I spent an afternoon interviewing the Emerson Quartet when they released their epic Shostakovich cycle.They were delightful. They're dedicated musicians, of course, but also witty and welcoming—just good company.
My fellow blogger Mark Fleischmann has taken his Happy Pig's Hot 100 New York Restaurants online. The listings are available by neighborhood, alphabetically, or by type of cuisine.
Buy a Kalishnakov, let a Sierra Leone blacksmith turn it into farm tools. Buy a tank, keep five blacksmiths busy for a year—and give 100 families the means to feed themselves.
Kyle Gann has posted Schoenberg's Weihnachtsmusik for our Christmas bliss. If you think Arnold never wrote a melody you'd like, take a listen to this gorgeous setting of "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming."
Bagheera may only weigh six pounds, but she can keep two (relatively) normal-sized humans perched on the outer edges of a queen-size bed. It's hers by dint of occupation—and she defends her space like it was a trademark.
"When the news reached my father's ears that I was running around the streets with gangs, he said to my mother, 'We have to do something, Maria, otherwise we're going to lose the boy.' Our neighbour Candida, whose nephew was one of the principal dancers with the Cuban National Ballet, had a suggestion: 'You say he likes dancing? Why don't you send him to ballet school?'