Washington Post Music/Theater Section

Once in a while, somebody will ask me my opinion of the Washington Post newspaper. That is, most of my life has been spent living in and around the Washington D.C. area and people figure I'd have an opinion on the subject...

"You seem to view the Post as a total steaming pile of garbage with no redeeming features at all, why exactly is that?" they ask.

Now, you might think I'd say something about the Post's editorial page in response to that question but my general view is that their editorial page may be the best they have and that it goes downhill from there.

Take their music page for example.....

Long story here but bear with me. I have two friends who are serious patrons of the arts and have tastes which are significantly more refined than mine. One evening they went to WolfTrap to watch what was billed as Itzhak Perlman performing one of Paganini's works which is viewed as involving a high degree of difficulty to play. There had been no notice of any change in the program but the Paganini piece was notably absent. In fact Mr. Perlman was performing a Beethoven piece which any any student at the nearby Peabody Institute could have played and about that well.

After about ten minutes of that, my two friends got up and began to walk out. One of WolfTrap's employees ran over to them and asked what was wrong. They told him they could watch BS like that on Youtube and the guy apologized profusely, explaining that Mr. Perlman had injured his shoulder the previous weekend and was barely able to hold a bow in his hand at all and was in no condition to attempt the Paganini piece, and my friends' money was refunded.

Now, that wasn't the end of the story. The end of the story was my friends picking up the Washing Post music/theater section the next morning and reading the Post's top music wanker's description of the performance as the greatest since violins were invented, and so glorious that one might have thought that one of God's angels had come down to play for the extraordinarily fortunate audience...