Once, these 88 keys plinked out the dreams of a poor American family. Can they do the same for a young music student in Cuba? Story with audio
Sunday journal: The carousel of life
My two daughters wear bright red lipstick and sleep with a stuffed monkey and a teddy bear. They long for hot boys on posters and laugh giddily when we see wooden horses circling a carousel in Washington, D.C., beside the Smithsonian's fabled bricks.
Kicking off more than a season
A coach's racial slur at a high school football game set off angry scrimmages in Wildwood. But changes hold out hope for revived spirit for the team and the town.
Audio files
LOUIS ARMSTRONG, THE BEST OF THE HOT FIVE AND HOT SEVEN RECORDINGS (COLUMBIA/LEGACY) Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five, and later Hot Seven, ensembles put these classic tunes on wax 75 years ago, and they still have a dynamite sound. The Hot musicians, who were experimenting with improvisation back in the mid 1920s, were from New Orleans, but they recorded these sessions in Chicago. Weirdly enough, the members performed together only in the studio, never in jazz clubs. But those sessions were filled with enough energy -- and charming banter and miscues -- to become the stuff of legend.
Arts talk
Decade of campus leadership honored
The lost boys: A pop sensation comes undone
The Backstreet Boys' struggles for fame, then rest, then fair business dealings say as much about the music industry as they do about teeny-boppers' musical tastes. And what of the role of 'N Sync?
Master works
Museums have been on a rough ride over the past year, slammed first by the events of Sept. 11 and their aftermath, then by the economic slide. Attendance and donations have been down nationally. Some institutions, such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, have canceled exhibitions. Others, among them the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, have fired curatorial staff.
