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Found 22 results

  1. Okay, I've read this interesting article. I'm also reading a book, "What If?" by Randall Munroe, subtitled "Serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions." Comparing the human brain to a computer, Munroe says: "Humans, for example, are probably still far better at looking at a picture of a scene and guessing what just happened." Any parent could look at this picture for five seconds, and figure out what most likely happened, whereas a computer, even the computers of tomorrow, might take a million-billion-trillion calculations to reach the same conclusion (granted, that might take less than five seconds, but you get what I mean): It will be a century after my death when computers finally figure out that Brooks Robinson was the greatest defensive baseball player that ever lived, but I already know, just as surely as I know the sun will rise in the morning.
  2. This is, I believe, the first image of the back cover of Jon's "Front Row at the Trump Show" (final version) on the internet: I asked Jon if I could put this up as a little teaser, and he replied, "Sure!" so here's the back cover. This is going to be one of the best, most exhaustively researched and written books on the current Presidency ever. Disclaimer: It is well-known that Jon is a close friend - I helped proof-read the galley copy of the book (and he's damned lucky I did 😉).
  3. Came to suburban Detroit to plan wedding stuff with my family, and after gorging ourselves at Loui’s Pizza (Detroit Pizza is real, people! Give it a shake), we got home and while eating sis’ delicious pecan bars for dessert, we threw on episode 1 of “Ugly Delicious” which focused on pizza. It’s Chang, a food writer, and the chef at Lucali’s looking at pizza in America and abroad. Very cool show, thoughtful, the pace is not frenetic and jokey like Bourdain or the new Rosenthal show (which is awesome, too). Chang comes of very “real” and instead of a “too cool for school” vibe, he’s more like me - he’s a “liker”, not very arrogant, and open minded. The chef plays the foil, trying to define things that don’t need defining, and the writer is the go between. Chang created Lucky Peach, and it was a publication for true food nerds. This show has the same elements. It’s not brash. It’s filmed “soft”. It’s very enjoyable. Starting episode 2... he likes quesadillas more than tacos. WTF?? I need to hear more...
  4. "Tennis Player Michael Joyce's Professional Artistry as a Paradigm of Certain Stuff about Choice, Freedom, Discipline, Joy, Grotesquerie, and Human Completeness" was written by David Foster Wallace, and published in Esquire Magazine in 1996 - it has since been republished as "The String Theory," but is the exact same thing. This is the best tennis writing I've ever read.
  5. Has anyone read "Hillbilly Elegy" yet? and would anyone be interested in having a "virtual" discussion about it? I don't read nearly enough as I should, and will be frequenting the local library more often. I could certainly use less of TV and media time.
  6. I read Stephen Hawking's (R.I.P.) "A Brief History of Time" not long after it was published in 1988, and even though everyone is saying how simple it is, I'm pretty much in the Charles Krauthammer camp: I found it almost 'incomprehensible' at the time. Granted, I'm much, much more educated now than I was then, so maybe it would be a walk in the park for me now, but it was not easy reading for me at age 28-ish. (I should add that Richard Feynman's book, "Six Easy Pieces," put me in the same boat: They were *not* easy. And then, I was foolish enough to tackle "Six Not-so-Easy Pieces," which I read more as a personal challenge than anything else - I remember nothing about it.) I think the problem might be that, while these are two scientific geniuses, they aren't great authors. Honestly, I question the myriad of five-star reviews, and all the comments saying they were reading "Six Easy Pieces" to their grade-school children. I don't believe it! There are two kinds of people who say they enjoy these books: those with a degree in physics, and those who are trying to impress people - I am neither. Grade-school children, my eye.
  7. *** SPOILER ALERT *** After watching the indescribably wonderful documentary, "Hitchcock/Truffaut," last night, I leapt into the film "The Wrong Man," which is the one film by Alfred Hitchcock about which then-critic Jean-Luc Godard wrote his longest-ever piece of criticism - Both Godard and François Truffaut, pioneers of the "French New Wave" of Directors, were then working as critics for the legendary French publication, "Cahiers du Cinéma." so this film fits right in with the Hitchcock/Truffaut documentary, and was mentioned in it as well. This is the only Hitchcock film where Hitchcock himself came out and addressed the audience at the beginning, assuring them that it was a true story, and that the facts that went into the tale were just as fantastic as most of what he's written about as fiction in the past. "The Wrong Man" stars Henry Fonda as a respectable, but struggling musician in New York City, Manny Balestrero, and his wife, Rose, played by Vera Miles. Rose has an impacted set of wisdom teeth, which can only be fixed to the tune of $300, which is money the two don't have - the next day, Manny goes into the bank and asks to borrow on Rose's insurance policy, but three female tellers are certain that he is the same man who came in recently and robbed the bank - they pacified him, and told him to come back in with his wife, while putting the authorities on full alert. In a scene which came shortly afterwards, I was certain I recognized the lady who played Manny's mother, Esther Minciotti, and sure enough, Minciotti had played the wonderfully endearing role as Marty's (Ernest Bourgnine's) mother in the 1955 Academy Award-winner for Best Picture, "Marty." If you watch the Hitchcock/Truffaut documentary first, you'll remember very well the scene in which Manny first gets thrown into his jail cell. He looks around - not at the locked door - but at all different angles, and it gives the viewer a real sense of being locked up. This is his very first experience in jail, and his fear is palpable. Halfway through this movie, I am awestruck at how realistic it is - there's no fluffing anything up; it's as if we're watching a real story unfold (which we are). I'm a little surprised that Manny is so stoic about everything, but he seems completely shell-shocked to this point - almost like he's unable to get hold of his facilities. Hitchcock *really* takes his time setting this plot up - Manny doesn't even meet his attorney, Frank O'Connor (a real attorney, played by Anthony Quayle), until about two-thirds of the film is over. Fortunately, O'Connor - seemingly a decent man - accepts the case. Some interesting notes: Shortly after meeting with O'Connor, Manny and Rose run into two giggly girls living at an apartment: One of them is a twelve-year-old Tuesday Weld (of "Looking for Mr, Goodbar"), and the other is an eleven-year-old Bonnie Franklin (of "One Day at a Time"). It's noteworthy how many known actors and actresses are in this film - when Rose has a mental breakdown, she sees a psychiatrist, Dr. Bannay, and it's none other than Werner Klemperer - Colonel Klink on "Hogan's Heroes." During Manny's trial, one of the jurors is Barney Martin (Jerry Seinfeld's father on "Seinfeld"), and finally, Harry Dean Stanton (Brett in "Alien") plays a Department of Corrections employee, though I couldn't find him when I looked. I believe none of the people mentioned in this paragraph are credited, and for some, it's the debut film of their career. This is about the closest thing to being a "non-fiction" film I've seen without actually being one - it's "based on a true story," and is so faithful to it that it doesn't seem right labeling it a "crime movie" or a "suspense movie." It's clear that Hitchcock took great pains to stay as true to the base story as he possibly could have, so I'm going to go ahead and label this movie "non-fiction" even though that may not be technically correct. A magnificent film. Apr 17, 2013 - "History of Film Criticism: Godard on 'The Wrong Man'" on torontofilmreview.blogspot.com
  8. At nearly three hours in length, "Hoop Dreams" may seem like an arduous proposition, but it's going to be three of the fastest hours you've ever spent watching a film. I saw it on release in 1994, saw it a second time last night, and on both occasions, I was equally riveted. Steve James spent five years filming the lives of *** SPOILER ALERT *** William Gates and Arthur Agee, *** END SPOILER ALERT *** two promising 14-year-old basketball players from Chicago, and detailed the lives of these two amazing young men, their families, and their dreams of getting into the NBA. That's really all you need to know about the film - the most intelligent, wisest thing Steve James did in making this movie, was to let the story tell itself, barely speaking at all except when absolutely necessary. This "light-touch" approach makes the movie all about Gates and Agee, and displayed a maturity and confidence by James which, if it wasn't there, could have ruined a fantastic movie. If you've never heard of Hoop Dreams, I cannot recommend it strongly enough. Roger Ebert gave it four stars, and at the conclusion of his review (which I advise not reading until after you've watched the film), writes that "It is one of the great moviegoing experiences of my lifetime." The added bonus of an extra 20+ years of time makes Hoop Dreams all the more fascinating and poignant, once you find out what happened to some of the characters.
