Author: Matthew Westphal

A Brief History Of In-Flight Movies (Which Once Seemed Totally Awesome)

“There was a time when in-flight entertainment was better than anything you could actually bring onto a plane.” (And that time goes back, believe it or not, back to the 1920s.) “That time has long passed, and some airlines are looking to get rid of seat-back screens, in favor of letting you use whatever screen you have with you … But, nonetheless, it got [Ernie Smith] thinking – about the technology that allows you to entertain yourself on a plane.”

The Hero Monk Who Saves Ancient Manuscripts From ISIS

The “badass librarians of Timbuktu” aren’t the only ones rescuing irreplaceable old documents from violent destruction. “Soft-spoken, dressed in flowing black robes, [Father Columba Stewart] has spent the past 13 years roaming from the Balkans to the Middle East in an effort to save Christian and Islamic manuscripts threatened by wars, theft, weather – and, lately, the Islamic State.”

Ward Chamberlin Jr., Who Created The U.S. Public Television System As We Know It, Dead At 95

It would be enough that he steered two of the country’s key public stations away from looming financial ruin, or that he’s the executive who made the young Ken Burns’s career possible. But Chamberlin, as founding chief operating officer of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, actually ceded a huge piece of his own power by insisting that each individual public television station operate autonomously, independent of the PBS network.

The Hot New Opera That Has Transformed The House That Produced It

Breaking The Waves, the new Missy Mazzoli-Royce Vavrek opera, caused a huge wave (ahem) of excitement when Opera Philadelphia premiered it in October – and even more when the production traveled to New York in January. As a result, reports Peter Dobrin, the company now has terrific word-of-mouth from artists, extra funding from new donors, and interest from some of the top opera houses in the world.

How Can Someone As Famous And Prolific As Philip Glass Be So Misunderstood?, Asks Anne Midgette

“It’s not just a question of whether you like the music, or think you like it; it’s a question of knowing that it exists. Although Glass has written 11 symphonies, [conductor Dennis Russell] Davies says that when a major American orchestra was recently approached about performing Glass, the response was, ‘But he doesn’t write symphonies.'” Midgette talks with Davies about understanding the music Glass has actually written (as opposed to what some people think he’s written).