“Juxtaposing Britain’s past with its present was a recurring theme, and at times it felt like the ceremony had just dumped out an eccentric relative’s junk drawer, piling up references in a manner determined not to omit anything that would communicate ‘Britishness’ to the world.”
Tag: 07.29.12
A Solo Musical Career: Good Prep For Parenthood
Don’t think. Just play.
Philadelphia Orchestra: We Can’t Recover Without Our Audience
“Great cities have long taken pride in supporting their orchestras and the musicians who dedicate their lives to the music. That we could lose ours is simply unthinkable. No, we cannot allow that to happen.”
A Musical End For Pianos, In The Landfill
“The value of used pianos, especially uprights, has plummeted in recent years. So instead of selling them to a neighbor, donating them to a church or just passing them along to a relative, owners are far more likely to discard them, technicians, movers and dealers say. Piano movers are making regular runs to the dump, becoming adept at dismantling instruments, selling parts to artists, even burning them for firewood.”
Author Jess Walter: Writers Should Write What They’d Like To Read
“People sometimes ask who I would cast in my books and I never have any idea. I don’t think I could ever write a book thinking of it as a movie the whole time. This would be like building a house and filling it with furniture just so you could have blueprints.”
Save Our Brains From Information Overload! – Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1821
“We might feel overwhelmed, occasionally or often, by all the stuff that is out there — by the trove of global knowledge so vast that it would seem to defy comprehensibility, let alone comprehension. In all that, however, we are in good company with humans of prior generations.”
Ballet At The Bar – And Other Unconventional Buildings
“Eschewing the more conventional model of producing full-length ballets in proscenium theaters, the Blankenships have instead pursued a uniquely hybrid mission of staging informal Cuban ballet exhibitions and cabaret-style shows in historic buildings that have often demanded significant repair.”
How To Save An Indie Bookstore, Day 3
The conclusion of the three-day saga.
How To Write: Just Add Fish
Author Colson Whitehead: “Once your subject finds you, it’s like falling in love. It will be your constant companion. Shadowing you, peeping in your windows, calling you at all hours to leave messages like, ‘Only you understand me.’ Your ideal subject should be like a stalker with limitless resources, living off the inheritance he received after the suspiciously sudden death of his father. He’s in your apartment pawing your stuff when you’re not around, using your toothbrush and cutting out all the really good synonyms from the thesaurus.”