Saw this while surfing the news on Yahoo!:

 

Playing the White House: Music on a Higher Scale

By the Associated Press, 20 October 2009

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20091020/ten-us-white-house-music-vignettes-5e343d7.html

 

Melancholy Ballad

The first East Room concert for an invited audience took place on Feb. 23, 1883, when Chester Arthur had more than 100 guests hear members of Her Majesty’s Opera Company sing Mozart, Verdi and Wagner. The star of the evening was famed Canadian soprano Emma Albani, who sang ‘Robin Adair’ as her final selection. The song had special meaning for Arthur, whose late wife Ellen had sung the Irish ballad many times at Arthur’s request.

 

The Lion Shines

Theodore Roosevelt’s White House was the first to feature a Steinway piano, and great pianists soon followed. Ignacy Jan Paderewski’s first appearance at the White House in April 1902 was recounted by portrait painter Cecilia Beaux, who wrote: ‘The yellow head of the Lion shone gloriously against the satin of the Blue Room. … I think it may have been better than hearing Chopin himself.’ Paderewski described the president’s reaction: ‘The president listened with charming interest and applauded vociferously and always shouted out ‘Bravo! Bravo! Fine! Splendid! – even during the performance.’

 

No Thanks

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt brought in professional dancers to the White House for the first time. They featured black vocal artists, the first staged opera, women’s organizations, ethnic groups and an array of American folk singers and players never before seen in the mansion. Offers to perform in the Roosevelt White House came in at the rate of 250 a season during the 1930s. Some who never made it: a young man who demonstrated the ‘Theremin Wave _ a scientific musical mystery,’ a woman who played the piano wearing mittens, and an 18-month-old baby who directed music in perfect time.

 

Song of an Exile

Famed Spanish cellist Pablo Casals played in Theodore Roosevelt’s White House in 1904, but he stopped making American appearances in 1938 because the United States had recognized the Franco dictatorship. Casals lived in exile, vowing not to return to Spain until democracy was restored. When President John Kennedy sent him a letter inviting him to play for a November 1961 state dinner, Casals accepted because of his admiration for the president. The hour-long concert was serious, featuring works by Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, and Francois Couperin, and closed with a powerful encore. ‘You might know this song,’ Casals said, almost weeping. ‘It’s a Catalan folk song, ‘The Song of the Birds’ _ but to me, it’s the song of the exile.’

 

Kennedy’s Cues

Kennedy was caught more than once clapping at the wrong time during classical numbers, and sometimes was uncertain when a concert was finally over. Social secretary Letitia Baldrige worked out a secret signal to cue him on when to clap. ‘As the last piece was almost finished, I was to open the central door of the East Room from the outside about two inches _ enough for him to glimpse the prominent Baldrige nose structure in the crack. It worked beautifully that night and for all future concerts,’ Baldrige said.

 

Nixon’s Blues

Five months before Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace, he hosted governors in March 1974 at the White House, where blues great Pearl Bailey provided after-dinner entertainment. Bailey persuaded Nixon to play the piano, telling the president he could choose any number he wanted. But when Nixon began playing ‘Home on the Range,’ Bailey complained, ‘Mr. President, I want to sing a song, not ride a horse.’ Then the two of them had trouble finding the same key. ‘I don’t know whether I’m finding him, or he’s finding me,’ Bailey said. Vice President Gerald Ford said he’d never laughed so hard. Nixon said: ‘I just want to say to our distinguished guests that this piano will never be the same again and neither will I.’

 

Salt Peanuts

The Carters loved classical music, but also wanted to showcase ethnic and folk traditions as well. In June 1978, the White House hosted a jazz concert on the South Lawn in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival. The concert featured nine decades of jazz performers, including 95-year-old Eubie Blake, Herbie Hancock, Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz and others. Carter, sitting on the lawn in his shirt sleeves, asked Gillespie to play ‘Salt Peanuts’ and joined in with repeated chants of ‘salt peanuts’ in the breaks.

 

Close Call

Frank Sinatra didn’t have much time to rehearse when the Reagan White House asked him to perform for a state dinner for Sri Lanka in 1984. Security at the White House was tightened in the aftermath of the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, and so bomb-sniffing dogs had to check out everything coming into the mansion, including musical instruments. On the day of the dinner, the dogs became too exhausted to work anymore, and Sinatra’s instruments were stranded outside the East Gate until replacement dogs could be called in.

 

Velvet Underground

When the Clinton White House welcomed Czech President Vaclav Havel for a state dinner in 1998, the former playwright made a special request for entertainment by rocker Lou Reed, a founding member of the former rock group Velvet Underground. The group had helped inspire Havel’s leadership of the ‘Velvet Revolution’ that brought democracy to the Czech Republic. In halting English, Havel told about getting his first earful of Reed’s music during a visit to Greenwich Village in 1968, and said, ‘I’ve been listening to it for 30 years.’ Reed’s band for the White House gig included Milan Hlavsa, a bass player from the Czech Republic whose music was inspired in part by Reed.

