So many things seem bleak. Politics, the environment, the growing wealth gap, climate change. It’s enough to make anyone despair. But if you despair you become paralyzed. So how, exactly should we think about the coming apocalypse without succumbing to hopelessness? – The Outline
Blog
Would You Admit To Using A Thesaurus? Embarrassing, Right?
To be looking for bigger or better words is thought to be pretentious. But why? Isn’t it better to be able to communicate with more precision? – The Outline
Report: Amazon Said To Be Planning New Streaming Service
The world’s biggest e-retailer would market the free music service through its voice-activated Echo speakers, sources say, and would offer a limited catalog. It could become available as early as next week. – Billboard
Catastrophic Fire Rages At Nôtre-Dame Cathedral In Paris
The blaze in the great medieval cathedral broke out before 7 pm local time. While no human casualties have been reported, the church’s spire and most of its roof have collapsed, smoke is pouring through the historic stained-glass windows, and crews are rushing to salvage what they can of the building’s art. – The Guardian
San Francisco’s Wealth Problem – Can The City Survive?
With Bay Area-based tech companies scheduled to hold initial public offerings this year, the city of instant millionaires is about to have thousands of even newer millionaires. And many residents of this city — secretly and not-so-secretly — fear that 2019 is the year San Francisco becomes a truly impossible place to live. – Washington Post
Yeast Never Dies
Yeast isn’t a food; it plays on food, like a conductor, or a cook. So when you realize that yeast floats in the air and lives almost forever, you may have more respect for its governance, its fungal baton. – Jeff Weinstein
Joyful music
Cellist Steven Isserlis and pianist Connie Shih play music by bigtime male composers, and by women they loved. – Greg Sandow
Coltrane ’58
John Coltrane, Coltrane ’58: The Prestige Recordings (Craft)
Every few years, curators of the great saxophonist John Coltrane’s extensive body of recordings come up with yet another retrospective of his work. – Doug Ramsey
Audio-video jazz improv: Mn’Jam Experiment, w/teens
What’s new in improvisational music? Where else can innovation go? Mn’JAM Experiment — singer Melissa Oliveira and her visual/electronics/turntablist partner JAM — will show you. – Howard Mandel
Today Is The 500th Anniversary Of Leonardo’s Birth – Why His Ideas Still Resonate
Twenty-first-century scholars at MIT ranked him the sixth most influential person who ever lived. Like Rembrandt and Michelangelo, he is so renowned that he is known by only his first name. Yet despite his fame, there are things about Leonardo that many people today find surprising. – The Conversation