  9. Unlike "Stay Alert, Stay Alive," which was not distributed to the general public, "The Ordeal of Con Thien" was shown on television as a 30-minute CBS News special with Mike Wallace. For that reason, it goes in the TV Forum instead of the History Forum. In the past day, I've begun three threads dealing with non-fiction, short films: "Stay Alert, Stay Alive" (police), "Stay Alert, Stay Alive" (army), and this one, which may not exist forever, as there's a clear disclaimer written at the opening - however, this video is duplicated on numerous websites - I even found one in color. The other two videos have different purposes (the police film is a Ned Beatty novelty, the army film is more to raise soldiers' spirits than anything else), and if you're only going to watch one of the three, and you wish to actually *learn* something factual and important about the Vietnam War, make it this one. Example: I had *no* idea that B-52s could haul and drop as many bombs as they can - the bombs coming out of the bomb bays looked like it was raining confetti at a ticker-tape parade. Another interesting thing about Con Thien (also called "The Battle of Con Thien") is that, although the report makes it sound like a slaughter, the statistics say that 1,149 Americans were killed, and 7,563 Vietnamese were killed - almost a 1:7 ratio. In terms of statistics, that's a pretty good trade-off, but our country simply didn't have the belly for this war, as so many people thought it wasn't supported by a noble cause (such as fending off Adolph Hitler from taking over the entire world). Thus, those 1,149 dead American soldiers might as well have been a million, and the number of Vietnamese killed wasn't even relevant to the American public - our boys were being killed for no good reason, and we needed to get them the hell out of there. The Vietnamese communists were being invaded by a foreign country, and were determined to defend their turf until the last man fell. A poem composed and recited by a soldier at Con Thien (properly spelled Cồn Tiên): "When youth was a soldier, and I fought across the sea, we were young and cold hearts, of bloody savagery. Born of indignation, children of our time, we were orphans of creation, and dying in our prime." Two extremely important leaders were interviewed, Lieutenant-General Robert E. Cushman, Jr. and General William C. Westmoreland: One fascinating thing that General Westmoreland said is essentially what I said just above: North Vietnam was fighting a psychological war at Con Thien, designed to weaken the will of the American public, and that's the only way they could possibly win this war. Well ... that statement is supported by the statistics I quoted up above, and ... the North Vietnamese's tactics worked. For those who don't know, Westmoreland Circle, on the border of Washington, DC and Maryland, is named after General Westmoreland. CBS War Correspondent John Laurence's brief report was perhaps the most interesting and revealing moment of the entire show, which demonstrates just how important it is to have an independent press; it is a polar opposite description of the situation from Westmoreland's, and the juxtaposition of the two is the highlight of the entire news report - the words are both riveting and chilling, and reveal two very legitimate viewpoints that are completely at odds with each other. Although this is merely a news report, it was presented in a way that made it thirty of the saddest minutes I have ever watched on television, and it is absolutely *no* coincidence that 1967 was such a pivotal year in Hollywood. And to think that this came the year *before* the election of Richard Nixon, the assassinations of RFK and MLK, the Tet Offensive, and Operation Neutralize (which was *directly* related to Con Thien) - 1968 was arguably the most historic post-WWII year in our nation's history, but in many ways, it was set up by 1967. Do yourselves a favor, and watch this entire film - you'll be somewhat unaffected during the first fifteen minutes, but those fifteen minutes set up the final ten minutes, which will rip your heart out.
  10. I recently came across a police training film from (most likely) 1965 called "Stay Alert, Stay Alive," which instructed officers on proper arrest techniques. While searching for this on YouTube, I came across another instructional film with the same title ("Stay Alert, Stay Alive"), this one intended for soldiers about to deploy in Vietnam, and made in 1967 - it is completely unrelated to the above police video. This 28'32" training video gives an interesting glimpse into the mentality of the American "brass" when it comes to conditioning soldiers for the rigors and realities of Vietnam, and will present you with words with which you're familiar, such as brigade (the chart on the right side of the page shows a "brigade" to be the only unit with four-figures (i.e., 1,000-9,999 ) of soldiers), division (the smallest unit consisting of greater than 10,000 soldiers), Brigadier General (the general who controls the brigade, in this case, William Pearson), Viet Cong, booby traps, and will show them to you in a way where they'll "stick" in your brain. I understand people have strong feelings about the Vietnamese war, but it is an important part of American history, which is why I've chosen to put this in the History Forum rather than the Film Forum (its worth is primarily historical; not cinematic). As you're watching, try and imagine the stress these children (perhaps "young men" is a better term) are being placed under, listening to the Brigadier General demonstrate what can happen to them with booby traps - they're being told to literally watch every step they take; when I was their age, I was mentally preparing for my next keg party, which is why I unashamedly call these unwilling participants - who would rather be *anywhere* but here - "heroes," because that's what they are in my eyes (I am in the minority, and would be considered unpatriotic by some, because I consider the young enemy soldiers to be placed in an equally heroic position - they didn't want to be there any more than our young men did). Towards the end of the video, as a soldier is walking around peering into drains bored into the ground, I was thinking just how easily the enemy could be waiting to ambush him in any of a dozen other places. Maybe this permitted us to have an Eden Center, but at what cost? Yes, maybe one day we'll be friends with Iraq, North Korea, and other countries we've clashed with - is this what it takes to gain friendship? One generation tears countries apart, and the next makes amends? Perhaps this "strategy" (and, yes, I'm cynical enough to think it's a long-term "strategy") will work, but it isn't worth it, at least not to my eyes, which have become both jaded and wise, as I've watched tragedy-after-tragedy unfold through the decades. My antipathy towards bureaucratic "hawks," sitting in their cozy confines inside the safe boundaries of the United States, most certainly does not extend to the unfortunate soldiers who were forced into combat. And it most certainly *does not* include people such as John McCain, who is a legitimate hero to me - how dare anyone criticize that man for being captured and tortured? Don't like his politics? Criticize away (just not here ), but to condemn him for being captured is simply immoral.
