“It’s a very different life than she could have imagined when she was 4½-year-old Mabinty Bangura, living in an orphanage in violent, impoverished Sierra Leone. Young Mabinty had only one friend and was anything but a favorite with the ‘aunties’ who ran the orphanage, perhaps because she had vitiligo, a pigmentation condition that left white patches on her upper chest. One day, she found a magazine that had blown against the orphanage gate. In it was a picture of a ballerina in pointe shoes. She tore it out and kept it, and dreamed of dancing like that one day.”
Author: ArtsJournal2
Stepping Off The Tourist Path In Paris, Into A Treasure Hidden In Plain Sight
What are you missing when you go to Paris? St.-Étienne-du-Mont, an unassuming medieval/Renaissance church slightly off the beaten path. “Our lone Parisian survivor is in a class unto itself: not just the sole instance in Paris, but one of the few in the world, and a magnificent specimen of carved stone. It impels the eye. Looking at this gigantic wedding cake of a loft, one knows instinctively that one is in Paris.”
What Books Should Geek Parents Read To Their Kids? (A Printable List)
You’re a geek parent – a science fan, into technology, maybe into making cool things yourself. What should you read to your kids? Wired has a (long) list of book ideas for you, everything from The Wind in the Willows to The Dark Is Rising (and a lot more).
Afghanistan Has A Youth Orchestra, And It May Tour The U.S.
“One of the best-known facts about music in Afghanistan, at least in the West, is that it wasn’t. The Taliban banned it when they took power in 1996, beating musicians, burning instruments and destroying cassette tapes in the name of their severe and extreme vision of Islam. But with the Taliban’s fall, musical life revived, if slowly, in the shattered country.”
Legalizing Free Music Downloads: The Murder, Or Savior, Of Musicians?
The Pirate Party (of Pirate Bay fame, and yes, it’s real) in Germany has called for a law that will make free downloads of music legal. Then a pop musician and a Pirate Party politician hold a debate …
Can A New Documentary Heal Wounds From The Civil Rights Movement?
When one black waiter in Mississippi dared to tell NBC in 1966 what he thought of his white customers, he became a marked man. Now another documentary retells his story – and the story of what happened to him and his family in the years since he spoke up.
British Theatres Learn To Light Their Theatres For Less, Together
London’s National Theatre, Royal Albert Hall and Royal Opera House wanted more power for, well, power – so they joined the Arts Basket. And that’s just the tip of the collaborative effort among the city’s biggest arts groups.
Bring Back The Double-Decker Grand Piano!
“Roberto Prosseda is a concert pianist of the old school who typically performs in white tie and tails. But for his most recent spate of concerts, he pairs them with slippers–five-fingered rubber-coated slippers that look vaguely amphibian. That’s because Mr. Prosseda plays with his feet as well as his hands. The Italian pianist is on a one-man mission to revive the music of the pedal piano, a monstrous double-decker grand piano that was popular in the late-19th century but has long since fallen out of fashion.”
Is It The Nineteenth Century? Apparently, For Men Buying Crime Fiction
The delicate sensibilities of Scottish men – who apparently just can’t be seen reading a crime book by a woman – caused one publisher to change an author’s name, and shorten her book title as well.
Let’s End The Parade Of Sameness – And Save Classical Music
“Recordings change the performing environment. Once anyone can hear the best performers, and once those performers are conscious that they’re making recordings for the ages — not just live performances to be heard tonight and preserved only in memories — those recordings become the standard that influences all.” How can we retrain young musicians to save their individuality?