 

___

 

Sources:

• ‘Musical Highlights from the White House,’ by Elise K. Kirk.
• ‘Entertaining at the White House with Nancy Reagan,’ by Peter Schifando and J. Jonathan Joseph.
• AP files

Malaysia crabby over right to ‘hijacked’ recipes

No pun intended, but this scenario is literally a food fight…
 

Malaysia crabby over right to ‘hijacked’ recipes
AP – Friday, 18 September 2009
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20090917/tap-as-odd-malaysia-food-fight-b3c65ae.html

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Malaysia is starting a food fight with other countries to win bragging rights for producing some of Southeast Asia’s most beloved recipes, including chili crabs and coconut cream rice, a news report said Thursday.

            ‘We cannot continue to let other countries hijack our food,’ The Star newspaper quoted Tourism Minister Ng Yen Yen as saying while launching a campaign to promote the country’s cuisine.

            The ministry is identifying signature recipes that it will declare as Malaysian, Ng said. She did not reveal how the government might counter others who claim ownership of those dishes, but added that details of its strategy will be announced later.

            ‘Chili crab is Malaysian. Hainanese chicken rice is Malaysian. We have to lay claim to our food,’ Ng said. She mentioned other favorites such as ‘nasi lemak,’ which is rice soaked with coconut cream, ‘laksa,’ a spicy noodle soup, and ‘bak kut teh,’ an ethnic Chinese pork rib stew.

            Tourism ministry officials familiar with the campaign could not immediately be contacted.

            Variations of the dishes Ng listed are available in several other Asian nations, particularly Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Thailand and China.

            Some creations, such as chicken rice, were introduced to Malaysia and Singapore by ethnic Chinese workers who settled here after leaving China a century ago.

            Chili crab – a recipe of crabs stir-fried in tomato and chili-based sauces – could become a bone of contention. It is often associated with Singapore and is considered the city-state’s unofficial national dish.

            Malaysia was recently embroiled in another cultural spat with a neighbor.

            Indonesians held protests earlier this month accusing Malaysia of stealing a Balinese dance for a TV promotional campaign about Malaysia. It later turned out that Malaysia had nothing to do with the video, which had mistakenly described the dance as Malaysian. The video was broadcast on the Discovery Channel cable network, which apologized for the mistake.

Gaddafi’s Oddest Idea: Abolish Switzerland

Switzerland, ‘a nation accustomed to being a peacemaker or onlooker in international conflicts’ is the unwitting protagonist in a diatribe from another country…[1]

Gaddafi’s Oddest Idea: Abolish Switzerland
By Helena Bachmann / Geneva Friday, Sep. 25, 2009
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1926053,00.html

In his rambling diatribe to the U.N. General Assembly Wednesday, Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi criticized the world body for being unfair to small nations. This comment struck a chord with the Swiss, since Gaddafi has been on a self-proclaimed mission to destroy their little country.

            A few weeks ago, Gaddafi submitted a proposal to the U.N. to abolish Switzerland and divide it up along linguistic lines, giving parts of the country to Germany, France and Italy. Although the motion was thrown out because it violates the U.N. Charter stating that no member country can threaten the existence of another, some Swiss leaders are still concerned that Libya could use its year-long presidency of the U.N. General Assembly, which began on Sept. 15, to keep up his vitriolic attacks on their country.

            Gaddafi’s animosity toward Switzerland may seem bizarre — or maybe not, given the Libyan leader’s all-female bodyguard squad and penchant for pitching Bedouin tents during state visits to other countries. Relations between Libya and Switzerland soured in July 2008 when Gaddafi’s son Hannibal and his wife were arrested by police in Geneva for allegedly beating their two servants at a local hotel. Gaddafi was so enraged by his son’s two-day detention, he immediately retaliated by shutting down local subsidiaries of Swiss companies Nestlé and ABB in Libya, arresting two Swiss businessmen for supposed visa irregularities, cancelling most commercial flights between the two countries and withdrawing about $5 billion from his Swiss bank accounts.

            Then came Gaddafi’s suggestion that Switzerland be carved up like a wheel of Swiss cheese. During the G-8 summit in Italy in July, Gaddafi said Switzerland ‘is a world mafia and not a state,’ adding that the Italian-speaking part of the country should be returned to Italy, the German-speaking part given to Germany and the French-speaking part ceded to France. In an attempt to defuse the tensions between the countries, as well as to win the release of the two Swiss nationals being held in Libya, Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz travelled to Tripoli in August to apologize for Hannibal’s arrest. The move was highly criticized in Switzerland, with repeated calls for his resignation.

