[Anonymous selections from recent correspondence]
Legendary dance choreographer Bill T. Jones and TED Fellows Joshua Roman and Somi didn't know exactly what was going to happen when they took the stage at TED2015. They just knew they wanted to offer the audience an opportunity to witness creative collaboration in action. The result: An improvised piece they call "The Red Circle and the Blue Curtain," so extraordinary it had to be shared [6:26]:
The waters of the Santa Barbara Channel are ground zero for ship strikes on endangered blue whales and many other whale species and marine mammals. As one of the most heavily traveled shipping routes in the Pacific Ocean, travel through the Santa Barbara Channel can be a deadly journey for the world's largest animal....
Between 1988 and 2012, an estimated 100 blue whales were struck and killed by large cargo ships. The only real solution to prevent this from continuing to happen is to move the lanes further west....
The highest frequency of ship strikes take place between July and October. This is when blue whales are preparing for their migration south for the winter and large cargo ships are rushing to ports in Long Beach and Los Angeles to unload their goods in time for the school year and holiday season....
The injuries to blue whales are shocking and gruesome: burst blood vessels, shattered jaws and ribs, and normally solid muscle is pulverized into mush.
No animal should have to suffer like this, but both NOAA and the Department of the Navy are dragging their feet to take action to protect them. President Obama can use his influence to get these two agencies to work together to create a solution before blue whales make their journey back to Santa Barbara in just TWO MONTHS, but he needs to hear from you.
Send a message urging President Obama to take immediate action to protect these magnificent creatures NOW.
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| Doing Homework in 1946 |
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| The soprano Nina Stemme performing at the Vienna State Opera in 2013 |
The operas — from 15 presenters including the Vienna State Opera, the Royal Opera House in London and the Aix-en-Provence Festival — will be streamed live on the website of the Opera Platform, at www.theoperaplatform.eu. The site said that subtitles in six languages would be available, and each opera would remain available on demand for six months.
Next month the website will offer a stream of Wagner’s “Götterdämmerung” from Vienna conducted by Simon Rattle [emphasis ours; Rattle is mentioned in the next item].
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| Christian Thielemann |
This is an excellent discussion by Reinhard Brembeck, the top German classical music critic, of the present state of classical music and how this impacts the search of the Berlin Philharmonic for an appropriate conductor.
Brembeck sees the last decades as being formed by followers of Harnoncourt's ideal, music as discourse, following the precision of Boulez's rendition of the composer's score. Thus, in the past Berlin chose Rattle, who is a follower of Harnoncourt [emphasis ours; Rattle was mentioned in the previous item].
But now there exists an reaction against excessive intellectual music and a swing back to the lush sound of Karajan, which suits the classical German music of Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms and Bruckner. The top director of this style of "Schönenklang" is Christian Thielemann in Dresden.
But Brembeck sees that as too one-sided, arguing for a man of the middle in Berlin, just as the New York Philharmonic, with Alan Gilbert, the [Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in the Netherlands], with Daniele Gatti, and the Munich Philharmonic, with Valery Gergiev, have done.
Let us be surprised next Monday [when the selection is announced].
Having a bad day?
Daughter to Dad: Daddy, I am coming home to get married, soon. Get out your check book. LOL. I'm in love with a boy who is far away from me. I am in Australia, and he lives in Scotland. We met on a dating website, became friends on Facebook, had long chats on Whatsapp, he proposed to me on Skype, and now we've had two months of relationship through Viber. My beloved and favorite Dad, “I need your blessing, good wishes, and a really big wedding." Lots of love and thanks, Your favorite daughter, Lilly
Dad's Reply (also by texting): My Dear Lilly: Like Wow! Really? Cool! Whatever...I suggest you two get married on Twitter, have fun on Tango, buy your kids on Amazon, and pay for it all through Paypal. And when you get fed up with this new husband, sell him on Ebay. L.O.L. (lots of love), Daddy
Have you ever wondered...how ice cream cones are made?
A mathematician, a biologist, and a physicist were sitting in a street cafe watching people going in and coming out of the house on the other side of the street. First they saw two people going into the house. Time passed. After a while they noticed three persons coming out of the house.
The physicist: "The measurement wasn't accurate."
The biologist: "They have reproduced."
The mathematician: "If now exactly one person enters the house then it will be empty again."
Nanosecond photo:
Yet another box you can eat afterwards:
Limerick of the week:
There was a young fellow named Hall[Found at Extremely Smart]
who died in the spring in the fall.
'Twould have been a bad thing
had he died in the spring
but he didn't — he died in the fall.
| Copyright © 2015 by Morris Dean |
the dancing...ahhhh :-)
ReplyDeleteYes! The obvious choice to lead today's catch!
DeleteThank you, everone who submitted! Let's dance, let's give the whales more room, homework 1946 style, opera going to stream online, Berlin Philharmonic about to select a new conductor, a wet bad day, daughter getting married, how ice cream cones are manufactured, Robert De Niro's taxicab license, observations on a house, pandas for rent, rejected by his mother, raindrop marvels, kangaroo views, chocolate box, lyrical death in the spring in the fall....
ReplyDeleteI wonder what happens to pandas that are bred here. Does China own them also? Liked the limerick,
ReplyDelete