Graph Day: "Please, sir, I want some more"

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Graph credit: Goldman Sachs via Fortune 2011. Copyright controlled.

Aide-mémoire

June 1991, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) surveys its membership for a proposed list of the ten greatest architects in America. They include Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, H.H. Richardson, Louis Kahn, Thomas Jefferson, Eero Saarinen, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, I. M. Pei, Bernard Maybeck, and Frank Furness.

American Civilization: Not Even Trying?

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Graph credit: Robert Lucas via Financial Times 2011. Copyright controlled.

Berkeley Springs Epiphany: Now I Think I Know Why I Dreamt About Alexander Calder's 1970 'Hawk For Peace' Last Week

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Plans for the new Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City (by Renzo Piano), and the major new wing of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (by Snøhetta).

Photo credits: © 2011 Whitney Museum of American Art and (c) Snøhetta 2011. Copyright controlled.

White Hawk Has Landed? ... A Peek Of Snøhetta's New Large Wing For The San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art

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Photo credit: (c) Lacy Atkins and the San Francisco Chronicle 2011. Copyright controlled.

American Opera! American Opera!

Huguette Clark

Photo credit: (c) Associated Press 2011.

Nation's Capital Mystery: Will Krysty Swann And Steven Silverman Be Performing American Classical Music At This Sunday's Phillips Collection Recital?

Krysty Swann, mezzo-soprano with Steven Silverman, piano and Elizabeth Field, violin obligato

May 29, 2011 at 4 pm, The Phillips Collection

Mezzo-soprano Krysty Swann recently covered the title role of Margaret Garner in the New York premiere of Richard Danielpour and Toni Morrison's opera with New York City Opera. Ms. Swann is the recipient of the New York City Opera 2009 Richard F. Gold Career Grant.

Photo credit: (c) The Phillips Collection 2011.

Creative Voices DC Series on Wednesday, May 25, at 6pm in the Center Studio, Phillips Collection

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Credit: The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. 1600 21st Street, NW | Washington, DC 20009 | 202-387-2151

Back To Normal Creativity?

Photo credit: (c) Agence France-Presse 2011. Copyright controlled.

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Try to praise the mutilated world.
Remember June's long days,
and wild strawberries, drops of wine, the dew.
The nettles that methodically overgrow
the abandoned homesteads of exiles.
You must praise the mutilated world.
You watched the stylish yachts and ships;
one of them had a long trip ahead of it,
while salty oblivion awaited others.
You've seen the refugees heading nowhere,
you've heard the executioners sing joyfully.
You should praise the mutilated world.
Remember the moments when we were together
in a white room and the curtain fluttered.
Return in thought to the concert where music flared.
You gathered acorns in the park in autumn
and leaves eddied over the earth's scars.
Praise the mutilated world
and the grey feather a thrush lost,
and the gentle light that strays and vanishes
and returns.

Adam Zagajewski
-- translated by Renata Gorczynski

(c) Adam Zagajewski and Renata Gorzynski 2011. All rights reserved.

International Museum Day 2011 -- World Peace Through Culture

Image credit: Aleksandra Ekster, Three women's figures. 1909-1910, Oil on canvas, National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv (Kiev), Ukraine, Future European Union.

Aleksandra Ekster -- born into a Belarusian aristocratic family in Białystok (now Poland)-- was a friend of Picasso and Braque, and from 1908 to 1924 intermittently lived in Kiev, St. Petersburg, Odessa, Paris, Rome, and Moscow.

Białystok was a finalist to be the European Capital City of Culture in 2016.

Back To Peace

“The United States believes that negotiations should result in two states, with permanent Palestinian borders with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt, and permanent Israeli borders with Palestine. The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states. The Palestinian people must have the right to govern themselves, and reach their potential, in a sovereign and contiguous state.”

-- President Obama May 19, 2011

Map credits: First map from United States Central Intelligence Agency via Wikipedia Commons. Second map derived from United Nations materials in the public domain via Wikipedia Commons.

'Astronomers say that space is littered with hundreds of billions of planets that are only distantly bound to stars.'

The Conservatory Project Update: About The Shanghai Conservatory of Music

About the Shanghai Conservatory of Music:

"Founded in 1927, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music is the oldest institution of higher music education in China. The conservatory supports a research institute, a specialized music library with a large collection, a first-class museum of oriental instruments and a unique music publishing house. Secondary and elementary school divisions were created separately in 1953 and 1956 to prepare better candidates for tertiary education, thus forming a complete curriculum of music and academic education. Three art centers integrate teaching, performing and scientific research: Zhou Xiaoyan International Opera Center, the International String Academy, and the International Piano Art Center. Featured performing ensemble programs include Symphony Orchestra, New Ensemble, String Quartet, Percussion Ensemble, National Music Orchestra and Choir. Well-known musicians such as Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Leon Fleisher, Pinchas Zukerman, Seiji Ozawa, Simon Rattle, Mstislav Rostropovich and Yo-Yo Ma have served as honorary or guest professors."

