Leading Off (10/23/09)

1. I’ve never heard him conduct a concert. I have heard many people sing his praises. So I can imagine that there’s general excitement among the city’s classical music lovers now that the Dallas Symphony Orchestra music director has committed to staying until 2016.  Me? I don’t want to be a phony — like someone who calls himself a jazz aficionado just because he owns Kind of Blue – by claiming that I join them in their excitement. But I am glad he’ll be sticking around awhile. Because “Jaap van Zweden” is just plain fun to say.

2. I’m under age 55, so I was not watching the Jay Leno Show last night. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was on via satellite from inside the belly of his giant robot space turtle. Judging from this clip of the appearance, the segment featured Leno’s standard brand of excruciating comedy. Jay asked about Cowboys players dating celebrities, like Tony Romo’s relationship with Jessica Simpson. “Spice is nice,” Jerry said. Other gustatory terms come to mind, but I’ve never particularly thought of Jessica Simpson as spicy.

3. I don’t even want to imagine the horror that Raul Garza has had to live through since April, when his wife was murdered. The man who killed her was sentenced to 15 years in prison yesterday. What I can imagine, and what I hope brought him some small sense of satisfaction, was standing across from the killer in court and flinging these words at him: “You’re not a man, but a shell of human being not worthy of love because you are incapable of showing that to others. You let evil rip out your spine and your guts.”