| 4-6-98
By Luke Ford
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.
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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.
Later on in the show, Dennis discussed the United Nations condemnation
of the United States because the U.S. supports capital punishment
for convicted murderers. Dennis said that this made him want to
vomit. That it was laughable that the United Nations would start
to judge the United Sates on moral issues. Dennis suggested that
instead of the U.S. paying its back dues to the U.N., that the U.S.
should send the U.N. an invoice for all the money spent and loss
of life during the Persian Gulf War.
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