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.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
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.”
Bolshoi Ballet Director’s Eyesight Saved Following Acid Attack
“Russian doctors said Monday that the Bolshoi ballet’s artistic director,” Sergei Filin, “would regain sight in at least one eye following a brutal acid attack his co-workers blamed on infighting at the famed theatre.”
Turkey Plays Hardball To Get Antiquities Returned
“According to cultural chiefs in Berlin, Paris and New York, Turkey has threatened to bar foreign archaeologists from excavation sites in the country by not renewing their digging permits if governments refuse to return artefacts that Ankara says were unlawfully removed from Turkish soil. It has also threatened to halt the lending of its treasures to foreign museums, they say.”
Are Discount Ticket Buyers More Discriminating?
Actors at London’s Royal Court Theatre say that the audiences at their £10 Monday performances are “often warier and more discerning than other audiences, somehow harder to impress.” Are the people who pay top price easier to please? Lyn Gardner considers.
Michael Winner, 77, Death Wish Director And Restaurant Critic
“In the course of a film career lasting 40 years, he made more than 30 pictures, among which were sharp social comedies such as The System (1963) and The Jokers (1966). But he derived his wealth and lasting reputation from later Hollywood hokum – notably the frenzied and graphically violent Death Wish series.” Late in life, he became a notorious restaurant critic for London’s Sunday Times.
How An Agnostic Can Approach Religion
“To evaluate a religion, we need to distinguish the three great human needs religions typically claim to satisfy: love, understanding, and knowledge. Doing so lets us appreciate religious love and understanding, even if we remain agnostic regarding religious knowledge.”