Is technology changing human beings on a fundamental level? Brian Lehrer moderated a panel at the Aspen Ideas Festival on being human in a digital age. Brooke Gladstone, managing editor and co-host of National Public Radio’s Peabody-winning On the Media, Patricia Kuhl, co-director of the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences and the NSF Science of Learning Center at the University of Washington, John Palfrey, faculty co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, and video game designer Will Wright, creator of Spore and Sim City, discuss what it means to be human in a digital world.

Most flower shows take place in the still bitter months of early spring, when gardeners pining for the end of winter can get a glimpse of the season to come in lavish displays of cultivated blooms. But the Newport Flower Show, presented by the Preservation Society of Newport County, in Rhode Island, bucks the trend, says Society CEO Trudy Coxe:

The show is held at Rosecliff, one of 11 historical properties managed by the Preservation Society. Built by the famous early 20th century architect Stanford White, this sumptuous mansion, which was used in the film “The Great Gatsby,” is modeled after the Grand Trianon at Versailles, and for three days its spacious formal rooms, lawns and sweeping terrace host the prized exhibits of a host of amateur and professional gardeners.

Think of a flower show as a dog show with rhizomes: the serious aim is to present perfect examples of a flower or shrub - one worthy of seeding the next generation, says landscape designer Deborah Lee.

Nanette Herrick was thrilled to receive first place for her lively flowering maple - four years in the making.

But the flower show has a whimsical side as well, and Nanette made the dog-show parallel explicit by crafting a pair of topiary hedges in the shape of her dogs:

Whimsy was also evident in another class, “Bicycle Baskets,” which asked a dozen contending garden clubs to respond to the theme “A Ride to…,” with the destination symbolized by the contents of the basket. Show co-chair Jocelyn Sherman gives us a tour:

If dog shows provide one parallel, high fashion is another. The design classes showcase cutting-edge (you should forgive the pun) techniques in arranging flowers and plants as aesthetic objects, using natural forms to create bold pictorial statements or to illustrate themes. Here are two displays from the class Green Abstractions, which asked designers to create large scale pieces ‘capturing nature gone wild.’

“Glorious Green” was the overall theme of this year’s show, in keeping with larger environmental trends, and the more serious side of going green was emphasized in displays like the butterfly pavilion, which produced mingled squeals of delight and alarm as visitors pushed through tent flaps to enter an animated community of Monarch butterflies. I asked Trudy Coxe for a walk-through:

One of the world’s most passionate ‘green’ advocates is HRH The Prince of Wales, whose estate at Highgrove in England has been hailed as a pioneering effort in organic gardening and land management. Prince Charles’ former head gardener, David Howard, was the Newport Show’s featured lecturer, and spoke to me after his talk:

Trudy Coxe thinks gardening satisfies some of our most basic instincts.

So it’s no wonder that lines from “The Garden,” by my favorite metaphysical poet, Andrew Marvell, kept floating into my head throughout the weekend. A tribute to the lavish garden at the estate of Lord Fairfax, his employer, the verse also hints at vanished Eden, and the power of life in the midst of death that all growing things represent:

Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less,
Withdraws into its happiness :
The mind, that ocean where each kind
Does straight its own resemblance find ;
Yet it creates, transcending these,
Far other worlds, and other seas ;
Annihilating all that’s made
To a green thought in a green shade.

L to R: Lindani Buthelezi, Mpumi Mcata, Molefi Makananise, Tshepang Ramoba. Photo by Monica Orozco

Johannesburg’s BLK JKS (pronounced “black jacks”) are one of this year’s hot revelation items, a kind of South African cousin to TV on the Radio making genuinely progressive, global black music out of rock, reggae and electronic influences. Their New York appearances so far have been on the hipster circuit, but this time they grace the urban-pastoral setting of the Weeksville, the first free black settlement in Brooklyn. Ghana-raised, New York-based rapper Blitz the Ambassador opens.

WNYC’s Siddhartha Mitter filed this report for Weekend Edition:

The show is part of the Weeksville Heritage Center’s “5th of July” celebration. As the story goes, enslaved African Americans were emancipated in New York on July 4, 1827, but because of threats of violence and riots celebrated this momentous occasion outdoors on July 5.

