I went to The Barber of Seville at the LAOpera the other night. A very very nice show, I really enjoyed it. Perhaps it is because I have some familiarity with the music. If you ever watched Bugs Bunny cartoons, you are likely familiar with the Overture and Figaro (Cavtina: Largo al factotum della citta). Both pieces have been sampled in several cartoons. However, the Overture was the basis for the episode Rabbit Of Seville (1950), where Bugs fleeing from a murderous Elmer Fudd stumbles onto a production of the Barber of Seville, shortly before opening.

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A few weeks ago, Tyre Nichols was killed. Turns out police officers from an elite unit of the Memphis, TN Police Department (MPD), pulled him over and then proceeded to meet out a brutal, and most violent beating. The video is truly horrendous. There is an angle from a street post, where you see several officers (now former) holding Nichols up, as others take turns pummeling his body and face. I struggled to hold my gorge as I watched (I think I have to stop traumatizing myself like that). The angle where you see them from above is silent. However, there are other videos, from the officers’ body cameras, where you hear the exertions and heavy breathing as they beat the life out of Nichols. It is harrowing to watch. And as I watch, I wonder why policing as an institution has lost its humanity, or if policing ever had any humanity to begin with.

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