Les Misérables movies--a guide to some of their historical references  The novel is set during a momentous era of French history, the period from 1815 (Waterloo) to 1833, just after the failure of the Paris uprising the previous year.  These years featured the fall of Napoleon, the return of the Bourbon monarchy to France, the overthrow of that monarchy in 1830 and its replacement by another branch of the royal family, the Orleanists, and the revolution of 1830, followed by an unsuccessful revolt in Paris in 1832.  Hugo also uses flashbacks to the French revolution that began in 1789, the Napoleonic wars of the early 1800 in Europe, and flashes forward to the revolution of 1848.  Given that the climactic scenes of the various movies and the stage musical all feature rousing scenes of revolutionaries in Paris, it's little wonder that viewers are sometimes confused about what event thay are watching.  The key events of the movie versions (except Lelouch's great update to the 20th century) relate to the period from 1815 to the July revolution that overthrew the Bourbon monarchy in 1830 and then to the failed June rebellion of 1832.  And the scenes of revolutionaries fighting in the barricades to occur in Paris during the 1830 revolution that overthrew King Charles X and stopped him re-establishing an autocratic rule.  It's easy to confuse the events of 1830 and 1832, especially since the success of the musical, which uses the iconic imagery of Delacroix's famous painting "Liberty Leading the People" in its climactic scene and also in its advertising.  In fact, many people confuse the July revolution and the 1832 revolt with the French Revolution that began in 1789.  Delacroix's huge painting "Liberty Leading the People" is one of the most famous political statements in the world of art, and key elements of it have been appropriated in several movie versions of "Les Misérables "and in the stage musical and its 2012 movie adaptation.  Many people associate the painting with the French Revolution of 1789, and those who have seen cinematic adaptations and the musical often believe it illustrates the 1830 July revolution that overthrew the restored Bourbon monarchy in the person of the reactionary Charles X and replaced it with Louis-Philippe (the "Citizen King") of the junior Orleanist branch of the royal family.  In fact, Delacroix's masterpiece commemorates the Paris uprising of June, 1832, the climactic event of Hugo's novel, an  attempt to remove the new monarchical government.  Yet the revolt was a failure and for almost two decades Louis-Philippe ruled with the support of the bourgeoisie.  Read extensive article and see pictures at http://www.cliomuse.com/les-miserables-3-guide-to-some-historical-references.html

What's the connection between Les Misérables and The Dark Knight Rises ?  One of the most interesting features of the Batman finale is its focus on revolution.  Some see the movie as on the side of the wealthy and the privileged, casting Gotham's citizens as gullible, naive and jealous fools, tricked into insurrection.  Others see Batman as the defender of justice and stability, appealing to the better instincts of the population in a struggle against oppression.  As Alex Crumb has claimed recently:  "The Dark Knight is Les Misérables in Reverse". Crumb, writing about Tom Holland's 2012 movie, suggests that "Bane is Jean Valjean, and Batman is Javert". [http://www.ghostlittle.com/blog/bid/162867/The-Dark-Knight-Rises-Is-Les-Misérables-In-Reverse ]  http://www.cliomuse.com/les-miserables-3-guide-to-some-historical-references.html

Arthur Miller (1915-2005) was an American playwright whose biting criticism of societal problems defined his genius.  His best known play is Death of a Salesman.  Born in Harlem, New York in 1915, Arthur Miller attended the University of Michigan before moving back east to produce plays for the stage.  His first critical and popular success was Death of a Salesman, which opened on Broadway in 1949.  After graduating high school, Miller worked a few odd jobs to save enough money to attend the University of Michigan.  While in college, he wrote for the student paper and completed his first play, No Villain.  He also took courses with the much-loved playwright professor Kenneth Rowe, a man who taught his students how to construct a play in order to achieve an intended effect.  Inspired by Rowe's approach, Miller moved back east to begin his career.  Things started out a bit rocky:  His 1940 play, The Man Who Had All the Luck, garnered precisely the antithesis of its title, closing after just four performances and a stack of woeful reviews.  Six years later, however, All My Sons achieved success on Broadway, and earned him his first Tony Award (best author).  Working in the small studio that he built in Roxbury, Connecticut, Miller wrote the first act of Death of Salesman in less than a day.  Salesman won him the triple crown of theatrical artistry:  the Pulitzer Prize, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and a Tony.  In 1956, Miller left his first wife, Mary Slattery.  Shortly thereafter, he married famed actress Marilyn Monroe.  Later that year, the House of Un-American Activities Committee refused to renew Miller's passport, and called him in to appear before the committee—his play, The Crucible, a dramatization of the Salem witch trials of 1692 and an allegory of McCarthyism, was the foremost reason for their strong-armed summons.  However, Miller refused to comply with the committee's demands to "out" people who had been active in certain political activities.  In 1961, Monroe starred in The Misfits, a film for which Miller supplied the screenplay.  http://www.biography.com/people/arthur-miller-9408335

