TV isn't always bad.

(Flying Dutchman, Albert Pinkham Ryder)

I'm not around a television most evenings. Luckily last night I caught Monday's proms on the BBC; the overture to Wagner's "Flying Dutchman", some Beethoven, and Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra". Wow.

There was also Alan Titchmarsh:

on Wagner, after a brief synopsis where he managed to say something like "love triangle!" "every seven years!":
"But opera's never really that simple!"
"He got inspiration on the seas to London!"

on Strauss, with a brief mention of Kubrick and superman: "For those of you for whom Nietzsche isn't mother's milk!.."

Did he really have to disrupt my soothing evening-passage with his croaky tones? Apparently, he was voted the third sexiest man, and is good with flowers. These credentials mean nothing!