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4-6-98 Prager began his show by protesting high taxes. Then he tackled Bill Clinton's description of the average American as "Joe Sixpack." Prager admits that the President may be more in touch with the average American than he is. [After all, Clinton is the president while Prager only hosts a talkshow in Los Angeles.] Prager remembers a phone call from a man who said that he felt more in tune with Clinton than Prager. Bill was a type of guy the caller would like drink beer and chase girls with. DP thought the description "Joe Sixpack" demeaning and disparaging. DP seems quick to take offense to a trivial phrase. P. thinks that part of the task of a president is to uplift America. This is not a Norman Rockwell vision, the painter of ordinary humble Americans. P remembered the time Clinton appeared on MTV and was asked whether he wears boxers or jockeys. Previous presidents would not have been asked such a personal question. And Clinton answered it. Bill has little sense of exalted leadership, of trying to elevate the country. We have elected Joe Sixpack to office. Bill is an intelligent Joe Sixpack. He idolizes Hollywood stars. His cultural frames of reference. Perhaps we have the government we deserve. This country is increasingly comfortable with mediocrity said P and some callers. We celebrate things like single mother Jodie Foster. In his second hour, P laughed at the UN's condemnation of the US for its use of capital punishment. P. quoted Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, "It's not the United Nations, it's the United Goverments." Dennis used to belong to Amnesty International, the organization now investigating the US for human rights abuses. Prager based his third hour on this article in the 4-5-98 Washington Post:
All Grown Up And No Place To Go By Mark Gauvreau Judge
Sunday, April 5, 1998; Page C01 By the time I finished talking to my old high school buddy, I realized that I had entered a cultural no-man's land: adulthood. My friend, in his early thirties, had called to tell me that he and his wife had just had twins. While he was ecstatic, I could sense a tone of resignation in his voice -- and in mine. We were both facing a profound and dispiriting truth of our age group: The world today seems to offer little in the way of adult entertainment, adult social settings and adult community. It was not always like this. My parents, who married in 1956, continued to throw parties and go out dancing while we were growing up -- in fact, right up until my father's death at 68. Why, I wondered after talking with my friend, did our lives today seem so lame by comparison? It's not that my parents were wildly unconventional or hedonistic. Far from it. They were fairly typical members of what was known at the time as the "Silent Generation." But my parents, unlike my friends and I, grew up and lived in a society where people had to rely on themselves for entertainment to a degree that is now unimaginable. There was no television, no mall, no multiplex, no Internet. But there was a popular culture that catered to adult tastes: Bob Hope and Fred Allen on the radio, Broadway musicals that attracted national attention, swing bands, dance halls and movies that were entertaining because they depicted adults doing adult things. This was a very different popular culture than the one we have today. Before the cultural revolution of the '60s imprinted on our collective brains the notion that youthful idealism rejects adult convention, young people desperately wanted to join adult culture, not overthrow it. In her book "Teenagers: An American History," Grace Palladino recounts a small but telling episode that occurred in 1941 in Washington. A group of teenage girls skipped a field trip to the National Gallery of Art to catch a movie starring the Glen Miller Orchestra. When the girls returned, they found their classmates had gone, leaving them to go to a police station to wait for a ride home. According to reports at the time, the young ladies "jitterbugged up and down the corridors" while they waited.
Dennis Prager recommends a new book on smoking: For Your Own Good by Jacob Sullum.
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Prager says that the major reason that Europe does not have the crime, illegitimacy, drug and other problems is that they are homogenous societies. Everyone in Denmark is Danish and hence felt connected to others. I think Prager is speaking in polite euphemisms. He is really saying that Europe does not have as many stupid colored people. Africa is frequently homogenous, yet the standard of civilization there is low (except for South Africa). Prager says that before the 1960s, kids wanted to become adults. Now adults want to be kids. Pop culture's main audience today is kids. Thus, many adults feel uncomfortable with it. Prager notes that the only time you see the term 'adult entertainment' is for porno. P says it is drummed into talk show hosts to appeal to young audiences. Skew young. [Which is why KFI has thrashed KABC radio the last six years.]
