Handel's "Water Music" was not just a superb achievement in classical music. Entertaining British King George I's 1717 water party on the River Thames with an orchestra of 50 musicians in a barge was also a logistical breakthrough.
Intricate 2018 Swedish (with subtitles) TV mystery-thriller serial series, full of danger, psychological tension, political intrigue, and daunting challenges. No spoilers.
Discussion of American composer Robert Ward's "Symphony #2," including background, overview, and brief analysis, as well as public reception and suggested sources of recordings and musical scores.
The hit Danish TV Series "Seaside Hotel" ("Badehotellet" in Danish) is highly recommended in this review which summarizes the storyline (no spoilers) and provides background on the production.
Types of classical music (symphonic, chamber music, etc.), stylistic periods (Medieval to Modern), how to listen to classical music, finding free classical music, and attending live concerts.
Why is classical music so compelling and important? What is its purpose? This explains how the beauty of classical compositions has a transcendental, transformative power available to anyone willing to seek it.
The development of fireworks (pyrotechnics) has taken over 2,000 years. Explore the origin, social and political effects, and technological development of fireworks.
A “stay-at-home” (“shelter-in-place”) lockdown due to the COVID-19 coronavirus provides an opportunity for you to improve your life in multiple ways – self-awareness, meditation, learning new skills, writing, unleashing your creativity, getting organized, improving your body and mind.
The Diderot effect is a compulsive dysfunction whereby an individual who acquires a new possession feels a driving compulsion to replace other possessions to match its newness. This spending spree can create serious financial problems. Here's how to avoid it.
National outrage over the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida on 26 Feb. 2012 by a white vigilante presaged the Black Lives Matter movement protesting official and semi-official violence targeting the nation's black population.
Shiatsu, a unique type of manual (massage) therapy from Japan, involves non-invasive manual pressure applied to various areas of the body, aiming to stimulate the body's inherent ability to heal itself. It can work well for relieving severe muscular aches and prolonged pain.
Fast, surface-routed public transportation services, such as light rail and regional passenger rail, are starting to multiply in more American cities, but they tend to take the public by surprise. Amtrak trains likewise currently speed through the urban and suburban parts of many cities and towns....
The general public — especially motorists — may lack safety consciousness ir regard to urban rail and other forms of fast, surface-routed transit as well as Amtrak's intercity rail passenger operations. This underscores a need to aggressively upgrade rail safety through vigorous government action.
Vitamins and other nutritional supplements may offer some protection from disease and even extend your life. Regarding some of the most important supplements, here I detail approaches that seem to work for me and many others that are worth considering.
Politicians, demagogues, and agitators stirring up hatred against Muslims are fomenting racist terrorism.To target a single demographic group for the terror acts of a few is collective punishment, a mechanism of terrorism itself. All of us have a duty to stand up against this bigotry.
While migraine headaches begin in the brain, they tend to trigger a vicious cycle of problems throughout the body. My own personal experience as a migraine victim, and remedies that have been particularly successful for me, may be helpful to others.
When you combine the huge proportion of the population experiencing prison with America's increasingly regulated and regimented society, something seems to be going terribly wrong. It looks increasingly like Police State Creep.
Across North America, light rail transit (LRT) is the biggest success story in urban transportation, delivering on its promises with growing ridership, more cost-effective transit service, catalyzing adjacent development, and gaining broad public support for urban mass transit.
Long-distance rail passenger trips on Amtrak are increasing in popularity. A train provides a unique perspective of American scenery as you roll through it. These tips may help you select an Amtrak route that will work for you.
Amtrak is a unique travel experience, but some travelers come away from their trip dissatisfied because they start out expecting way more than Amtrak can possibly deliver. For an Amtrak trip, especially an overnight trip, it's important to embark with the right frame of mind.
Rather than a unbiased, utilitarian search tool, Google now has opinions, and makes judgments about what you get to search and view. With its blacklisting of entire sites, and mysterious efforts at manipulation of content, Google has become a mechanism for censorship of what can be found on the Web.
The dimensions of the attack on personal privacy and anonymity include repressive laws, government snoopery, Internet snoopery, cellphone tracking, motor vehicle tracking, biometrics and facial recognition. Hopefully, awareness of the problem will lead to effective countermeasures.
Google's "Panda" Web content filtering process has emerged as a serious impediment to productive writing. Writers may be rejected by an online publisher for a "duplicated content" violation because they have used phrases or paraphrased material excepted from their own previous work.
Cincinnati is taking itself back to the future with a small but crucial investment in a modern electric streetcar line, serving the urban core.
Especially for long-distance overnight trips, Amtrak has an advantage in riding comfort, seat space and comfort, interesting scenery, freedom to move around, food and beverage services, overnight accommodations, better sleeping conditions, and socializing with other passengers.
Traveling overnight on an Amtrak train can be an unusual, enjoyable, and even exciting adventure. Hopefully, some of the tips in this article will be helpful if and when you decide to try this unique travel experience.