Come Taste the Music!

Friday evening at the Library of Congress, our ongoing “Music and the Brain” lecture series will tackle a truly fascinating phenomenon: people whose senses sometimes cross-stimulate, causing them to “hear a color” or “taste a shape.” This phenomenon, known as synesthesia, has been identified in a surprisingly large number of people over the years, including musicians as varied as Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington and Stevie Wonder.

Dr. Richard E. Cytowic of George Washington University Medical Center will deliver the talk, “Wednesday is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia” at 6:15 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30 in the Members’ Room on the first floor of the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building at 10 First St. S.E. After the talk, he’ll sign his book on the topic.

Songs That Go Bump In The Night

‘Tis the season to be frightened, and the Performing Arts Encyclopedia is full of ghastly tunes for the musical goblins in your life. We start with Jean Schwartz and William Jerome’s “The Ghost that Never Walked.” The team, best-known for the song “Chinatown my Chinatown,” put this 1904 number into the show “Piff! Paff! Pouf!” to tell the …

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Carl Reiner! In Person!

When it comes to laughter – flat-out, clutch your sides, tears-springing-from-your-eyes laughter – Carl Reiner is an American icon. For something like four generations he’s been cracking us up, from his writing and skit performance on the legendary Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows” (external link) to his creation of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” …

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Going Back, Waaay Back

(Ed. note: This post comes to us from Phil Michel, Digital Conversion Coordinator for the Prints & Photographs Division, and one of the authors of the new book Baseball Americana.) While the baseball season winds down and the excitement of another World Series chase begins, we’re celebrating the national pastime with a new book, Baseball …

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