With other fads, you can participate and not make it a lifetime commitment. You can take the double hoop earrings out pretend it never happened. (If you still have those, you need to take them out.) You can shave off your side-spike. You can take off your parachute pants. It’s a little more of a chore to remove your Dane Cook "Su-Fi" tattoo.

For example:

4. The Neck Tattoo - This one seems to be growing in popularity. Hardly a day goes by when I don’t see a child’s name in fancy cursive tatted on a straphanger’s neck while riding the 1 train. It’s not a good idea unless you are a musician or professional athlete. You are essentially cashing in your respect in society with the neck tat. If you’re going in for a job interview and you have a skull and crossbones tattoo peeking out from your shirt collar, I’m willing to wager you’re not getting the gig.

Here’s the top 10 Most Stupid Tattoos: Link - via Miss Cellania

It was the 38th (Welsh) Infantry Division that was charged with taking Mametz Wood during the bloody Battle of the Somme on July 7, 1916. After five long days they managed to clear the woods of Germans, which cost them 4,000 deaths and casualties. This is how the 38th (Welsh) Division Memorial erected, with a defiant dragon (the Red Dragon of Wales was the division’s insignia) standing on a 10 feet plinth, facing the woods with the regimental cap badge of the South Wales Borderers carved on one side of the base.

Link

The following is reprinted from Bathroom Reader Plunges Into History Again

Forget Van Gogh; he only lost an ear. It was the great catrato Farinelli who made the ultimate sacrifice for art: he gave up his nuts!

Carlo Broschi was a man who really suffered for his music. Known to the world as the great opera singer Farinelli (1705-1782), he was castrated as a young boy to prevent his exquisite singing voice from ever breaking. But before you start feeling too sorry for the songsmith, it’s worth bearing in mind that Farinelli was showered with wealth and adulation throughout his career. And even with a couple of pieces missing from his repertoire, he still managed to make beautiful music with the ladies.

THE UNKINDEST CUT OF ALL

The practice of castrating men (making them into eunuchs) arose around 3,000 years ago. Castration was usually inflicted on slaves who worked in the harem of a king or powerful ruler; the object was to ensure that they could not father children. It involved the removal of the testicles only (!), and a castrated singer like Farinelli, though sterile, was often able to perform in a lady’s boudoir as well as on the stage.

Eventually, the demand for castrated men ran out, except in one area: music. The 17th and 18th centuries were a golden age of eunuchs in classical music. Especially in Italy, where boys became castrati, or "the castrated ones." The special thing about these little fellas was that they were altered just before reaching puberty, so that their voices never broke. Boys who were promising singers were selected, given the snip, and then sent to special schools for vocal training.

THE CUTTING EDGE OF FAME

From 1599, castrati were allowed to sing in the papal choir. They proved to be so popular that a whole type of music theater was invented for them, known as opera seria, from which modern opera partly developed. While a castrato’s voice always kept its high, childlike pitch, it was delivered with the power of a fully grown man. A castrato could soar effortlessly up and down the vocal registers, belting out tunes like a diva on helium. Castrati could also perform all manner of vocal tricks, such as holding a single note for a full minute. Audiences loved it, and the castrati were the rock stars of their day, complete with rampant egos, fawning flunkies, adoring fans, and obliging groupies. And the biggest star of all was Farinelli.

Farinelli, unlike many other castrati, was not from a poor background. Indeed, his father, Salvatore, was the governor of the region around Naples, in southern Italy. Young Carlo displayed vocal talent as a child. And so, some time between his seventh and eighth birthday, little Carlo said goodbye to part of his anatomy - and hello to a singing career. After studying with the greatest vocal masters of the day, Carlo, now renamed Farinelli after one of his patrons, made his debut in 1720, aged 15. From then on it was nonstop fame and fortune for the next 17 years. After conquering Italy with triumphant performances in Naples, Rome, and Bologna, Farinelli toured Europe in his early 20s, billed as "the Singer of Kings," due to his having performed for most of Italy’s many princes and minor royalty. King Louis XV of France fell under his spell, as did the British
public. Farinelli was paid huge fees to perform, either onstage or in private audiences. All in all, life was pretty good for our hero.

THE REIGN IN SPAIN

But then, Farinelli gave it all up. Maybe life on the road with wealth, adulation, and amorous women isn’t all it’s cracked up to be; but in 1737, at the age of 32, Farinelli announced he was quitting the stage to become the private court singer to King Philip V of Spain. Farinelli had originally visited Spain as part of his European tour, but he was so affected by the king’s emotional response to his singing that he decided to stay on.

