A Spedthrift Flaneur in the Attention Economy

delicious.com/willis.creative/blindfla links for the week ending today.

Finnish Accordions, Schubert’s Blues And A Soviet Concerto: New Classical CDs : Deceptive Cadence : NPR 022711

31-year-old Lisa Batiashvili from Tblisi. At the center of her new record is the Violin Concerto no. 1 by Dmitri Shostakovich, music he wrote in 1948, while being lambasted by Stalin’s culture police. Shostakovich shoved the concerto in a drawer, publishing it in the mid-1950s after Stalin died. This isn’t a big, burly performance of the concerto in the David Oistrakh mode. Instead, it’s lithe, feline and crafty, with excellent support from the Bavarian Radio Symphony and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. | German baritone Matthias Goerne… German art songs, and he’s studied with two of the very best practitioners: Elizabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Goerne is in the midst of recording 11 CDs worth of Schubert songs, grouping them into themes. On his new album Nacht und Traume, Goerne explores all things deathly and nocturnal. In the title track, a song that yearns for night’s dark dreams, Goerne’s voice floats in like a gentle midnight breeze.

A Second Run For Stoppard’s Duality-Driven ‘Arcadia’ : NPR 031711

In a career that’s encompassed four decades, Tom Stoppard has written many witty, challenging and provocative plays — and the masterpiece among them, many critics feel, is Arcadia, which premiered in London in 1993, came to Broadway in 1995 and opens March 17 in its first New York revival. But like many of Stoppard’s plays, Arcadia isn’t easily described: He’s somehow managed to take on themes as divergent as chaos theory, academic ambition, the second law of thermodynamics, sex, and gardening.

YouTube - Endangered wolf poses danger 031511

An intense battle is being fought over the fate of grey wolves in the United States. The animals in the Northern Rockies are currently protected by the Endangered Species Act. But hunters and ranchers say their numbers are unsustainable and are calling for population management. Al Jazeera’s Cath Turner reports from Wyoming.

Gauguin’s Nude Tahitians Give The Wrong Impression : NPR 031511

[“Gauguin was no Margaret Mead”] A portion of the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., has the look of a tropical paradise these days. A major exhibition of works by 19th century post-Impressionist Paul Gauguin includes oil paintings and other objects he created on the South Seas island of Tahiti. But the real Tahiti bore little resemblance to the one Gauguin depicted on his canvases.

Ramy Essam: The Singer Of The Egyptian Revolution : NPR 031511

Ramy Essam was a little-known young guitarist until he gained fame by putting his fellow Egyptians’ protest chants to music. He performed one of those songs, called “Leave,” about former President Hosni Mubarak, on stage at Tahrir Square with thousands singing along, and video of the show became a hit on YouTube.

Target Of Glenn Beck’s Ire Recounts Threats : NPR 202711

Glenn Beck calls her one of the most dangerous people in the world. “I’m about 5-foot-6,” Frances Fox Piven says. “I’m 78 years old.” Piven is a professor at the City College of New York. In 1966, she and her late husband, Richard Cloward, wrote an article for The Nation outlining a plan to help the poor of New York and other big cities to get on welfare. In their research, they found that not all the poor who were eligible to receive welfare actually did. They advocated that all the nation’s eligible poor should apply. They felt such a strain to city budgets would force Washington to address the poverty problem. Forty-five years later, Beck took to the airwaves of Fox News and his own radio program, warning the public about the obscure article. “Let me introduce you to the people who you would say are fundamentally responsible for the unsustainability and possible collapse of our economic system. They’re really two people,” he said, “Cloward and Piven.”

Mason Bates: Electronica, Meet Orchestra : NPR 031311

Mason Bates lives in two musical worlds. In one, he spends his nights playing some of the most world’s most exclusive dance clubs. In the other, he creates pieces as the composer-in-residence for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. [On March 20] about 100 musicians from 30 countries will perform Bates’ composition Mothership at the Sydney Opera House. YouTube organized the event, having expressed the desire to present a new piece of music that focused on improvisation.

Blindness No Obstacle To Those With Sharp Ears : NPR 031311

Meet Daniel Kish. He’s a man of many talents. He likes to hike, make music and write. He enjoys children and loves nature. He’s an avid biker. He’s also completely blind. How can Kish bike if he can’t see? The method is called echolocation — Kish calls it “flash sonar.” As he speeds along on his bike, he makes clicking sounds. As the clicks bounce back to him, he creates a mental image of the space around him. He’s kind of like a human bat. “It is literally a process of seeing with sound,” he says.

Matzo Balls Meet Bacon At Top Chef’s Restaurant : NPR 031211

At his restaurant in downtown Los Angeles, Top Chef Ilan Hall is wrapping a piece of bacon around a traditional matzo ball. “It’s a pretty simple recipe, except in place of vegetable oil, we use either rendered bacon fat or lard,” he tells Weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz. “The pork fat makes it incredibly fluffy.” Since winning the reality show Top Chef, Hall has become famous for dishes that meld Scottish and Jewish cuisine. One critic of The Gorbals called Hall’s food “confrontational cooking.” Hall says his dishes were designed to get people’s attention.

Science Nerds Meet Foodies In ‘Modernist Cuisine’ : NPR 031211

The 40-pound, six-volume, $625 and 2,438-page cookbook celebrates the science of cooking. But at that price — and with such exactingly detailed “recipes” — who’s gonna buy it?

Grant Achatz, Head Chef At Alinea, Battles Tongue Cancer : NPR 030311

Alinea, which opened in 2005, was named the best restaurant in America by Gourmet Magazine in 2006. The restaurant’s co-founder and head chef, Grant Achatz, is one of the leading members of the molecular gastronomy movement, which uses unexpected flavor combinations and exotic laboratory tools to create foods based on the molecular compatibility of ingredients. In 2007, Achatz lost his own ability to taste. He was diagnosed with stage 4 tongue cancer, which metastasized to both sides of his neck. His surgeons told him they were going to cut out his tongue and replace it with muscle from another part of his body. With the surgery, Achatz only had a 50 percent chance of surviving beyond two years. But, he says, he was even more afraid of losing his ability to taste and eat.

Live blog: Japan earthquake | Al Jazeera Blogs 031111