Francesca Cavallo

Puglia, with its beautiful beaches and landscapes, stunning architecture and friendly people has become hugely popular as a holiday destination.

When most travelers think “Italian beach vacation,” they think of places like Portofino and Capri. Puglia is pretty much the exact opposite of those places and all the better for it. While the Italian Riviera and Amalfi Coast are well-groomed, glamorous, and sparkling, Puglia is rugged, simple, and totally laid-back. Its landscape, studded with farmhouses and miles of olive groves, reminds one of neighboring Greece. But its spirit remains 100 percent Italian. Located in the heel of Italy’s boot, Puglia is where Italians vacation. This summer I had the pleasure to visit this region, in particular my father’s hometown of Ostuni located about 11 km from the coast, in the province of Brindisi. This charming, fortified hill town is known as “la città bianca” (the white city) due to its whitewashed buildings and city walls, which give it a very exotic feel, more Greek or Middle Eastern than Italian.

Photo Courtesy of OSTUNI THE WHITE CITY

The stark white of the town is broken up by some beautiful historical architecture, all of which stands out from its surroundings. The Messapii ancient Italian population founded the first nucleus of the city in seventh century BC on the top of a hill protected by walls, which also sheltered it from attacks, and provided for the construction of roads. Later, in third century BC, the Romans conquered it and today some Roman traces remain in farms built on the foundations of Roman villas. With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Ostrogoths, Lombards, Saracens and Byzantines settled, in turn leaving visible traces of their occupation. The Aragonese created four-door access to the village of which today only the twelfth century Porta Nova is still evident, as well as the Thirteen Towers and Porta San Domenico, both built in the thirteenth century. With the Spanish rule in 1506, Ostuni began to experience a period of splendor by the granting of special favors by the Dukes. The decline of Ostuni began in the seventeenth century due to the debts incurred during the “Thirty Years War” (European conflicts from 1618 to 1648). King Philip IV of Habsburg sold it to the family Zevallos, merchants that then impoverished it. Moreover, the plague began to rage in the surroundings even if it did not directly strike the village, as the whitewash used to paint houses turned out to be a good and effective natural disinfectant. With the advent of the Bourbon dynasty in the eighteenth century, the city slowly began to flourish.

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Aileen Marshall

Welcome back to our series on learning the New York dialect. Did you practice your vocabulary words from last month? As a recap, the letter T in the New York dialect is pronounced like a D. Our vocabulary words were dem, dese, and dose. Here are some more examples of these words used in a sentence.

I’ve got all dese leftover subway tokens, how do I get rid of dem?

Dose cars in da intersection are blocking da box.

Other common words in which the T is pronounced like a D are water and butter. Click on the links to hear them.

New York City has the best tap wada.

Barbara Streisand’s voice is like budda.

This month’s lesson:

In the New York dialect, the G is dropped in words ending in “-ing.” The syllable is pronounced “in.”

Here are some examples of “-ing” words used in a sentence. Click on the links to hear the pronunciation.

Are you doin’ anything tonight?

I have to go; I can hear my mother callin’ me from up the block.

Dose tourists are walkin’ too slow.

When learning any language, it helps to listen to as much as you can, to train your ear to pick it up. Try to pay attention to conversations you hear on the street and the subway. Also, watch episodes of Seinfeld and listen to the Jerry and George characters.

Watch next month for dropped R words.

Susan Russo

The Pew Research Center has over the past few years collected data from the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, the United States Elections Project, and other national and international election authorities to estimate voter turnout in thirty-five nations in each of their last national elections. The countries studied are the members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD): Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

In six of these countries (Australia, Belgium, Greece, Luxembourg, Mexico, and Turkey), voting is compulsory, but the laws aren’t always strictly enforced and the penalty for not voting may be modest. For example, in Australia the penalty for not voting is the equivalent of US $20, which is waived if you can prove that you had no way to get to the polls or legally submit a ballot.

Of the thirty-five nations included above, the United States is thirtieth in this list (based upon the most recent national election and excluding the U.S. mid-term elections), with 53.6% of the estimated 241 million “voting-age” population voting in the 2012 Presidential election. However, we do rank above Switzerland, where the estimated turnout for the last national election was less than 39% (even though one section (“canton”) in Switzerland does have a compulsory voting law).

The highest voting percentages were in Belgium (87.2%), Turkey (84.3%), and Sweden (82.6%). Of course there can be serious political divisions, loss of confidence, and economic and social factors (as now in the United States) in every country, which can alter the turnout over the years. For instance, in 1992 Slovenia’s voting turnout was 85%, but was 54% in 2015. Japan, as well, had a high voter turnout (75%) in 1990, but fell to 52% in 2014. In addition, the voting-age population used to calculate these statistics includes people who are not eligible to vote (e.g. non-citizens) and the percentage of the population that is ineligible to vote may vary among the OECD countries.