It turns out that he got much more than he bargained for. Philip V was a manic-depressive, and once he’d latched onto Farinelli and his singing, he wouldn’t let go. The king claimed that he could only get to sleep if Farinelli serenaded him. So, the castrated crooner was hired to sing the same set of songs to his patron every night for the next ten years.

Farinelli was at the Spanish court for 25 years in total, outliving two monarchs. In that time he acquired great wealth and even more political power: Philip trusted the Italian artist so much that Farinelli eventually became one of the king’s most trusted advisors.

In 1759, Farinelli quit Spain and retired to Bologna, Italy, where he lived out his remaining years composing and playing music, receiving famous guests, such as Mozart, and using his great wealth to fund many charitable causes.

GETTING THE AX

In 1870 Italy finally outlawed the creation of castrati. In 1902, and again in 1904, phonograph recordings were made of Alessandro Moreschi, the last surviving Italian castrato, but he was by then old and ill and his voice was shot. We will probably never know what a true castrato in his prime sounded like - something that young Italian boys should praise the Lord every day of their prepubescent lives.

The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges Into History Again.

The book is a compendium of entertaining information chock-full of facts on a plethora of history topics. Uncle John’s first plunge into history was a smash hit - over half a million copies sold! And this sequel gives you more colorful characters, cultural milestones, historical hindsight, groundbreaking events, and scintillating sagas.

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. Check out their website here: Bathroom Reader Institute

A specially designed video camera installed in the jungles of Indonesia captured the rare (and tiny!) Javanese Rhino momma and her calf … right before she attacked it!

After just a month in operation, specially designed video cameras installed to capture wildlife footage in the jungles of South East Asia have twice recorded remarkable images of a mother and child pair of the world’s rarest rhino.

But the success was not without incident as after a short inspection, the rhino mother charged the camera installation in Ujung Kulon National Park and sent it flying.

Article at Science Daily | Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]

If the word "opera" brings an image of a fat lady singing and sends you running away, you’re missing out. Many operas are so famous that they’ve entered into pop culture. In fact, you probably already know more about operas than you think. Here are the 10 Operas You Didn’t Know You Already Like:

Léo Delibes’ Lakmé: The Flower Duet

This is one is my personal favorite: Dame Joan Sutherland and Jane Berbié sing the Flower Duet [YouTube Link], lyrics

Read the rest of the article:

Lakmé is an opera composed by French composer Léo Delibes in 1881, based on the autobiographical novel Le Mariage de Loti by Pierre Loti (about Loti’s romantic liaison with an exotic Tahitian girl, how’s that for a premise of the novel?). The opera is famous for its complex and beautiful melodies.

Synopsis: The opera is about an Indian girl named Lakmé, daughter of a fanatical Brahmin priest. One day, a British officer named Gérald accidentally trespasses on the grounds of the temple where he encounters and falls in love with her. At first, she is afraid but later she grows to love Gérald.

Where have you heard it before? British Airways ads!

Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot: Nessun Dorma

The "Three Tenors" (Placido Domingo, José Carreras, and Luciano Pavarotti) sing Nessun Dorma [YouTube Link], lyrics

Giacomo Puccini is one of the heavyweights in opera: his masterpieces includes La Bohème, Tosca, and Madame Butterfly - some of the most popular operas in history - and many others. It’s difficult to limit this list to just two selections from Puccini operas …

Synopsis: Turandot is an opera about a beautiful but cold-hearted Chinese Princess of the same name. The law of the land says that anyone who wants to marry Turandot has to answer three riddles - but if he failed, then he would be killed. The hero, Prince Calàf, after meeting his long lost father Timur and a slave girl named Liù, takes the challenge …

Puccini didn’t finish Turandot; he died while working on the middle of Act III. Several composers had created several endings, but purists don’t accept any of them.

How do you pronounce it? Turandot comes from the Persian
word Turandokht meaning "daughter of Turan" and therefore should’ve been pronounced "turanDOT," but Puccini has italian-ized it and pronounced it "turanDOUGH."

Where have you heard it before? Well, if you’re an avid of the TV show "Britain’s Got Talent," cell phone salesman Paul Potts won in 2007 with this song: Link [YouTube]

Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly: Un Bel dì Vedremo

Mika Mori sings Un Bel Di: [YouTube Link], Lyrics (fun starts at 0:22)

Synopsis: Madame Butterfly is a story about a Cio-Cio-San, or "Butterfly" as she is known to her friends, a young Japanese geisha in turn of the 20th century, Nagasaki. Butterfly renounces her faith and marries an American sailor named Lieutenant B.F. Pinkerton, who left Japan soon afterwards but promises to return to her.

Where have you heard it before? Love is a Many-Splendored Thing , Fatal Attraction.