The show begins at 6pm, with the gates to the lawn opening an hour earlier (bring your blankets!). There is a $5 suggested donation, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. For those interested, there’s also a free lecture on black emancipation in New York at 4pm at the Society.

Directions to the WHC (1698 Bergen St., Crown Heights) can be found over here.

You remember this story:

A lone gunman walked into a one-room schoolhouse in a largely Amish community in southeastern Pennsylvania today and shot as many as 10 girls, killing three immediately before turning the gun on himself and dying at the scene, according to the state police. — New York Times

It was October 2, 2006 - a day that left audiences across the country shaken and disturbed.

Actress Jessica Dickey remembers the schoolhouse tragedy for an additional reason: the Amish people’s immediate forgiveness of the gunman’s family. Their act of kindness amid extreme anguish inspired her to write and perform a one-woman play called “The Amish Project.” WNYC’s Karen Frillmann spoke with Dickey and filed this report for Morning Edition:

Dickey’s performance runs through July 12 at the Rattlestick Theater (224 Waverly Place) in the West Village.

New York Times review of “The Amish Project”

Akron/Family line up in the Spinning on Air studio.

Spinning on Air is busting out the stars for the holiday weekend. David Garland is bringing back performances by Antony and the Johnsons and Grizzly Bear for special Friday and Saturday night editions of his show, and then premiering a new performance by Akron/Family at his regular time on Sunday night.

Grizzly Bear

Antony Hagerty’s in-studio session, which originally aired in February, takes place on Friday night at 7pm, and Grizzly Bear’s recent American Music Festival appearance airs on Saturday at the same time.

Akron/Family, a frequent visitor on Spinning on Air over the years, are celebrated for their transcendental spirit and the crackling excitement of their marathon-esque live shows. For Sunday’s episode, the band will perform songs from their latest album, Set ‘em Wild, Set ‘em Free (albeit in a quieter, more intimate fashion) and talk about their continuing musical journey.

Download:

Antony and the Johnsons - “Epilepsy is Dancing” (from The Crying Light)

Grizzly Bear - “Cheerleader” (from Veckatimest)

Akron/Family - “River” (from Set ‘em Wild, Set ‘em Free)

Akron/Family demoed songs for their album Love is Simple live on Spinning on Air, Oct. 15, 2006

Akron/Family proper performed for the first time on Spinning On Air, Nov. 25, 2005

Akron/Family backed the Angels of Light on Spinning On Air, Oct. 23, 2005

Akron/Family and Michael Gira chatted it up on Spinning On Air, April 15, 2005

It’s hard to believe that no one had thought to write a book about one of baseball’s truly unique personalities until now. But apparently that’s the case: Boston Globe reporter Larry Tye is the first to attempt an official biography of Leroy “Satchel” Paige, the premier pitcher of the Negro Leagues, and one of the finest pitchers ever.

Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend covers Paige’s hardscrabble upbringing in Jim Crow Alabama, his time with the Kansas City Monarchs (one of the powerhouse black teams in segregated baseball), his signing with the Cleveland Indians on his 42nd birthday, and his single game with the Kansas City Athletics when he was 59 years old.

Leonard Lopate spoke with Tye on Thursday about the book and Paige’s zany character. Listen to the entire segment here.

Last night, at the Center for Architecture, four of the influential architects who collaborated on the National September 11 Memorial and Museum designs came together to discuss the intricacies of designing such important monuments. Michael Arad, Craig Dykers, Steven Davis and Matthew Donham talked about how to create structures that represent the personal narratives of both the memorialized and their visitors. This idea of constant, formative talk-back — between the architects themselves, between the designers and the families of the deceased, even between the building and the visitors — dominated the discussion. This question circled the panel: How can such fluid personal narratives represent themselves in static-by-definition buildings?

Arad, Dykers, Davis and Donham were charged with bringing these abstract relationships to life. The Memorial, designed by Arad and Peter Walker, consists of two pools, which lay in the footprint of the Twin Towers, and a plaza of 400 oak trees surrounding the pools. The Memorial Plaza is an environmentally sustainable, six-acre green roof of trees, which sits atop a seven-story underground building and train station. The Memorial Museum will accept visitors through the Pavilion, which will lead visitors to exhibitions at the bedrock, the base of the World Trade Center site. A variety of artifacts will be displayed throughout: interactive exhibits, educational programming and areas for silent reflection. The Memorial is expected to open in 2011, and the Museum in 2012.

