-deprecating lip service.

If the value of classical music is a myth, why do we fund it with ticket sales, foundation grants and, most of all, with our hearts despite its flagrant lack of practicality? Broadway shows can barely muster much semblance of a pit orchestra. But Mahler symphonies, say, are played by a group of 100 or more. Surely, there must be some justification for that. And there is. It is higher, better and more exalted than much of the rest of life. If thats not true, then many intelligent people have been utter fools for a very long time.

The argument over whether classical music makes us better human beings is the way of madness.Even the greatest people, whether involved with music or not, have feet of clay. Its our nature. And who is anybody to chart another human beings self-improvement at the hands of any artform?

As for the musicians themselves, Midgette tends to discuss them collectively, even though they occupy hugely different places on the chess board.

Those who create art are most notable for their inner lives, which intersect with their outer selves but exist in a distinctly different place. One has to hunt far and deeply to find expression of Wagners bigotry in his music, mainly in the finale of Die Meistersinger (when Hans Sachs warns against outside influences polluting their art) and the implications of ethnic cleansing under the surface of Parsifal. I believe that Wagners bigotry wouldnt be nearly the issue that it is now had his music not been co-opted by Nazi Germany. And thats not his fault though he was rather foolish to throw his anti-Semitic opinions about in public to begin with. A composers primary responsibility is to his or her inner (and inevitably private) self.

Excerpt from:
Dudamel, Gergiev: Should they leave politics to the experts?