Called the Warner Music Prize and funded by industrialist Len Blavatnik, who purchased Warner Music Group in 2011, the award “is expected to be given out annually to an instrumentalist or singer between 18- and 35-years-old who shows strong career potential.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
“Noble Intentions”: Alex Ross Takes Down The Cello-Suites-Really-Composed-By-Mrs-Bach Theory
After looking at the arguments and evidence, Ross writes, “No one is well served by wild speculation that distorts the historical record – or, for that matter, ascribes a piece of music to a woman on the grounds that it lacks maturity.”
Oldest Shiite Shrine In Iraq Blown Up By ISIS
Built in 1085, the distinctive domed mausoleum of Imam al-Daur was destroyed on October 23. According to the extremist ideology of ISIS and similar groups, veneration of any shrine is a form of idolatry.
Notes On The Exotic
“Sometimes one can recapture that fleeting sensation with names – place-names. If I am hiking up a familiar path near my house in Turin and I think, ‘I am climbing a hill in Italy,’ there is a brief whiff of foreign glamour. And, when I arrived in Uzbekistan and was disappointed to find that city people took buses and trams as they do everywhere else, I could revive a touch of fantasy by silently repeating, ‘Streetcars in Samarkand’.”
Tom Magliozzi, Clack Of “Car Talk”, Dead At 77
Producer Doug Berman: “He and his brother changed public broadcasting forever. Before Car Talk, NPR was formal, polite, cautious … even stiff. By being entirely themselves, without pretense, Tom and Ray single-handedly changed that, and showed that real people are far more interesting than canned radio announcers. And every interesting show that has come after them owes them a debt of gratitude.”
The Granddaddy Of Chinese Classical Composers
Tim Page profiles 91-year-old Chou Wen-Chung, who recalls his reaction, at age 14, on learning of Ravel’s death: “I thought composers were a gift from nature and that music was written by dead people, because every composer I had heard of, Chinese or Western, was dead. And I thought, ‘Could I become a composer? How wonderful!'”
Jon Stewart Makes A Movie About Iranian Prison Torture
In a Q&A, the fake-news superstar talks about writing and directing his first feature film (“I’m pretty sure that’s a Guild rule, that as the director, they have to listen to you. As long as your beret is on at 45 degrees.”), the rumors about hosting Meet the Press, and what The Daily Show can and can’t accomplish.
“Macbeth” Yanked From Turkish State Theater After Gov’t Officials Actually See The Play
A group of officials from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism attended the production in Ankara last Tuesday and reportedly stalked out without applauding; the play was promptly replaced on the schedule. Last month the now-former director of Turkey’s State Theaters resigned, complaining of censorship by the Culture Ministry.
Read It And Reap: Starting A Glossy Quarterly For Farm-To-Table Foodies
Modern Farmer‘s founding editor describes it as “the farming magazine for media professionals”. Sound silly? It won a National Magazine Award after only three issues.
Gruesome Murders Of Furniture On The Streets Of Paris
“In a Cronenbergian melding of inanimate matter and grisly viscera, chairs, mattresses, and even a toilet have appeared on the city’s sidewalks bearing heinous wounds and oozing crimson fluid into the gutters.”