sting and the symphony orchestra! delivering "a delectable trifle with a coy premise," in these terms:  “It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile,” Sting chirped, before coming to the singalong refrain: “Be yourself, no matter what they say.” (it's hard to say what sting has in mind when he talks about 'suffering ignorance': probably it means roughly talking to someone who disagrees with al gore.) um, yeah. how someone who just mutters extreme banalities ("if you love someone, set them free!"), like a public high school principal delivering a graduation speech under sedation, gets quoted at all, much less greeted ecstatically, is beyond me. "we are spirits in a material world": if i want half-baked metaphysics, i'll hire a grad student. what i dig about the lyrics is their incredible overblown emptiness, delivered over the la-di-da melodies. indeed, if you're going to rehearse a bunch of utterly empty cliches, you might as well jack up the pretentiousness to excruciating levels by standing in front of a symphony orchestra. so sting: no matter what the nyt says, be someone - anyone - other than yourself.