I saw the St. Olaf Choir last night in concert at Duke. They are quite simply the most amazing choral group I've ever seen. A lot of it is their obvious love for the music, their conductor, Anton Armstrong, and each other. My favorite part was the "Music of the Night" pieces: Sid Robinovith’s setting of the Hebrew Prayer Before Sleep, a setting of the Octavio Paz poem "Water Night" by Eric Whitacre, and Ralph Vaughan Williams' setting of Shakespeare's Serenade to Music. Very modern and shocking and amazing. But they also did some great classical works, and the things they are best known for: Lutheran hymns and African-American spirituals. There was a quote in the program from a local paper when they toured Norway about how only Americans could hold hands and sway while singing Bach and make it glorious. _
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08:58:51 AM, Friday 2 February 2007

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"Why were you elected? If you want a safe job, go sell shoes."

- Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), crticizing Republicans on the Foreign Relations Committee who oppose the president's war plan, but aren't willing to vote against it. _
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08:43:48 AM, Friday 2 February 2007

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Joe Biden is running for president. Because really what the Democrat need is another racist, sexist old white man.

Mr. Biden is equally skeptical—albeit in a slightly more backhanded way—about Mr. Obama. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

“They may be politically right, and I may be politically wrong,” he said. “But I believe I am substantively right, and their substantive approaches are not very deep and will not get us where I want to go.”

Translation: Dude, I'm not all politically correct and stuff, but I'm smarter than them. _
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