The statisticians at Pew found that in the US, in 1996, when President Bill Clinton ran for his second term, the voting percentage was 48%, and in 2008, when Barack Obama was elected for his first term, the percentage rose to 57%.

A US Census Current Population Survey calculated statistics from the 2012 election, which report that the percentages of voter turn-out by region were Northeast 58%, Midwest 62.7%, South 55.7%, and West 53%.

SO GET OUT AND VOTE!!!!!

Paul Jeng

July was an exhausting month for anyone paying attention to the current presidential election. Like many other Americans, I lived the weeks surrounding the Republican and Democratic National Conventions as a news addict trapped in a cycle of abuse — cramming nearly every spare weekday hour with analysis, op-eds, and internet commentary, crashing under a wave of hopelessness by Friday, and finally tuning out the world for the weekend to binge-watch fifteen episodes of HBO’s Veep as a sort of politics nicotine patch. Come Monday, the pattern would start anew. In my mind I was fulfilling a civic duty to stay informed, but the entire experience was pretty harrowing.

It didn’t take long for my politics habit to start impacting my day job. I zoned out while counting cells to listen to Terry Gross’s interview with the New York Time’s Amy Chozick about Hillary Clinton’s candidacy. I pretended to be reading protein expression data from Nature when I was actually reading polling data from FiveThirtyEight. Most notably, there was a distinct shift in mental priorities. After spending half a decade in graduate school studying only science, this suddenly-consuming focus on the executive branch of the United States government felt like an unpleasant fugue state. Most people who are in research at any stage are there in part because of a belief that the world can be improved by the accumulation of objective truths, or at least our best approximation of truths based on scientific evidence. In that regard, politics, —which is in some ways the exact opposite of “objective”—would appear to have no seat at the science table. We have yet to figure out a way to quantify patriotism.

In reality, the present and future of science are inextricably tied to government, both in terms of funding resources and research policy. The NIH invests over 30 billion dollars in medical research each year, financing roughly 300,000 researchers in more than 2,500 institutions throughout the nation. The recently-approved budget for fiscal year 2017 would increase this amount by $825 million, a welcome change after a decade of funding that saw budget cuts in twelve of the past fourteen years. It’s no secret that money for research project grants has been historically tight, especially following extensive sequestration of funds mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011. The only way for the United States to remain a leader in science is if Americans elect officials that continue to prioritize spending in research.

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Johannes Buheitel

Photo Illustration: Johannes Buheitel

David Cameron looked tired but determined, as he took on the short walk from his front door to the podium opposite a battery of journalists that had congregated in front of London’s 10 Downing Street. On June 24, England’s Prime Minister announced that he will be stepping down from his post October as a consequence of the British people voting to exit the European Union (EU). Even though David Cameron went on to ensure that he will do his best to “steady the ship over the coming weeks” but that he will not be “the captain that steers [the United Kingdom] to its next destination”, it is hard to shake off the feeling that he chose this metaphor for more reasons than he cares to admit in front of the cameras.

As the shockwaves of the Brexit decision rippled through the continent, they inevitably also reached the European scientific communities, which are left in shock and confusion about the future. Because, like so many others, they were not expecting this outcome. Three months before the referendum the renowned scientific journal Nature (based in London) reached out to over 900 active researchers in the UK to ask them about their feelings toward a possible Brexit. A whopping 83% wanted Britain to remain in the EU, a number that is almost double that of the polls among the general population at that time. Most of these researchers explained their vote with the belief that Brexit would harm UK science, which, given the extensive ties between European scientific communities and the EU, seems very likely. According to Times Higher Education, UK universities have received roughly 1.4 billion euros (1.5 billion US dollars) of funding from EU programs per year; funding, that is bound to dry up once Brexit has been completed. Whether this impending gap can be filled by the UK’s domestic budget is unclear. It is specifically this state of limbo that makes UK researchers worry the most. Not even the EU’s Science Research and Innovation Commissioner, Carlos Moedas, has many words of solace to offer and notes that “all implications […] will have to be addressed in due course”

But it’s not only funding that worries UK researchers. Brexit could pose new moving and working restrictions for non-British EU nationals, which make up about 15% of the UK’s scientific community. The upcoming Brexit negotiations will determine whether they will be allowed to stay and work in the UK but the more important question might be, do they want to? In addition to the worries about EU funding in the aftermath of the referendum, there have been reports about xenophobic incidents at British research institutions such as the Royal Society of Chemistry, where some of the staff were told to “go home.”

