Author: Matthew Westphal

They’ve Found The Cause Of The Fire That Destroyed Brazil’s National Museum

The culprit was one of three air conditioning units on the ground floor of the two-century-old building. The machines weren’t installed according to manufacturer’s recommendations for grounding and separate circuit breakers, and all three were receiving a more powerful electrical current than they were designed for. – Smithsonian Magazine

Germany’s Orchestral Scene Isn’t As Marvelous As It May Look To Outsiders

“Germany might have more orchestras [than other countries], but it also has more musicians (including those flooding in from abroad) looking to fill positions in them. The audition procedure is often archaic, unnecessarily nerve-racking and, with strict voting systems, sometimes deeply frustrating. Musicians go from one temporary contract to the next in the vain search for the security of a permanent position.” – The Strad

Opera-Ballet-Concert House Flooded By Sprinkler System, Closed Indefinitely

The municipal theater in Duisburg, a city in Germany’s industrial Ruhr Valley, saw 80,000 liters of water pour over the stage, the floors, and crucial building infrastructure following a mishap during sprinkler system testing. (No answer yet as to whether the cause was mechanical or human.) The venue is home to the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the Ballett am Rhein, the Schauspiel (spoken theater) and the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra. (in German; for Google Translate version, click here) – WDR (Cologne)

Philadelphia’s Historical Society Of Pennsylvania Lays Off 30% Of Staff

Philadelphia’s Historical Society Of Pennsylvania Lays Off 30% Of Staff
“Citing operating deficits and a lack of financial stability, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania announced Monday that it would lay off 10 staff members, about 30 percent of the total, trim programming and services, and focus on its role as a library and archive.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer

Dan Robbins, Inventor Of Paint-By-Number Kits, Dead At 93

“Mr. Robbins, whose creations adorned millions of American homes in their heyday, was a self-described ‘right guy at the right time in the right place.’ The time was the prosperous lull after World War II, when Americans had newfound time for recreation. The place was Detroit, birthplace of the assembly line, where Mr. Robbins, then in his 20s, worked for Palmer Paint.” – The Washington Post

Do Romance Novels Have A Race Problem? That’s Been An Argument For A Long Time

“For decades, publishers had confined many black romance authors to all-black lines, marketed only to black readers. Some booksellers continued to shelve black romances separately from white romances, on special African American shelves. Accepted industry wisdom told black authors that putting black couples on their covers could hurt sales, and that they should replace them with images of jewellery, or lawn chairs, or flowers. Other authors of colour had struggled to get representation within the genre at all. – The Guardian

Contemporary Poetry Has Devolved Into Banality And Navel-Gazing

Brooke Clark: “Much of contemporary poetry has become something of an assembly line, turning out verbal representations of minor occurrences in the poet’s daily life. Most formulaic are the lyric poets, who often come across like oversensitive souls wandering the world logging every detail of every impression that strikes them … The lyric is, in a sense, the selfie of the poetry world: it provides a perfectly contrived snapshot of the poet at a moment in time.” – The Walrus