The Fredösphere

Yesterday I mentioned (because Virgil Thomson did) Angels by Carl Ruggles.  Today I want to draw attention to another track from a CD called Modern Times with the London Brass.  The final track is a set of variations on a theme by Paganini (a composer who apparently wrote only one theme) by Witold Lutoslawski, arranged for brass by R. Harvey.  It's a show piece, and is perhaps less than perfectly satisfying on a formal level, but what playing!  The tuba occasionally produces a wonderfully controlled, ultra-low splaat that sounds like someone sitting on a 16-foot diameter crushed velour whoopee cushion.

And, to answer your next question:  yes, engineers continue to, shall we say, push the envelope in whoopee cushion technology.

My, my, my:  the things I learn while researching material for the Fredösphere!  Apparently, the state of Florida is a roiling cesspool of human folly and malevolence:  mobs beating drunk drivers ... Whole families of degenerates wearing nothing but Bibles ... 35 thousand pairs of shoes thrown out because they sound like "whoopee cushions for the feet" ... Parents who torture their children ... a man who "found" a bullet embedded in his tongue ... and a veritable epidemic of female school teachers who can't keep their hands off the schoolboys.  Yow.  I've done the dirty work for you, so there's really no need for you to degrade yourself by following this link.

(Perhaps Steve Hicken, who linked to the same Teachout post I did yesterday, would like to defend the state of Florida by providing some counter-examples.  If he can think of any.)