Cartoons Friday as Beethoven Welcomes Us to Spring

Vacation version.

Greg Mitchell is the author of more than a dozen books and now writer/director of three award-winning films aired via PBS, including “Atomic Cover-up” and “Memorial Day Massacre.” Now watch trailer for acclaimed 2025 film “The Atomic Bowl.” Before all that, he was a longtime editor of the legendary Crawdaddy. At Blue Sky and Twitter: as @gregmitch. You can still subscribe to this newsletter for FREE. Sustain this newsletter by ordering one of his books.

Sorry, actually on a brief vacation, but to welcome you into the new season, here is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever, the slow movement from Beethoven’s “Spring” sonata. And more minutes than “Like a Rolling Stone”!

But then there’s this re: one of our favorite pianists and lecturers on Beethoven, from The New York Times today:

András Schiff, an eminent concert pianist who has boycotted strongman rule in Russia and his native Hungary, said on Wednesday that he would no longer perform in the United States because of concerns about President Trump’s “unbelievable bullying” on the world stage.

Mr. Schiff, 71, a towering figure in classical music, said he was alarmed by Mr. Trump’s admonishments of Ukraine; his expansionist threats about Canada, Greenland and Gaza; and his support for far-right politicians in Germany. Mr. Schiff, who was born to a Jewish family in Budapest that witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust, said that Mr. Trump’s calls for mass deportation reminded him painfully of efforts to expel Jews during World War II.

“He has brought an ugliness into this world which hadn’t been there,” Mr. Schiff said in a telephone interview this week from Hong Kong, where he is performing. “I just find it impossible to go along with what is happening.”

So Mr. Schiff decided to stop performing in the United States.

Update on Neil Young’s free concert in Ukraine: not happening. Neil had to call it off over concerns for safety of crew.

Just a few cartoons today….