  11. If you savor "Shipping Out" (which is often called "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again") - which you should - this will take you a good couple of hours to read, with breaks. It is worth every single minute. Written by one of the great writers to ever live, and one of my heroes, this is David Foster Wallace at his comedic finalist, skewering the cruise-ship industry. Read it, love it, discuss it, and revel in it. I'll be here waiting for you. "Shipping Out" by David Foster Wallace" on harpers.org If you're busy which you so often are, read just 2-3 pages. It will reel you in, and you'll come back to it, I promise. Read the footnotes when they happen (you won't lose your way). Enjoy this rare display of genius cruising along at full throttle. If you haven't laughed out loud by the time you get to the first footnote, I'll give you your money back.
  12. I certainly take no pride in being the only restaurant-based website in the world that has two different threads dealing with Zoophilia, but so it is. Having watched - and, surprisingly, enjoyed - "Dolphin Lover," I took a morbid fascination in dracisk's comment: not because I care about Zoophilia, but because the film "Zoo" supposedly won an award at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, which is an honor I trust *much* more than an Academy Award - although I can't find out what it won. It was also represented at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival (I understand that many of my film threads are "Academy Award-heavy," but that means very little - I value both of these film festivals more than I do the Academy and its pandering to the masses, and I hope others here do also). I can't believe I'm saying this, but if you wish to watch only one of these films, make it "Dolphin Lover" - first of all, it's only 15 minutes long, but more importantly, it's a *much* better film - the lighting is better, they're not using actors (Michael Minard's "interview" in Zoo is painful to watch, knowing he's just an actor), Dolphin Lover is succinct and articulate, and it's actually enjoyable and fascinating to watch; "Zoo" is, quite frankly, pretty damned boring. And I'm not saying it's boring because it isn't graphic (although the one graphic part was very well-done, in a restrained and elegant manner); I'm saying it's boring because it's *boring* - dull, ponderous, dark, ambiguous, and just hard work to finish. Forgetting the subject matter, I simply did not like the film *as a film* - it was trying too hard to be "artsy," and fell flat on its face. It is now, however, nine years old, and a lot has changed in the past nine years in terms of what we've become numb to - think of "The Walking Dead" as an example. I'm debating whether or not I want to broach the topic of Zoophilia, because that's really a separate thread (yet, I'd prefer not to have three threads on this arcane subject). There are all kinds of profound philosophical implications with Zoophilia: Is it consensual? Is it animal abuse? (I think this is *the* key question if laws are to be enacted.) Is it natural? Is it innate? Is it developed? Is it immoral? Should it be illegal? These are all questions for someone more qualified than I am, but I do have some thoughts - not strong opinions; just thoughts. In the middle ages, i.e., about twenty years ago, most people thought that any type of sex that wasn't between a man and a woman (of the same race) was abnormal - some going so far as to think that unmarried sex was not only immoral, but also abnormal - I'm still trying to figure out how a marriage certificate might lend "normalcy" to a particular type of sex drive. It is clear to me - now - that just because something isn't in the majority, doesn't make it wrong. Most people aren't gay, but *relatively* few people remain who would disparage those who are. I suspect that, twenty years ago - much less five-hundred years ago - gay people would have given *anything* if they could "push a button and no longer be gay" - not because there was anything wrong with it, but because societal pressures were so brutal that their lives were a living hell. I feel *so sorry* for my gay friends who were forced to remain in the closet for fear of being ostracized by society - that type of mentality was cruel and unfair; yet, it's the type of mentality that most people had earlier in *this century*, and I'm talking about the 21st century. In my opinion, it is the internet that helped to open people's eyes, about this, and about many other things. After millennia of cruelty, our society has finally educated itself to the point where being gay is considered to be perfectly natural and moral, and one reason is that it involves two consenting adults, not hurting anyone. In this "age of enlightenment," and I say that with something of a grain of salt, whoever would deny gays and lesbians their basic right to be happy is <insert your own negative epithet here>. You know exactly where I'm going with this, which is exactly why I'm putting in this dividing line: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I put that dividing line there because I'm now going to go from discussing subjects which are perfectly moral, to discussing subjects which are, at best, uncomfortable; and at worst, completely immoral. Just to be perfectly clear, the *only* correlation I'm making with people living out of wedlock, or people who are gay, is the way that society has mistreated them over the centuries. Please do not read anything more into this post, because there's nothing more here. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zoophilia. Does the animal consent? I don't know. But I suspect these people would give *anything* not to be in the situation they're in - if they could "push a button and be normal," I'd bet the farm (yes, pun intended, with apologies) that they would. If you watch "Dolphin Lover," you may well feel sorry for the subject of the movie - I certainly did, though I can also easily see how someone else might not. One thing that's clear to me is that the man in that film feels his sexuality is perfectly natural, and not something to be ashamed of. One fetish, compulsion, proclivity - whatever word you prefer - I've *never heard of* is the desire to have sex with inanimate objects (unspeakably macabre things such as necrophilia notwithstanding). Nobody wants to have sex with a coffee table or a daffodil - so is Zoophilia a variant of legitimate sexuality, forever-ingrained in the person's basic psyche? Has it been there since birth? My gut feeling is, perhaps so; or, perhaps not. Even if it is, does that make it right? Not by itself it doesn't: Many people have a natural tendency towards violence, and they are legally obligated to keep that in check; otherwise, they go to jail. So clearly, there are lines which cannot be crossed and explained away by "it's been there since birth." But what are those lines? I've had red hair since birth, some people have been left-handed since birth, and some people have been gay since birth - that makes us all minorities, but it doesn't make any of us immoral. There's nothing wrong with being abnormal, but where do you draw the line of immorality? Is it their fault that they have strong urges to have sex with animals? I just cannot imagine that anyone would wish to have this "condition" (or whatever it is). There are videos - documentaries - on the internet of people bringing elephants to orgasm for the purposes of insemination - how different is that? I must stress that I do not have any answers, and honestly, if I never think of this subject again, that would be perfectly fine with me. Pedophilia. This seems about as clear-cut to me as it can possibly be: There is absolutely no consent given, and it must be considered a "crime" or whatever you want to call it. Whatever you want to call it, it must be stopped, immediately and decisively, by any means necessary - if I had caught someone in the act of abusing my son, I probably would have killed them. That said, I do think pedophilia is an uncontrollable compulsion, urge, drive - whatever the term is - and that these people are mentally ill. They need help more than they need punishment, and I honestly believe that voluntary castration should enter into the discussion, because "once a pedophile, always a pedophile" ... that's how I see it until I'm convinced otherwise. For a long time now - maybe a decade - I've felt that pedophilia is often an illness, perhaps even existing since birth. Yes, pedophiles must be locked up - but in my eyes, they need to be locked up not "to punish them"; rather, to get them off the streets at all costs because it is too difficult to control sexual urges, and the consequences of *not* controlling them are just too severe. Castration must be discussed as a potential option to the convicted pedophile, rather than only locking them up for twenty years, and having them do the exact same thing as soon as they walk out of jail, because I don't think they can be "rehabilitated" or "taught a lesson." If that constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment," I would personally rather be surgically castrated than to spend the rest of my life in prison - others may feel differently, I don't know. I took a big chance writing this post, and I beseech people to read it for what it is: a way to get things out in the open, rather than burying our heads in the sand, and pretending they don't exist - intelligent discourse is the only way to move forward. Apr 25, 2007 - "Into the Shadowy World of Sex with Animals" by Manohla Dargis on nytimes.com "Zoo" on rottentomatoes.com --- Summary: All this philosophical crap aside, this movie, as a movie, is terrible - good luck finishing it: It's one of the worst films I've seen in a long, long time. If you're a masochist, you can find the entire thing here on YouTube. I'll also add that I've tried to be as non-judgmental as possible in writing this, as it's the only way I could suffer through it.
