Opus – Page 19 – Encyclopædia of the sublime

Chalino Sánchez

Chalino Sánchez was a Mexican singer-songwriter. Posthumously called "King of The Corrido", Sánchez is considered one of the most influential Mexican narcocorrido singers of the late 20th century. He also composed and sang romantic and radio-friendly songs. Sánchez grew up in a poor and violent rural area of Sinaloa, the youngest of eight children. His father died when Sanchez was six years old. At age 15, Sánchez shot and killed a man who raped his sister. In 1984, his brother Armando was murdered in a hotel in Tijuana, inspiring him to compose his first corrido. While serving time in prison for petty crimes, Sánchez composed songs for inmates that had stories they wanted to preserve in sentimental ballads. On January 25, 1992, Sánchez was shot while performing in Coachella, California, United States, but survived. He fired back in self-defense and accidentally killed a bystander.[1] Just a few months later, on May 16, Sánchez was shot and killed by unidentified assailants after a performance in Culiacán, in which he was handed a note, possibly a death threat. Though his murder remains unsolved, it is suspected to be linked to a Mexican cartel or revenge.

Pavilion de Lac Martin

Pavilion de Lac Martin is an architectural folly and tower in Lousiana. Designed by Robert Smith, the building is surrounded by a moat. It has one large room with four smaller rooms on each of its main floors and is designed as if it was built in the 18th century.

Zettelkasten

A Zettelkasten consists of small items of information stored on Zettels, paper slips or cards, that may be linked to each other through subject headings or other metadata such as numbers and tags. It has often been used as a system of note-taking and personal knowledge management for research, study, and writing. In the 1980s, the card file began to be used as metaphor in the interface of some hypertextual personal knowledge base software applications such as NoteCards.[4] In the 1990s, such software inspired the invention of wikis.

Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House

Queen Mary's Dolls' House is a doll's house built in the early 1920s, completed in 1924, for the British queen Mary of Teck. It was designed by architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, with contributions from many notable artists and craftsmen of the period, including a library of miniature books containing original stories written by authors including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and A. A. Milne.

Hugo Bernatzik

Hugo Bernatzik (1904–1953) was an Austrian ethnographer and photographer, renowned for his work documenting indigenous cultures in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Bernatzik studied anthropology and developed a keen interest in the lifestyles, rituals, and traditions of remote and often isolated communities. He is best known for his photographic work, which captured the everyday lives of indigenous peoples with an emphasis on their cultural practices, costumes, and environments. In the 1930s and 1940s, Bernatzik conducted extensive fieldwork in regions such as Papua New Guinea, New Guinea, and Borneo, where he collaborated with local communities and produced a substantial collection of photographs. His images provided valuable insights into the diversity and richness of these cultures, contributing to the academic understanding of anthropology and ethnography at the time.

Maria Malibran

Maria Malibran was a renowned Spanish opera singer, considered one of the greatest sopranos of the 19th century. Born in Paris to opera singer Manuel García, she received early training and made her professional debut at 16. Known for her powerful voice, agility, and emotional depth, Malibran quickly became famous across Europe, particularly for roles in operas by Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti, such as Norma and Semiramide. Her intense stage presence and dramatic performances earned her a lasting place in operatic history. Despite her tumultuous personal life and health struggles, Malibran's influence on opera was profound. She died at 28 from complications after a horseback riding accident.

Fernando Caruncho

Fernando Caruncho is a Spanish landscape designer.

Adam Rainer

Adam Rainer was an Austro-Hungarian man. He is the only person in recorded history to have been both a dwarf and a giant.

Tarrare

Tarrare was a French showman, soldier and spy noted for his unusual appetite and eating habits. Able to eat vast amounts of meat, he was constantly hungry; his parents could not provide for him and he was turned out of the family home as a teenager. He travelled around France in the company of a band of prostitutes and thieves before becoming the warm-up act for a travelling charlatan. In this act, he swallowed corks, stones, live animals, and a whole basketful of apples. He then took this act to Paris where he worked as a street performer.

Floccinaucinihilipilification

Floccinaucinihilipilification is a rarely used English word that refers to the act or habit of describing or regarding something as unimportant, valueless, or trivial. It is one of the longest words in the English language, consisting of 29 letters, and is often cited as an example of linguistic complexity. The word originated in the 18th century as a humorous combination of several Latin terms: flocci, nauci, nihili, and pili, all of which mean "nothing" or "worthless." It was coined by students at Eton College as a way to demonstrate their command of classical languages and to express disdain for things considered insignificant. Despite its length and rarity, it has found occasional use in academic and literary contexts to convey an exaggerated sense of dismissiveness.