That’s all I’m saying. People can’t believe everything they see on TV. Or read on the internet for that matter.

Do you think it was a treat to walk down Roman, Greek, or any roads of the ancient world? The smell alone would turn your stomach. If you could separate yourself from some sort of modern viewpoint and objectively judge things, you will see that things aren’t as awful as you make them to be.

Further, Mozart’s music was revolutionary. It was not like anything that came before. It was the “rock and roll” of its day. Some liked it and some did not. However, it became appreciated after some time.

Who else produced music at the time? Who were the big composers? You can’t even name the “one evil guy who was jealous of his talent.” Clearly, we have far more composers than Austria did. Hence, we have far more breadth, but not as much depth. That doesn’t make what we have any less. In my opinion, John Williams is the Mozart of our day. He is doing quite fine.

Ok, not everybody liked Mozart. Um, while that may be HIGHLY unlikely, the fact remains that Mozart is the most enduring composer to ever live whether a small fraction of his contemporaries didn’t like him or not and if you believe the movie, the only people who didn’t like was that one evil guy who was jealous of his talent.

And I’m sure LOTS of people complained of the Parathion… Oh my! WHAT AN EYESORE THAT IS!!!!

My heart aches as I walk around American cities where there is never place to even REST unless you’re resting in an automobile on the side of a freeway or waiting for someone to buy a spatula at Wal Mart in a hot and dry parking lot. American cities were designed for one thing and one purpose only: access to cars. You can’t even walk down the street without fearing for your life and the only piece of public space in downtown Minneapolis is a tiny stamp-sized concrete sunken area called Peavey Plaze, and I’m not even sure if it’s technically public.

Personally, I think the big difference is that we have spent a great deal on architecture at the expense of music and theater. Whether we find the Metrodome beautiful or not is irrelevant — someone designed it and it makes its statement. Not everyone loved Mozart’s stuff. Our cities are vastly more architecturally interesting than Rome or Athens were in the day.

Also, Christopher Alexander in his book “A Pattern Language” says that skyscrapers aren’t human scale and hurt the social fabric of the community.

I’d hate to be in a skyscraper if the power ever went out. Or a plane were to hit. I’m terrified of them.