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Francesca Cavallo

Photo Courtesy of Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was selected to host the 2016 Olympic Games, the first time the host nation has been in South America. The 2016 Olympic Games opened on the August 5 and closed on the August 21, to coincide with the start of the host country’s soccer season. These Olympic Games are the 31st edition of the Summer Olympics, and four competition zones were assigned as sporting venues: Barra, Deodoro, Maracaña, and Copacabana. Fourty-eight are track and field sports and twenty-eight the total sports; among them we have two new categories: golf and rugby sevens. 205 countries are competing for the 306 medals on offer.

In particular, weightlifting has been assigned fifteen medals: eight for the male category and seven for the female category.

During these Olympics, weightlifting has become a very controversial sport because of the prevalent doping issues involved. The Comité International Olympique (from the original French name CIO) had to ban over fourty athletes from various countries including Armenia, Ukraine, Moldova, North Korea, Cyprus, Turkey and Kazakhstan.

Unfortunately, this issue has been around for a while. At the last world championships, in 2014, there were twenty-four positive for doping tests in the first thirty positions.

A re-examination of Beijing’s 2008 and London’s 2012 Olympic weightlifting drug tests found 20 more doping-positive athletes, including four Olympic champions. The empty seats and the crowd’s displeasure, were therefore not a surprise at the current Olympics. The mistrust can be said to be warranted due to the previous examples of drug cheating.

August 16th was the last day of the Rio heavyweight competition. Georgian, Lasha Talakhadze, won the gold medal and he now holds the world and Olympic records of 473 kg, previously held by Iranian Hossein Rezazadeh since the Sydney 2000 Games. Talakhadze lifted 215 kg in the snatch and 258 kg on clean and jerk. He benefited from the disappointing performance of Behdad Salimikordasiabi, who was able to achieve the snatch world record (216 kg), but failed at 245 kg in the clean and jerk category in three attempts.

Talakhadze also beat Armenian Gor Minasyan, who lifted 451 kg in total (210 kg snatch and 241 kg on clean and jerk). In the meantime, the Georgian celebration was completed by Irakli Turmanidze who claimed the bronze medal (207 kg for snatch and 241 kg clean and jerk). In fourth position was Armenian Ruben Aleksanyan (440 kg), followed by Brazilian Fernando Saraiva Reis (435 kg) in fifth position.

Most of us are amazed by the strength and skill of weightlifters, but what exactly is weightlifting? What do they mean when they mention the snatch and the clean and jerk?

Weightlifting is a sport in which the athletes lift weights loaded on a barbell. Weightlifting competitions have been in existence since ancient times and have been a part of the modern Olympic Games since the first edition in Athens in 1896. From the 1950s to 1980s, most of the weightlifters originated from Eastern Europe, particularly from Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and the Soviet Union. Since then, weightlifters from other nations including China, Greece and Turkey have dominated the sport and the nations with the best athletes at the current Olympic Games have included those of Russian, Bulgarian and Chinese heritage. Female weightlifting started to spread in the 1980s and was added to the Olympic program in the year 2000.

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An interview with art gallery owner David Tunick

Bernie Langs

David Tunick, Photo by Bernie Langs

David Tunick Inc. is an art gallery located at 13 East 69th Street, specializing in fine prints and drawings from the 15th to the mid-20th centuries. The gallery boasts high quality and rare examples of works by Rembrandt, Dürer, Goya, Fragonard, Matisse, Picasso and many others. David Tunick, the gallery president, has been active in the field of works on paper since 1966. Mr. Tunick kindly agreed to answer email questions for Natural Selections.

BL: The information you provide for each Old Masters (and other) prints is detailed and exhaustive. Not only must you research the history of the physical print and the artist, but trace its provenance as well. How do you undertake such background work?

DT: We work at it, but some discoveries are luck. If by provenance, you mean its actual meaning, the history of ownership, we go about it carefully and methodically. We take note of every collector’s stamp, mark, notation, scribble, etc. on the recto and verso of the sheet. Can we identify them if we don’t know them? To do that we go to Lugt, Les Marques de Collections de Dessins et d’Estampes both in the old two volume hard copy and the augmented online version. If a mark is in there—there are thousands— we read about it, and that may lead to other sources. We want to add to our description of every print and drawing that comes in as much in the way of ownership history as possible. Sometimes that means looking in old gallery or sales catalogues, or correspondence with a museum, more often with a former owner or gallery owner, to see if there are further records in old files. Here’s an example of the luck part: recently a man unknown to us called me from France. He had seen an important 1950 Leger gouache on our website that had turned up on the wall of old master drawing collectors here in NY. It had been “missing” since 1971, when it was last seen in public in an exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris.  The NY collectors asked us to sell it for them, and we were thorough in researching the provenance, but there were gaps. The man from France said he remembered seeing this Leger on his aunt’s wall when he was a child. He filled in all the blanks, which we went on to verify. It felt good, as if we had fulfilled a responsibility, in a way, to the work of art.

