Celebration Day
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The Live You Give: Yukio Mishima *1925
Mishima Yukio, born Hiraoka Kimitake, January 14 1925 in Tokyo, Japan, was a prolific writer who is regarded by many critics as the most important Japanese novelist of the 20th century. Mishima was the son of a high civil servant and attended the aristocratic Peers School in Tokyo. During World War II, having failed to…
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“Parsifal” (Wagner) is completed on this day
The Poem Parzival, an epic poem, is one of the masterpieces of the Middle Ages, written between 1200 and 1210 in Middle High German by Wolfram von Eschenbach. This 16-book, 25,000-line poem is in part a religious allegory describing Parzival’s painful journey from utter ignorance and naïveté to spiritual awareness. The poem introduced the theme…
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Blixa Bargeld *I 12 1959 — The Life You Give
A powerfully influential figure in experimental and avant-garde rock, Blixa Bargeld is best known as one of the founders of the pioneering industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten, as well as for his work with Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Blixa Bargeld was born Christian Emmerich in the Friedenau quarter of Berlin, Germany on January 12,…
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The Man Who Fell to Earth /
“The Man Who Fell to Earth” 1976 Directed by Nicolas Roeg, Screenplay by Paul Mayersberg, based on the novel by Walter Tevis A strange creature from another planet falls to earth. His arrival is seen by a mysterious observer. Is the witness a CIA agent, a scientist, a psychic, or a believer in extraterrestrial beings?…
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“Labyrinth”, with David Bowie
The Labyrinth (allegory) The labyrinth in the film is an allegory for coming of age and entering the world of adulthood. Initially, Sarah is portrayed as a character in a fairy tale until it is revealed that she is indeed a regular teenage girl in contemporary society. As such, the film demonstrates that she still…
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David Bowie *I 8 1947 — The Life You Give
David Bowie, born David Robert Jones, on January 8, 1947, London, England, is the singer, songwriter, and actor who was most prominent in the 1970s and best known for his shifting personae and musical genre hopping. To call Bowie a transitional figure in rock history is less a judgment than a job description. Every niche…
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“Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence” — David Bowie Cinema Celebration
Imagine this. You’re a tired and hungry soldier, laying down on a dirty cot. Above you, a tin roof with bamboo rafters and palm leaves stitched together as a makeshift wall. It’s late at night, but you can hear various lizards scurrying about the walls as the humid island heat beats upon your already sweat-coated…
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Stabat Mater (Rossini) premiered today in 1842
Stabat Mater is a work based on the traditional structure of the Stabat Mater sequence, for chorus and soloists, by Gioachino Rossini. It was composed late in his career after retiring from the composition of opera. He began the work in 1831 but did not complete it until 1841. Performed for the first time in…
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Rowan Atkinson *I 6 1955 — The Life You Give
Rowan Atkinson, born Rowan Sebastian Atkinson on born January 6 1955, in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, is the actor and comedian who delighted television and film audiences with his comic creation Mr. Bean. Atkinson, the son of wealthy Durham farmers, attended Durham Cathedral Choristers’ School. At the University of Newcastle upon Tyne he studied electrical…
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Alfred Brendel *I 5 1931 — The Life You Give
Alfred Brendel, born January 5, 1931, in Wiesenberg, Czechoslovakia [now Loučná nad Desnou, Czech Republic], is a pianist and writer whose recordings and international concert appearances secured his reputation. He is best known for his interpretations of Ludwig van Beethoven’s music, recording several cycles of the composer’s piano sonatas and concertos. Brendel studied the piano…
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Louis Braille *I 4 1809 — The Life You Give
Louis Braille, born January 4, 1809, in Coupvray, near Paris, France, is the educator who developed a system of printing and writing, called Braille, that is extensively used by the blind. Braille was himself blinded at the age of three in an accident that occurred while he was playing with tools in his father’s harness…
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J. R. R. Tolkien *I 3 1892 — The Life You Give
J. R. R. Tolkien, born John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, January 3, 1892, in Bloemfontein, South Africa, is the writer and scholar who achieved fame with his children’s book The Hobbit (1937) and his richly inventive epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings (1954–55). At age four Tolkien, with his mother and younger brother, settled near…
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Enrique Jorrín *XII 25 1926 — The Life You Give
Enrique Jorrín, born in Candelaria, Pinar del Rio, Cuba, on December 25, 1926, is the composer, violinist and band director, famous as the inventor of a style of Cuban dance music called cha-cha-chá. At an early age, his family moved to the El Cerro neighborhood of Havana, where Jorrín was to live for the rest…
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Giacomo Puccini *XII 22 1858 — The Life You Give
Giacomo Puccini, born Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini, December 22, 1858, in Lucca, Tuscany [Italy], is the composer, and one of the greatest exponents of operatic realism, who virtually brought the history of Italian opera to an end. His mature operas included La Bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904), and Turandot (left…
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Frank Zappa *XII 21 1940 — The Life You Give
Frank Zappa, born Frank Vincent Zappa on December 21, 1940, in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A., was composer, guitarist, and satirist of the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s. Zappa was, in no apparent order, a first-rate cultural gadfly dedicated to upsetting American suburban complacency and puncturing the hypocrisy and pretensions of both the U.S. political establishment and the…
Sila Blume 