Let's all look at Boston Celtics Center Shaquille O’Neal in a tux (made with enough fabric to put Tom Ford in back orders for a month) in his conducting premiere with the festive "Sleigh Ride" for The Boston Pops Orchestra in Beantown on Monday night.
The Celtics/BPO tie-in has saturated the internet, and when Hollywood gossip heavyhitter TMZ picks it up, you know (at whatever cost) you've done something right -- (TMZ is the New York Times of Hollywood gossip reporting -- the same people who brought us such good times like Britney Spears' head shaving incident, Tiger Woods' crash&burn, Rhianna's Chris Brown beat down photos, and Miley Cyrus sucking on a bong video) and frankly, probably the first time in their five year existence that TMZ used "orchestra" in a(n) URL.
So aside from giving big props to the BPO for making it to the pages of the unwashed heathens (in the form of influential gossip blogs) is this how to save classical music? Making it cool by association? Our good friend Socrates said, "Be as you wish to seem".
Although our other good friend Kurt Cobain said, "Rather be dead than cool."