Author: s1e2t3u4p5

Interested in hearing some of the “tiddleywink” music Ayn Rand loved so much? Check out this page on “Music with an Ayn Rand Connection.”
The author begins:

I have have had an interest in the popular music from the early decades of the 20th Century since childhood. When I was in my early 20s I discovered and became an admirer of the writings of Ayn Rand – the author of the philosophically provoking best selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. A few years later, I was amused to learn that Rand enjoyed a type of turn of the century popular music that she called “Tiddlywink Music.”
Of course, there is no such formally recognized musical genre. “Tiddlywink” seems to have been the name that Ayn Rand gave to music that she responded to in a certain way. The music does not seem to come from from any one particular genre: Canadian Capers is an example of ragtime; El Choclo is a tango.
When I discovered that Rand enjoyed music from the same era that I do, I became very curious as to what specific tunes she liked and classified as Tiddlywink music. Unfortunately, only a few examples have been cited in books and lectures about her. Because I find it fascinating when different interests of mine meet, I always try to keep an eye open for recordings with an Ayn Rand connection. There are two obstacles that I face in doing so. One is the previously mentioned limited information. The other is the fact that locating specific vintage recordings can sometimes take a lot of time. As I find them, however, I will transcribe them to Real Audio and place them on this site.

See the site for much more information.

Writing for the AFF Network, Sarah T. Hinson provides a lovely overview (“Freedom and Firefly“) of the pro-liberty themes in Joss Whedon’s Firefly (which we’ve reviewed in DVD form and eagerly anticipated on the big screen in September).
The article begins:

At its best, science fiction advocates liberty. While Star Trek lamentably supported a “Federation knows best” mentality, other works like Star Wars and Robert Heinlein’s novels have promoted the dissolution of central rule and the triumph of the individual. For the science fiction writer, space means one thing: freedom. Like the Wild West where men made their own rules and property rights were enforced at the end of a landowner’s shotgun, space has afforded the hope that one day man can move beyond the reach of any government’s oppressive hand.
No recent T.V. series understands this better than Fox’s Firefly, the tragically cancelled masterpiece spawned from the mind of Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel. Firefly was critically acclaimed, but sadly mismanaged and was cancelled after only eleven episodes aired in 2002. But thanks to DVD sales, Firefly has maintained a steady popularity. It currently ranks at 49 among DVDs on Amazon.com after seventeen months since its release.
The story of the series follows a smuggling ship captained by Malcolm (Mal) Reynolds. Mal and his first mate Zoe fought in the great galactic civil war as Independents resisting the unification of all the planets under the rule of the great behemoth, the Anglo-Sino Alliance. Ultimately crushed by the boot of empire, Mal buys a spaceship that can give him the freedom the Alliance threatens to steal. He tells Zoe that with the ship, “[We] never have to be under the heel of nobody ever again. No matter how long the arm of the Alliance might get, we’ll just get a little further.” And one gets the feeling that, while Mal, Zoe, and the other independents lost the battle, they will never give up the war.

See the full article for more. Via Instapundit.