"The Connection" Held Hostage

[lglavin@lycosmail.com]

I too have been checking out "The Connection" with
Bob Oakes.  (If Bob Married Marla Maples, would she
be Marla Maples Oakes?)  Two aspects of the show are
unchanged: the topics...I've listened to shows on
the proposed inheritance tax cut and Edvard Munch*.
They tackle items the commercial stations wouldn't
touch.  Oooops: tonight it's the Grammys and Eminem.
Never mind.
*Note to Dan Strassberg:  it's spelled like to verb
that means chew.. "munch" ...but is pronounced a bit 
like a Catholic clergyman as if the 'ch' were a 'k'.
But you heard the show, you know that.  His most 
famous work, "The Scream", is one of the most famous
icons in Western art; a lady with a face shaped vaguely 
like the number 8 has both hands athwart either side 
of her head and appears to be screaming like Mr. Bill 
on SNL ("Oh Noooo!").  It's up there with the Mona 
Lisa and American Gothic for most often parodied works
of art. 
Besides the topics, another aspect of the show is the
quality of the callers. Jay Severin claims to attract 
the best and the brightest just because he doesn't 
attract the mouth-breathing set.  But "The Connection"
does attract people who either are very knowledgeable
on sometimes esoteric subjects, or acolytes who ask 
good questions.  So there is the crux of the problem
WBUR faces:  will guests sympathetic to C.L. decline
to appear on the show?  And will the illuminati boycott
the program by not calling?  After the Babble-onian 
captivity ends (if it does) then we'll see whether 
C.L. is chastened by the ease with which others
took his place, or a new era at 890 Comm Ave. may begin.

Oh Dan...while I have your attention:
On Jan 27, 2001 you wrote:
"Alban Berg anyone?"
As if to say that the composer of "Wozzeck" and "Lulu"
is the embodiment of avant garde purism.  Actually
at least one instrumental piece of his is in the
standard repertoire, the Violin Concerto, and it's
being performed this saturday by a COMMUNITY orchestra
called the New England Philharmonic at Tsai Performance
Center on the BU campus.  So how esoteric can Berg be?

Laurence Glavin


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