Atlasphere member Monart Pon has commissioned and produced a new CD entitled Concerto of Deliverance, by John Mills-Cockell. The album was released on July 4, 2004.
The Concerto of Deliverance web page states that it?s a work inspired by Ayn Rand?s words in Atlas Shrugged describing such music. Readers of Atlas Shrugged would know that ?The Concerto of Deliverance? is the title of Chapter VI, Part III, and is what Richard Halley?s friends called his Fifth Concerto.
The web site for the album offers samples from the 79-minute work. Also on the site are profiles of the composer and contributors, a pre-production interview with the composer, and the post-production Composer?s Notes, as well as reviews by Objectivist musicians and philosophers.
UPDATE (Aug 12): Doug Wagoner has written a formal review of the Concerto of Deliverance for the Atlasphere.
Category: The Atlasphere
All things Atlasphere can be found here, columns, podcasts, interesting anecdotes, and more.
Update on TOC Distance-Learning: Objectivism from the Source
The Objectivist Center website has more information available on its distance learning course: “Objectivism from the Source.”
Objectivism from the Source will teaching a systematic understanding of Rand’s philosophy, Objectivism, through a careful reading of core texts in which Rand explicates and applies it.
It will meet every Wednesday, 6:30 – 9 pm ET from September 15 to December 1, 2004 by a toll-free teleconference. (The day and time are subject to change) The course tuition is $180 ($85 for full-time students). This fee doesn’t include costs of books or materials. There is, however, no charge for the telephone call. A limited number of scholarships are available.
It is open to students, activists, scholars, and club members who want to deepen their grasp of the key elements of the philosophy. The application deadline is August 23. Application Information.
Notes on Whole Foods Owner John Mackey
Atlasphere member Will Wilkinson notes on his blog that his local Giant grocery store is lousy in just about every way a grocery store can be lousy:
Sure, it’s cheaper than my other local grocery, Whole Foods (libertarian-owned, I’m told), but I think I may be willing to add $10 to each bill in order to save myself the aggravation of standing in line while the check-out lady makes yet another historic attempt to break all known records in lethargy (while the manager, a creature rarely seen, camps in the fetid back room listening to “The Rest of the Story” on Paul Harvey News and Comment.) Whole Foods is often packed, yet I rarely wait more than five minutes. Did I mention that Giant is ugly, and that the produce is bad.
I don’t know anything about Giant, but I know something about Whole Foods. In the early 1990s they bought out Wellspring Grocery, the natural foods grocery store that I had worked at in high school. At the time, I remember reading that Whole Foods owner John Mackey called himself a “new-age libertarian environmentalist,” whatever that meant.
A little research on the ‘net shows that he’s a colorful character:
[W]hen left-leaning journalists began attacking him for resisting union demands last year, MacKey responded by putting together “Beyond Unions,” a 19-page summary of his libertarian views that included quotes from libertarian giants like Ludwig von Mises, Milton and Rose Friedman, Henry Hazlitt, and Robert Nozick.
Heh. And how did he arrive at such pro-freedom views? Reportedly by reading Ayn Rand, among other authors.
Kathy and I find ourselves doing more and more shopping at the Whole Foods here in Albuquerque. …Why? Because it’s the best store in town: incredible selection, immaculately kept, and friendly staff. Always teeming with happy shoppers and fresh, delicious food. (Viva Capitalism!)
Celebrity Rand Fans: Rock Trio Rush
You probably already know that the rock trio Rush (and especially its drummer Neil Peart) are long-time fans of Ayn Rand’s writings.
Bay-area TV station KTVU recently profiled the band while reviewing their latest tour. The review makes brief reference to Rush’s adaptation of the storyline from Ayn Rand’s novelette Anthem for the title track on their 70s-era album 2112.
The profile begins:
There aren’t many surviving acts from the ’70s who can boast the kind of durability and integrity that Canadian trio Rush can. In an era when KISS continues touring years after its alleged farewell jaunt and hires two imposters to take on the costumed personas of original members, Rush’s line-up of bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee, underrated guitar hero Alex Lifeson and drummer/lyricist Neil “The Professor” Peart has managed to stay intact for three decades while remaining true to the unique kind of virtuoso musicianship and thought-provoking hard rock that have become Rush trademarks.
See KTVU’s full Rush profile for further information about this terrific rock band.
(If you’re unfamiliar with Rush, but interested in exploring their work, I particularly recommend their albums Moving Pictures and Permanent Waves. These two albums were released at the height of Rush’s career, and are masterpieces of classic, guitar-driven rock.)
Celebrity Ayn Rand Fan: Michelle Williams
According to her “The Williams Center” fan site, Dawson’s Creek star Michelle Williams includes Ayn Rand among her favorite authors:
In her spare time, Michelle Williams enjoys reading more than anything else. Some of her favourite authors are Hermann Hesse, Dostoyevsky and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and Ayn Rand. She describes herself as “independent, determined and a risk-taker.” With that in mind, it is certainly just a matter of time before she becomes an established and respected actress in Hollywood.
See Ms. Williams’s full bio for more information about this fetching Rand fan.
Venezuelan Architect Credits Fountainhead
From the Miami Herald (registration required):
For Sarita Mishkin de Darer, being a pioneer comes naturally. In the 50s in Venezuela it was unheard of for a woman to work, let alone go into such an “unfeminine” field as architecture.
She braved criticism and discrimination. A professor told her she could not be an architect with long fingernails and others chastised her for wearing pants to a work site.
The Venezuelan-born architect also shocked her family by not going into the family textile business. “I guess I was the black sheep, they thought I was crazy,” she says, laughing. She was sent to the Highland Manor boarding school in New Jersey. There a book by Ayn Rand changed her life.