  13. When I was a pre-teen, I got a new, bright orange, Schwinn Chopper: which, despite dating me, remains the coolest bicycle I've ever had. Like a good boy, I went up to the Glenmont Police Station and registered the bike (I had it set in my mind that you were absolutely required to do this), and noticed on the precinct bulletin board a warning sign about Blasting Caps, something which I'd never heard of before and knew nothing about. Sure enough, the next day, I noticed some "Blasting Caps" in our driveway, and scared the crap of my mom, who called 911. The police arrived, and 10-year-old me explained to them what I had found in the driveway (a wire that had fallen from our car, no doubt). Anyway, I just stumbled upon this 1956 documentary short film produced by the "Institute of Makers of Explosives" about "Blasting Caps." It's a somewhat interesting 50s-America educational short, warning people about Blasting Caps, and no doubt inspiring other well-meaning pre-teens to call 911 and report fallen car parts in their driveways to the police. "Blasting Cap Danger" by the Institute of Makes of Explosives on archive.org As an aside, the film implies that there were *no* female commercial airline pilots in the United States in 1956 (this is implied in the first five minutes). People think we're such an advanced species; we're nothing but a bunch of primitives (I won't even mention that this was just two years after the Brown v. Board of Education case).
  14. No, it's not April Fools Day - I watched a 15-minute documentary called "Dolphin Lover" - which involves a general topic known as zoophilia, the entire film being Malcolm Brenner explaining how he came to fall in love with - and have consexual sex with - a dolphin named Dolly (I think if you Google it, you can watch it on YouTube). And as incredible as it sounds, it was actually interesting. At first, I thought it was going to be a comedy, but it's a serious documentary - I can safely say that this topic never crossed my mind before seeing this film. Jan 26, 2015 - "New Documentary Tells the Story of a Man who Had Sex with a Dolphin" by Arielle Castillo on fusion.net
  15. Have you ever seen those old bumper stickers? The ones that said, "A little nukie never hurt anybody!" You haven't seen them in awhile now, have you. Yesterday, I finished "Voices from Chernobyl," one of the two masterworks by Belarussian journalist Svetlana Alexievich - winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature (her other notable work being "Zinky Boys" - a tragic nickname for Russian soldiers shipped home from the Afghanistan war in zinc coffins). The title, in Russian, is "Чернобыльская молитва," translating to "Chernobyl Prayer" (which is the British title; "Voices from Chernobyl" is the American title - both are appropriate, as the book is essentially a meditation on the aftermath). This book follows a pattern completely foreign to what I'm familiar with when it comes to Nobel Prize Winners in Literature: Not only is it non-fiction, but Alexievich didn't even write it; she instead spent several years interviewing hundreds of people affected by the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, and compiled their lightly edited anecdotes into a series of "short stories" - stories obtained, compiled, arranged, and presented by Alexievich, but not written in her own hand. Before reading this book, I had done virtually no research into Chernobyl, and that's why I chose it over Zinky Boys - all other things being equal, I viewed it as a chance to educate myself about what might become the single deadliest event in human history (up until now). The final death toll from Chernobyl will not be known for centuries, but it could conceivably be over one-million people, even though only 49 people died immediately. A United Nations study estimates 4,000 deaths as the final toll, but different reports vary wildly, as you might imagine. I will add that these aren't merely "deaths," but some of them are the worst types of deaths imaginable - I won't sicken you with pictures, but they're out there, on the internet: You'd be doing yourself an intellectual service if you searched for them, but I must warn you of their grotesque nature. "Deaths Due to the Chernobyl Disaster" on wikipedia.com "Chernobyl Death Toll: 985,000, Mostly from Cancer" by Prof. Karl Grossman on globalresearch.ca "25 Years after Chernobyl, We Don't Know How Many Died" by Roger Highfield on newscientist.com The Good If you haven't read "Voices from Chernobyl," the odds are probably pretty good that you don't know much about the Chernobyl disaster. The Soviet Union - only several years from complete collapse - did a magnificent job of covering up the meltdown, and it's only because they detected radioactivity in *Sweden* - many hundreds of miles away - that any problem manifested itself. Within days, scientists traced the problem back to the Soviet Union, based primarily upon no obvious faults in Swedish reactors, and wind patterns from earlier that week, blowing from the southeast. The Soviet Union confessed only when they were backed into a corner, and even then downplayed the magnitude of the calamity - even to its own people, some of whom suffered (and continue to suffer) the most horrific deaths and birth defects imaginable - some of these people simply do not look human, and you wonder how they could possibly be alive. To my knowledge, this is the most comprehensive work ever published about the after-effects of Chernobyl on its victims, and it was absolutely courageous, bare-knuckled journalism on the part of Alexievich that produced this incredibly important book, without which, Chernobyl might have been completely forgotten in future generations. There are dozens of anecdotes from "liquidators" (800-or-so workers who cleaned the ceiling of the core), widows, teachers, children, residents, exiles, farmers, scientists, and any other person you could imagine would be affected by proximity to "The Dead Zone." Alexievich did a masterly job of gathering and assembling anecdotes, and arranged them in a way that gave the book a steady progression - by the end, you'll have been hit with so many tales of tragedy and sorrow, that there's no way you'll emerge from this book unscathed. The gravitas of both the stories and the "positions" of people telling them seems to escalate as the book advances, lending a natural crescendo to the recollections. The final anecdote, only about ten pages long, is one of the most beautiful - and tragic - love stories I've ever read. The Bad I need to be careful how I say this because I mean absolutely no disrespect to Alexievich. The author did not ask to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, for this, or for any of her other works, so it's not her "fault" that she won. However, I feel it would be more appropriate to have awarded Alexievich the Nobel Peace Prize, rather than the Nobel Prize in Literature. The stories become bogged down towards the middle of this book - all starting to run together - and it's because of sheer quantity, even more than quality, that you come away from this tale a changed person. If enough people shoot enough paint balls at you, no matter how badly they shoot, you're eventually going to be covered in paint. Having finished Voices from Chernobyl, I could now read anything by Alexievich - anything at all - and I would have no clue that it was she who wrote it, because I have absolutely no idea what she writes like, or what her voice is. In removing herself almost entirely from this book, and allowing the words of the people to take center stage, she remains a complete unknown to me as a writer. Is that Nobel Prize-worthy - organizing the words of others, and presenting them in some semblance of order? Is what I do here Nobel Prize-worthy? The Ugly Literature or not, you really "should" read this book. It is an undeniably important presentation of information, and you will walk away enlightened and educated about the horrors of Chernobyl. And isn't that why she wrote it? You will need supplemental information, because this deals *only* with the aftermath of the meltdown, and not the actual mechanics or politics of the reactor or the government - you will almost surely have a desire to read additional material about what, exactly, happened, because this book just doesn't tell you. It is, in essence, a "tribute piece" to the victims of Chernobyl's fallout; it is not an indictment of the Soviet Union, nor is it a primer about nuclear physics. You will finish the book not having a clue what happened at the reactor, but you'll have painfully detailed memories of what happened to those who were near it. Voices from Chernobyl, despite not being enjoyable, is required reading. It's not as painful as I'm making it out to be - whatever suffering you incur will come from within yourselves, as the book merely presents memories from survivors; not cries from the dead.