Courtesy of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music

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Undergraduate Courses Theory of Music Composing and Composing Skills Musicology Piano Performance Orchestral Music Performance Folk Music Performance Vocality Music Education Music Opera Arts Administration Modern Musical Instrument Acoustic Engineering

Postgraduate Courses
Theory of Music Composing and Composing Skills Musicology Piano Performance Orchestral Music Performance Folk Music Performance Vocality Music Education

Doctoral Courses
Theory of Music Composing and Composing Skills Musicology

Photo credit: (c) Copyright control. 2011.

Video

Image credit: © 2005 Boreal Songbird Initiative

1911

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Perestroika 2.0

"Germany signalled on Wednesday [May 11, 2011] that it could close the last of its 17 nuclear power plants in a decade, when a government commission said replacement wind farms and natural gas plants could be built by 2021.

A draft of a report by the so-called Ethics Commission said a step-by-step phase out was possible over ten years at the most, starting with the closure of seven plants idled by the government and an eighth currently under repair."

Financial Times

Photo credit: (c) Scott Eells and the New York Times 2006. Copyright controlled.

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Fast-growing Brazil tries to lift its poorest

Back To The Subject Of Modern And Contemporary Art -- Олег

Олег. Биография художника Олега Кудряшова, рассказанная им самим

Oleg. Biography Of The Artist Oleg Kudryashov As Narrated By Himself

▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪

Directed by : Yelena BORISOVA (Елена БОРИСОВА)
Writing credits : Yelena BORISOVA (Елена БОРИСОВА)
Cinematography : Andrei TSVETKOV (Андрей ЦВЕТКОВ)
Produced by : Andrei TSVETKOV (Андрей ЦВЕТКОВ)
Companies : “OknO” Film Company

Russia, 2010, 52 mn
Colour, documentary

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Plot synopsis

"Oleg Kudryashov is the world known artist. He became famous when he moved to England in 1973. “Most important for me is that there is a frame in the house, a frame prohibited by authorities. It is banned, but I want to make engraving and etching. It is not only Rembrandt willing to do that, but me too!” His life is a search for creative freedom. Having spent 24 years in England, he returned home. “Someone else’s courtyard” is some kind of a symbol for me. You arrive to a different country like to someone else’s courtyard. Alien people are all around. While you are getting used to them, everything changes at home. You returned, but everything here is already alien”."

Extracts from Notes and Reminiscences


















Construction, plate N2344, 1995

Drypoint and gouache on constructed three-dimensional collage on paper. 43.8 x 35.7 x 17.7 cm (17 1/4 x 14 x 7 in). Signed in Cyrillic and dated ‘Kudryashov 95’ lower right; titled in Cyrillic ‘Plate N2344’ lower left.

Photo and image credits: (c) Oleg Kudryashov 2011.

Back To The Subject Of Modern And Contemporary Art (And The Artistic Past)

"For the first time in a museum exhibition, The Phillips Collection presents recent works from Frank Stella's K series inspired by the 18th-century composer Domenico Scarlatti's harpsichord sonatas. Made from lightweight resin, the swirling multi-colored polychrome forms with coiled steel tubing armatures are dynamic evocations of the colorful sounds and rhythms of Scarlatti's music. Traveling through space, the sculptures perform like objects on a stage. Each one begins as a hand-crafted model that is scanned into a computer, where Stella refines the design before realizing it at full-scale."

The exhibition -- and associated D. Scarlatti harpsichord recitals -- opens in one month on June 11, 2011.

Image credit: (c) Frank Stella 2011. Copyright controlled.

Trois Oeuvres

“Japan will scrap a plan to obtain half of its electricity from nuclear power and will instead promote renewable energy and conservation as a result of its ongoing nuclear crisis, the prime minister said Tuesday. …

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday that he will organize a high-level meeting on nuclear safety Sept. 22 [2011] on the sidelines of the General Assembly in New York.”

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"To be clear: I am not a conductor, and I will never be one. This is not my way of life, and I have nothing to do with that, and have no talent for that. But if you want me to give a definition to what I do, I wouldn't say I'm a pianist - I'm a musician, and the piano happens to be my instrument. I don't like to have one function, to give me just one perspective on music. I like to make chamber music, to be part of a group, to play song accompaniments, to teach, to speak about music. In other words, to live the phenomenon on different sides."

-- Pierre-Laurent Aimard

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Photo credit: (c) Efrem Lukatsky and Associated Press 2009. Copyright controlled. All rights reserved.

As The World Turns

Taurica, Kul-Oba, and Gluck On The Mind

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Taurica
Kul-Oba
Gluck

Map credit: MapMaster via Wikipedia. With thanks.

Public Service Recognition Week

Ukraine As First 21st Century C.E. Nuclear-Weapon Free Safe House

"When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Ukraine had the third largest nuclear arsenal in the world—larger than those of Great Britain, France and China combined. Intricate negotiations ensued in bilateral channels, followed in 1993-94 by a trilateral U.S.-Ukrainian-Russian process. That process successfully negotiated the removal of the weapons, with Ukraine receiving security assurances, compensation for the value of the highly-enriched uranium in the nuclear warheads, and assistance in eliminating the nuclear delivery systems and infrastructure that it had inherited."


Brookings Arms Control series paper “The Trilateral Process: The United States, Ukraine, Russia and Nuclear Weapons.”