            The reaction among the Swiss public to Gaddafi’s idea of splitting up the country has been a mix of outrage and incredulity. ‘Even though Gaddafi is a leader of a country and the current head of the African Union, he loses credibility when he comes up with outrageous comments like that,’ says Daniel Warner, a political scientist at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. Others see irony in Gaddafi’s comments. ‘It’s a paradox that Gaddafi wants to dismantle Switzerland because, as he claims, it is not a homogenous country, while Libya is divided by a desert into two regions that hate each other,’ says Baptiste Hurni, a Socialist parliamentarian who blogs about Libya.

            Despite the fact Gaddafi is still holding two Swiss nationals, many Swiss have found much to laugh about in his statements. The newspapers abound with tongue-in-cheek comments from readers not only questioning Gaddafi’s sanity but also wondering how Switzerland would be divided up if the Libyan leader’s motion were to be taken seriously. ‘Who is going to get the Matterthorn?’ one reader asks in the Lausanne daily Le Matin. ‘Linguistically it belongs to Germany but geographically it borders Italy.’ Another reader in Le Matin said he is ‘scandalized that Austria is not getting its fair share,’ while a Geneva resident wrote that he doesn’t want his region to be annexed to France and asked about the possibility of linking it to French-speaking Quebec instead.

            Most everyone agrees on one point: Libya should not be casting stones. ‘Is the U.N. going to listen to a longstanding democracy or to a longstanding dictatorship?’ 19-year-old Eduard Hediger said in a recent Le Matin podcast. If Gaddafi’s long-winded speech to the General Assembly is any indication, the U.N. may not have much of a choice in the matter.

 

For the background story, read Bachmann’s other article:

Libya Flips over Swiss Detention
By Helena Bachmann / Geneva: Thursday, Jul. 24, 2008
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1826237,00.html

Not since Napoleon’s army occupied the country in 1798 has Switzerland had so much trouble from a foreign power.

            A nation accustomed to being a peacemaker or onlooker in international conflicts is now in a political imbroglio of unprecedented proportions, sparked by the arrest of Col. Mummar el-Gaddafi’s son Hannibal in Geneva last week.

            Hannibal, 32, and his pregnant wife Aline were arrested on July 15 after the staff of a five-star hotel notified the police that the couple was beating two servants who were part of their entourage. Questioned by the police, a Tunisian woman and a Moroccan man confirmed that the Gaddafis had repeatedly struck them, causing visible bruises and other bodily injuries. Two days later, the Gaddafis were released on $500,000 bail and, pending further investigation by the Geneva prosecutors, returned to Libya. ‘They deny all the charges against them,’ the couple’s Geneva attorney, Alain Berger, told TIME.

            Meanwhile, the Gaddafis’ two-day detention stoked the fires of rage back in Libya. Hannibal’s sister Aicha warned the Swiss authorities that her brother’s arrest would be countered with ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’ retaliatory measures.

            She was not bluffing. Within days, as throngs rioted in front of Switzerland’s embassy in Tripoli, the Libyan government shut down local subsidiaries of Swiss companies Nestlé and ABB, arrested two Swiss citizens, cancelled most flights to Switzerland, and, on Thursday afternoon, announced that all Swiss-bound oil exports will be stopped until charges against the Gaddafis are dropped and the Swiss offer their apologies.

            ‘These are disproportionate measures coming from an autocratic ruler who protects his family,’ says Daniel Moeckli, a Middle East expert at the Centre for Security Studies in Zurich. ‘Obviously, that is not a democracy.’ As for the threat of an oil embargo, ‘I am sceptical that the Libyans would carry it out,’ says Rolf Hartl, managing director of Swiss Oil Association, noting that Libya delivers 49% of Switzerland’s supply of crude oil and owns one of the country’s two refineries; those business ventures yield annual revenue of between $2 and $3 billion. ‘I believe they will calm down eventually, come to their senses and see what’s at stake. Cutting off our oil supply would be like shooting themselves in the foot.’

            Not all experts agree. ‘The Libyans are stupid enough to act irrationally,’ says Conrad Gerber, president of Petro-Logistics, a Geneva oil consultancy firm. ‘They produce 1.7 million barrels a day, yielding billions of dollars, so the small Swiss market is a drop in a bucket for them.’

            The two experts agree on one point: should Libya definitely halt its oil delivery, Switzerland’s supply will not suffer, and the price per gallon will not increase. Hartl says the country has sufficient reserves to last four and a half months — ‘enough time to find other sources, such as African and central Asian countries.’ Meanwhile, a hastily arranged Swiss delegation headed by Foreign Affairs Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey was dispatched to Tripoli yesterday to keep the crisis from escalating further. Given the ire in Libya, that might be one of the toughest tests of diplomacy the normally unctuous Swiss have ever faced.

 

---

[1] Helena Bachmann, ‘Libya Flips Over Swiss Detention’, in Time.com.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1826237,00.html