Happy Friday,
I’ve had my head down all busy week of reviewing the past year and planning the next one, but now that the weekend is here, I am excited to get some flowers in the ground for spring. Having grown up in Texas, it’s such a treat to live in a place with four seasons. I especially love that everyone plants flowers and gardens in the spring, and adorns their porches and front stoops with daffodils, mums, and all sorts of other bright, beautiful flowers. Generally speaking, the Europeans seem to be much more comfortable with gardening than Americans, and have all sorts of flowers, herbs, and fruiting plants outside on their terraces, as well as indoors on windowsills. Living here has afforded the opportunity to try my hand at growing basil, lavender, along with all sorts of indoor plants. Clearly, we’re ready for spring weather.
If you’re looking to relax after all your gardening, here are the best articles from around the web this week:
After I mentioned this week my rediscovery of my love for classical music, music historian Ted Gioia has the numbers showing classical music listening is growing in popularity, especially among younger listeners.
“His comings and goings are highly irregular…”. Why French authorities placed a young Pablo Picasso under surveillance.
Biblioracle John Warner opens here with a quote from a director talking about how “devastating” a bad review can be. I sympathize, however, isn’t the possibility of work not landing the price of admission into creative work? Warner’s last line is a perfect summary of how criticism operates in a healthy creative market.
Travel with Alexis de Tocqueville to a “more delicious region” called … Italy.
Finally, Megan Garber’s recent piece in the March issue of The Atlantic outlines the chilling ways in which American life has been reduced to entertainment. Government policies, education, crime, random passersby on the street or public transportation; everything is fodder for someone’s entertainment now. The question is, do we even want anything different?
Currently reading: The Shock of the New by Robert Hughes
Have a creative weekend.
Image: Arranging Daffodils, Thomsen, Carl. 1894. Danish.