  16. "It doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world." Reading this book made me think of that famous line uttered by Rick in "Casablanca." What a beautiful, wild and wondrous world this is. And what a tiny little speck am I in it. A friend loaned me this book, and he raved about it. I wasn't sure if I would enjoy it or not. I didn't study much science in college, taking "Understanding the Weather" for an easy A, only to find the cushy professor who always taught the class was replaced that year by someone who cared about cumulus clouds I loved this book, perhaps because of my lack of knowledge about the topic. Reading it on an airplane beside my college-aged kids, they rolled their eyes at me as I shared tidbits. "Everyone knows that, mom. We learned that in fourth grade." My educational shortcomings aside, this is a book that scientists and the less scientifically inclined can enjoy. Richard Fortey, a senior paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London, writes extensively about life on earth, in all of its stages. I enjoyed his writing style, and I never felt like I was reading a biology textbook. His tone is conversational, and he even throws in pieces of poetry, here and there, for people whose brains work like mine. I learned a great deal reading this book, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
  17. If I was a billionaire, I'd use that money to buy the most blighted plots of land on earth, in the poorest, most-forgotten parts of poverty-stricken, densely populated cities - I'd make sure the land was cleaned up to the point where it was pristine, fertile, green, and build parks using only native flora, fencing each park with fences of beauty created by artisans using only natural materials, paying guards - destitute locals, perhaps disabled - a living wage to guard them 24 hours a day, with safe, well-lit guardhouses where they could work at night, with computers for them to use during down times, and comfortable beds to rest on when they're tired, naming the parks after local heroes, and giving the people in the poorest parts of the poorest cities in the world a place of refuge, of hope, of peace, and of safety, with works of art commissioned for and created by native artists. A place where people could be happy, where they could get a cold drink of fresh water, where they could have a picnic underneath a shade tree - a place where parents could push their children on swings, and people could play soccer. A place where people could get joy out of life, in places which were previously written off as the worst urban blight imaginable. And if someone came and destroyed one of the parks, I'd build another in its place, and if they destroyed that one, I'd build another, and I'd keep building them until people realized I wasn't going to stop. Everyone has their own billion-dollar fantasy, and that is mine.
  18. I have never read "Ball Four," but I suspect at least a couple of people here have, and I'm wondering if it's worth spending time on now that all the dirty laundry has been aired. "'Ball Four' Changed Sports *and* Books" by Rob Neyer on static.espn.go.com "Wit, Wisdom, and Social Commentary" by Jim Caple on staic.espn.go.com If nothing else, "Ball Four" is probably the most significant thing ever to come out of the Seattle Pilots expansion team, which lasted exactly one year before moving to Milwaukee and becoming the Brewers.
  19. I watched Ken Burns' second documentary on American Life, "The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God" (1984), released three years after his fine "Brooklyn Bridge" (1981) documentary, and while I learned a lot, I thought it was somewhat dull in comparison with the Brooklyn Bridge (which I touch on here). Don't get me wrong: It was worth watching, but for Burns to be able to pick *any* American Historical topic, and to choose The Shakers seems obscure to the point of being odd. The Shakers were, quite literally, "Shaking Quakers," named as such for the ecstatic dances they would perform, falling into an almost hypnotic trance as they sang and worshipped - that, in and of itself, is fascinating, and would have been great to see, but other than one small drawing, and a five-second clip of an aging shaker demonstrating a move, there was absolutely nothing about the dancing - which I found inexplicable. When you hear "Shaker," you think Shaker furniture, and this film reveals why: They celebrated God by trying to achieve perfection in their work, which is why their work was of such high quality. I, personally, have shaker-style (ladder-back) dining room chairs, and I love them (E.A. Clore in Madison, VA, if anyone is interested in artisan furniture, but that's really going off on a tangent). To summarize, while I'm glad I watched the documentary, and while I learned something about Shakers, this came across to me as an opportunity lost. There were too many interviews with aging women (which may be intentional, as the Shakers are dying out very quickly, and may soon no longer exist), but these interviews, after awhile, became painfully dull. This is one of those things like reading "Walden" (1854): Yes, I'm glad I read it, yes, I'm a better person for having gotten through it - and I was largely bored the entire time. For Burns "completists," it's a must, but for someone in search of a great example of what Burns is capable of (and he is capable of fantastic, entertaining documentaries - he truly does have a gift), I would bypass this one - although I've only watched several of his works to date, I believe "The Shakers" will end up being one of his more obscure films. One thing that I vividly remember: a representative of the Shakers went to Washington, DC as the Civil War broke out, went directly to President Lincoln, and requested the right to passive dissent when it came to fighting, i.e., he was a conscientious objector. At first Lincoln declined, saying that these men were able-bodied, but he was finally talked into exempting Shaker males from participating in the war due to their religious beliefs - this is thought to be the first case of an exemption from fighting in a war due to religious beliefs in United States history - an important milestone. And they weren't just trying to worm out; they genuinely were against harming their fellow brethren; quite to the contrary, they would take in total strangers, and treat them as family. Sometimes, knowing full well that these strangers were merely seeking warmth during the winter - these people became known as "Winter Shakers," and you know what? They didn't care - they accommodated them anyway, with open arms. When thieves stole a portion of their crops, do you know what they did? They planted more seeds, figuring that a certain percentage would be lost to those desperate enough to steal food. These were good people who loved their fellow man, and went out of their way to be kind to them. If only the world had more people such as this.
