7:20pm
I thought I'd end the day in much the same way I began. While there's no shortage of English-language bossa nova travesties on the market, the album that Frank Sinatra made with the great Antonio Carlos Jobim has some gorgeous moments. Their TV medley includes "Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars" (Gene Lees's translation of "Corcovado"), a so-so treatment of Irving Berlin's "Change Partners" and the best number on the LP, Cole Porter's "I Concentrate on You". No prizes for guessing what they end with. Jobim strums gentle guitar chords, Frank puffs away on his cigarette. Those were the days.
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1:16pm
Peering across the aisle, the Statesman's media commentator, Brian Cathcart is puzzled by what he sees as a grudging reaction to the election gains:
The conservative press is less than happy today because it does not like or trust David Cameron, even after he has delivered them their first piece of good electoral news since 1992. The news pages and the political correspondents may suggest jubilation and optimism, but that is not the view at the hearts of these papers...He may look a winner now, but he is not their man... And they are having trouble coming to terms with their lack of control.
We keep being told that current events mirror those of 1995, when John Major's Conservatives were crushed in local elections, pointing the way towards the 1997 landslide. The mirror may be truer than we imagine, for back then who on the left liked or trusted Tony Blair?
Interesting point. I have almost exactly the same allergic reaction to Mr C that I had with the early version of Blair. Maybe it's not him. Maybe I just don't understand the rules of the game.
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12:16pm
In terms of pure tedium, I mean, even if this pro-Obama song is all in a good cause.
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11:56am
Washington's National Cathedral is illuminated during a media preview of Gerry Hofstetter's 'Lighting to Unite' project. The Swiss artist will project images on the building over three nights starting this evening. Photo credit: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images]
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11:41am
Classicist Mary Beard ponders a curious legal case:
This idea of decoupling Sappho, female homoeroticism and the island of Lesbos seems to me about as mad as trying to white out William Shakespeare from Stratford on Avon.
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