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Not long ago I stumbled upon this pretty wonderful video of David Bowie playing an acoustic version of “Heroes,” one of my favorite songs, and I thought I’d quickly share it today. Why wait? Appearing at Neil Young’s annual Bridge School Benefit concert in October 1996, Bowie gives us a stripped-down version of the moving song […]
4 months ago

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Igor Stravinsky’s “Illegal” Arrangement of “The Star Spangled Banner” (1944)

In 1939, Igor Stravinsky emigrated to the United States, first arriving in New York City, before settling in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he delivered the Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard during the 1939–40 academic year. While living in Boston, the composer conducted the Boston Symphony and, on one famous occasion, he decided to conduct his […]

3 hours ago 1 votes
How Four Masters—Michelangelo, Donatello, Verrocchio & Bernini—Sculpted David

More than a few visitors to Florence make a beeline to the Galleria dell’Accademia, and once inside, to Michelangelo’s David, the most famous sculpture in the world. But how many of them, one wonders, then take the time to view the three other Davids in that city alone? At the Bargello, just ten minutes’ walk […]

4 hours ago 1 votes
Neil deGrasse Tyson Lists 8 (Free) Books Every Intelligent Person Should Read

Image via Wikimedia Commons A number of years ago, a Reddit user posed the question to Neil deGrasse Tyson: “Which books should be read by every single intelligent person on the planet?” Below, you will find the book list offered up by the astrophysicist, director of the Hayden Planetarium, and popularizer of science. Where possible, we […]

yesterday 2 votes
The Only Painting van Gogh Ever Sold: Discover The Red Vineyard (1888)

It may have crossed your mind, while beholding paintings of Vincent van Gogh, that you’d like to own one yourself someday. If so, you’ll have to get in line with more than a few billionaires, and even they may never see one go up on the auction block. This would probably come as a surprise […]

2 days ago 3 votes
How 16th-Century Artist Joris Hoefnagel Made Insects Beautiful—and Changed Science Forever

In English, most of the words we’d use to refer to insects sound off-putting at best and fearsome at worst, at least to those without an entomological bent. Dutch, close a linguistic relation though it may be, offers a more endearing alternative in beestjes, which refers to all these “little beasts” in which the artists […]

2 days ago 4 votes

More in history

Wisconsin Death Trip, 1973 – Small Town America In The Grip of Madness

For more than 60 years, Charles Van Schaick (1852-1946) worked as a photographer in the town of Black River Falls, Wisconsin. Opened in 1879, he took around 8,000 of glass plate negatives, of which approximately 5,700 are studio portraits. The Charles Van Schaick collection, now housed at the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, achieved … Continue reading "Wisconsin Death Trip, 1973 – Small Town America In The Grip of Madness" The post Wisconsin Death Trip, 1973 – Small Town America In The Grip of Madness appeared first on Flashbak.

15 hours ago 2 votes
How Henry VII Took the English Throne & Founded the Tudors

Henry VII often slips through the cracks of history, being sandwiched between the controversial Richard III, a Renaissance Machiavellian prince, and Henry VIII, an impossibly charismatic and epoch-shaping monarch. But without Henry VII, there would be no Henry VIII. It was Henry VII who ended a civil war and took the English crown for […]

16 hours ago 1 votes
Swahili on the Road

Swahili on the Road JamesHoare Thu, 07/03/2025 - 08:00

yesterday 2 votes
Meet Osiris, the Egyptian God Who Ruled the Afterlife (Myth & Facts)

Osiris is best known as the god of the dead in ancient Egyptian religion, as the afterlife was created for Osiris after he was killed by his brother Set, and he enabled others to join him in eternal life. But Osiris is also connected to many other important aspects of ancient Egyptian religion.   […]

yesterday 1 votes
An Apology And A Few Suggestions.

More next week.

2 days ago 5 votes