COPLAND AND CULTURE
COMPOSER AARON Copland had a profound effect on American culture—and vice versa. Yesterday I shared mini reviews of some of my favorite Copland music (www.wp.me/p2ETap-1wz). Today, it’s a book review. … Continue reading
MY FAVORITE COPLAND
AARON COPLAND is the most American of American classical composers. I celebrate him here with several mini reviews of music I love. Tomorrow, I recommend a most artful book on … Continue reading
YOUR CHEATIN’ BUILDING
TALL BUILDINGS are evidently of the “guy” gender, because so many of them lie about their height. The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (http://www.ctbuh.org) has reported that the … Continue reading
SAUNDERS-ROE PRINCESS
HISTORY HAS been known to repeat itself in a disconcertingly short interval. Two British aircraft, the Bristol Brabazon and Saunders-Roe Princess, had similarly ambitious plans—and were both failures, albeit brilliant … Continue reading
BRISTOL BRABAZON
TWO BRITISH might-have-beens made aviation history 60 years ago. Each was the largest aircraft of its type in the world. Each extended the state of the art in design, fabrication … Continue reading
NICK SLONIMSKY
“MUSICOLOGIST” CONJURES up the image of a musty academic muttering something or other about a dominant-seventh chord in Sixteenth Century works for the shawm. But then there was Nicolas Slonimsky, … Continue reading
MY FAVORITE FERRARI
I’VE DRIVEN a goodly number of Ferraris in my life. Several of the memorable ones were classics by the time I got behind the wheel. The 212 Export Touring Barchetta … Continue reading
HOLMES AND ANTHRACITE
IT’S ONLY rarely that I offer first-hand knowledge of a Sherlockian locale as described by his friend and colleague, Dr. John H. Watson. True, occasionally travels have taken me to … Continue reading
VINTAGE PARIS, BERLIN & HOLLYWOOD
WHAT WONDERFUL times they must have been: the vintage years of Paris, Berlin and Hollywood. Following World War I and even into the Great Depression of the 1930s, these three … Continue reading
IDENTIFYING NEAR-EARTH OBJECTS
A GOAL of the B612 Foundation is to save the world. Named for asteroid B-612 in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s 1943 book The Little Prince, the B612 Foundation plans to do … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 