johnkemeny.com

Viva!

 

From someone who was there AND remembers (caution, noisy link).

Leonard Bernstein would be 90 years old today. The best popularizer of music in his day, with the Young People’s Concerts, and, of course, a highly noted conductor, Bernstein was also a great composer. From the amazingly lively Candide composed early in his career (a late recording), to the incredibly rich Mass he created for a commission by the Kennedy’s after his retirement from conducting, his work will live on. Mass was roundly derided by the critics after its opening at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. I saw it at Lincoln Center in New York shortly thereafter and predict it will go down in history as one of the great works.

The first ever Cambridge Science Festival is on this week, with many many events, most free, all over Cambridge.  Presented by the MIT Museum in collaboration with the City of Cambridge, Cambridge Public Library, Cambridge Public Schools, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Museum of Science, and WGBH (see WGBH’s Science City), there are performances, exhibitions, and activities for all ages (search for them here).  I wish I had the week off.

Also, last week marked the re-opening of Boston’s Children’s Museum, including the famous giant Milk Bottle, built in Taunton in 1930 as an ice cream stand, later bought by Hood and donated and moved to the museum 30 years ago.  Here are some other giant milk bottles.

 

The origin of black diamonds, aka carbonado, has been a mystery.  While conventional diamonds are mined in volcanic formations known as kimberlites, carbonado diamonds have never been found there.  Monday NSF researchers announced black diamonds are probably extraterrestial in origin.

At last month’s Emirates Millionaire Show 59,000 lucky UAE millionaires could buy a $620,000 Ud aka Oud aka Arab lute containing a 103.59 carrot black diamond, one of the largest in the world.  The stone is embedded in the Ud’s main rosette, pictured.  Uncut carbonado looks more like a charcoal brickette, as pictured in researcher Steve Haggerty’s photo. 

    

With songs like “N.R.L. – Nursery Rhyme Lawyer Song” (MP3), Throwing Toasters is one of the most original funny “groups” around.