June 22, 2015  In terms of inventions we owe to World War II, such as nuclear power or the jet engine, a group of phrases developed in the boiler room of Harvard’s Memorial Hall as part of an effort to test military communication systems is probably one of the least well-known.  But they influence us in our daily life, every time we pick up a cell phone or place a VoIP call.  The phrases, called “Harvard sentences,” are phonetically balanced, in that they contain the full range of sounds used in everyday speech, making them perfect to test how we hear in loud places or over long distances.  So what does phonetically balanced mean?  The Harvard Sentences are used to test audio because they contain a full range of sounds you’d hear in typical sentence.  "There's hundreds and hundreds of these," says David Pisoni who directs the Speech Research Laboratory at the University of Indiana.   Today they're still used to test things like cochlear implants.  Software developers use them, too.  Basically anyone who needs a giant list of phrases.  While their actual meaning is insignificant, they can have a certain, poetic quality.  "A lot of these are kind of very prosaic and scenes from domestic life, 'Cats and dogs each hate each other,' "The birch canoe slid on the smooth planks,'" and every once in a while you get a really deep one, like 'Birth and death mark the limits of life," says science writer Sarah Zhang, who recently told the story of Harvard Sentences for the tech site Gizmodo  http://gizmodo.com/the-harvard-sentences-secretly-shaped-the-development-1689793568   Jared Goyette   You can find a list of 720 sentences, and a tool you can use to create "poetry" with them at  http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-06-22/creating-magnetic-poetry-using-harvard-sentences-might-just-be-most-geeky-thing  Thank you, Muse reader!   See also http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~hgs/audio/harvard.html

From June 15 through August 28, 2015 you can visit The Gallery at the Toledo Lucas County Public Library's main branch in downtown Toledo for the "Tossed & Found" exhibit.  Two local artists used salvaged parts as materials for the pieces.  Dani Herrera used denim, other old clothes, zippers, and even dryer lint in her pieces that are on display.  Some of them are of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Audrey Hepburn.  Josh Hoffman used broken pieces of vinyl records to make his works of art.  He says the idea started when he attended Central Catholic High School and had an assignment to do artwork with discarded items.   He came up with vinyl records and it has become a hobby ever since.  Many of his works involve The Beatles, and one features John Lennon.  Hoffman has 11 of his works on display and Herrera has 12. It is free to view them in The Gallery, on the second floor of the main library.  Tim Miller  http://www.toledonewsnow.com/story/29325672/local-artists-use-throw-away-items-to-impress-at-toledo-public-library

Walter H. Chapman, one of the Toledo area’s best known artists and art teachers who was a prolific watercolorist—portraits by commission, landscapes and streetscapes—and encourager-in-chief to generations of novices, died June 23, 2015.  He was 102.  Until early March, Mr. Chapman continued to attend the weekly gatherings of the Tile Club, the exclusive painting and dining fraternity.  He’d been a member since 1954.  Mark Zaborney

https://www.toledoblade.com/Deaths/2015/06/24/Walter-Chapman-1912-2015-WWII-vet-taught-art-known-for-paintings.html  See also http://alliedartistsofamerica.org/walter-h-chapman/ and https://www.pinterest.com/redmanlynne/walter-chapman/

James Roy Horner (August 14, 1953–June 22, 2015) was an American composer, conductor and orchestrator of film scores.  He was known for the integration of choral and electronic elements in many of his film scores, and for frequent use of Celtic musical elements.  Horner was an accomplished concert hall composer before he moved into writing film scores.  His first major film score was for the 1979 film The Lady in Red, but did not establish himself as a mainstream composer until he worked on the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.  Horner's score for Titanic is the best selling orchestral film soundtrack of all time while Titanic and Avatar, both directed by James Cameron, are the two highest-grossing films of all time.  Horner collaborated on multiple projects with directors Jean-Jacques Annaud, Mel Gibson, Walter Hill, Ron Howard and Joe Johnston.  Horner composed music for over 100 films, and won two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, three Satellite Awards, three Saturn Awards and was nominated for three British Academy Film Awards.  Read much more and see list of scores at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Horner

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1315  June 24, 2015  On this date in 1497, John Cabot landed in North America at Newfoundland leading the first European exploration of the region since the Vikings.  On this date in 1597, the first Dutch voyage to the East Indies reached Bantam (on Java).