Posts Tagged ‘Bach’
“Follow the money”*…
The Trump administration’s immigration policy has been a bonanza for the private prison sector– as Vanessa Romo reports, for two companies with ties to the administration in particular…
America’s two largest private prison companies, CoreCivic and GEO Group, are reporting a combined $1.4 billion in quarterly revenue over the spring as immigration detention closes in on record levels.
Those revenues announced Thursday do not include net proceeds of $1.6 billion made by CoreCivic after the recent sale of four of their facilities to the Department of Homeland Security. Patrick Swindle [!], CoreCivic’s President and CEO, told investors on an earnings call that that works out to an average rate of $307,000 per bed.
The earnings — from April through June of this year — come as the U.S. is holding almost 66,000 people in immigration detention, nearing record levels not seen since January, according to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan research center. Both companies say they’re also finding other revenue opportunities, like ankle monitors for Haitian immigrants who recently lost their protected immigration status.
Swindle said that CoreCivic’s total revenue went up by just over 27% this spring compared to the same quarter last year, for a total of $684.9 million. CoreCivic exceeded expectations in a period that included the government shutdown, Swindle said. This was accomplished in part by lowering operating costs — meaning the business of detaining people is becoming cheaper — and because of more people being put in detention.
CoreCivic’s sales of detention centers to the government won’t be reflected until next quarter — but they are part of a larger strategy to meet President Trump’s goal of having 100,000 people in detention at once. CoreCivic made a deal to continue operating the detention centers and also hopes to build more. Meanwhile, GEO Group says they’re also in talks to do the same.
GEO Group CEO George Zoley said in his company’s earnings call also on Thursday that thanks to 2025 contracts, total revenues are up to $732.1 million — an increase of nearly $96 million or 15% — over the same period last year.
GEO Group’s government ties run deep. Former GEO Group executive David Venturella is the acting director of ICE. In a recent letter, he told lawmakers he has divested his GEO Group stock.
President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan was also a paid consultant for GEO Group before joining the government, and former Attorney General Pam Bondi lobbied for GEO Group before she was appointed.
President Trump also has financial stakes in the two companies, according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics. An analysis of Trump’s most recent financial disclosure by CREW last month found that the president’s brokers have made 29 trades of private prison stocks since he returned to office. According to the study, the first purchases were made on the 10th day of his second term. The total amount bought and sold was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars split between GEO Group and CoreCivic.
In Thursday’s call, GEO Group noted that their ankle monitoring sales are up. The electronic devices are part of the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program contract it has with ICE, along with smartwatches and the SmartLink phone app that help the government keep tabs on immigrants outside of detention, Zoley said.
Zoley also told investors that GPS-tracking ankle monitors in particular will likely keep climbing now that Temporary Protected Status for Haitian immigrants has ended.
“Because of this new policy shift as to who will be subject to this immigration enforcement like … the Haitians, we could see a significant increase in the number of people in the ISAP program,” Zoley said, adding “most of them, we believe, would be placed under the ankle monitoring supervision.” He noted that “the app is far less expensive than the ankle monitors.”…
On those “sales of detention center to the government”: it appears the administration has retreated from overpaying for warehouses needy of retrofitting in area that don’t want them, opting instead to buy currently-operating facilities.
The misery market: “Private prisons announce $1.4 billion in revenue as immigration detentions climb,” from @npr.org.
* “Deep Throat” (subsequently identified as Mark Felt), William Goldman in the screenplay for All the President’s Men
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As we grapple with graft, we might recall that it was on this date in 1724 that Johann Sebastian Bach led the first performance of his Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott, BWV 101, a chorale cantata based on “Vater unser im Himmelreich“ (Our Father in Heaven), a Lutheran hymn, a paraphrase of the Lord’s Prayer in German by Martin Luther.
See/hear it here.
“Study Bach. There you will find everything.”*…
When eminent biologist and author Lewis Thomas was asked what message he would choose to send from Earth into outer space in the Voyager spacecraft, he answered, “I would send the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach.” After a pause, he added, “But that would be boasting.” (Indeed.)
Evan Goldfine agreed– and decided to devote a year to listening to Bach… all of Bach…
… Take your favorite author and read all of it! The early exploratory stuff, the later material you’ll throw against the wall, the angry letters to publishers and daffy love letters, every word. (This strategy also works for visual artists and filmmakers, etc.)
I’d listened to only about a third of Bach’s work prior to Year of Bach. Why so little? I loved what I’d heard…
How much of Bach do you know? You’ve tasted only a morsel of the world’s biggest cake.
That said, of all the great artists, Bach has the lowest variance in style and quality of output from youth to old age…
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My Year of Bach ended in December, but I’m still listening to plenty of JSB. I’m happy whenever my algo serves it up. The music is fundamental and infinite…
… My gamble last January was that I’d enjoy listening to all 200 hours of Bach’s compositions. My goodness, did Bach live up to his part of the deal. The music was never less than excellent…
See also here
A year of majesty and beauty: “37 takeaways from 200 hours with Bach.”