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Six Perfect Songs

By Bernie Langs

I enjoy listening to music of all genres and styles and truly appreciate the efforts of not only good composition and musicianship, but of superlative production in the recording studio. On a visceral, emotional, tactile and maybe even soulful level, I have many favorite tunes that I deem perfect. These are songs I’ve never tired of hearing after years of listening to them. I would include such pop songs as diverse as Midnight Confessions by The Grass Roots that was a hit in 1968, Billie Jean, the Michael Jackson mega-hit with stellar production by Quincy Jones, and the live version by The Cream of I’m So Glad, which boasts a ripping solo by Eric Clapton, which I consider the best in all of live rock recordings. I could make the case for many songs as “perfect”, but I’ve chosen the following six to make remarks on:

SIx: Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin. Jimmy Page, guitarist of Led Zeppelin, has spoken of his obsessiveness in getting imaginative production sounds for his instrument in the studio, but even more importantly of the band’s consistent search for great “riffs.” And the clever, engaging riffing history of this monster band began with the very first notes of their first big hit, Whole Lotta Love and culminated with the ascending guitar notes that makes a later song Kashmir a spiritually inviting mystical journey. Whole Lotta Love has front man Robert Plant singing at full throttle impassioned best. The abstract middle-break instrumental, with fading in and out head-play sounds, was unprecedented at the time. Drummer John Bonham has a great rollout of that interlude, which is followed by the piercing wail of Page’s axe, which in turn segues back to the original riff. Brilliant!

Five: Heroes by David Bowie. Bowie fans will forever be intrigued by his Berlin period, when he retreated in the 1970s to that Cold War city to change artistic direction and wax philosophical. The album Heroes has a fabulous unity of thought and it’s a disturbing one in which Bowie ruminates about the state of human emotion and its quasi-surreal future. The album production by Brian Eno, with assistance from Tony Visconti, is a perfect fit for Bowie’s dark mood. Never before had synthesizers been utilized so fabulously in the rock music genre, melding perfectly with the structure of Bowie’s dense and revelatory songs. The album’s title song, “Heroes,” isn’t just a Cold War simultaneous desperate lament and solitary moment-in-time celebration. It boasts technical musicianship unmatched by any of Bowie’s and Eno’s contemporaries. Decades after most rock music is forgotten, they’ll still be studying David Bowie.

Four: Adagietto of the 5^th Symphony by Gustav Mahler. This movement of Mahler’s 5^th is simply the most beautiful theme in music history. Theorist Theodor Adorno called passages of Mahler’s symphonies “songs” so Mahler’s passage here fits neatly in this list crowded with rock songs. I first heard the Adagietto at the IBM Gallery of Art, where it was played in an auditorium during the Gallery’s exhibition on the ancient, volcanically obliterated city of Pompeii. Images of the destroyed city and its artifacts were displayed in a slide show in the darkened theater to the sounds of Mahler’s emotionally-charged song. Adorno’s point that Mahler never completely repeats entire themes as practiced by his predecessors, holds true in this case. The passage’s sad strings often do mournfully restart, but Mahler tweaks the presentation as if developing the yearning thoughts. The crescendo is forceful, and, unlike many of Mahler’s themes, resolves beautifully. One finds oneself longing for—what is it? Love? An unattainable soul mate? Understanding? For a better world? It’s all there in this perfect “song.”

Four: Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Street Fighting Man, Honky Tonk Women by the Rolling Stones. Yes, I know that’s three songs. Released in quick succession from 1968 to 1969, only Street Fighting Man was imbedded on an album (Beggar’s Banquet). All three have what’s missing in much of today’s pop and rock music: ingenious melodies, unique guitar riffs (by Keith Richards), entertaining lyrics, and roughshod emotion all tarted up in within tight production. Mick Jagger sings his living guts out, Charlie Watts drives the pounding beat home, and bassist Bill Wyman patiently picks his moments to emerge from the mix to take us all on a ride. The lyrics range from catchy and clever to novelistic in the case of Jumpin’ Jack Flash, which tells the improbable tale of an unlikely protagonist “born in a crossfire hurricane” climaxing with his drowning, where he is “washed up and left for dead.” Top shelf Stones.

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By Sarala Kal

Home to twenty-two different languages and seven different religions, a festival is always being celebrated somewhere throughout the Indian Subcontinent. Diwali, however, is one of the few unique holidays celebrated by everyone in the country, regardless of region, religious belief, or caste. Also called Deepavali, the festival is not only celebrated in India, but also in Singapore, Malaysia, Fiji, Suriname, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Mauritius, Myanmar, Trinidad & Tobago, and Guyana. Though the historical significance behind the festival differs across each region and religion, everyone sanctions and celebrates the triumph of good over evil in splendor and grandeur. Communities also take this time to reflect, meditate, discover their inner strength, absolve any sins, and create a new beginning filled with light, love, and peace.