  20. I read Lansing's version of "Endurance" before I knew anything about Shackleton (about twenty years ago), and it remains the single most compelling non-fiction experience of my life. I had *no idea* what was going to happen; now, the story has been sensationalized and ruined for people. To anyone unfamiliar with the story: I urge you to buy Lansing's version, and to immediately cover up the photographs in the middle (earlier editions didn't have the photographs at all, and you're much, *much* better off without them). Do not look at them until you finish the book. Again, I consider this the single most enthralling, arguably the greatest, work of non-fiction I've ever read, but for you to say the same thing, you'll need to remain completely unfamiliar with the story throughout the book.
  21. DonRocks

    Timeline

    1500c The Rhind Papyrus - "Directions For Knowing All Dark Things" (Ahmes) 530c Pythagoras forms cult at Croton 458 "Agamemnon" (Aeschylus) 250c Philo of Byzantium uses a circle and a secant to determine string proportions 75c "De Rerum Natura" (Lucretius) 25c Didymus uses syntonic comma to correct Pythagoras 15c "De Architectura" (Vitruvius) discusses the mesolabium (error on p. 119 attributes this book to the 9th century) ------- 100c Clement (Alexandria) inserts image of Christ into music 126 Pantheon rebuilt by Hadrian 150c "Harmonics" (Claudius Ptolemy) introduces elements of "Just Intonation" 400c Ammianus (Rome) observes that 'music has displaced philosophy' 520c "Di Instituzione Musica" (Boethius) gives early implication that Equal Temperament goes against the laws of nature 745c Charlemagne (814) 757 Emperor Constantine Copronymus (Byzantine Empire) gifts organ To King Pepin (Franks) 812 King of Constantinople gifts organ to Charlemagne (Franks) 814 (Charlemagne, 745c) 826 Georgius builds organ at Aachen for Louis the Pious (Aquitaine) 900c Pope John VIII advocates Church Organs for teaching the science of music 1000c Organistrum invented (attributed to Odo of Cluny, note date discrepancy with Odo's birth date) 1030c Guido de Arezzo Develops Six-Note Ascending Scale (Ut Re Mi Fa Sol La) From "Ut Queant Laxis" 1079 Peter Abelard, (1142) 1093 Winchester Cathedral Opens 1132 Statute Of The Cistercian Order Tries To Regulate Singing 1141 Saint Aelred (Cistercian Rievaulx Abbey) Expresses Concern About Excessive Use Of Organs 1142 (Peter Abelard, 1079) 1163 Construction begins on Cathédral de Notre Dame de Paris (1345) 1190c "The Guide for the Perplexed" (Maimonides) 1195 "Saigyo Monogatari Emaki" depicts dwarfed potted trees, bonsai (Kamakura period, Tokugawa Art Museum, Nagoya) 1200c Arab Palace (whereabouts unknown) Gifts 90-Pipe Organ To Emperor Of China (hilariously, during the Song Dynasty) 1211 Construction begins on Cathédral de Notre Dame de Reims (1275) 1250c Melody Written Which Reversed Itself (Dominus - Nusmido) 1266 Giotto di Bondone (1337) 1274c "Summa Theologica" (Thomas Aquinas) 1275 (Cathédral de Notre Dame de Reims Opens, 1211) 1280c Anonymous IV (English commentator) describes thirds and sixths as "the most agreeable of all [harmonies]" "Perspectiva Communis" (John Peckham) 1300 First Jubilee Year, depicted in "The Inferno" by Dante as "a traffic jam in Hell" 1309 Avignon Papacy, 1378) 1310 Roman de Fauvel I (Gervais de Bus and Chaillou de Pesstain) 1314 Roman de Fauvel II (Gervais de Bus and Chaillou de Pesstain) 1320 "Feast of Herod" (Giotto) 1321 "The Inferno" (Dante) 1324 First Papal Bull Issued that was devoted entirely to music 1328 House of Valois (1589) 1330c Francesco Landini (1397) 1337 (Giotto di Bondone, 1266) 1342 "Presentation at the Temple" (Ambrogio Lorenzetti) 1345 (Cathédral de Notre Dame de Paris Opens, 1163) 1350 Costumes (mens and womens) became more revealing 1352 Construction begins On Strasburg Clock 1353 "The Decameron" (Boccaccio) 1355 Johannes Boen (Dutch Priest and Music Theorist) predicted heightened musical skills 1360c Robertsbridge Manuscript includes thirds in parallel motion (earliest surviving music written for keyboard) 1363 King John II (not Charles V - error on p. 69) grants Duchy of Burgundy as an appanage to Philip The Bold, (1404) 1364 Reign of King Charles V (1380) ------ Links are all completed before this point 1367 King John I (Aragon) Sought A Player For An Early, Primitive Clavicembalum 1370 Petrarch bequeaths a Giotto Madonna to his friend, the ruler of Padua 1377 Filippo Brunelleschi (1446) 1378 Lorenzo Ghiberti (1455) Papal Schism (1418) (Avignon Papacy, 1309) 1380 (King Charles V, 1364) 1382 Guild of Saint Luke (in Antwerp) began accepting tradesmen 1385 Roman Pope Urban VI Fled From Naples To Nocerina 1386 Donatello di Niccolò di Betto Bardi (1466) 1389 Year Depicted In Giovanni da Prato's "Paradiso degli Alberti" 1390c John Dunstable (1453) 1395 Parisian Police Forbade Minstrels To Mention Unity Or Disunity Of The Church In Their Songs 1397 Guillaume Dufay (1474) Giovanni Lambertacci (Padua) Informs Son-In-Law (University Of Pavia) That The Clavicembalum Had Been Invented (Francesco Landini, 1330c) 1400c Advanced Motets Written "Il Libro Dell'Arte" (Cennino Cennini) "Geographia" (Ptolemy) becomes available in Florence 1400 Dr. Hermannus Poll (Inventor Of Clavicembalum) Becomes Physician Of King Ruprecht Of The Palatinate (Southwestern Germany) 1401 Dr. Hermannus Poll Executed At Nuremburg For Treason Against The King 1402 Gian Galeazzo Visconti (Duke of Milan) dies of fever while invading Tuscanye 1404 Leon Battista Alberti (1472) Reign of John The Fearless (1419) (Philip the Bold) 1407c Filippo Brunelleschi and Donatello journey to Rome to study Classical Art 1408 "Sculpture of David" (Donatello) 1409 Council of Pisa attempts to install third Pope 1410c Conrad Paumann (1478) 1414 Council of Constance installed to eliminate Papal Schism 1417 Pope Martin V unifies papacy (1431) 1418 (Papal Schism, 1378) 1419 Reign of Philip The Good (1467) (Reign of John The Fearless, 1404) 1420 Filippo Brunelleschi begins work on Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore (1436) 1420c Filippo Brunelleschi (re-)discovers vanishing point, thus linear perspective with 1) Florentine Baptistery 2) Palazzo Vecchio 1425c Filippo Brunelleschi and Giovanni di Gherado da Prato exchange insulting sonnets 1425 "Gates of Paradise" (Lorenzo Ghiberti, east doors, second commission) 1426 "The Trinity" (Masaccio) 1435 "On Painting" (Leon Battista Alberti) repeats Protagoras that "Perception is truth." 