MusicStart here:
https://imslp.org/Many good-quality recordings are available for free download, legal in at least some parts of the world. You may or may not need to use an Unamerican IP address for some of the legal download links; I’m not sure. Of course, if you are a musician, the scores at IMSLP (which has merged in the Werner Icking archive) and
Mutopia will be invaluable.
There are other sources of legal classical music recordings; but the ones I know tend to be of poor quality, in my never-humble opinion.
For illegal classical music, to have some culturally refined Russian friends with private torrents will probably do better than TPB; but the latter is worth a look, too. Other suggestions will be appreciated.
I will not make any specific recommendations. Sorry, “what music do you listen to?” is
too personally revealing.
Libraries! Poetry and other Literature—Books of all Kinds!These dovetail in practice:
The Internet Archive and
libgen.
(For the latter, I am linking to Wikipedia, because I don’t know the forum’s policy about providing the “piracy” links prominently displayed in Wikipedia’s sidebar.)Open Library is oft helpful for finding what you want on Archive.org, which now runs Open Library, and on other sites. More scholarly catalogues, such as
World Cat 😺, are of inestimable value for the same purpose. I won’t even bother trying to list them all (much less the scholarly sites with actual content); should you be a curious cat, poke around at
Wikidata, and see what data sources are therefrom linked.
Project GutenbergWikisource has transcribed texts in
many languages.
Duh:
https://www.ibiblio.org/That is the beginning of what could be a longer list.
And you don’t need a mass-disaster for an excuse to read books, instead of wasting the precious moments of your limited mortal lifetime on
the self-infliction of brain damage #Illiteracy #AttentionDeficit #SnowflakesAreFlaky.
DanceIRL, I have been criticized for my gauche ignorance of ballet and ballroom dancing. I admit, I am an Apollonian and not a Dionysian
(a point perhaps ironically underscored by my focus hereby). Well, anyway, the Panic Puritans will accuse you of serving the devil-virus if you dare to dance.
Somebody should contribute a Youtube channel of ballet videos, or what have you.
As I was initiated into a
cryptic cult with rites of the goddess Hecate, the renowned paranormal researcher William Blake caught this photograph of
Lauda shapeshifted to the form of a flying catbat:
The witch LAUDAIdentified Flying Object (IFO)
(Better than a UFO. Much better than an ICO.) A cult statuette of
Lauda, made between c. 400–250 B.C.:
CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET
NSA surveillance photo of Lauda
pwned by nullius My girlfriend (well, one of them; she ain’t the jealous type):
The principal purpose of the fence is to keep you out:
The actual fence is much higher,
and it works both ways. That is a statute of the most famous ancient Greek
ἑταίρᾱν, the cultural equivalent of a classical
gaṇikā.
(I will be pleased if anybody can correct my inconsistent declensions here.)But it is irrelevant to Lauda.
What, you want a clearer view?
(Do a double-take: Yes, this is a statue.)nullius’ girlfriend She makes a lovely couple with this neoclassical statue of me:
Uh-oh, the NSA found me. For I am a culture-warrior: Culture is my sword, and this is all part of the Nullian Conspiracy to inflict guerrilla high-culture. :-)
Cherry-picked terribly out of context, for the lulz:Take heed lest a statue crush you!