Days and weeks before the festive day of Diwali, lights are hung around houses, office buildings and retail centers. Above is a retail center with trees and shop fronts in festive lights.

The historical significance of Diwali originates from the many grandiose myths, legends, and folklore of India. The polytheistic nation believes that each god or goddess signifies a particular role to ward off evil and offer protection and solace. With wide-eyed enthusiasm, children of the south learn about the indestructible demon Narakasura whose head is cut off by Lord Krishna, and the celebration of peace ensued named Deepavali. The northern parts of India offer their salutations and reverence to the Goddess Kali whose strength and energy epitomizes the battle between creation and destruction. Her defeat over the forces of destruction is celebrated as Diwali.

Because most people in India follow the lunar calendar, the exact date of Diwali depends on the position of the moon and falls in either October or November of each year. The festival lasts from three to five days and is celebrated with an abundance of sweet treats and dazzling decorations. Some practice fasting as a process of cleansing, some perform rigorous prayers, and others allocate more time towards their loved ones. It is customary for everyone in the household to purchase new clothes or jewelry, for children to receive money and presents from friends and relatives, and for everyone to enjoy decadent food. It is a time for married people to renew their vows, siblings to give each other gifts, and extended families to come together and cherish the love of being together. Lamps are lit with sesame oil in every part of the household to ward off negative energy, and preserve the purity welcomed in. Dancing commences early after dinner and continues throughout the night with people of all ages coming together and enjoying the melodic music. The vibrant colors and mellifluous sounds of power, purity, light, and love ring throughout the country.

We live in a world in which we are faced with challenges every day, witness pain and suffering, and learn of a multitude of acts committed through anger and hatred. The ultimate message of Diwali is universal and resonates with everyone around the world. It presents a uniting theme that is embodied by those who choose to look past the negativity, and focus on progressing with a pure and bright spirit. It is a time to reflect and remember to give and forgive, to rise and shine, to unite and unify, prosper and progress, and illuminate your inner self with positive energy.

By Alyssa Luong

The waiting crowd is hushed at 7:24 p.m. under the dim lights and high ceilings of Brooklyn’s St. Ann’s Warehouse on a windy night in early November. A man in a security uniform bellows for us to step aside, “Inmates coming through! Please step aside.” Furrowed eyebrows are relaxed and smiles slowly appear when we realize it is part of the show. We hear the jangling of metal chains and see the imprisoned women all in uniform grey sweatshirts and sweatpants, with their eyes looking indifferently at the people who’ve come to see their production.

Donmar Warehouse and St. Ann’s Warehouse presents the American Premiere of William Shakespeare’s Henry IV in the context of a women’s prison, directed by Phyllida Lloyd. The all-female cast initially feels like a gimmick in response to the history of all-male Shakespearean casts, but soon becomes irrelevant as the inmates begin Part I among children’s kitchen toys and tiny chairs and tables. It almost feel voyeuristic, watching upon playful props and sleepwear robes-turned royal. “Perhaps this is too personal for us to see?,” I thought.

The prison setting proves effective as we see how the roles are played, inferring that the inmates may be true representations of their characters. The most commanding performance comes from Harriet Walter, who plays King Henry. Her presence brings a simple, unwavering intensity.

Another burst of energy comes from Jade Anouka, who plays Hotspur, living up to the nature of his name. The overall atmosphere is well-balanced, taking us through comic relief delivered by Falstaff, played by Sophie Stanton, and Clare Dunne with a crescendo of development as the maturing heir, Hal, to King Henry.

The ensemble is led through a musical cover of Glasvegas’ “Daddy’s Gone,” led by Lady Percy, played by Sharon Rooney. It’s a delicate aspect of the play that offers a light melody, dueling with the rebellion and national conflict.

Lloyd succeeds in weaving the prison backdrop through the play, exposing the layers of the story with an abrupt incident when the Hostess, played by Zainab Hasan, runs off the stage in response to offensive language that has been directed at her. The lights came on and the prison guards came out, reminding us of the setting. Then, at the end, when Hal is crowned King, an uproar develops that triggers alarms and the guards emerge to end the play.

