Fun Friday Resources

I’m clearing out my catch-all list of resources, so this is a really random list this week.

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Four hundred years ago or so, people started tumbling to the fact that little kids liked picture books, so why not teach them to read (English and Latin) with pictures of everything they could see around them. In 1705, Johann Comenius gave us Orbis sensualium pictus: : hoc est, Omnium principalium in mundo rerum, & in vita actionum, pictura & nomenclatura. Go look!

Full disclosure: I have little patience for most experimental music. I get what they’re trying to do, but so often it’s just clever conceptual brain games and not a lot to hang one’s ear on. Still, Judy Dunaway’s compositions for balloons (!) are intriguing enough for a listen.

In that spirit, try Gourski & Appel’s “Docks”:

Have some beautiful illustrations from a century ago.

Want to know what Congress knows? <insert jokes here> Go check out the Congressional Research Service.

An interesting map from the National Park Service:

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And we cannot mention the National Park Service without also cheering for FAT BEAR WEEK YOU GUYS!

I will do a little self-promotion: Give a listen to “A Rabbit Reveals My Room,” from William Blake’s Inn. It has a bear, and it’s a beautiful little piece.

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