My New Cello

On Thursday I was thrilled to acquire a "new" cello, made in London (where else?) by Thomas Kennedy (1784-1870) in 1850: my first old instrument.  (The cello I've been using since 1993 was made in Alaska in 1988.)  Surely if any cellist were meant to have an English cello, I was.  Of course, every musician should know which monarchs were reigning when his instrument was made, so a few weeks ago I prepared this chart of the leading monarchs of 1850.  And here I am playing "God Save the Queen" (requested by one of my royalist friends) on this beautiful English instrument, my portrait of HM visible on the wall behind me.

 

Roosevelts and Windsors

Tonight my parents and I went to see Hyde Park on Hudson.  Bill Murray is great as President Roosevelt, whose 1939 visit from King George VI and Queen Elizabeth forms the center of this drama based on an FDR mistress's secret diaries, but I was less convinced by the other characters especially Olivia Colman as the Queen who (with the writers) turns her into a shrewish, fussy snob--about as unlike the real, warm, fun-loving Queen Elizabeth as she could have been, even unfavorably comparing her husband in private to his recently abdicated brother, which anyone who knows anything about Queen Elizabeth's post-abdication views of "David" would know she never would have done. The actual Queen Elizabeth tended to view challenges and unfamiliar things (like hot dogs) as an Adventure; that's probably why she lived to be 101. The "Queen Elizabeth" depicted in this movie would have worried herself to death several decades before 2002. Samuel West, though like Colin Firth totally lacking anything resembling the real King's gaunt features, is somewhat more suitable as King George VI, but while the look and feel of the 1930s is captured convincingly this is not a film for those who like royalty depicted with a reasonable degree of accuracy.

Monarchy, Christianity, and Vampires

I hope I got your attention with that subject title.  This is probably one of the more bizarre articles I've found on the web as a result of all the Google searches I do to see what is being said about this blog's favorite topic.  It's probably necessary to be at least somewhat familiar with both True Blood (which I am) and Mad Men (which I am not) to understand all the references.  I certainly don't share this writer's values and assumptions at all.  But it's interesting because coming from a perspective that is clearly hostile to monarchy and traditional pre-egalitarian society (whether Western or Eastern) in general, Sellar sees what so many non-monarchist Christians cannot or will not see: that Christianity, like Asia's traditional Confucian beliefs, is inherently monarchist, and its language remains so today even among Americans who pride themselves on their rejection of Monarchy.

That issue is also addressed, and also from a hostile perspective, here.  Everett's agenda for Christianity, set forth in 1989, still around today though not usually articulated so bluntly, must be fought on all fronts. But he gets credit for seeing the tension between republicanism and Christian tradition clearly; he's just on the other side. On Tuesday, celebrate the birth of the King of Kings (as in Handel's Hallelujah Chorus), not the President of Presidents.

The Real Republic

Recently a French cabinet minister announcing that the government will monitor religious groups including traditionalist Catholics for "religious pathology" revealed the essentially totalitarian nature of the French Republic with rather more honesty than usual nowadays.  “Secularism is not about simple tolerance … it is a set of values that we have to share.”  And if "we" don't?  What then?  More genocide like in the 1790s? 

French Catholics, it is long past time to abandon the failed and misguided Ralliement of Leo XIII.  The Republic hates you, always has, always will.  “We decided to be uncompromising against all those who utter hate speech against the Republic and our values.”   Good.  Bring it on.  Let monarchists and Catholics be no less uncompromising.  The Republic and its rotten "values" should be condemned loudly and vigorously with what it calls "hate speech."  I would be proud to be counted among the enemies of the Republic illegitimately occupying the once-great nation where all the trouble started.  Only a King can lawfully rule France.  Death to the Republic!  Vive le Roi!

Who Cares about the Don't Carers?

We monarchists love our rituals and traditions.  But there's one "ritual" I think we would all be happy to see the back of.  I'm talking about the way that every time there's a widely covered royal event, the internet is immediately deluged with angry comments from people who proclaim that they Don't Care (and therefore presumably no one else should either).  I posted the following yesterday on both Facebook (where it received 62 "Likes," including from a few non-Friends) and the Mail Online (where less gratifyingly it received a net total of five "red arrows," meaning that negative/red reactions outnumbered positive/green reactions by five).  Blog readers, if you follow the second link which should take you directly to my comment, green arrows would be much appreciated!


Dear Nasty Bitter People Leaving Negative Comments On Articles About The Royal Pregnancy:

OK, we get it. You don't care. You don't care so much that you feel the need to inform the entire world how much you don't care. Well, guess what? I didn't care about the U.S. presidential election and had to hear much more about it than you will ever hear about the royal baby. I don't care about sports--at all--yet hear about that constantly. Somehow I've managed to avoid reading articles about these things I don't care about and posting comments about how I don't care, because I actually don't care enough to do that and am not a moron. As incomprehensible as it may be to you, some of us actually do think that the birth of the future head of state of sixteen countries is kind of a big deal. So kindly shut up and leave our articles alone.

Duchess of Cambridge pregnant!

St James's Palace has announced that HRH the Duchess of Cambridge is expecting a baby! Congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as Britain and the Commonwealth Realms, blessed with the most fully human and beautiful method of selecting heads of state there is, await their future sovereign!  I hope HRH will recover soon from the acute morning sickness that caused her to be hospitalised and the pregnancy publicly confirmed sooner than would be customary.  But truly this joyous news is the perfect end to a jubilee year.