This strong cast with bold performances make the play worth experiencing. It’s a stimulating layering of stories in which we have privy.
Henry IV runs through December 6, 2015
Runtime: 2 hours 15 minutes
St. Ann’s Warehouse, 45 Water Street, Brooklyn

Reading Ancient Texts: The Campaigns of Alexander in the Landmark series

By Bernie Langs

“Alexander returneth to dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make loam—and why of that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not stop a beer barrel? Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away. Oh, that that earth, which kept the world in awe, Should patch a wall t’ expel the winter’s flaw!” – Hamlet, Act V.I

Arrian’s The Campaigns of Alexander in the Landmark series edition

Shakespeare wrote several plays featuring heroes and heroines from ancient Greece and Rome and often, as in the quote above from “Hamlet”, waxed poetic on the myths and history of the ancient world. The idea that there is much to be gleaned, through a serious approach, from the empires of Greece and Rome was the impetus behind Italy’s surge in the arts, literature, and study during its Renaissance. In addition, a look at handwritten monastic Medieval texts from across Europe quietly exuded such curiosity centuries earlier as well.

From up high upon the perch of our world today, we have a wide chasm to cross back to the ancient world, divided as we are by not just time itself, but the changes in culture and mores in the millennium in between. When reading Cicero’s or Seneca’s letters or Livy’s histories or Plato’s dialogues, one of the initial shocks is that the conversations, philosophies, and the general tone is not at times so very different in how we write, think and converse today. It is my contention that such familiarity is partially a mirage and an attempt to cross the years back to the very day in which these texts were written and try to “see” with the eyes of the ancients the world in which they lived, is to experience an exhilaration on par with a mystery wine-soaked celebration honoring Dionysus.

The actual physical artifacts, wall paintings, architectural ruins, sculptures, vases and so on, are on display in the countries of the ancient world, locally in New York City museums, and grace the pages in photos in countless books. These are the essential supplements to the study of books from past epochs. The Landmark series is publishing a handful of ancient texts accompanied by detailed maps, photos of the lands discussed and other artifacts of interest, and extremely helpful footnotes and sidebars to further elucidate the details of the written word. I am just starting the patient endeavor of reading the series’ “The Campaigns of Alexander” written by the ancient Roman Arrian hundreds of years after the time of Alexander. The edition is edited by James S. Romm, translated by Pamela Mensch, and the series editor is Robert B. Strassler. While reading, I try my best to visualize the mind-set and the times of the Roman world where Arrian stood as well as the Greek and Asian lands where Alexander trekked – no easy task of course and only, at best, a loose subjective experience.

I am reminded that the French philosopher Michel Foucault wrote how a time period is experienced as if its culture is gleaned in collective moments that have been created by historical forces converging from a vast multitude of varying directions. Alexander is often dissected and analyzed in terms of his military strategy, but he also took time to honor the gods in the tradition in which he lived. The way we stand in a forest and look and experience nature is not the very same way that a soldier or general of the ancient world would have seen it. The stars, sky, heavens and earth were in their minds as living breathing forces with real implications for how their lives would unfold. A constellation, for example, would reflect a tradition of myth deeply embedded in the soul of the individual and the collective consciousness (and unconsciousness) of their time.

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By Qiong Wang

Photos: Qiong Wang

If you are not very familiar with the city of Dubrovnik, Croatia, you must have heard of “Game of Thrones.” Yes, the HBO series was filmed there. Dubrovnik is located on the very southern tip of Croatia by the east coast of the Adriatic Sea. The entire city is built on sea cliffs, encircled by 3-to-5-meters-thick, 25-meters-high and 1950-meters-long brick walls, constructed mostly from the 13^th to the 17^th centuries. These city walls rise up and down along the cliff rocks, having protected the city for nearly 1000 years from both the sea and the land, are still standing strong and admirable. Five fortresses of different sizes, altitudes and styles are niched in between the walls. The sight of this marvelous city and its geographic setting reminded me immediately of the legendary city of Constantine during the Byzantine Empire, even though I have never been there.

The Nobel Prize winner Ivo Andric said that the city roofs alone could be a subject of an entire study. If you look at any city in the world from the air, Dubrovnik is probably one of the most easily identifiable cities. Climbing onto the top of the city wall, a sea of red slanted tile roofs of various sizes and orientation flashed in front of my eyes, making me fascinated with their texture and structure immediately. They snuggled so nicely together, without any clay in between it seemed. At some places on the city wall, they are within reach. Under the sun, the roof shadow brought out great contrast for different shades of red, crimson, and maple, random yet harmonious. The 50-shades-of-red on the roof tiles are vibrant but not flirty, because their high spirits are brought securely to the ground by the unanimously clay-colored solid stone houses, a great background color to address the roof tiles.

