The oldest continuously occupied residential dwellings in today’s US are the Taos Pueblo houses in New Mexico (inhabited since ~1000–1450 AD).
But the residential house that has been on American lands the longest is the Fairbanks House in Dedham, Massachusetts (c. 1637–1641)
The lines between the Classical period in music and the Romantic period are much fuzzier than people think. Here’s an example: Mozart’s Piano Sonata in C minor, K. 457. Sounds as if it were written by Beethoven.
youtu.be/gA8m1QPv1yQ?...
“All Men Are Mortal” by Simone de Beauvoir should be required reading for all high school students. It’s a story reminding us that being finite makes every moment in life more meaningful and precious. The search for eternal life is not understanding life
History is mean-reverting in the short term and trending in the medium to long term. Over multi-century horizons, it can resemble a helix: cyclical patterns recur, while the underlying trend continues
The book Geometry Revisited by H. S. M. Coxeter is one of the smartest books a high school student interested in mathematics can study, both for enjoyment and for deeper understanding.
bookstore.ams.org/view?Product...
If you think about it, most of American culture has become about people rather than ideas. This is as much true now in technology as it is in politics or other fields. This is probably because of the creeping influence of pop culture over every aspect of life
Here’s a reflective piece by Glenn Gould with violinist Jaime Laredo, from one of Gould’s most underrated albums. Bach’s Adagio ma non tanto from Sonata No. 3 in E major
youtu.be/JOjIqpQNoJc?...
The genius of Gould was that he could make a piece at any tempo make sense. In this three-part Sinfonia (No. 15), he plays much faster than most, yet the performance remains perfectly coherent and internally consistent
youtu.be/Y7aOoIhedLw?...
Glenn Gould’s Inventions album is one of my favorites. The two-part Invention No. 10 is a masterpiece of virtuosity and polyphony
youtu.be/32mqWa1TPeQ?...
