I get a weekly highlights email from the New Yorker. This week's email mentioned an exhibit of paintings by Louise Bourgeois (pronounced like the social class), a French sculptor who lived much of her life in New York. That probably would not have caught my attention, except that there was a reference to her spider sculptures.

I think I saw one of these spiders for the first time at SFMOMA. They are quite distinctive to say the least. Here is an image of Maman, which is the largest and probably the most famous of these sculptures.

Elsewhere, the latest episode of The Week in Art podcast featured a story on the Korean Art scene and referenced the importance of Nam June Paik (pāk). Nam June Paik's name was familiar to me, but I did not realize that he is considered the "father" of video art. More here.

J'Nai Bridges was the featured artist on the latest NPR Tiny Desk Home Concert. Bridges is an opera singer and her first selection was the very popular Habanera (not to be confused with habanero) from Carmen. I didn't know that this was the name of the aria and after a little research discovered a bit more history.

The habanera is a genre of Cuban popular dance music of the 19th century, which was brought back to Spain by sailors, where it became popular for a while and was danced by all classes of society. This aria was so called because it was written in the rhythm of the Cuban dance.

Here is Bridge's performance and here are the lyrics. Finally, here is a very famous version sung by Maria Callas.

In an episode of BBC's Composer of the Week, I learned that three of Verdi's middle operas – Rigoletto (1851), Il trovatore (1853), La traviata (1853) – were called "the popular trio" because they were, well, popular for many years.