As a beautiful medieval city on the east coast of the Adriatic Sea, Dubrovnik went through great prosperity during the golden era of Mediterranean trading, and became the business and trading center of the south Dalmatian region, rivaling against Venice at the time. Because of its geographic and business significance, Dubrovnik had always been under the protection of different cross-continental empire powers. Dubrovnik was pretty lucky in this way. Its geographic location is a gift from god, making it far from the most turbulent regions. However in 1667, on a morning just before Easter, a major earthquake hit Dubrovnik, killing about half the inhabitants. Many buildings were damaged, including my favorite construction in the city, the Onofrio’s Fountain. This 15^th century rotunda-shaped monstrous structure was used to supply water to the city habitants in the past via 16 masked animal faces, when drinking water was scarce. This fountain is like no other fountain I have ever seen, cute, over-sized and down-to-earth, just like the Baymax of Dubrovnik.

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Visiting Hemingway’s House in Key West

By Bernie Langs

Views of the Key West home of Ernest Hemingway (photos by BL)

After shopping on Duval Street in Key West, Florida on a hot and beautiful day in late April, my wife and I were guided by our closest friends through back roads to The Hemingway Home and Museum to visit the house where the famed author spent most of the 1930s producing some of his best written works. This was my first visit to Key West and the anticipated imaginings of how it would look had missed the mark. The closely placed houses on the streets leading to “Papa’s” abode all had beautifully manicured small yards boasting fabulous and unique trees. The local vegetation had a scintillating quality to it and the leaves of the palm trees swayed slowly, dancing to the beat of the occasional wind. The serene atmosphere primed us for the grounds where Ernest Hemingway had lived.

We entered the house and set out for a tour of the property. Our guide was a colorful character who had probably given the same prepared speech from room to room hundreds of times over the years. She had a peculiar, yet engaging, Southern drawl and although she was restrained, she exuded a continuous enthusiasm for her subject. I found her dry jokes about Hemingway and his antics truly engaging as our group learned about Hemingway’s life, his four wives, his children, and about his many passions for drinking, deep-sea fishing, travel, and general debauchery. I had learned a bit of this, as many of us do, in school, but the sense of the man as an individual was enhanced by being surrounded by the things he’d actually lived with and experienced.

A highlight of the visit was the up-close look at the beautiful swimming pool on the grounds, which is surrounded by various trees and shrubs. It was the first pool built in Key West and the largest at the time for many miles. Our guide told the story of Hemingway’s wife, Pauline, who had put the swimming pool in, to his distress, the costs ran up to $20,000 ($330,000 today adjusted by inflation). It is said he tossed a penny at her, angrily declaring that she’d take his very last penny. She retaliated by imbedding the penny in the still wet cement of the patio and it’s there to this day for tourists like myself to gaze at in amusement.

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By Aileen Marshall

Not all Rockefeller University (RU) scientists have a traditional career path. Some go on to teach or continue research. But some expand their horizons while still keeping science in their life. One such Rockefeller alum is Zeena Nackerdien, a research associate in Joshua Lederberg’s lab from 2000 to 2008, who went on to a diverse career in medical writing and who has recently published a novel, The Heroine Next Door, with a science theme.

Nackerdien is originally from South Africa. She got her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Cape Town. She then earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Stellenbosch, in South Africa, studying chromatin structure.

In 1989 she was offered the position of guest researcher at The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and decided to take the opportunity. At NIST she helped to identify indicators in DNA associated with free radical damage, and learned to perform capillary electrophoresis of nucleic acids. She then worked as a post-doc at Memorial Sloan Kettering for a year. Nackerdien moved to RU in 2000, where she began her eight-year stint.   “Like many post-docs, I had a series of stop-and-go experimental projects that ended in frustration,” Nackerdien remembers. While in the lab she published a hypothesis with Professor David Thaler on the rearrangements of chromosomes in cancer and evolution. She also worked on bacterial growth. She described the experience as “tearing my hair out over an inability to explain the bursts of fast growth observed in rich media of a Gram-negative pathogen, Vibrio parahaemolyticus.” Vibrios are a genus of bacteria that often cause infection from eating undercooked seafood. Some strains give off light. “We showed that the growth rates of the light-emitting Vibrios could be impacted by bioluminescence-dependent- and independent-components. However, the buried headline is that some bacterial strains can double very quickly in a manner that cannot easily be attributed to artifacts,” Nackerdien said. She published a paper on this with Dr. Lederberg and Dr. Bonnie Bassler of Princeton University, an expert in quorum sensing. Nackerdien was working on cultivating other bacterial species of the microbiome not easily done by standard plating techniques. Sadly, Dr. Lederberg died in 2008. It was then that she decided to start a writing career, “I have always been a poet at heart. However, it has taken me many years, first as a medical writer, then a patient advocate, and now an author to come up with a blended style that articulates my unique spirit.”

