Behind the bands: Trevor Horn. As a pop music producer, Trevor Horn presided over the 1980s, bringing his crack team along to shine up ABC, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Pet Shop Boys, Grace Jones, and several others. As a musician, he founded the Buggles (“Video Killed the Radio Star”), Art of Noise, and was a member of Yes who he ultimately influenced more as a producer later on. Going into the 1990s and present day, Horn has been behind Seal, Paul McCartney, LeAnn Rimes, Belle and Sebastian, and more. In 2004, Trevor Horn celebrated 25 years in the business by holding a concert with several of his collaborators at Wembley to benefit The Prince’s Trust. He went all out with string and brass sections, several backing vocalists, his trusty session musicians, and, of course, himself. You can find Youtube videos of the performances ripped off the DVD. Most notable for me was the live performance of Art of Noise’s “Close (to the Edit)“. The recording was built from samples and sequencing, but for the concert Horn learned the bass line and recreated much of the sampled sound, though he did not go as far as to bring a car on stage to provide the engine starts and stalls. (others: “Video Killed the Radio Star“, Yes: “Owner of a Lonely Heart“, Frankie: “Relax“, PSB: “Left to my Own Devices“)

Palo Alto, CA residents and other frequenters of University Avenue will recognize the Squire House, though they may not know it by name. It’s the “white house” at 900 University Ave, and it’s on the market, yours for $12,500,000. According to the Redfin blog, this 1905 house was almost demolished in the 1960s but it was ultimately preserved and put on the National Register of Historic Places. Redfin also says that Palo Alto owns an easement for the façade so that owners can’t alter it, but to make up for that, owners get tax breaks, which may be not unsubstantial for a home of this price in that neighborhood.

I’ve been meaning for a while to write about MIT retiring 6.001: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, their intense version of CS101 for Electrical Engineering and Computer Science majors (aka “the weeder course”). The final 6.001 lecture took place in December 2007, presided over by Gerald Jay Sussman who started it all in 1980 with Hal Abelson (who taught 001 the year I muddled through it, semesters after my CS101 at Wellesley). According to a comment in an MIT Admissions blog, Sussman thought the course was obsolete and has wanted to replace it for years. The new introductory courses are meant to better prepare students for how engineering work is done today. Python is used in the new 6.01. Scheme is gone. And I’ve lost a huge common experience with the future graduates of course 6.

In our world of video games and Cirque de Soleil, the old-style, family-run circus still exists with Circus Vargas. Practically an anachronism, this circus carries on with performers doing double-duty as ticket takers and souvenir sellers. Their Big Top tent was made in Italy out of 90,000 square feet of fabric. Four miles of rope and cable are nailed down with 500 stakes by 30 men in 7 hours to raise the tent at each new location (time-lapse video). Trapeze artists, jugglers, tumblers, and of course clowns entertain with a show built for today’s faster pace. As co-owner Katya Quiroga says: “We definitely don’t do this to get rich. You have to do it because you love it.”

Musical theater composers use favorite orchestrators to transform their tunes into lush scores. Orchestrators for revivals bear the burden of reducing original scores for full Broadway orchestra down to the current lean times of “How few musicians can we get away with?” The difficulty of reorchestrating a show scored for 25-30 musicians to an economic 8-14 is reduced by using synthesizers, microphones, and a mixing board. “You may as well just give them a CD and go home,” remarks Broadway music director Paul Gemignani. Space, not just cost, also forces producers to trim musicians to fit into orchestra pits that have been downsized in order to make room for additional seats.

Start-up drink manufacturers like VitaminWater and Nantucket Nectars had their big wins when they were bought by Coca-Cola and Cadbury Schweppes. And in the crowded beverage industry, most companies aren’t in it to make a profit from selling drinks, but to get bought out. So spending dollars on marketing to build brand recognition and that coolness factor is what leads to success. Right now “energy drinks” have the biggest buzz.

I’ve got your Olympic medal trivia right here. The 2008 medals, produced by the Shanghai Mint, are inlaid with jade on the reverse side. A different color of jade is used for each medal type with the lightest, most precious shade backing the gold. The stone for the jade rings comes from the Kunlun Mountains. Setting the jade into the medals posed several challenges. The jade needs to stay firmly attached to the metal. It is held in with a seal ring and also some glue for good measure. The medal also had to pass a drop test, quality assurance that the jade would not shatter. Oh, and the gold medal is actually silver with six grams of gold plating.

How do you test out a brand-new, $743 million airline terminal? JetBlue is inviting 1,000 of its frequent fliers to a dress rehearsal of its new JFK terminal. The fake passengers will receive pseudonyms and non-existent flights to catch. They’ll check their luggage, receive boarding passes, go through security, and wait at their gates. Then they’ll turn back around and retrieve their luggage, with hopefully better results than the first passengers at the new British Airways terminal where the automated baggage system broke down.

On a site being cleared for a new theatre, a team from the Museum of London has found the red brick remains of what they believe to be the foundations of The Theatre, permanent home of James Burbage’s group, The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, which included an actor named Shakespeare. The Theatre actually may only have had a foundation left in 1599 as legend has it that the structure was dismantled and reassembled on the other side of the Thames as the Globe after Burbage had a dispute with the landowner.

Philippe Petit’s “artistic crime of the century” carries a poignancy now with the destruction of the World Trade Center buildings. This week, 34 years ago, Petit spent 45 minutes on a high wire suspended between the Twin Towers, crossing back and forth eight times. He was arrested but charges were dropped in exchange for him giving children a demonstration of his skills in Central Park. “Man on Wire” is a documentary of his feat and its careful preparation. The movie has been making the film festival rounds all year and, because of the stealthy nature of the event planning, it’s been likened to a “heist film.”