By far the most influential musicology of my young adulthood, steering me towards specialization.
via Open Culture: Leonard Bernstein’s Norton Lectures (1973). See Elitism for Dummies (on Young People’s Concerts, 2005)
via NYRB: Why So Popular? by Tim Parks
Touching yourself” was strictly forbidden in the Parks family. My father was an evangelical clergyman, my mother his zealous helper. The hand mustn’t stray below the belt, because such pleasures were always accompanied by evil, lascivious thoughts. Yet as Dusty Springfield memorably sang in “Son of a Preacher Man,” “being good isn’t always easy, no matter how hard I try,” and at thirteen for this son of a preacher man it was impossible. To get around the conflict—the sexual imperative and the fear of falling into sin—I would imagine going through the entire Anglican marriage ceremony with whatever girl was the object of my desire before allowing the hand to move to its inevitable destination; in this way, I hoped, my fantasies would be conjugal rather than lecherous and any sin much diminished.
via NYTimes: “If you tell Americans that your narrative is unreliable, they don’t smile: they call the cops…” .
via Brain Pickings: ee cummings “pretty how town” (Harvard, 1953).
via pitch interactive: Drone Strikes Visualized.
via Slate: Woodward’s Belushi v. The Sequester.
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