Earworm of the Day: Chvrches "Tightrope"

I first heard about this song on NPR. Chvrches cover Janelle Monáe's "Tightrope" Live at Billboard Women In Music 2013

Art, Mystery And Posh Pigments In “Sacre Bleu“

via npr
“...These days you can walk into any drugstore and buy a cheap pack of markers in all the colors of the rainbow. That makes it hard to appreciate just how rare and precious blue pigment was, not so long ago.

“The translation of sacre bleu is sacred blue,” says [Christopher] Moore. “In medieval times, the church said that if you are going to portray the Virgin Mary's cloak, it has to be in a certain shade of blue. And that blue must be ultramarine, because ultramarine blue is permanent. It doesn't go black or fade as organic colors do. And that is made essentially from crushed lapis lazuli, which is only available in Afghanistan. If you think about the 11th and 12th century, trying to get a stone from Afghanistan to Europe, for years and right up into the 19th century, was more valuable, weight for weight, than gold…”
Read more about Christopher Moore's novel here.

Jim Cosgrove: No Mother Could Give More

via NPR
“This is egg laying season, if you're a bird. If you're an octopus, particularly a giant Pacific octopus, you've been there, done that. In fact, you died doing it, in what is the saddest mommy story I've heard in a long while. It comes from biologist Jim Cosgrove who describes it all in a lecture he calls, “No Mother Could Give More.’ ”
Read the rest here.

Final Encore: Pick Your Song For The End Of The World

via npr’s All Songs Considered
“Let’s just say, for the sake of discussion, that Saturday marks the occasion when the righteous ascend to heaven and the wicked are sent to writhe miserably in the eternal damnation of hellfire. What single song do you plan to play when the end arrives?”
Join the discussion here. My song would be the Beatle’s “A Day in the Life”