Obama obdormition...

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My failure to know what's good for me had me watching the news again yesterday, only to start - within 30 seconds - shouting at the TV. As Cranmer so aptly puts it of Obama's Berlin speech: "Ich bin eine Katastrophe". Obama has form though (Jan, Feb); the more people say what a good speaker he is the more I cannot stand what he says or how he says it. Previously I've called it cringe-worthy pap and banal piffle, convinced his speech-writers are taking the piss; Nile Gardiner calls it "pure mush, another clichéd “citizens of the world” polemic with little substance." Most of the German press weren't much more impressed (scroll down to "German commentators on Thursday, however, seemed largely immune to the charm offensive".

Obama obdormition...

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My failure to know what's good for me had me watching the news again yesterday, only to start - within 30 seconds - shouting at the TV. As Cranmer so aptly puts it of Obama's Berlin speech: "Ich bin eine Katastrophe". Obama has form though (Jan, Feb); the more people say what a good speaker he is the more I cannot stand what he says or how he says it. Previously I've called it cringe-worthy pap and banal piffle, convinced his speech-writers are taking the piss; Nile Gardiner calls it "pure mush, another clichéd “citizens of the world” polemic with little substance." Most of the German press weren't much more impressed (scroll down to "German commentators on Thursday, however, seemed largely immune to the charm offensive".

Obama's oratory...

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Or not as the case may be. I mentioned last month in Obamaworship about the "load of banal piffle" that Obama was reading out; and "the winning entry from a primary school competition about who can write the most cringe-worthy pap about pink fluffy clouds and jam for everybody" however he hasn't improved much and it appears that in yesterday's State of the Union address

"President Obama's chief speechwriter has been replaced by a cliché-generator circa 1960. His erstwhile oratory was a melee of cringe-inducing lines ripped straight from a sit-in."

So says Kirsten Powers in 'Same old, same old from Obama':USA TODAY.

Obama's oratory...

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Or not as the case may be. I mentioned last month in Obamaworship about the "load of banal piffle" that Obama was reading out; and "the winning entry from a primary school competition about who can write the most cringe-worthy pap about pink fluffy clouds and jam for everybody" however he hasn't improved much and it appears that in yesterday's State of the Union address

"President Obama's chief speechwriter has been replaced by a cliché-generator circa 1960. His erstwhile oratory was a melee of cringe-inducing lines ripped straight from a sit-in."

So says Kirsten Powers in 'Same old, same old from Obama':USA TODAY.

Original outstanding orator...

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You may think I should write about the Olympics again (what...a...day: Britain's greatest Olympics day since 1908, that middle link from Cranmer) but this is about another truly Great Briton: the Morgan Library and Museum in New York [Link] is holding an exhibition entitled "Churchill: The Power of Words": visitors (crowds have exceeded all expectations) can listen to (and read) the many speeches and see and read the notes, letters, documents etc 'full of annotations and alterations made by Churchill himself'. Allen Packwood, co‑curator of the exhibition and director of the Churchill Archives in Cambridge said "Our aim was to present Churchill in his own words",



[Edited: 'dead' image removed]
"To let visitors hear his voice. To let them read his wartime speeches and see how they were constructed. We wanted to show the blood, toil, tears and sweat that went into his compositions. Because those words mattered. They had a profound effect on Britain, on Europe and on the United States." [DT]



Edward Rothstein, in his fantastic Exhibition Review in the NYT back in June wrote:

"...what the rest of this fine exhibition accomplishes is to show how Churchill’s words can seem the expression of a life force, mixing mercurial passions and extraordinary discipline, passionate devotion and exuberant self-promotion, extravagant indulgence and ruthless analysis." [NYT]

If a quick trip across the pond isn't on the cards then perhaps a visit to the site that the museum has launched in conjunction with the Churchill Archives Centre: discoverChurchill.org. Reading and listening I find myself moved beyond words (something Winnie never suffered!).



"Action This Day"!

Original outstanding orator...

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You may think I should write about the Olympics again (what...a...day: Britain's greatest Olympics day since 1908, that middle link from Cranmer) but this is about another truly Great Briton: the Morgan Library and Museum in New York [Link] is holding an exhibition entitled "Churchill: The Power of Words": visitors (crowds have exceeded all expectations) can listen to (and read) the many speeches and see and read the notes, letters, documents etc 'full of annotations and alterations made by Churchill himself'. Allen Packwood, co‑curator of the exhibition and director of the Churchill Archives in Cambridge said "Our aim was to present Churchill in his own words",

[Edited: 'dead' image removed] "To let visitors hear his voice. To let them read his wartime speeches and see how they were constructed. We wanted to show the blood, toil, tears and sweat that went into his compositions. Because those words mattered. They had a profound effect on Britain, on Europe and on the United States." [DT]

Edward Rothstein, in his fantastic Exhibition Review in the NYT back in June wrote:

"...what the rest of this fine exhibition accomplishes is to show how Churchill’s words can seem the expression of a life force, mixing mercurial passions and extraordinary discipline, passionate devotion and exuberant self-promotion, extravagant indulgence and ruthless analysis." [NYT]

If a quick trip across the pond isn't on the cards then perhaps a visit to the site that the museum has launched in conjunction with the Churchill Archives Centre: discoverChurchill.org. Reading and listening I find myself moved beyond words (something Winnie never suffered!).

"Action This Day"!