Finnish photographer JP Metsavainio took nearly twelve years to collect enough data for his high resolution gigapixel class mosaic image of the Milky Way. Total exposure time used is around 1250 hours between 2009 and 2021. He spent the 12 years photographing the galaxy in which we reside from a site in northern Finland. His results are spectacular. Go to…
For a long time I thought that the role of the performer was simply to play (or sing) the notes exactly as they were written in the score. It gradually dawned on me that this literal approach to musical performance was rather simple minded. During my come scritto period I thought Toscanini the prince of…
Franco Corelli was born in April of 1921 in Ancona on the Adriatic coast. He decided to pursue an musical career later than most singers. After two unsuccessful encounters with voice teachers he resolved to train himself by intense study of the recordings of the great Italian tenors who had preceded him. After winning the…
The COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca (AZ) has been widely used in Europe, but not in the US. Its technical nomenclature is a recombinant adenoviral vector encoding the spike protein antigen of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (ChAdOx1 nCov-19. Not long after the introduction of this vaccine cases of clots associated with low…
Wagner wrote the librettos for the four Ring operas in reverse order. The music, however, was composed in the correct sequence. Das Rheingold lays the foundation for the long slog ahead. As it’s all in one act, allowing no chance for a bathroom break, it lasts only 2 hours and 20 minutes, give or take…
[A] man can die but once: we owe God a death… and let it go which way it will, he that dies this year is quit for the next. Shakespeare Henry IV: part 2 An intern working from home for the Lake Charles Courier and Ives Daily has discovered a hitherto neglected passage of the Infrastructure…