Joe Berkowitz: “The best pun I heard during the course of writing the book was: ‘I went to go shopping for cherries and microphones the other day: bought a bing, bought a boom.'”
Tag: 06.13.17
Nietzsche Was Not A Relativist (And He Wasn’t Responsible For The World Wars, Either)
Patrick West: “Since his death in 1900, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche has had the unfortunate distinction of being blamed for three catastrophes to have befallen Western civilization” – World War I (some of his bellicose writings), World War II (the whole Übermensch thing), and relativism (thanks to Foucault). “But is Nietzsche really to blame? And was he really a relativist? I would say that he isn’t and he wasn’t. I believe that it’s time that the great man and free-thinker par excellence was reclaimed by the school of the Enlightenment.”
Canada Is Issuing Glow-In-The-Dark Money
The new $2 coin being issued for Canada’s sesquicentennial features a colored design depicting a canoe on a lake under the Northern Lights, which do indeed glow in the dark. The new “Toonie” is the first photoluminescent coin in general circulation.
Revenge, Punishment, Justice, And Empathy: Wallace Shawn On How A Person Should Be
“Revenge and punishment both imply, ‘Even if I’d been you, and I’d had your life, I would never have done what you did.’ And that in turn implies, ‘I wouldn’t have done it, because I’m better than you.’ But the person who says, ‘I’m better than you’ is taking a serious step in a very dangerous direction. And the person who says, ‘Even if I’d had your life, I would never have done what you did’ is very probably wrong.”
Shakespeare’s Globe At 20: A History In Clips
“To mark the Globe’s 20th birthday, we raid the Guardian archives to see how it has divided critics, sparked academic arguments, faced down political protests – and weathered the British summertime.”
The Decades-Long Journey To A Workable Version Of Lou Harrison’s Opera ‘Young Caesar’
Harrison’s score was always recognized for its good qualities, but the story of the youthful Julius Caesar’s possibly-mythical affair with a foreign king was plagued by an overlong, repetitive libretto to which Harrison refused cuts. John Rockwell tells the story of the 46-year-long effort to create a Young Caesar that could captivate and hold an audience.
Violinist Paul Zukofsky Dead At 73
“[He] specialised particularly in the performance of 20th-century repertoire, working with such composers as Milton Babbitt, John Cage, Elliott Carter, George Crumb, Morton Feldman, Philip Glass, [etc.] … He premiered Glass’s Violin Concerto in 1987 and was the dedicatee of John Cage’s Freeman Etudes – Books I and II, composed between 1977 and 1980.”
Akron Ponders Turning A Freeway Into A Big Urban Park
“The Innerbelt National Forest is the idea of Hunter Franks, a San Francisco-based artist who has been working in the Akron community since 2015. He plans to populate the freeway with potted plants, public seating, and programming meant to reconnect the two communities severed by the freeway 40 years ago. The project just received a Knight Cities Challenge grant, which is giving $15 million to projects in 26 American cities.”
Did Bob Dylan Take Parts Of His Nobel Speech From SparkNotes?
Those familiar with Dylan’s music might recall that he winkingly attributed fabricated quotes to Abraham Lincoln in his “Talkin’ World War III Blues.” So Dylan making up an imaginary quote is nothing new. However, I soon discovered that the Moby-Dick line Dylan dreamed up last week seems to be cobbled together out of phrases on the website SparkNotes, the online equivalent of CliffsNotes.
The Greatest Music Festival Ever (And No, It Wasn’t Woodstock)
“The idea for Monterey Pop, a model for subsequent rock music festivals from Woodstock to Bonnaroo, emerged from a conversation in early 1967 among Paul McCartney, the record producer Lou Adler and the folk rock band the Mamas and the Papas. They weren’t thinking of the war; they were thinking of music — in particular, why rock wasn’t considered an art form alongside the likes of jazz.”