Lost Blind
The Lost Tribe Of Alexander The Great
Paul Raffaele | The Critic | 9th August 2022
Visiting with the Kalash, an Afghan tribe descended from a Greek general said to have been called Shakalash, who came to South Asia with Alexander the Great in 330BC, then stayed put when Alexander moved on. Persecuted in Afghanistan for worshipping Zeus, the Kalash have found refuge across the border in Pakistan, where they can live much as their ancestors did 2,000 years ago (4,100 words)
Deaf Or Blind: Beethoven And Handel
Randall Collins | Sociological Eye | 3rd July 2022
Beethoven was deaf by 31 and continued composing for the next twenty-five years. Handel went blind at 68 and composed nothing more in his remaining six years of life. Might seeing be more important for a composer than hearing? "Complex music is the coordination of instruments and players: a social skill, a social invention. When composers go blind, they mostly stop composing" (1,500 words)
... er, I don't have a Beethoven pun to follow that but I've written the Handel one now.
Guess there's no going Bach.
Want to stop reading my puns? The full edition has five outstanding articles, a video, a podcast, and no puns from me at the end. Phew.