(Image at top: source)
* Johannes Brahms
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As we celebrate completists, we might recall that it was on the date in 1749 that George Frideric Handel’s “Music For The Royal Fireworks” debuted in London’s Green Park. Bach and Handel were contemporaries; they (and Domenico Scarlatti) were born in 1685.
“I believe that the Binomial Theorem and a Bach Fugue are, in the long run, more important than all the battles of history”*…
Using his “musical animation machine.” Stephen Malinowski illustrates the genius of Bach’s “Great” Fugue in G minor, BWV 542…
Q: What’s so “great” about this fugue?
A: It’s called “great” to distinguish it from the other fugue in G minor (BWV 578) which is called “little”; you can compare it here. The BWV 578 fugue is a stand-alone piece, but BWV 542 is a pair of pieces; its full title is “Fantasia and Fugue in G minor.”…
* James Hilton
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As we marvel, we might recall that it was on this date in 1762 that Christoph Willibald Gluck‘s glorious opera Orfeo ed Euridice premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna, in the presence of Empress Maria Theresa. The first of Gluck’s “reform” operas (which brought “noble simplicity” to what had become abstruse opera seria), it was hugely influential on subsequent German operas. Variations on its plot—the underground rescue mission in which the hero must control, or conceal, his emotions—can be found in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Beethoven’s Fidelio, and Wagner’s Das Rheingold.
“Now there is music from which a man can learn something”*…
As Sienna Linton reports, mathematicians have analysed hundreds of Bach’s works, from toccatas to preludes, cantatas and chorales, and discovered his music may be even more impressive than we realized…
It’s no secret that J.S. Bach is one of the greatest composers of all time. Father of the fugue and organ music master, he was an immensely prolific musician, writing more than 1100 pieces in his lifetime.
Bach’s intricate and detailed approach to melody and harmony inspired generations of composers that followed. His compositional technique continues to form the musical foundation for budding musicians around the world, of all genres.
The composer himself had an intensely mathematical brain. He would sign his name in music, and would even hide little references to the numbers 14 and 41, which acted as his numerical signature, in his works.
Now, a mathematical study has revealed that Bach’s music may be even more intricate than we thought.
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have analysed hundreds of pieces of Bach’s music to investigate how well these works can convey information – and the results are fascinating for both the mathematically and musically inclined…
Fascinating: “Bach’s true mathematical genius has been revealed in new study,” from @ClassicFM.
See also: “Is Bach best?” and of course, Gödel, Escher, Bach.
* W. A. Mozart, on hearing Bach motets in Leipzig
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As we glorify the GOAT, we might send him transcendent birthday greetings: Johann Sebastian Bach was born on this date in 1685 (at least according to the O.S. calendar by which he lived; his birthday is May 31 according to our calendar). Where to start? Well, there’s his orchestral music such as the Brandenburg Concertos; solo instrumental works such as the cello suites and sonatas and partitas for solo violin; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as the Schubler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and choral works such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor.
Here’s the Netherlands Bach Society for All of Bach. As their name implies, there’s much more where this comes from…
“I was obliged to be industrious”*…
There’s an old joke that goes something like this: Mozart, on dying too young, finds himself in Heaven. He’s approached by God, who suggests that Mozart might become the conductor of Heaven’s orchestra. Mozart, taken aback, exclaims, “I’m flattered Lord, but surely Kapellmeister Bach is here and would be a more appropriate choice.” to which God responds, “I am Bach.”
Tyler Cowan with an argument that the joke isn’t so far off…
I’ve been reading and rereading biographies of Bach lately (for some podcast prep), and it strikes me he might count as the greatest achiever of all time. That is distinct from say regarding him as your favorite composer or artist of all time. I would include the following metrics as relevant for that designation:
1. Quality of work.
2. How much better he was than his contemporaries.
3. How much he stayed the very best in subsequent centuries.
4. Quantity of work.
5. Peaks.
6. Consistency of work and achievement.
I see Bach as ranking very, very high in all these categories. Who else might even be a contender for greatest achiever of all time? Shakespeare? Maybe, but Bach seems to beat him for relentlessness and quantity (at a very high quality level). Beethoven would be high on the list, but he doesn’t seem to quite match up to Bach in all of these categories. Homer seems relevant, but we are not even sure who or what he was. Archimedes? Plato or Aristotle? Who else?…
In any case, a reminder that we should all be listening to more Bach: “Is Bach the greatest achiever of all time?“, from @tylercowen.
* Johann Sebastian Bach
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As we muse on magnificence, we might send melodic birthday greetings to Girolamo Frescobaldi; he was born on this date in 1583. A composer and keyboard virtuoso, he created some of the most influential music of the 17th century. His work influenced Bach, Johann Pachelbel, Henry Purcell, and other major composers.
Indeed, Bach is known to have owned a number of Frescobaldi’s works, including a manuscript copy of Frescobaldi’s Fiori musicali (Venice, 1635), which Bach signed and dated 1714 and performed in Weimar the same year.
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