1436 Pope Eugenius IV Consecrates Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore completed by Filippo Brunelleschi Guillaume Dufay performs motet Nuper rosarum flores at Dome's dedication 1439 Florentine Academy founded and led by Marsilio Ficino, supported by Cosimo de' Medici 1440 First attestation of the Dulce Melos (Henri-Arnault de Zwolle) 1445c Domenico da Piacenza publishes treatise on The Dance (not much is written about it) 1446 (Filippo Brunelleschi, 1377) 1447 Papacy of Pope Nicholas V (1455, error on page 109 stating his inauguration was on Christmas Day, 1449) 1449 Lorenzo de' Medici (1492) 1450c Antonio Squarcialupi most famous Italian organist in mid-15th century Movable-type printing press invented by Johannes Gutenberg 1451 Franchinus Gaffurius (1522) - index (and text) error by referring to him by both Franchino Gaffori and Franchinus Gaffurius 1452 Leonardo da Vinci (1519) "De Re Aedificatoria" (Treatise on Architecture, Leon Battista Alberti) (Gates of Paradise, 1425) 1452c Josquin des Prez (1521) 1453 Paolo Uccello weds, lays awake at night pondering perspective (John Dunstable, 1390c) 1453c First Gutenberg Bible printed (about 48 copies still exist) 1455 (Papacy of Pope Nicholas V, 1447) (Lorenzo Ghiberti, 1378) 1463 "Corpus Hermeticum" translated into Latin by Ficino 1466 Desiderius Erasmus (1536) Leonardo da Vinci apprentices in Andrea del Verrocchio's workshop (1476) (Donatello di Niccolí² di Betto Bardi, 1386) 1467 Reign of Charles The Bold (1477) (Reign of Philip The Good, 1419) 1468 Paolo del Pozzo Toscanelli draws meridian of sun's rays on the floor of Santa Maria del Fiore to determine Easter 1471 Papacy of Pope Sixtus IV (1484) 1472 (Leon Battista Alberti, 1404) 1473 Nicolaus Copernicus (1543) 1474 Paolo del Pozzo Toscanelli writes Fernam Martins and asserts viability of reaching the Orient by sailing west (Guillaume Dufay, 1397) 1475 Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1564) 1475c Johannes Tinctorus Chronicles English Musical Condition, In Which Composer John Dunstable Stood Forth 1476 Pope Sixtus IV announces offering of Indulgences for souls suffering in Purgatory (Leonardo da Vinci finishes apprenticeship in Andrea del Verrocchio's workship, 1466) 1477 (Reign of Charles The Bold, 1467) 1478 (Conrad Paumann, 1410c) 1480 Contract for organ at Lucca calls for both sharp and flat keys installed as options for the performer 1481c da Vinci leaves for Milan to present Ludovico Sforza with a lira da braccio from Lorenzo de' Medici 1482 "Musica Practica" (Bartolomeo Ramos de Pareja) supports Just Intonation. Euclid's "Elements" translated, uses geometry as a solution to irrational numbers 1482c Fazio Cardano translates John Peckham's "Perspectiva Communis" (1280c) and shares it with da Vinci 1483 Martin Luther (1546) 1484 Papacy of Pope Innocent VIIII (1492) (Papacy of Pope Sixtus IV, 1471) 1486 "Oration on the Dignity of Man" (Giovanni Pico della Mirandola) - 900 theses defended publiclyas the basis for all knowledge Pope Innocent VIII mortgages Papal Tiara to pay for his illegitimate son's (Franceschetto Cybo) lavish wedding to Lorenzo de' Medici's daughter 1486c Pope Innocent VIII establishes Papal bureau to sell favors and pardons at exorbitant prices (believe it or not) 1487 "Musices Opusculum" (Nicolaus Burtius) criticizes "Musica Practica" (page 9, e.g.) 1488c Viola Organista invented by da Vinci 1489c Plotinus translated into Latin by Ficino, who also publishes "De Vita Libri Tres" 1490c "Vitruvian Man" (da Vinci) accompanied by notes on the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius Adrian Willaert (Venezia, 1562) 1491 Henry VIIII (1547) 1492 "Theorica Musicae" (Gaffurius) Papacy of Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia, 1503) (Papacy of Pope Innocent VIII, 1484) (Lorenzo de' Medici, 1449) 1496 "Practica Musicae" (Gaffurius) makes possible refererence to Meantone Temperament - date error on page 101 1498 "The Last Supper" (da Vinci), Refrectory of the Convent of Santa Maria della Grazie, Milan 1501 Cesare Borgia (son of Pope Alexander VI) holds "Ballet of the Chestnuts" in the Papal Palace 1503 (Papacy of Pope Alexander VI, 1492) 1506 "Mona Lisa" (da Vinci), La Louvre 1509 John Calvin (1564) Johannes Pfefferkorn publishes "Mirror of the Jews," ordering Jewish books destroyed (1553) 1511 Nicola Vicentino (Vicenza, c1576) Lira da Braccio (Giovanni d'Andrea (no biographical information found), Verona), Kunsthistorische Museum, Wien 1513 Machiavelli's first copy of "The Prince" Papacy of Pope Leo X (Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, son of Lorenzo The Great <--- deserved for arrogance, 1521) 1514 Copernicus circulates manuscript among friends saying the Earth was not at the center of the cosmos Fra Bartolomeo's nude San Sebastian removed from the Convent of San Marco (Florence) due to women lusting after it 1517 Leo X names Johann Tetzel Commissioner of Indulgences for all of Germany Martin Luther nails The 95 Theses onto the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Saxony, beginning the Protestant Reformation Erasmus marvels that "splendid talents are forming all over the world" 1518 "What a century! What literature! How good it is to be alive!" (Letter written by Ulrich von Hí¼teen) 1519 "Quid Non Ebrietas" (Adrian Willaert) exposes flaws in Pythagorean Tuning and Just Intonation by an octave-leap after traveling the Circle of Fifths Ferdinand Magellan's crew sets sail around the world (1523) (Leonardo da Vinci, 1452) 1520 A French Instrument-Makers Guild claimed the right to make their own inlays and marquetry, incensing furniture makers 1521 (Josquin des Pres, 1452c) 1522 Pope Adrian VI wanted the Sistine Chapel ceiling stripped of nudes (Papacy of Pope Leo X, 1513) (Franchinus Gaffurius, 1451) 1523 "Toscanello In Musica" (Pietro Aron, Florence) makes definitive reference to Meantone Temperament Andreas Karlstadt (a Lutheran) sets aside church music, supports clerical matrimony, rejects baptism, and denounces education (Papacy of Pope Adrian VI, 1522) (4 of the original 55 on Magellan's Trinidad reach Spain, Tidore being the starting point of the final leg of the journey) 1531 "Avodat Hakkodesh" (Meir ben Ezekiel ibn Gabbai) says music creates "a magical resonance between earth and Heaven" 1533 Alfonso II d'Este (1597) First citation of the Lira da Braccio Giovanni Maria Lanfranco proposes equal temperament (flat fifths, sharp thirds) in "Scintille de Musica" 1534 John Calvin embraces Protestantism, forced to leave France Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy confiscated all lands belonging to the Holy See between 1536 and 1541, Church of England established 1535 Jan Beukelsz murders one of his (several) wives (error on page 123 says year was 1534) 1535c Silvio Cosini makes jerkin from human skin 1536 In "The Education of Children," also titled "On Civility in Children," Desiderius Erasmus (1466) calls this period "the worst age in history." 