“When Chinese porcelains made their way to Europe via the Silk Road, Europeans quickly began trying to make their own. But they assumed porcelain was vitreous, not clay-based. After 15th-century Italian alchemists developed an opaque, white glass they called ‘lattimo’ (from latte, meaning milk), others refined the process.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Boldly Going Where Klingon Went Before: Avatar Fans Learn To Speak Na’vi
When a UBC linguist posted an online questionnaire asking for people who were studying the language invented for the gentle blue people in James Cameron’s sci-fi juggernaut, she received hundreds of replies from all over the world, including 11 written in Na’vi.
Meet The Australian Ballet’s Roadie
Andrew “Woody” Wood spends weeks at a time driving the company’s regional touring arm to small cities and towns. “I really look forward to doing it every year. I’m there most nights – I normally stand backstage. I never really saw much ballet before this – maybe a couple of shows as a kid – but I love it now.”
Ballet San Jose May Drop Fall Performances
“For the first time in decades, Ballet San Jose, a company known as much for its perseverance as for its innovative performances, is unlikely to stage a ballet this fall, and will probably begin its season with December’s traditional performances of The Nutcracker.”
‘Museum Of The Seam’ Exhibits Israeli And Arab Artists Together, Right On Jerusalem’s Fault Line
“A museum on the road separating Jewish west Jerusalem from the Arab neighborhoods in the city’s east is attracting a daring group of artists from Middle Eastern nations that shun contact with Israel, trying to erode political barriers through art.”
Cache Of Old Russian Icons Turns Up In Egypt
“Researchers attribute the unique climate of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula as a leading factor in the preservation of a treasure trove of Russian icons and liturgical objects recently found in St Catherine’s Monastery.”
A Brief History Of (Lower) Primates In Film
“The Rise of the Planet of the Apes blockbuster reboot is out next week. To celebrate, we revisit the strange and complicated history of primate films – and ask whether we’ve lost our enthusiasm for simians on celluloid.”
Another Top Administrator Leaves NY City Opera
“The music staff of the New York City Opera continues to dwindle. Kevin Murphy, a widely respected vocal coach, said on Thursday that he would leave his position as the company’s director of music administration to take a faculty post at … Indiana University.”
In San Francisco, Classical Music Hits The Bar Scene
“While classical music performances in nontraditional spaces are nothing new — the Kronos Quartet played weekly concerts in a Mill Valley restaurant as far back as 1978 — such events have proliferated in the last decade. Lately, it has been hard to go anywhere in the Bay Area without stumbling across a wind ensemble essaying John Adams in an art gallery or a string quartet playing Beethoven in a wine bar.”
London Has Pub Theatre – Why Can’t You Find It In New York?
“Why can’t New York get the hang of cocktails before comedy? Isn’t it time we put the ‘dram’ back in drama? Perhaps we ought to remember that the US has a history of banning both booze and theatre.”