Category: I Said Goddamn

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They’ve Gotten Cheaper

EV’s, that is.  Because not many people want one anymore.  But I did after driving this one.  You see, Renfield the Younger is beginning to learn to drive this summer.  The Renfield fleet consisted of two manuals and one automatic.  So we needed another automatic.  Mrs. Renfield led the vehicle search with my input, as she would likely be the main driver.  We looked at ICE cars in a designated price range; mostly hybrids due to her current vehicle (the main family car) being a thirsty guzzler.  The best vehicles were very good and reliable, but decidedly ho-hum and overpriced: everyone wants a hybrid right now.  Wait times are very common, and you don’t get much negotiation leverage when the car isn’t on the lot with the dealer eager to see it drive out.  So one day Mrs. Renfield checked out a Mustang Mach E, mostly because she thought it looked cool. She really liked it.  I wasn’t in favor at first, but when I drove it I was mightily impressed. My main concern was depreciation, but the price was good.

ICE manuals are still my four-wheeled drugs of choice, but I’ve never driven an ICE automatic that I enjoy as much as this EV.  Precise steering, agile handling, slightly bumpy ride like a sports car, but not jarring.  Plenty of power and great acceleration.  Smooth power delivery.  Was this purchase an error?  Ask me in a year or two.  Some kinks in the earlier generation seem to have been ironed out.  We shall see.

I swear I’m not trying to turn this blog into “look what I just bought” Facebook nonsense.  I just posted about it because we’ve discussed EV’s here before.  I’m still of the opinion that the attempted EV transition via government fiat was a lousy idea driven by politics, not reality.  The current infrastructure cannot support mass adoption.  Almost everyone owning one of these will also need an ICE car.  And I have no idea how a non-homeowner could get by with one due to charging access, or lack thereof.

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My Favorite Fifths

Of Beethoven, not booze.  Haven’t had a drop in a year, and what better way to celebrate than with this monument to triumph? If you buy into the finale as revolutionary triumphalism (I partially do), then who better to perform it than musicians from the city that stormed the Bastille?  Markevitch must have understood that, because he got the sometimes lazy Lamoureaux orchestra to catch fire like few versions I’ve heard.  It also helps that some members of the Lamoureaux also played with the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire of Paris, who had the longest unbroken tradition of Beethoven performance in history (they were formed in 1828 specifically to perform Beethoven) until the French government in its infinite wisdom broke them up sometime in the 60’s.  You hear the traditional French orchestral sound in all its unblended glory–thank God they and others were recorded for posterity in the 60’s and earlier.  Their characteristic sound has disappeared.  French orchestras now sound like everyone else.

George Szell, who turned the Cleveland Orchestra into a world-class ensemble (they were Stravinsky’s favorite orchestra and one of the “big five” who dominated classical music in the US from the 50’s-80’s–the others were Boston, Phildelphia, Chicago, and New York) made three “official” (i.e. commercial releases recorded under controlled circumstances) recordings of the fifth, all great.  But this live one with the Vienna Philharmonic (another group with a long tradition in this music) absolutely smokes.

If you Google top recordings of Beethoven’s fifth, you’ll find that everyone recommends Carlos Kleiber/Vienna Philharmonic as “the best. ” It’s excellent, but I find these to have more mojo.  Anyway, the idea of there being a “best” in a work capable of infinite interpretations is just silly.

Other of my faves are any of the recordings by Otto Klemperer, whose son played Col. Klink on Hogan’s Heroes.  If you don’t mind inferior 40’s to mid ‘50’s sound quality, there are also stunning 5ths by Erich Kleiber (father of Carlos), Bruno Walter, and Wilhelm Furtwängler.

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More Cowbell!

I wanted to submit this for today’s Music League round (songs about drinking), but it’s not on Spotify.  This one may surprise you.  Atypical for PH, as it was written by their guitarist instead of one of their two keyboardists.  He began asserting himself more in the later albums of his tenure with the band, sometimes for better, sometimes not.  The one thing he should never have done is sing.