Chris Donald writes on the Prager List: Last night DP conducted himself well, at a performance of the LA Jewish Symphony in the Pico Robertson area. They performed several very rare pieces, in a program called "From Exile to Emigrant", a series of musical pieces written by survivors of the Holocaust about their experiences there. Begining with a piece called "A Survivor from Warsaw", DP performed a thing called "...", well, I forget the German word, but it means "talking in a specific melodic rythm, in rythmic harmony with a symphony". His voice becomes like an instrument, though he is reading the words of the author. So DP was this special "narrator", and he handled it to great crowd approval. He noted in the intro how much more work went into preparing for this than he would have ever imagined. "The thought was more depressing than the theme in some ways" he joked. Next, they did another piece, much like the first, called "Dachau Lied", which dealt with the hatred that this survivor (Herbert Zipper) felt daily toward the sign that hung above Dachau that read "Arbeit Macht Frie", or "Work Makes You Free". It made them only hungry and dead. DP also "narrated" this in a similar way, with a male chorus joining in powerfully at the end, singing the Shema, as the "narrator" describes how many of those around him are being beaten and murdered, the atmosphere created by the the tumultuous bounding of various instrument groups toward a climactic frenzy. These were powerful pieces of interwoven notes and eruptions from different sections that often bordered cacaphony, yet truly communicated the insane chaos that was a camp. Very powerful. Not for everyone perhaps, but moving certainly. DP came out between intermission and the singing portion and challenged the audience-liberals and conservatives- to support this treasure, to ensure it's continuing to be a jewel in our midst. "These are truly world class musicians. Conservatives who claim to want lower taxes say that they will give more charity- DP challenged them to put their money where their mouths are. And liberals, who call for ever-more gov't charity, are challenged to show that they are not for more gov't charity just to alleviate themselves of the responsibility to give personally... After that, a beautiful singer came out and led some operatic pieces that were beautiful as well. Dennis could be heard calling "Bravo!" several times during the applause. He was riveted during the performance, and ecstatic after. A very intimate, personal and wonderful experience. Dennis truly relaxed and enjoying himself. The Los Angeles Times, April 7, 1998
Symphony Explores Holocaust Themes
By Josef Woodard
Ambition and distinctiveness continue to mark the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony, which presented a fascinating concert on Sunday night at the Norman J. Pattiz Auditorium of Hamilton High School in Los Angeles. The focus of this orchestra, culled from top-drawer musicians, is on music by Jewish composers, many of whom emigrated here from Europe and did much of their creating in Los Angeles.
Titled "From Exile to Emigrant," the concert had a strong theme, mostly dealing with the Holocaust, which bound together diverse musical elements. In what other context would one hear Arnold Schoenberg's "A Survivor From Warsaw," a dramatic serial piece from 1947, along with Franz Waxman's agreeably romantic score for the 1960 film "The Story of Ruth"?
KABC talk radio host Dennis Prager effectively delivered the text with Schoenberg's score, which was neatly articulated by the orchestra, with interjections from a men's chorus. Prager also handled the text for "The Dachau Lied," a poignant, Kurt Weillesque piece by under-sung musical hero Herbert Zipper. Zipper (1904-1997) was a concentration camp survivor, and a dynamic personality, who taught and worked in Los Angeles for many years.
Also on the program was "Song of Songs," by one time UCLA-based composer Lukas Foss. It's a likable enough neoclassical piece written in 1947, before his radical days, sung here with point by soprano Diana Tosh.
Throughout, music director Noreen Green led a sharp orchestra seemingly up for any challenge, including mustering the requisite, cinematic lushness for the Waxman-cellist Barry Gold serving as a lustrous soloist. In the process, the concert told the story of both the lingering pain of the Holocaust and the musical saga of postwar Los Angeles.
Pablum From Prager's Web Site: Monday, April 6, 1998 Dennis discussed the latest Time magazine article where President Clinton gave an interview and in it referred to the average American as "Joe-six pack." Dennis said this bothered him for a two reasons. One, is that this is really how President Clinton sees the average private American citizen and two that President Clinton sees himself as a "Joe-six pack." Dennis said part of a president's job is to elevate the country's citizens. Calling Americans "Joe-six pack" denigrates the citizens. Dennis also said that it was a bad reference because he noted an article in today's edition of USA Today where it stated that 40% of all violent crime in America is Alcohol related. Dennis was angered that this is how the most powerful leader in the world sees his citizens and in many ways sees himself as a "good ol' boy" drinking a six pack with the other "boys." Dennis asked his listeners why this is an acceptable reference but if Clinton refereed to the average citizen or himself as a smoker, this would be considered political suicide? Dennis wanted to know why Alcohol is so accepted when it hurts so many who don't drink, while cigarettes are considered vile when they almost always hurt only those who smoke. |
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