I don't know how I missed this entertainment news item last summer: The New York City Opera commissioned Charles Wuorinen to compose an opera based on Brokeback Mountain . . . The opera is scheduled to premiere in spring 2013, City Opera.
I bet I know how they get the actors to hit those high notes. Waaaaaaaaaaa!
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Too precious for words: A 37-year-old woman was arrested Jan. 2 for allegedly shoplifting a parenting book while accompanied by her two young children.
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From the Notebooks: Levellors have been descending on Catholic parishes for the past forty years. Intent on demolishing everything traditional and beautiful, they have reduced the number of candles, snickered at incense, and have even tried to replace wine with grape juice. The have also iconoclasted away at the statues. When asked "Why?" they usually resort to vagaries about communing with the pure God and the need for simple worship without all those externalities. When confronted with the idea that "there's something about" those externalities that help create a sense of awe and wonder, they scoff. Maybe they'd listen to Rick James, who sang in his 1981 hit Super Freak, "When I get there she's got incense, wine, and candles/It's such a freaky scene." Freaky doesn't mean mystical, but there's a connection there. Close enough for rock-n-roll (or at least for funk).