Mid-Week Libation: In Praise of Bed

The art of making Noh masks, 15 hearty winter soups, Joan Armatrading's new symphony, the friendship of Bob Newhart & Don Rickles, and the first self-proclaimed drag queen!

Mid-Week Libation is our weekly curated splash of inspiration and culture! Click above to listen to this weeks’ audio segment!

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Noh Mask Craftswoman, Mitsue Nakamura: Making Masks for 40 Years

• Check out her beautiful website: The World of Noh Mask Craftswoman, Mitsue Nakamura

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Recipe Time: 15 Hearty Winter Soups To Warm You Up

• Click here for a list of great recipes: “15 Hearty Winter Soups to Warm You Up” (via Serious Eats)

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New Music: Joan Armatrading Composed a Symphony!

Click here to listen for free on BBC Radio (available internationally) — Chineke! Orchestra, conducted by Andrew Grams, give the world premiere of Joan Armatrading’s Symphony No.1, along with music by Tchaikovsky, Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn

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Fascinating Article: The First Self-Proclaimed Drag Queen Was a Formerly Enslaved Man (via Smithsonian Magazine)

• Read here: The First Self-Proclaimed Drag Queen Was a Formerly Enslaved Man (via Smithsonian Magazine)

• Listen to a TED Talk from Channing Gerard Joseph, the scholar who discovered the story of William Dorsey Swann:

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Bob and Don: A Love Story - short documentary about the lifelong friendship of Bob Newhart & Don Rickles, directed by Judd Apatow (who was born today!)

• Read more here: Judd Apatow’s “Bob and Don: A Love Story” (via The New Yorker)

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Artists Born Today: December 6th

Visual Artists:

Today is the birthday of Maria de Dominici, Emmanuel Frémiet, Frédéric Bazille, François Flameng, Louise Catherine Breslau, Minerva J. Chapman, Elna Borch, Lucia Fairchild Fuller, Salomon Garf, Rogelio Yrurtia, Leon Kroll, Shepherd Barrett, Charles Meere, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Eliot Porter, York Wilson, Araceli Gilbert, Şadi Çalık, Lea Nikel, Christel Marott, Roy Kitchin, Jan Haag, Larry Bell, Bruce Nauman, Andrei Sârbu, Nicola De Maria, Angel Rodríguez-Díaz, Sherif Sonbol, Nicolás de Jesús, Holly Farrell, Mamani Mamani, Mall Nukke, Davyd Whaley and Kara Maria!

Writers, Philosophers & Scholars:

Today is the birthday of Baldassare Castiglione, Susanna Moodie, Dora Greenwell, Max Müller, Evelyn Underhill, William Stanley Braithwaite, Cornelia Meigs, Joyce Kilmer, Dion Fortune, Sylvia Townsend Warner, Mary Barnard, Eric Newby, Rosaura Sánchez, Adela Fernández, Akasha Gloria Hull, Rafał Wojaczek, Louise Cotnoir, Élmer Mendoza, Martha Minow, Arthur Golden, Myung Mi Kim, Susy Shock, Karl Ove Knausgård, Joumana Haddad and Jason Reynolds!

Musicians & Composers:

Today is the birthday of Joseph Lamb, Emiliana de Zubeldia, Henriëtte Bosmans, Ira Gershwin, Dave Brubeck, Theola Kilgore, Akira Miyazawa, Frankie Dunlop, Zeki Müren, Henryk Górecki, Robb Royer, Willie Hutch, Emílio Santiago, Miroslav Vitouš, Linda Creed, Joe Hisaishi, Daniël Sahuleka, Bright Sheng, Peter Buck, Randy Rhoads, Ben Watt, Henri Dikongué, Musa Juma, Ulf Ekberg, Ulysses Owens Jr. and Prince Kudakwashe Musarurwa!

Film/TV/Stage:

Today is the birthday of Lynn Fontanne, Agnes Moorehead, Zheng Junli, Mamo Clark, Savitri, Richard Edlund, Shekhar Kapur, Steven Wright, Nick Park, Judd Apatow, Donnell Rawlings, Justin Chadwick, Craig Brewer, Kivu Ruhorahoza and Ashley Madekwe!

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This Week’s Words of Wisdom: Sylvia Townsend Warner (December 6, 1893 – May 1, 1978)

“There are not enough poems in praise of bed...” — Sylvia Townsend Warner [Source: Quotefancy]

Bonus: Click here to read the poem — “In Praise of My Bed” by Meredith Holmes (via Poetry Foundation)

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