Georges Bizet’s Carmen: Habanera

Maria Callas sing Habanera from her 1962 performance: YouTube Link,
the Prelude is a bonus! (Habanera starts at 2:16)

The opera Carmen is a 1875 adaptation by Georges Bizet of a novella of the same name by Prosper Mérimée. For a year after its premiere, it was considered a failure and was even condemned as "immoral" - now, Carmen is one of the most-performed operas in North America.

Synopsis: The story revolves around a beautiful gypsy woman named Carmen and her lover Don José. The opera opens with a scene in a tobacco factory: when the beautiful Carmen appears, all the men ask her when she will love them - and she replied that "L’amour est un oiseau rebelle que nul ne peut apprivoiser" (love is a rebellious bird that nothing can tame) in the famous aria Habanera. A fight ensues in the factory, and when a brigadier in the Spanish army named Don José and his superior Zuniga arrive, they discover Carmen has been fighting. They arrest her, but Carmen seduces José and escapes.

How do you pronounce his name? Bee-zay.

Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana: Intermezzo

Here’s something different: there’s no singing in this piece! Violinist André Rieu plays the Intermezzo: [YouTube Link]

Synopsis: Mascani’s Cavalleria Rusticana (or Rustic Chivalry) is a story of lust, revenge and betrayal. The story begins when Turridu, a returning soldier finds that his true love Lola had married another man named Alfio while he was away. Turridu seduces a young woman named Santuzza, but then also starts having an affair with Lola, who realizes that she still loves him.

Santuzza, spurned by Turridu, tells Alfio about the affair. Enraged, Alfio challenges Turridu to a duel to the death and kills him.

Where have you heard it before: Godfather Part III (1990) and Raging Bull (1980)

Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre: Ride of the Valkyries

Ride of the Valkyries by the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest Holland, conducted by Edo De Waart: [YouTube Link]

Richard Wagner composed Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) as part of four epic operas called Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung, or more commonly Wagner’s Ring Cycle) written over the course of about 26 years, from 1848 to 1874. And by epic, we mean EPIC: the four operas have a total playing time of about 15 hours, split over four nights (and yes, Wagner "opera marathon" has been performed before).

Synopsis: The Nibelung dwarf Alberich forged a magic ring with the power to rule the world from gold stolen from the Rhinemaidens of the river Rhine. Not surprisingly, everyone wants it, including Wotan (or Odin, the chief of the Norse gods).

Did Wagner inspire Tolkien? If you’re wondering if Wagner’s Ring Cycle and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings are related, that’s because both people were inspired by the same Old Norse mythologies. Tolkien said "Both rings were round, and there the resemblance ceases." (Carpenter, H. and Tolkien, C. 1981 The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien)

How do you pronounce his name? That’s VAGH-ner, not WAG-ner.

Where have you heard it before? Apocalypse Now.

Jacques Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann: Barcarolle

Sisters Irina and Cristina Iordachescu, with pianist Gonul Apdula: [YouTube Link], lyrics

Les contes d’Hoffmann or The Tales of Hoffmann is an opera composed
by Jacques Offenbach in 1881, about a fictionalized account of the life of a real author named ETA Hoffmann.

Synopsis: The opera starts in a deserted tavern, where the poet Hoffmann is waiting for his lover, the actress Stella. Hoffmann’s Muse, who wants the poet for herself, is disguised as a man named Nicklausse, and keeps Hoffmann company while he recounts the tale of his past three lovers.

Where you’ve heard it before: Life is Beautiful by Roberto Benigni, amongst many other.

Giuseppe Verdi’s Il Trovatore: Anvil Chorus

Here’s something unexpected: the creative staging of the Anvil Chorus by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles: [YouTube Link]

Like Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi wrote so many great operas like Rigoletto, Aida and La traviata, that it’s hard to pick just one.

Synopsis: Il Trovatore (The Troubadour) is so full of plot twists, it’ll make your head spin. The story begins with Count di Luna, whose infant brother was supposedly sickened by a gypsy. The gypsy was burned at the stake, but before she died, she asked her daughter to take revenge by killing the infant.

Gioachino Rossini’s Barber of Seville: Largo Al Factotum

John Rawnsley sings Largo Al Factotum: [YouTube Link], lyrics

Il barbiere di Siviglia or The Barber of Seville is Rossini’s most famous opera. It was written in 1816, and it took Rossini only two weeks to write!

Synopsis: The story opens with Count Almaviva, who wants the beautiful Rosina to fall in love with him and not his money, by serenading in disguise as a poor student named Lindoro. Afterwards, the Count meets his former servant, a barber named Figaro, who is singing "Largo Al Factotum" or "Make Way for the Factotum" (factotum means servant) while walking, and asks him to help.

George Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess: Summertime

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong sings "Summertime" [YouTube Link], lyrics

George Gershwin did not limit himself to just classical or opera - he wrote many popular songs and jazz standards, including Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, and one of the most famous operas of the 1930s, Porgy and Bess.

Synopsis: The opera Porgy and Bess takes place in Catfish Row, a fictitious black tenement in South Carolina. The opera opens with Clara singing the "Summertime" lullaby to her baby, as the men play craps. One by one they crap out, leaving only Robbins and Crown in the game - when Robbins wins, Crown starts a fight and ends up killing him. Crown then runs, telling his woman Bess that she has to fend for herself. Porgy, a cripple and a beggar, is the only one that comforts and shelters her.

If you like that: Another piece that is particularly awesome (personally, I like it better than Summertime) is "I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’." Here’s one by Willard White as Porgy: Link

Bonus

Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana: O Fortuna

O Fortuna by Münchner Rundfunkorchester, directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle; Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, conducted by Kurt Eichhorn: [YouTube Link], lyrics

Well, Carmina Burana isn’t exactly an opera - it’s a cantata composed by Carl Orff in 1935 based on 24 of the poems found in in the Burana Codex manuscript, a collection of medieval love and vagabond songs, including gambling songs and parodies. But I’m sure you guys will like it anyhow.

Orff’s Carmina Burana, like the songs in the Codex, covers a wide topic from the fickleness of fortune and wealth, the ephemeral nature of life, the joy of the return of Spring, and the pleasures and perils of drinking, gluttony, gambling, and lust. (Source)

Giacomo Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi: O Mio Babbino Caro

Maria Callas sings "O mio babbino caro" [YouTube Link], lyrics

I really, really like O Mio Babbino Caro, but we have two operas by Puccini already, so I decided to substitute it with Habanera from Bizet’s Carmen. Still, what’s a bonus section for if not for something fun like this?

Synopsis: Gianni Schicchi is a shrewd Tuscan peasant in the 13th century, whose daughter Lauretta is in love with a young man named Rinuccio. Rinnucio’s relatives, however, are against the marriage because Schicchi is poor. "O mio babbino caro" or "Oh my dear papa" is sung by Lauretta about how she wants to go to the Porta Rossa to buy a ring, but if she can’t have his love, then she will go to the Ponte Vecchio bridge to commit suicide.

Modern Operas

If you think that operas are only written a long time ago, you’d be wrong. New operas are being composed all the time - take for instance this 1987 work by John Adams, titled Nixon in China, about President Nixon’s visit to the country in 1972. In the second Act, Pat Nixon tours rural China and meets the wife of Chairman Mao:

Alice Goodman sings "I Am the Wife of Mao Tse-Tung": [YouTube Link]

The style of opera is constantly evolving - for example, Philip Glass wrote a piece called Einstein on the Beach in 1976 that broke all the rules of opera: it was five hours long (with no intermission, so people were free to walk in and out throughout the performance) and included a visual imagery that borders on crazy.

[YouTube Link] (No, not the same visual as the opera. To see how it was,
there’s a clip from the documentary called Philip Glass: Looking Glass)

If you like the selection above, I’ve created a YouTube playlist which will play all of the songs in a row: Link

I’ll be the first to acknowledge that this list is incomplete - we haven’t talked about some of the most famous operas in the world, including La Bohème and Tosca … not to mention works by Handel and Mozart. If you have a favorite piece that is not mentioned, please tell us in the comment section!

In a crowded field of stupid criminals, these two have got a good chance of being the stupidest ever: watch this clip from LawyerShop TV as these two doofus tried to break into a building by throwing boulders through the window … I won’t give away the ending, so you gotta watch.

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]

What’s so interesting about an old blotchy photo of a woman’s face? It’s a photograph taken by Miroslav Tichý, one of the greatest "finds" of unknown artists who worked on the fringe of the art world.

Tichý was born in 1926 in what is now the Czech Republic and studied painting at the Academy of Art in Prague until one day in the 1960s he was thrown in prison camp for no particular reason other than that he was "different" and was considered subversive. Eight years later, he was released and spent his days taking photos of women - at times surreptitiously while they were sunbathing (which landed him in trouble with the police when he got caught).

But that’s not why he’s on Neatorama: it’s how he took those photos. Tichý couldn’t afford a camera, so he cobbled one up from tin cans, children’s spectacle lenses and other junks on the street!

Link | Miroslav Tichý’s photos at Michael Hoppen Gallery | Tichý with his homemade cameras at his official website