“I was on the road playing keyboards with these bands, fighting off the groupies, and then the next night I would be in the Festival Hall doing some plinky-plonk music to an audience of about four.” David Bedford, composer, keyboardist and orchestrator died on October 1st. From working with Kevin Ayers to Mike Oldfield to Ursula Le Guin to Roy Harper and even Madness, he trod a strange, singular path that was governed more by the need to feed his kids than you might think. He even managed a no 1 classical album in the UK. This, unfortunately, wasn't on it.
posted by peterkins on Oct 5, 2011 - 4 comments

How the Honeycrisp apple went from being nearly discarded to one of the tastiest best-named apples of all time -- NYTimes says "the iPod of apples" -- and more about the patenting and branding of apples. [more inside]
posted by jessamyn on Dec 1, 2008 - 110 comments