“[She] fled Hitler’s Germany as a teenager and became a [multiple-]prize-winning poet in the United States, drawing on her family history for lyrical works about love, art, nature and loss, acknowledging pain even as she looked outward with joy.” – The Washington Post
Tag: 02.23.20
The Instrument That Makes The Earth Sing
The Earth Harp is a massive stringed instrument that its inventor, William Close, says makes audiences feel like they’re “inside the instrument” during performances. Indeed, because he has to string the instrument across canyons or from a stage to an upper level of a concert hall or from a large piece of ceremonial architecture to the ground, audiences often are inside the sound. – BBC
A Proud New Marketing Campaign Is Meant To Save Canadian Literature
But can anything? Between big multinational publishers with software aimed at the U.S. market – that doesn’t differentiate between U.S. and Canadian authors, for instance – and the emphasis of digital publishing on rewarding books that are already bestsellers, it’s a bit bleak for Canadian authors at the moment. – CBC
Los Angeles Gets Its First UNESCO World Heritage Site
And it’s Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House, almost destroyed in the 1940s. – Los Angeles Times
The Auschwitz Memorial Says Amazon Prime’s Show ‘Hunters’ Is Dangerous And Foolish
The objection: “The series depicts fictional atrocities taking place in Nazi death camps, including a game of human chess in which people are killed when a piece is taken off the board.” And factual inaccuracies simply aren’t a good idea at this point: “Inventing a fake game of human chess … is not only dangerous foolishness and caricature, it also welcomes future deniers. We honor the victims by preserving factual accuracy.” – Los Angeles Times
Toronto Has Vacant Buildings, And Musicians Need Cheap Performance Spaces
Is this a city-led marriage made in heaven? One city councillor claims, “If we lose the DIY spaces we lose the next generation of live musicians.” – CBC
A Conductor Stops The Opera Twice When Audience Cellphones Ring
Carlo Rozzi, conducting the Welsh National Opera in Cardiff on February 22, stopped Verdi’s Les Vêpres Sicilienes twice – and he wasn’t afraid to go directly to the audience about why. Said a member of the audience, “He got a warm round of applause after he stopped and ticked off the audience member. Both incidents were right at the beginning of the show and all was well after that.” – BBC
Art Literally Made Of Bones (And Other Human Remains)
The British got a lot wrong as the empire spread, and one facet of colonial mistakes was how to look at Tibetan religious and art objects made of skulls or thighbones. “To British colonial officials and missionaries in the 19th and early 20th centuries, such items were morbid examples of devil worship. To Tibetans they were objects used to celebrate life.” – The Guardian (UK)