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Ambrose Bierce on Christmas
“It is unknown to me why a Christmas should be always merry but never happy, and why the happiness appropriate to the New Year should not be expressed in merriment. These be mysteries in whose...
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If one elect to live with barbarians, one must endure the barbarous noises of...
Another wretched year departed! Part 2 of Ambrose Bierce’s 1877 essay on “Christmas and the New Year,” just in time for the foolishness marking the end of 2013 (which was also the centennial of...
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Queenie Pie, Duke Ellington’s neglected “opera”
I had no idea that Duke Ellington had ever composed an opera until I saw Long Beach Opera’s 2014 season. Turns out it’s not truly what could be called an opera, but it’s definitely the closest...
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Captain Haddock’s nightmare
What substance was Hergé smoking in his pipe when he drew this passage in Tintin in Tibet?
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Snowy wrestles with his conscience
From Tintin in Tibet by Hergé Blistering barnacles! Snowy taps into the Captain’s whiskey supply
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Some Like It Cold
My thoughts on the U.S. premiere (and second production of) Marilyn Forever by Gavin Bryars. I am disappointed that my description of an obscene phone caller “twanging his telephone wire” was edited...
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Stravinsky recalls the premiere of The Rite of Spring
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the premiere of one of the essential musical compositions of the 20th century, Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Below, from Stravinsky’s autobiography...
View ArticlePhilip K. Dick on Wagner’s opera, Parsifal
From Philip K. Dick’s novel, Valis: ‘Pity’s highest power’ is just bullshit. Pity has no power … Everyone knows this, everyone who has gazed down helplessly at a sick or dying human or a sick or dying...
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