In Brief: Independence Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to good things in Blogville and Beyond.

• For your video pleasure, Virginia O'Brien's deadpan take on the story of Salome, with hat tip to Sarah Noble. [Prima la musica]


• Food for thought for Americans on Independence Day: in the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson initially referred to his countrymen as "our fellow subjects." He then struck that out in favor of the word "citizens," and the choice of one simple word speaks volumes about the shift in mindset that occurred in 1776. [Library of Congress]


• Today is also the birthday of New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who it turns out, was a big opera fan. [Opera Chic]


• "But you can just imagine the yelps of horror some other ideas would have brought on: 'Ogh ogh, awwghgh!' Larkin would have written to his girlfriend, Monica Jones, or to his friend, Kingsley Amis about the events for children, for instance – such as the one entitled Super Specs: 'Make your own Larkin-inspired glasses with glitz and glam!' Larkin was a famous child-hater; sending him a baby photograph was, he once said, 'like sending garlic to Dracula'." Philip Larkin will likely roll over in his grave at several points during an event in Hull intended to honor his memory. [The Observer]


• The Aix-en-Provence Festival opened this week with a production of Don Giovanni by Dmitri Tcherniakov. Marie-Aude Roux absolutely skewered the staging, which she said destroyed the organic unity of the music and drama by "stuffing every scene with digressions, sometimes ingenious and sometimes just wordy, even when they went against the sense of the scene." Hmm, sounds familiar. [Le Monde]


• We have perhaps complained too much about our disappointment with public television in the United States. Now Seth Colter Walls gives reason to hope that things might be a-changin'. [Newsweek]


• As reported just about everywhere, French conductor Ludovic Morlot will succeed Gerard Schwarz as music director of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. [Seattle Times]


• I'm still peeved about the Washington Post canceling the magnificent chess column by Lubomir Kavalek. Good thing that I have finally found another one to read, by Bertrand Guyard (in French), hosted by Le Figaro. [Figaro & Mat]