Category Archives: Miscellanea
Let’s be frank here: Elvis devotees are a lot like fish in a barrel. Anyone can shoot them, with reliably satisfying results. Their reverence almost invites intrusion. So the measure of a portfolio of Elvis believers is not the colorfulness of the characters – that much is a given – but the empathy of the photographer. Anyone can capture the tribe’s signature plumage. The trick is teasing out the individual humanity underneath.
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“It’s like religion, where people put their trust in something,” she said. “They trust in him. He guides their lives. They wake up with Elvis, they get married with Elvis. He’s there all the time.”Elvis Is Everywhere: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/08/elvis-is-everywhere/
April 8: Hana Matsuri (Buddha’s birthday Festival in Japan)
Traditionally, Buddha’s Birthday is known as Vesak or Visakah Puja (Buddha’s Birthday Celebrations). Vesak is the major Buddhist festival of the year as it celebrates the birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha on the one day, the first full moon day in May, except in a leap year when the festival is held in June. This celebration is called Vesak being the name of the month in the Indian calendar. In Japan, which adopted the Gregorian calendar in the 19th century, Buddha’s Birthday always falls on April 8.
How Japanese people celebrate Buddha’s Birthday~
https://touristjourney.com/hanamatsuri-festival-buddhas-birthday/
Buddhism in Japan~ http://asiasociety.org/education/buddhism-japan
Japanese Buddhist Art~
http://www.asiasocietymuseum.org/region_results.asp?RegionID=6&CountryID=14&ChapterID=38
The Eight Auspicious Symbols of Buddhism~ http://www.exoticindiaart.com/article/symbols/
Premiered April 8, 1876: “La Gioconda”
Composer Amilcare Ponchielli was born in Italy in 1834. He started composing operas while still a student at the Milan Conservatory. After graduating in 1854, he held various positions over the years, including professor of composition at the Conservatory; his pupils included Giacomo Puccini and Pietro Mascagni. His most famous opera is “La Gioconda”, written in 1876. It is mainly remembered for its ballet, Dance of the Hours.
“The Dance of the Hours is probably the only opera ballet that has established a life of its own in both the concert hall as a stand-alone orchestral work…and in pop culture: Walt Disney’s 1940 animated film Fantasia, for example, used the music for a ballet performed by tutu-clad hippos, ostriches, alligators and elephants. And in 1963, parodist Alan Sherman set words to the tune of Ponchielli’s day music with its all-too-familiar four-note theme. Sherman’s “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (A Letter from Camp)” hit No. 2 on the pop charts.”
FROM~ https://nepaphil.org/program-notes-from-an-evening-of-opera-overtures-and-arias/
Ponchielli’s biography~ http://www.allmusic.com/artist/amilcare-ponchielli-mn0000496351/biography
Synopsis of “La Gioconda“~ http://www.opera-arias.com/ponchielli/la-gioconda/synopsis/
“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
I’ve Been to the Mountaintop
Delivered April 3, 1968, Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters), Memphis, Tennessee
Complete text: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemountaintop.htm
March 31, 1889: Completion of the construction of the Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower: Information & Facts~ https://www.livescience.com/29391-eiffel-tower.html
Explore the Eiffel Tower!~ https://en.parisinfo.com/what-to-do-in-paris/info/guides/explore-the-eiffel-tower
The official website of the Eiffel Tower~ https://www.toureiffel.paris/en/the-monument
March 23: National Puppy Day
March 18, 1965: First Man to Walk in Space
March 17: National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
The National Gallery of Art was created by a joint resolution of
Congress on March 17, 1937, and dedicated on March 17, 1941
The National Gallery of Art was conceived and given to the people of the United States by Andrew W. Mellon (1855–1937). Mellon was a financier and art collector from Pittsburgh who came to Washington in 1921 to serve as secretary of the treasury. During his years of public service he came to believe that the United States
should have a national art museum equal to those of other great nations.
In 1936 Mellon wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt offering to donate his superb art collection for a new museum and to use his own funds to construct a building for itsuse. With the president’s support, Congress accepted Mellon’s gift, which included a sizable endowment, and established the National Gallery of Art in March 1937. Construction began that year at a site on the National Mall along Constitution Avenue between Fourth and Seventh Street NW, near the foot of Capitol Hill.
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Construction was completed by December 1940, and works of art were installed in the new galleries over the following months. The National Gallery of Art was dedicated on March 17, 1941, with Paul Mellon presenting the museum on behalf of his father, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt accepting the gift for the nation.
FROM http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/about.html
FDR’s Speech on the Dedication of the National Gallery of Art~
http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/audio-video/audio/west-building-dedication-president-fdr.html
Highlights from the collection~
http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/highlights.html
75th anniversary programs~
http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/about/seventy-fifth-anniversary.html
The Misty Miss Christy 