“Separate from the Honolulu Symphony Society is the Honolulu Symphony Foundation, which has its own board of directors and oversees an endowment estimated at $8 million to $10 million. Its mission is to ‘provide funding and support for live professional symphonic music in Honolulu’.”
Tag: 12.14.10
In World’s Most Dangerous City, Orchestra Plays On
“Known as the murder capital of Mexico, Juarez is plagued by drug-related violence and organized crime. A quarter of the population is estimated to have fled, and thousands of businesses have closed. … But the Juarez Symphony Orchestra plays on to grateful audiences that choose violins as a refuge from violence.”
A Bus Tour Around Belgium’s Ugliest Town
“Nicolas Buissart leads an ‘Urban Safari’ that includes climbing a slag heap, exploring never-used metro stations, walking down streets reputed to be the ugliest in this country, and visiting the house where the painter Magritte’s mother lived – before she drowned herself in the canal. If this sounds like fun, hop into his van, which has no seats.”
Heartbreak Did Not Kill Maria Callas (Collapsing Muscles Did)
A pair of phoniatric researchers say that their studies confirm a diagnosis made by a physician who visited Callas in 1975: “dermatomiositis, a disorder that causes slackening of the muscles and tissues in general, including those associated with the larynx.”
How Long Will It Take Spider-Man to Recoup Its Investment?
The New York Times economics editor takes the Julie Taymor/U2 musical’s $65 million production budget, estimates average weekly running costs and ticket revenue, does some quick math, and comes up with a daunting answer: “about 4 years before the show even begins to make up its initial investment.”
Why Even Try to Find Where the Mind Is in the Body?
“A few commentators rightly suggested that mind itself is probably not a ‘thing’ hence not worth trying to locate. … Rather, it might be a bit like trying to locate the adorableness of a kitten. There is nothing magically non-physical about the kitten, but trying to fine-tune the location of the adorableness still seems like some kind of error or category mistake.”
Should Jews Have Christmas Trees, Yes or No?
No: “[One] of the great things about America is difference, and we Jews are part of that difference. I would even say that we, like other tiny minority groups, have a calling to be different.” Yes: “You’re not really giving our valuable cultural differences that much credit if you believe a couple of twinkling lights can erase a Jewish past.”
Letting Christmas Be Secular
“Santa doesn’t check church attendance to decide whether he’s going to give a child a present – he checks whether she’s been naughty or nice. He’s the perfect secular judge of moral fiber. To say that the secularists injure the Christmas spirit is much like the claim that two men getting hitched will besmirch the sanctity of marriage.”
Christopher Isherwood on Mick Jagger: ‘Almost Entirely Without Vanity’
From Isherwood’s 1960s diaries: “He hardly ever refers to his career or himself as a famous and successful person and you might be with him for hours and not know what it is he does. Also, he seems equally capable of group fun, clowning, entertaining, getting along with other people, and of entering into a serious one-to-one dialogue with anybody who wants to.”
An Independent Bookstore Model That Works?
“In the era of online buying and the e-book, both currently dominated by Amazon, the big chains are in trouble — and new technologies may provide independent bookstores with a lifeline.”