“I read The Fountainhead when I was about 12, then that summer I went to Europe with my mother. The Louvre and all the art I saw affected me profoundly,” she recalls.
Today Sarita Darer, her husband, Oscar, and son, Eduardo, are the Darer Group, a design, finance and construction team now working on several condominium projects in Miami.
Sarita’s parents accepted her refusal to go into their textile business. ‘But only because I lied and told them I would study pharmacy which was `acceptable’ for a girl,” she says. Again, she broke the rules by graduating from high school at 15, then went on to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
“A year later I sent my grades and confessed I was majoring in architecture, but they didn’t understand because in Venezuela most plans were done by engineers,” she recalls. She graduated at age 20, worked one summer in New York, then returned to Venezuela to work at the Centro Simon Bolivar government agency.
New Issue of 'Navigator'
The latest issue of The Objectivist Center‘s monthly journal Navigator is out.
In ‘Mozart’s Don Giovanni: An Enlightenment Hero?’ John Kerns begins with this intriguing question:
How are we to judge Don Giovanni, the protagonist of Mozart’s famous opera? Is he an Enlightenment hero, a symbol of independent thinking and action standing in opposition to church and convention? Or is he a dissolute roué evading responsibility for his actions or, even worse, a murderer and rapist?
Also in this issue, William Thomas reviews Alexander York’s novel, Crosspoints in ‘A Romantic Manifesto’, Michelle Fram-Cohen looks at the inspiring works of painting Uri Gil in ‘An Israeli Airman Attains New Heights in Painting’, and Robert Bidinotto writes how ‘Hollywood Canonizes an Eco-Terrorist’.
See the full issue of Navigator for these and other articles.
Ayn Rand in Smart Money Mag
The teaser for the June 21 edition of Smart Money magazine’s Tradecraft feature begins by explicitly endorsing Ayn Rand’s view of government.
Smart Money is the major financial publication of Hearst Corporation, (which is also publisher of Esquire magazine). Subscribers to Smart Money can read the full article.
UPDATE: Rand’s appearance in Smart Money is more than a coincidence: The article was written by Atlasphere member Jonathan Hoenig, of Chicago, who’s given us permission to reproduce the full article here.
Get Off Our Backs!
by Jonathan Hoenig – June 21, 2004
by Jonathan Hoenig – June 21, 2004
AS THE SAYING GOES, there’s no such thing as being a little bit pregnant. When it comes to freedom, the same applies: People either are free, or they aren’t. Either they’re sovereign individuals who own their lives and the results of their productive efforts, or they’re servants to the state. If basic rights are always subject to a majority vote, it’s not liberty, but mob rule.
Free trade is one of those rights. As philosopher Ayn Rand wrote, “political freedom cannot exist without economic freedom; a free mind and a free market are corollaries.” People who aren’t free to trade their property, time or productive effort in accordance with their own values aren’t free at all.
Continue reading “Ayn Rand in Smart Money Mag”
Institute for Justice in 'Fortune' Magazine
Fortune magazine has published a terrific profile of the Institute for Justice, whose staff includes (daughter of long-time ARI Executive Director Michael Berliner) Dana Berliner and (until recently) Clint Bolick, who has been a regular speaker at the Objectivist Center’s summer conferences.
The Fortune profile begins:
If you want to become a florist in Louisiana, a state law requires you to take a licensing exam. Your flowers are evaluated by licensed florists on subjective criteria such as whether they are “spaced effectively” and have the “proper focal point.” More than half of the applicants fail. Do unlicensed florists present a big menace? No, many believe the real explanation is that Louisiana florists want to limit their competition. In Oklahoma a similar law requires that anyone who wants to sell caskets must first obtain a funeral director’s license and embalm 25 bodies. These laws and others like them can seem unfair to entrepreneurs, and in recent years a nonprofit law firm called the Institute for Justice has helped small businesses fight them.
Based in Washington, D.C., the Institute for Justice is the only libertarian law firm in the country that handles cases coast-to-coast. (That’s libertarian with a lower-case ‘l’?IJ is not affiliated with any political party.) Working at no cost to clients, IJ’s lawyers try to limit government regulation, usually by challenging state laws. Aside from a handful of cases involving school choice and residential property rights, IJ works almost exclusively on behalf of small businesses, specifically in economic liberty, free speech, and eminent domain cases. It files suit only against the government, not private parties, and it doesn’t handle social issues such as abortion, gun control, or prayer in schools.
The firm has 12 to 15 active cases at any time, and several have been in the headlines in recent months. In March the Arizona Structural Pest Control Commission backed down from prosecuting Christian Alf, a Tempe, Ariz., 17-year-old who started an after-school business patching holes in roofs to protect homes from a local rat infestation. At $30 a job, Alf was severely undercutting local licensed exterminators. After receiving IJ’s letter stating its intention to support Alf, and unflattering coverage in the Arizona Republic (Most Irritating Pests Are Those on State Commission), the commission determined that Alf was not breaking the law and issued a letter wishing him well.
See the full profile for more information about IJ, including Ayn Rand’s role in inspiring this “merry band of litigators.”
Wayne Kramer on Remaking 'The Fountainhead'
Last month we reported that Brad Pitt and Oliver Stone are interested in remaking the movie version of The Fountainhead.
It turns out that South African-born director Wayne Kramer (whose charming-looking The Cooler comes out on video tomorrow) is also interested.
From an interview with Kramer at the Times Online:
Is there a book that you would particularly like to make a film from?
My dream book to make a film of would be The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand. There was a version starring Gary Cooper in 1984, but that didn’t do it justice. I think that book is a film just begging to be made.
See the full interview for more info about Wayne Kramer.
(Incidentally, the King Vidor version of The Fountainhead movie starring Gary Cooper was actually released in 1949, not 1984 as stated above.)