Medworth.org.uk

For those who weren’t aware, the ARI have recently been improving their online offerings markedly. Not only do they now have a blog, they also have a one-stop shop for all their video recordings, ARC TV. Enjoy!

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

(My eternal thanks to Lord Byron for one of the greatest poems ever written.)

Dr Brook’s speech at the Adam Smith Institute is now available on YouTube here. Enjoy!

I’m delighted to announce that my interview with Yaron Brook is now available on YouTube. You can watch the first part below.

Dr Brook’s evening speech which followed the interview will be available shortly.

Having spent so long writing this comment on a Samizdata post, I wanted to promote it here. Read the rest of this entry »

I have been consistently impressed recently by the economic commentary of Peter Schiff. He is a stockbroker inspired by the Austrian school of economics, who predicted the current recession long before it happened.

He has many good videos on YouTube. I recommend this one, in which he describes exactly what went wrong and why in terms anyone can understand.

Ayn Rand is still everywhere. Sales of Atlas Shrugged are still surging, and it is being discussed all over the place, including recently on the BBC’s Newsnight.

One particularly exciting development is the interest of Douglas Carswell MP in Ayn Rand’s work. He has posted favourably on Atlas Shrugged several times recently on his blog. Exciting times!

The number of media references to Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged has absolutely exploded in recent weeks.  Not only have pro-Ayn Rand intellectuals had articles published in very big newspapers (such as this one by Yaron Brook in the Wall Street Journal), she has been mentioned extensively in the UK newspapers (the FT and the Guardian being two recent examples).

Much of the coverage has been surprisingly respectful, though of course there has been a predictable backlash from the Rand-haters, with the usual smears and distortions being wheeled out. Still, even these are, I believe, a positive development. Any attention for Rand or discussion of the relevance of her ideas to the current crisis is a good thing.

The smears are so laughably irrelevant and silly (one article picked out a line of dialogue from Atlas Shrugged about smoking, and “wittily” observed that Rand died of lung cancer) that they will only convince people who already hate Rand, and those people are ultimately irrelevant. More open minds will, I believe, observe the utter bankruptcy and mindless bile of the smears, and want to find out the truth. We must be ready to help them do so.

The disappointment I felt after Nightwish’s last visit to the UK in March 2008 was truly soul-crushing. The disastrous performance of my all-time favourite band left me feeling depressed for at least a week, as I remarked at the time. However, Nightwish have given me far too much over the years not to give them a second chance. I therefore did not think twice before buying tickets to their gig last night, 11th March at the Brixton Academy in London.

What a terrific decision that turned out to be! Nightwish sounded like a completely different band. The biggest contrast was their no-longer-so-new singer, Anette Olzon. At the Astoria last year, she sounded tired, avoided almost all notes in the high end of her register, and looked as if she would rather be anywhere else other than performing on stage. This, combined with the fact that she does not sing in the operatic style of her predecessor Tarja Turunen, made Nightwish sound like a mediocre Nightwish cover band. Last night, however, was a radically different story. Anette’s voice soared: she hit the spot musically, and looked gorgeous to boot. The band actually looked as if they were having fun, and it came across in their whole performance.

I’ve seen some wildly inaccurate set lists floating around the Internet, so here is my own memorised version which I’m pretty sure is correct:

• Intro music: Crimson Tide
• Seven Days to the Wolves
• Dead to the World
• The Siren
• Amaranth
• Romanticide
• Dead Boy’s Poem
• The Poet and the Pendulum
• Nemo
• Sahara
• The Islander
• The Escapist
• Dark Chest of Wonders
• Encore 1: Ghost Love Score
• Encore 2: Wish I Had An Angel
• Exit music (didn’t recognise it but it sounded like Hans Zimmer)

From the very start, I knew this was going to be a much better gig. The intro music, Crimson Tide, showed better dramatic flair as well as much greater regard for the band’s past than the over-long flaccid excerpt from The Passion of the Christ they chose last time. The set list was still weighted towards the band’s more recent work, but I think this is a good thing: the songs better suit Anette’s voice, and they are better musically (in my opinion, anyway). That said, I loved the addition of Dead Boy’s Poem, which was really well done and pleased the crowd hugely, and another couple of songs with nostalgia value wouldn’t have come amiss (She Is My Sin next time, please!).

The first couple of songs were played with huge energy, and considerable pyrotechnics, which were terrific. The Brixton Academy is a much larger venue than the Astoria, allowing for the special effects. “Dead to the World” was done a touch too fast for my taste, and I still don’t think “The Siren” or “Romanticide” suit Anette particularly, but these are minor criticisms, and from “Dead Boy’s Poem” on, the gig frankly rocked: there is no other term for it.

“The Poet and the Pendulum” was masterfully done, with the special effects integrated with the song’s theme (at the break which symbolises Tuomas’s death, he drew his hand across his throat, and at that exact moment a jet of scarlet red streamers flew out over the crowd). The Islander was done acoustically, which was beautiful (the set had a generally nautical theme, with a big anchor stage left and Tuomas’s keyboards in the prow of a boat named “Ocean Soul”, another nice touch). I nearly died of joy when they played “Ghost Love Score” as an encore, as it is one of my favourite pieces of music of all time. The whole gig was much longer than the 2008 ones, too: around an hour and 45 by my reckoning. We certainly got our money’s worth!

We are often harshest towards those we love the most. But in this case, while I remain convinced that Nightwish can do even better, this gig was stunningly done, and reminded me why I fell so deeply in love with this band in the first place. Thank you Nightwish for restoring my faith! Please come back soon!

Ayn Rand got a mention in the Economist this week. They have a fascinating chart plotting sales of Atlas Shrugged and indicating where various bailout events happened. Every time the US government intervened in the economy, sales of Ayn Rand’s novel spiked massively. This is terrific news, and it is even more terrific news that the Economist thought this worthy of highlighting.