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Anita Baker *I 26 1958 — The Life You Give
Anita Baker, born January 26, 1958, Toledo, Ohio, U.S.A., is the singer whose three-octave range and powerful, emotional delivery brought her international acclaim in the 1980s and ’90s. She was one of the most popular artists in urban contemporary music, a genre that her sophisticated, tradition-oriented soul and rhythm-and-blues singing helped to define. The Aristipposian…
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Eddie van Halen *I 26 1955 — The Life You Give
Eddie Van Halen belongs in a rarefied group of musicians who changed the very notion of the possibilities of their chosen instrument. In Van Halen’s case, he was a guitarist of superlative imagination and skill, innovating and introducing a number of techniques that would soon become part of the arsenal of many guitarists, including finger-tapping,…
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Elektra (Strauss) premiered today in 1909
Music: Richard StraussLibretto: Hugo von HofmannsthalPremiere: 25 January 1909, Königliches Opernhaus, Dresden The courtyard of the Palace of Mycenae. The servants wonder whether Elektra will be grieving over her father, as is her daily ritual. Daughter of King Agamemnon and Klytämnestra, Elektra appears and locks herself up in solitude straight away. The servants all criticize…
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Warren Zevon *I 24 1947 — The Life You Give
Few of rock & roll’s great misanthropes were as talented, as charming, or as committed to their cynicism as Warren Zevon. A singer and songwriter whose music often dealt with outlaws, mercenaries, sociopaths, and villains of all stripes, Zevon’s lyrics displayed a keen and ready wit despite their often uncomfortable narrative circumstances, and while he…
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A Handwriting Celebration
A Brief History of Penmanship on National Handwriting Day By JENNIE COHENUpdated AUG 22, 2018 / original: JAN 23, 2012 Borrowing aspects of the Etruscan alphabet, the ancient Romans were among the first to develop a written script for transactions and correspondence. By the fifth century A.D. it included early versions of lowercase letters and…
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Plácido Domingo *I 21 1941
Plácido Domingo, born January 21 1941 in Madrid, Spain, is singer, conductor, and opera administrator whose resonant, powerful tenor voice, imposing physical stature, good looks, and dramatic ability made him one of the most popular tenors of his time. Domingo’s parents were noted performers in zarzuela, a form of Spanish light opera. The family moved…
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David Lynch *I 20 1946 — The Life You Give
David Lynch, born David Keith Lynch, January 20, 1946, Missoula, Montana, U.S.A., is the filmmaker and screenwriter known for his uniquely disturbing and mind-bending visual work. His films juxtapose the cheerfully mundane with the shockingly macabre and often defy explanation. Lynch’s father was a research scientist with the U.S. Forest Service, and the family moved…
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Manon (Massenet) premiered today in 1884
Music: Jules MassenetLibretto: Henri Meilhac & Philippe Gille ACT I The noblemen de Brétigny and Guillot de Morfontaine are having dinner with three young women—Poussette, Javotte, and Rosette—at an inn in Amiens. People gather for the arrival of the coach to Paris, among them Lescaut. He is waiting for his young cousin Manon, who is…
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