Random bad news

Several items, of varying levels of angry-making (in no particular order):

1. The first is, I made this post before, and much better, I might add, but livejournal decided to eat it. So I'm in a rather bad mood because of that.

2. Schama's horrible art history show, the one that called David a "monster," apparently won an International Emmy. [Insert rant on how there is no justice in the world--which I'm not going to rewrite, but you can imagine how it went--here.]

3. I don't have any more excerpts ready just yet, which might be bad news or good news, depending on how you look at it. (Though the next one won't be nearly as bad as some of the others, fortunately.)

4. A. O. Scott, the NY Times critic who actually gave the Antoinette movie a good review, just called "the triumph of the human spirit" an "empty cliché." It explains some things, at least.

5. I just saw Massenet's "Werther," and I loved it so much I'm now reading the original novel (but not in the original German, since I don't speak a word of it). It was just so beautiful and depressing--this last part being why this might be considered bad news, as it's probably the last thing anyone needs. (I suppose, you would think I would have had enough of beautiful and depressing, but I guess not... If I were depressed about my own life instead of a) the current state of the world, b) historical events and their treatment, and c) 18th century novels and the 19th century operas based on them, I would probably be considered rather emo. But I'm not really self-absorbed enough to think that my own life is worse than all the above-mentioned... So no, I don't really qualify.)
So anyway, go and listen to "Pourquoi me réveiller...?" on youtube. It's so beautiful... *sighs* Seriously, go listen to it.