“Energy is …” That’s how the ad starts… at least the one that haunts me regularly on that video platform. Before I start looking at a certain video clip my earphone shouts out those words. As soon as I hear the “E” of “Energy” I skip the ad. I don’t have the desire to continue […]

When I visit a museum I start my tour at the museum shop. Thanks to that visit, I can quite accurately estimate what I’ll get to see when I enter the exhibition halls. One of my other observations is that the supply of goods in those shops has increased tremendously. Jenny Stevens, in her article […]

On 3rd of January 1924 an article in the amusement section of the New York Tribune caught the attention of the American composer George Gershwin and his brother Ira. It was about a concert of new American music to be given by Paul Whiteman, the most popular bandleader of the 1920s, and his Palais Royal […]

“Make You Feel My Love” is a song written by Bob Dylan that appeared on his 1997 album “Time Out of Mind”. It was first released commercially by Billy Joel before Dylan’s version appeared later that same year. Since then numerous performers such as Adele, Garth Brooks, Bryan Ferry and Kelly Clarkson have covered it. […]

An excerpt from economist.com dated Oct 24th 2015 (From the print edition): “New companies also exploit new technology, which enables them to go global without being big themselves. Startups used to face difficult choices about when to invest in large and lumpy assets such as property and computer systems. “ “Today they can expand very […]

Orson Welles in his song says: “I know what it is to be young… But you, you don’t know what it is to be old.” I am sure it was a great statement at his time. Does it still hold in today’s fast changing world? Maybe he would have rewritten the lyrics if he wrote […]

In that period between 13th and 15th February in 1945 the British and the US air forces dropped tons of high-explosive bombs on the city of Dresden. The bombing and the resulting fires destroyed also the Dresden Library, which was preserved with most of its collection by the American and British troops after the war. […]

One reads these words as the video starts. It is the clip of the song Come Get It Bae by Pharrell Williams. Mr. Williams has chosen ladies around the age of 40 to dance in the clip, instead of the usual roll-call of dancers in their teens and twenties. In a behind-the-scenes video of the […]

I (Who Have Nothing) is a song originally released in English by Ben E. King in 1963. It is based on the Italian song Uno Dei Tanti, with music by Carlo Donida. The English lyrics were written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. I listened to it for the first time on a Tom Jones […]

I love it when I hear children ask naive questions like “Why do men have beards?”, “Why do birds fly?” or “Why is the sky blue?” As we grow up, I think we begin to lose that free questioning ability and start “knowing” everything. Now and then, I try to look at the world around […]