Category: people

“The Galileo case is often seen starkly as science’s first decisive blow against not only faith but also the power of the Roman Catholic Church. … Now a particularly enduring Catholic practice is on prominent display in, of all places, Florence’s history of science museum, recently renovated and renamed to honor Galileo: Modern-day supporters of the famous heretic are exhibiting newly recovered bits of his body … as if they were the relics of an actual saint.”

“A late starter who already seemed set in his career as a farmer before he was persuaded to train his voice, … [he] was soon taken up by many of the world’s leading conductors – often the recording tenor of choice for both Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Sir John Eliot Gardiner – and song accompanists.”

“Thailand has cancelled the visa of Russian conductor Mikhail Pletnev, meaning he faces deportation even if child rape charges against him are dropped, an immigration official said on Wednesday.”

“I noticed how small his eyes had become, suddenly, and bloodshot, as if affected by the flush of rage that showed on his cheekbones, and if I had not been carrying a very excellent picnic hamper of his with some wine left over in it and some cheese, he might well have bulled me off the dock into the bay.”

“In a White House where first lady Michelle Obama’s relationship to the arts strives to be both rarefied and common, cerebral and pragmatic, the cultural program is dictated by tradition, personal life story . . . and an unabashed desire to shake things up.”

The pupils of class 5A, sensing that Sidcup might have been chosen for a reason, or that the electrical plugs which Aston constantly fiddles with are a metaphor for something else, challenged Pinter, only to be told: “Davies’ papers are in Sidcup because that’s where they are…Aston fiddles with his plugs because he likes doing it.”

“The popularity and ubiquity of African Sanctus – with more than 1,000 performances round the world – mask how far ahead of its time it was. It used backing tracks ‘live’, which was uncommon even in the pop world; it in effect introduced sampling; it brought world music to the fore; it fused genres; and it scored pop, ethnic and classical instruments and vocal styles together.”

“I think that nobody can say, ‘I’m going to use stream-of-consciousness as my method for writing.’ … It’s much better to show the character in familiar terms of – of action, of speech, but sometimes that’s not sufficient. Then you have to use another tool, just as at times the carpenter realizes that his familiar tool is not quite enough to do what he wants to do, so he’s got to stop and make something, make a tool …” (From an audio archive of Faulkner lectures at U.Va.)

Says one artist, “Harvey’s script was a single sheet of typing paper, divided into a rough grid with a ballpoint pen and covered with sloping, semi-legible handwriting.” Another script “had stick figures, but they looked more like chairs to me. A chair with a balloon on top. It was scrawled on one piece of paper, sort of vaguely laid out. He would draw like seven boxes on the page.”

“Their conviction followed a year-long trial over an exhibit called Forbidden Art that included images of Jesus with a Mickey Mouse head and a separate work of Christ with his head replaced by an Order of Lenin medal. After the trial, Yerofeyev said he believed Russian leaders Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev were behind the conviction.”