1538 Martin Luther praises complexity in music, calling anyone who does not understand it a "clodhopper." 1540 Jesuits (Society of Jesus) formed by Ignatius Loyola 1543 "On The Revolutions Of The Celestial Spheres" (Copernicus) (Nicolaus Copernicus, 1473) 1545 Council of Trent (1563) 1545c "Arezzo" (Bartolomeo Torri (spelling error on page 86)) 1546 (Martin Luther, 1483) 1547 (Henry VIII, 1491) 1550 "The Lives Of The Most Excellent Artists ...." (Vasari, 1st Edition) Theories of Temperament-to Music in 16th-Century Europe became much like Theories of Cartography-to-Mapmaking "De Subtilitate" (Girolamo Cardano) recommended scholars read love stories (et al) to rekindle their animal spirits 1551 Vicente Lusitano debates Nicola Vicentino before a court in Rome, over traditional musical views vs. radical ones 1553 Pope Julius III orders a burning of all copies of The Talmud 1555 Archicembolo, with six rows of keys, invented by Nicola Vicentino John Calvin turns Switzerland into an authoritarian state (1564) 1558 Gioseffo Zarlino describes tuning a lute using the mesolabium (attributed to Archimedes) 1562 Council of Trent urges ban on anything impure or lascivious in music (Adraen Willaert, 1490c) 1562c Cardinal Carlo Borromeo (Milan) induced composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (Palestrina) to write "Missa Papa Marcelli" to win support of counterpoint 1563 (Council of Trent, 1545) 1563c Convocation of 1562/3 eliminated organs from churches (Protestants taking over Catholicism) 1564 Galileo Galilei (1642) (Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, 1564)) (John Calvin, 1509) 1566 Carlo Gesualdo, Venosa (1613) 1568 "The Lives Of The Most Excellent Artists ...." (Vasari, 2nd Edition) 1570 Regnans in Excelsis (by Pope Pius V) declares Queen Elizabeth I a Heretic Giorgio Vasari covers up "The Trinity" (1426) 1576 Bubonic Plague kills nearly one-third (appr. 50,000) of Venezia (1577) 1576c Nicola Vicentino (1511) 1577 (Bubonic Plague in Venezia) 1581 Vincenzo Galilei mentions that the Viola Organista sounds like an ensemble of Viols 1589 (House of Valois, 1328) 1590 Carlo Gesualdo murders Donna Maria d'Avalos after catching her in flagrante delicto ------- End Dates Corrected To Here 1594 "Coelia" (William Percy) 1597 Cardinal Francesco Barberini (1679) 1598 Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1680) 1599 Queen Elizabeth gifts organ to Sultan Mehmet III of Constantinople (29 years after her excommunication) 1597 (Duke Alfonso II of Modena, 1533) - owned 52 harpsichords at his time of death 1606 Rene Descartes (1650) 1608 John Milton (1674) 1611 Woodcut of Josquin des Prez (copied from a lost oil painting) 1613 (Carlo Gesualdo, 1566) 1618 Fabio Colonna publishes "La Sambuca Lincea, Overo del'Musico Perfetto" 1698 "Eighth Sonnet" (William Shakespeare) 1618 "Temple Of Music" (Robert Fludd) Michael Praetorius calls the Hurdy-Gurdy 'the lyre of peasants and itinerant wenches' 1621 The Anatomy of Melancholy 1623 Blaise Pascal (1662) Pope Urban VIII Reign (1644) 1625 Charles I Reign (1649) 1637c "Harmonie Universelle" (Marin Mersenne) proposes 17-key, 19-key octaves to resolve wolf notes; uses intersecting triangles to determine string proportions 1640 Doni (mean) vs. Frescobaldi (equal) 1642 Issac Newton (1726) (Gaileo Galilei, 1564) 1644 Lords and Commons Ordinance calls for demolition of organs, monuments to idolatry and superstition, etc. 1644 (Pope Urban VIII Reign) 1649 (Charles I Reign) 1650 (Rene Descartes) 1655 Bartolomeo Cristofori (1731) 1660 Charles II Reign (1685) 1662 Royal Society Formed (Blaise Pascal) 1667 Jonathan Swift (1745) Paradise Lost 1674 (John Milton) 1679 (Cardinal Francesco Barberini) 1680 (Gian Lorenzo Bernini) 1683 Jean-Philippe Rameau (1764) 1684 Bernard Smith (split keys) vs. Renatus Harris 1685 George Frideric Handel (1759) Domenico Scarlatti (1757) Johann Sebastian Bach (1750) (Charles II Reign) 1687 "A Song for Saint Cecilia's Day" (John Dryden) 1700 Cristofori keeps and signs the musical inventory of the de Medici family - first hard evidence of a piano 1726 Gulliver's Travels (Grand Academy of Lagado) (Issac Newton) 1731 (Bartolomeo Cristofori) 1745 (Jonathan Swift) 1750 Handel buys split-key organ for Foundling Hospital (not 1768, error on page 19) (Johann Sebastian Bach) 1756 Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni (1827) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1791) 1757 (Domenico Scarlatti) 1759 (George Frideric Handel) 1764 (Jean-Philippe Rameau) 1785 "Art du Faiseur d'Instruments de Musique et Lutherie" (Diderot et d'Alambert, Paris) 1787 "Discoveries in the Theory of Sound" (Chladni) - grains of sans form geometric patterns on a plate that is bowed 1791 (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) 1819 "Ode On A Grecian Urn" (John Keats) 1822 "Hellas" (Percy Bysshe Shelley) 1827 (Ernst Florence Friedrich Chladni) 1857 "Les Fleurs du Mal" (Charles Baudelaire) 1874 John Ruskin impressed with Giotto's Frescoes 1914 Robert Frost writes to John Bartlett, "A sentence is a sound unto itself onto which other sounds called words may be strung." 1922 "Sonnets to Orpheus" (Rainer Maria Rilke, not "The Poet," error on page 58) 1942 "Notes Towards A Supreme Fiction" (Wallace Stevens) 1972 "The Thicket of Spring" (Paul Bowles) 1975 "The Painted Word" (Thomas Wolfe)
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