Amazingly, the 8,000-pipe, five-keyboard instrument escaped serious damage in last year’s catastrophic fire. But all the pipes and mechanisms were covered in lead dust from the collapsed roof, and they require decontamination and repair. The organ’s disassembly was recently completed, nearly two months ahead of schedule (!), and it’s expected to be back in place in April of 2024. (But will it be?) – Smithsonian Magazine
Author: Matthew Westphal
Black Student Expelled From Elite Private School After Mother Objects To ‘Fences’ Too Strongly
August Wilson’s prize-winning play includes heavy use of the N-word by its Black characters, and when Faith Fox found out that her 14-year-old’s class would be studying Fences, she protested to the school repeatedly. (“It wasn’t something that I thought was appropriate for a roomful of elite, affluent white children.”) She says her son was expelled in retaliation for her standing up for what’s right; the school says it was a “termination of enrollment” due to “bullying, harassment and … slanderous accusations towards the school itself” by Ms. Fox. – The New York Times
Major Find: Fifth-Century Roman Mosaic Uncovered In England
Archaeologists say that the date is significant because the 5th century, after the departure of the Roman imperial rulers, is considered the start of the Dark Ages, and the fact that the mosaic could still be made indicates that conditions in England may not have deteriorated as rapidly as is generally thought. – ARTnews
Playing And Singing With Plexiglas Between Musicians May Not Be As COVID-Safe As You Think
A team of engineering researchers at Princeton has been running tests on how well the clear partitions protect people from the breath droplets of others nearby. The verdict? Well, Plexiglas barriers are fine as far as they go, but that’s exactly the problem … – NJ.com
Ann Reinking, Tony-Winning Dancer-Actor-Choreographer, Dead At 71
“She was perhaps best known as a performer for playing Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago. It was the role that she stepped into in 1977 at 26, and which helped make her a star. And it is the role that she returned to triumphantly nearly two decades later in the hugely successful 1996 Broadway revival — which she also choreographed.” (It was the latter which won her a Tony Award after three previous nominations.) – The New York Times
London’s Theatres And Concert Halls Closed Again As COVID Cases Multiply
The capital and some surrounding areas have been moved into Tier 3, the UK government’s most stringent level of restrictions, meaning that live audiences are barred only a few weeks after they had begun (in limited numbers) to return. Performances may continue to be streamed from empty venues, so classical music concerts may continue in some form. That doesn’t work so well economically for theatre, and producers are howling in protest. – London Evening Standard
Dancing on Stone and in Water
I’ve said it before, and forgive me if I say it again: Dancers can’t not dance. There they are on my laptop’s window — at work in their apartments, in parks, on piers, and in empty streets. Maybe partners and roommates have filmed you performing; maybe you just attached your cell phone to a music stand and shooed the cat away. Dušan Týnek’s Quarry Dance IX is nothing like that. – Deborah Jowitt
Amsterdam Is Going To Regulate People’s Christmas Lights
According to rules going into effect next year, all lights in outdoor displays must be LEDs, and 70% (90% in the historic city center) must be “warm white.” (Rules for the historic district have even more detailed specifications.) “The city’s crackdown on excessive Xmas cheer was spurred by a recent lighting-display arms race raging among residents and building owners.” – CityLab
Inside The Flamboyant Self-Destruction Of Johnny Depp
“There are few examples of a movie-star implosion of Depp’s magnitude that have been so sudden and spectacular. … Over the course of four short years, Depp has spiraled from an A-list star responsible for more than $10 billion in worldwide box office to Hollywood persona non grata” — not least because of the calamitous defamation lawsuit he just lost. “It wasn’t just erratic and violent behavior that wrecked one of the world’s most bankable stars. It was his unquenchable thirst for revenge.” – The Hollywood Reporter
Using AI To Fill In Missing Text From Ancient Babylonian Tablets
“Filling in missing text starts with being able to read and understand the original text. That requires much donkey work. Now an Israeli team [of researchers] has reinvented the donkey in digital form, harnessing artificial intelligence to help complete fragmented Akkadian cuneiform tablets.” – Haaretz (Israel)