The Bourgeoisie at Play

On Saturday, after moonlightalice and wellgull showed me Extreme Dagobah -- for which I will be eternally grateful -- we slooooowly made our way to West 51st Street. (The subways were wonky and human traffic was a bitch.) Along the way, we encountered a bus from Bourgeois Tours, which provided us with endless amusement. Apparently it's a French Canadian outfit, and I guess that "bourgeois" has a different connotation for them than it does for everyone else, for whom it's equal parts "rich" and "philistine." Do they go and look at banks all day? We wondered if there are alternatives like "Lumpenproletariat Tours" where you lie in alleyways drinking beer and so forth.

Prog Rock for Q

I've expressed appreciation for progressive rock before, always with a touch of embarrassment. I think the problem was that I listened to rock critics, who have been largely hostile to the genre. I can see why. Rock critics, being writers, naturally focus on lyrics more than music, and let's face it, progressive rock lyrics can be pretty awful. (It took me a long time to realize that Yes lyrics make no sense whatsoever. They are, literally, just random phrases spliced together.) Critics also put a lot of emphasis on rock's "rebel" image and its authenticity, and the middle-class English guys who pioneered prog rock never fit in very well.

On the other hand, actual musicians seemed to like the prog rock stuff, which again is understandable, because it's both original and (no doubt refreshingly) challenging. I was reminded of this when I looked for videos of 21st Century Schizoid Man the other day, and saw how many different folks had covered the song. Two examples, on opposite sides of the lowbrow/highbrow spectrum, reminded me of negativeq: Ozzy Osborne apparently covered the King Crimson classic, as did this quintet of attractive Japanese violinists:

Personally I prefer the original to both versions, but your mileage may vary of course.