Petroc Trelawny, a presenter for BBC Radio 3, had been arrested for violating the terms of his tourist visa by taking employment in Zimbabwe because he was emceeing a music festival on a volunteer basis. “But his ordeal was ended when a magistrate ruled there was nothing to prevent a tourist taking part in public music events and dismissed the charge.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Defenders Of The Queen’s English Close Up Shop For Lack Of Interest
For four decades, the Queen’s English Society “has championed good English – and hasn’t been above the occasional criticism of the Queen’s own pronouncements – but it has finally conceded that it cannot survive in the era of textspeak and Twitter.”
Will We All Be Bionic Men And Women One Day?
“Over the next decade, new implantable technologies will fundamentally alter the social landscape. We are fast approaching a milestone in the eons-long relationship between human beings and their technology. … Simply put, prosthetic limbs help people move, and neural implants help people think.” But these devices “may not only erase physical or mental deficits but leave patients better off than ‘able-bodied’ folks.”
Dance At The London Olympiad Is All Juiced Up
Judith Mackrell: “Almost everything I’m due to see over the next two months, whether part of the official Cultural Olympiad or not, seems hellbent on breaking records for size or scale.”
Looking Back At Joss Whedon’s Old Roseanne Episodes
“At the tender of 24, he was a story editor and staff writer for Roseanne, securing the writing credit on five episodes in the second season … [Since] Whedon’s wry, hyper-articulate voice is so distinct it’s practically trademarked, I was curious: Would his contributions be evident even in these early scripts?” (Yup.)
Taboo-Breaking Wagner Concert In Israel Cancelled
“Tel Aviv University announced Monday that it would not permit a scheduled Wagner concert to take place on its campus, after it had evoked angry protests.” A TAU spokesman claimed that organizers never informed the university that the concert – part of a daylong symposium sponsored by the Israel Wagner Society – would include Wagner’s music.
Judith Nelson, 72, Pioneering Soprano Of Baroque Revival
Beginning in the late 1970s, her dozens of recordings with William Christie, René Jacobs, Christopher Hogwood, John Eliot Gardiner, Emma Kirkby and others were standard-setters. She was also a founding member of San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and she performed regularly in the Bay Area until she was 60, her pure voice remarkably intact.
The Director Who Can Get Almost Anyone To Watch Shakespeare
“[A]nyone can direct Shakespeare’s plays, yet few can get an array of adults and kids to engage with the Bard. But beginning 25 years ago, the diminutive Barbara Gaines, Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s founder and artistic director, found the way. How does she do it? ‘I have no idea,’ she says.”
Art That Speaks To You: A Wind Organ Sculpture In London’s Canary Wharf
Luke Jerram’s Aeolus “mutters breathy tunes while looking like somebody jammed a pipe organ and porcupine together in a transmogrifier, which then malfunctioned.”
Chilly Interactions (Literally)
“When we talk with someone, we carefully monitor their facial expressions and physical gestures, both consciously and subconsciously. When we don’t see what we expect to see, the situation starts to feel weird. More specifically, according to a new study, it feels chilly.”