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By Natalia Ketaren

The Twelve Apostles, Port Campbell National Park, Victoria, Australia. Photo credit: Natalia Ketaren

After almost three years of being away, I was returning home for a summer Christmas. The last time I visited, my days were spent lazing in parks and beaches along Port Phillip Bay, dinners at trendy Melbourne joints with balconies where we could smoke and drink and of course, I did plenty of shopping. Coming home was all about catching up with friends and family, just… hanging out. However, this trip would be different. My American boyfriend was coming with me and he had never been to Oz. So this time around, it was fewer everyday indulgences and more sightseeing. Here’s a little of what we did and saw.

Week 1 Victoria

Melbourne is the most populous city in the State of Victoria and the second most populous city in Australia, behind Sydney. Melbourne is Australia’s business epicenter. It’s the fashion capital and the music capital of Australia. It is a sporting city, home to major tennis tournaments, the home of cricket Australia and the birthplace of Australian Rules football. Australia was declared a Federation under a tree in Melbourne’s botanical gardens. Five of the country’s most prestigious universities are located here, not to mention numerous others. Thus, it’s not surprising that the birthplace of Gough Whitlam carries a great worth in Australia and its citizens harbor abundant city pride. Whenever I visit my hometown, here are a few things I reacquaint myself with:

Food and Drink

Melbourne is known for its rich food culture, thanks to years of global immigration. My staples every time I visit are:

A good parma at Mrs. Parmas on Lt. Bourke Street or the Leveson Hotel in North Melbourne. Pho on Victoria Street, just after Hoddle Street in Richmond. It doesn’t really matter where you go, this street is lined with Vietnamese restaurants and you’re sure to get good pho and spring rolls when you’re here. Crispy pork at China bar near the corner of Exhibition Street. A souvlaki and chunky fries cooked in olive oil at Stalactites on Exhibition Street. Pizza at D.O.C pizza on the corner of Drummond and Faraday Street serves authentic Roman style pizza. Fish and chips down Acland Street in St. Kilda. Be sure to go to the shop closer to the Barkly Street end. Chips with gravy, dim sum, chunky spring rolls and potato cakes, available at Charcoal chicken chain stores all over Melbourne and coffee.

Coffee is a Melbourne institution, which serves some of the best coffee in Australia. The city is packed with little lane ways strewn with cafes and coffee houses, serving alongside coffee and tea, amazing desserts and delicious sausage rolls and meat pies.

Melbourne nightlife is forever changing. Drinks in Australia are expensive, where, on average, it’s $10/pint of beer and $20/cocktail. No tips required in the service industry, but the going is still quite dear. Rooftop bars in Melbourne can be quite fun. Our go to on the trip is Rooftop Bar on Swanston Street in the city center. They do very nice Pimm’s cups and champagne cocktails in the summertime.

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By Peng Kate Gao

If I have to name one day of an entire year that I wish dearly to be with my family-on-the-other-side-of-the-planet, it’s the Chinese New Year. Also called Spring Festival, it is the most cherished and celebrated holiday in China, as families reunite to ring out the old year and celebrate the coming new year. According to the Chinese Animal Zodiac, every year is associated with one of twelve animals: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. On February 19, 2015 we say farewell to a previous year of the Horse, and welcome the beginning of a year of the Sheep.

The myth of Chinese New Year

The Chinese New Year celebration has a long history, dating back over 4,000 years. According to ancient legends, it began with a mythical beast called Nian. Nian was a ferocious monster with a gigantic horn and sharp teeth. It lived in the deep sea all year long, but once every year it would crawl out of the water to wreak havoc on villages. Every year on this day, villagers, young and old, would flee deep into the mountains to hide from Nian’s attack.

One year, while the villagers had started their rush to the mountains, an old beggar came through the neighborhood. An elderly grandmother gave him food, and warned him to hide so as not to be harmed by Nian. The beggar laughed and said that he could chase Nian away. Surprised and hesitant, the old woman left on her own.

At midnight, Nian arrived in the village. It was pitch black everywhere, except for the old woman’s house, which shone brightly with candle and lantern light. The monster bounded towards the house, but stopped short, trembling at the sight of a piece of bright red paper on the door. Suddenly, firecrackers began to explode. Terrified, Nian ran away from the village.

When the villagers returned the following day, they were surprised to find that everything was safe and sound. The old woman told the story of the beggar. Noticing the red paper on the door and the remnants of candles, lanterns, and firecrackers, the villagers suddenly realized that Nian feared the color red, bright light, and loud noises. Rejoicing in relief and excitement, they celebrated. Wearing new hats and clothes, they visited family and friends, and congratulated each other on the prospect of a peaceful year ahead.

Since then, every year on the day that Nian would appear, families adorn their doors with red paper, set off firecrackers, and light candles and lanterns in their homes. The next morning, which marks the start of a new year, people visit their relatives and friends, with festivities lasting for 15 days. This tradition of gratitude and hope has continued till today.

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