Shostakovich is often, in musical circles, called the greatest composer of the twentieth century. Yet the
quality of his music is so uneven that, while a third of it is the brain-bombing work of a divine genius, another
third is almost worthless, and another third scares young violinists into abandon
The combination of stunning visuals and edgy, sensitive storytelling in the work of Wong Kar-Wai has spread a new dawn across the horizon of Hong Kong film. Originally a graphic design student, Wong fell in love with photography and was influenced by such names as Robert Frank, Henri Cartier-Bresson,
Henri Matisse made it look easy, but don't be fooled -- those vibrant, lyrical scenes and simple, geometric portraits which look tossed off the tip of his paintbrush actually took weeks, sometimes months to create. A perfectionist, he once mused, "Instinct must be thwarted just as one prunes the bran
The exact circumstances of Giuseppe Verdi's birth are lost to history; history, and we, have wanted to know them. Some speculate he was born on October 10, 1813, others turned his supposed birthplace into a national monument, but the composer himself refused to confirm the accuracy of these biographi