Baby Ketten Karaoke, created and run by musician John Brophy with impressively careful craftsmanship, “is ecstatic, virtuosic and a little intimidating. At the center of Portland’s amazingly creative karaoke scene, it’s something close to a genuine artistic movement. And it’s ridiculously fun.”
Month: January 2013
No, Benjamin Britten Did Not Have Syphilis
“[The] cardiologist who cared for Britten during the last three years of his life has … [told] the Guardian that he believes it is ‘extremely unlikely’ that Britten had the venereal disease, and ‘complete rubbish’ that his surgeon would or even could have covered up the condition.”
Police Find Hoard Of Stolen Rare Books And Documents In Nova Scotia
“A traffic stop last summer led police to search 51-year-old John Mark Tillman’s Fall River home where they found more that 800 allegedly stolen artifacts, that police estimate may be valued at more than $1 million.” Among the items are a 1758 letter from James Wolfe (the British general who won the French and Indian War) and a first edition of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.
Architect Designs World’s First 3D-Printed House
The Landscape House, by Amsterdam architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars, “takes the form of a continuous looping Möbius strip, rising out of the ground before folding back on itself in a seamless undulating band. Its complex geometries are not made of reinforced cast concrete, however, but layers of printed sand.”
Cultures Clash Backstage In Australian-Chinese Co-Production
“It was probably inevitable that the Australian and Chinese performers of Cho Cho, a confronting adaptation of Madame Butterfly, would experience a clash of cultures before they took to the stage. … But they didn’t expect to be lost in translation quite so quickly – from the moment the Chinese actors saw their costume and make-up designs.”
Has Innovation Stalled Out?
“It may come as a surprise that some in Silicon Valley think the place is stagnant, and that the rate of innovation has been slackening for decades.”
In The Age Of Big Data We Need Critics More Than Ever
“Are we on the cusp of aggregating utilitarianism into new tyrannies of scale? Is there a threshold where Big Pushpin is incontrovertibly better than small poetry, because the numbers are so big, they leave interpretation behind and acquire their own agency.”
What It’s Like To Be Stalked Online
“These latest accusations, in particular, seemed too self-evidently preposterous to worry about. Who could possibly believe that I was some kind of literary racketeer who had stolen her material to sell it off to other writers? It was too ridiculous to take seriously.”
Maryland Court Equates Ticketmaster Fees To “Scalping”
“The state’s highest court ruled Friday that service fees charged by Ticketmaster amount to scalping — setting up the possibility that people who attended some events might ultimately be eligible for refunds.”
Why The Chicago Jazz Festival Is Moving
“This festival’s ancient formula long has contributed to its decline, an event that once stretched seven days having shrunk to merely four.”