Useta be we had Arthur Fiedler playing semi-classical pop for the Boston glitterati. He always drew a good crowd, especially to his Fourth of July concerts on the banks of the Charles River. I liked his march music, like the Stars and Stripes Forever, but some of the other stuff not especially. But now we have Andre' Rieu playing the old European semi-classical pop to huge outdoor crowds in the grand city squares of the world. At first I couldn't stand Andre', because he was so handsome and so fucking smug. But then I had to admit he is much more the showman than Fiedler ever was, with his lady musicians dressed up in elegant low-cut satin gowns, and now I love it when he struts around the stage on his long legs with his violin tucked under his chin, his tux tails flapping in the breeze, smiling all the time because he knows there is not another musical show in the world that can match his extravaganzas. His closest competitor is the New Year's Day concert at the Musikverein in Vienna, which has the advantage of a mostly Strauss waltzes and marches program, which gets the blue blood flowing through the veins of what's left of Austro-Hungarian royalty (quite a lot, actually, because they multiply through the generations) who add the final touch of glamor to the whole affair. Filthy rich people having the time of their lives--what more could a po' boy ask for?