smartingamerica's channel

@sockcutter - Considering that my innocent but evidently volatile comment has unleashed so many complaints, I will offer you a piece of my own free of charge for use on this one particular instance, as long as you supply due credit. And if it meets with any popularity, you have only to ask for mo...

@paulwall142 You know what's REALLY funny? Believers act PRECISELY as if they ARE God.

Nobody ever encounters a smidgeon of refutable evidence from natural reality FOR the existence of any supernatural deity EXCEPT from the extravagant claims offered by self-important and specially-chosen sorts ...

@WorldBibleUnion454 - "But you being born provides you with a chance to do better and be better than your parents and the other a**holes."

Oh yeah...as prescribed by your Omniscient and All-Seeing Creator God who must, of logical necessity, follow your rules of propriety, because you and folks...

@RabidApe : On what you say about 'agnostic' vs 'atheist'...

Indeed. And by the most explicit definitions of 'agnostic' and 'atheist', I also see no rationally defensible reason whatsover that a person can at once and quite consistently hold to heart BOTH of these 'labels' - despite many attemp...

Part 5 is busted. WHY?

The original painting (which measured 7.5x10 feet) was entirely conceived and painted for the series in 1979 by astronomical artist Adolf Schaller, whose artwork and fx work appears in much of the series, including the book cover. It was Schaller who designed the hypothetical creatures in it, not...

This is indeed a great symphony. But assertions that it is the 'greatest' are ridiculous as well as inane.

Look: it isn't a contest, okay? Shostakovich simply wanted to transmit his experience and personsl feelings, just as every other great composer ever did.

It is consummately STUPID to "rate...

Gheorgyi: for someone who has so much to say about symphonic music and have the effrontery to determine for others what's good or bad , it is incredible you have never heard of Barber. Know what? You are an ignorant child.

Stop posting your ridiculous opinions. You aren't anywhere near capable ...

One forgets how powerful Bernstein was...listening to many another interpretations over the years...then when one encounters Bernstein again afresh, its like the crud of ambiguity is washed away. This is a spectacular performance BECAUSE Bernstein dove directly into Shostakovich's mind. He and th...

garryph: WELL, you know what? You can have whatever "favorite" conductor you wish, and you have the liberty to check out of the hall during a performance if it doesn't please you. Nobody forces you to submit your precious time towards listening to what you do not like. But even you might acknowle...

This 1972 recording of Bruckner's 4th by the Munich Philharmonic under Rudolf Kempe is stunning. The metabolic flow is second to none. My only quibble is a recording issue: the unnaccountable lack of power in the french horns. It almost sounds as if they're playing in the street outside the studio.

@An0niempje: 1. Wagner has absolutely NOTHING to do with it. Why are you harping on that? 2. Bruckner is a SPECTACULAR symphonic composer. Wagner NEVER composed a symphony: his ego prevented it. Bruckner was all about MUSIC. Wagner, on the other hand, wanted to USE music to convey a political age...

The raw native genius of Bruckner needed no higher education to assist him in his raw 'peasant' insight. He just went ahead and expressed his vision, as a burning need, almost totally ignorant of the fashion of his day, tyrannized as it was by the well-educated academic elite who almost invariabl...