Honoring the thousands of people who died in the attacks on February 26, 1993, and September 11, 2001, called for the preservation of spirit in the buildings themselves, and for that spirit to extend to each visitor’s experience. Arad discussed synthesizing such emotional intangibles within the design:

I prefer the word spiritual, and I think it’s a much harder thing to define. It’s almost something that you sense. And I think explaining it - like the famous quote about Jazz, if you need someone to explain it to you, you don’t understand it. And I feel as an architect, as a professional, it’s very hard to speak in these amorphous terms. I think we’d prefer the certainty of a hard edge truth, and either it’s ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ You talk about a spiritual place and I think it’s something you feel it — in your gut, in your heart.

The night was full of emotion - from family members of victims in the audience, to the overall tone of remembrance. Joe Daniels, president of the National 9-11 Memorial and Museum, noted the emotional stake the architects took in their design.

What I found most interesting was, because we don’t get the architects together as a group very often, at all was hearing how personal it is to them and how their architecture, their designs are a channel through which they deal with the events of what happened - the events of September 11, 2001.

The entire design process also has been a collaborative effort between all of the architects involved. “Collaboration is a very difficult thing among strong-willed, intelligent people,” said one architect, as the others agreed. While the four architects are not scheduled for another panel at the Center for Architecture, visitors can come to the Center to view the September 11 Memorial & Museum Exhibition. Here’s Thomas Mellins, the center’s exhibition curator, and moderator for the evening:

It’s a very nicely designed space with plate glass windows on LaGuardia Place and anyone passing by gets a clear view of what’s going on outside including this exhibit on the national September 11 Memorial and Museum. As you’re walking down the street you can see a very large photo-blowup of an aerial view of the site, which will show you what’s going on now as well as a large model, an architectural model, of what is being built on the site.

Music fans are revolutionizing photography with digital cameras, iPhones and other devices. Thursday on Soundcheck, we talked with professional rock photographer Elizabeth Weinberg, who focuses mostly on the indie rock scene. She’s shot promotional pics for a variety of artists, from Montreal’s Chromeo to Gothenburg’s Love is All to Brooklyn’s own Chicha Libre.

You can check out some of her images in the gallery above. And if you fancy yourself a decent rock photog, drop the URL of your Flickr page in the comments section below.

Cat Power by Elizabeth Weinberg, who will be appearing on Soundcheck on Thursday.

“Drawn by the sun’s bright pencil
How well, o glistening stencil
You express the brow’s fair grace,
Eyes’ sparkle, and beauty of face.
O marvelous might of mind - new prodigy!”

The year was 1867, and the treatise, called Ars Photographica, claimed that the new art of photography surpassed even the greatest of the portrait painters of the past. The writer was Pope Leo XIII, a huge fan of photography; and I can only wonder what he’d make of a world where almost everyone seems to have a camera built into any number of tiny devices they carry with them everywhere. It raises the question - when everyone is a photographer, is anyone a photographer? In the sense of being a professional with an artistic flair and a personal style?

It raises other questions, too… questions about owning your own image, if you’re a public figure. I saw David Byrne at Radio City Music Hall a few months back and he mentioned between songs that they didn’t want any photographs being taken in the house. But with everyone carrying a cellphone, he said, there’s really no way to stop it. “What are they gonna do, confiscate everyone’s phones?” he asked.

John’s picture of Moby in 2008

Personally, I hardly ever remember that my cellphone has a camera. I’ve taken exactly one photo at a concert - at the 2008 SXSW Festival, where I snapped a quick shot of Moby doing a DJ set outdoors at night. I ended up with a figure that could have been Moby - or almost anyone else - against a neat, abstract background of black and white geometric patterns. It was kinda arty, actually. Or it was totally awful. Just try to find a genuinely good photograph among the hordes of cellphone-waving fans, whose sole purpose is apparently, and appropriately, to just have a souvenir of the occasion.

No, there is still a place for the “real” photographer, who gets the angle the rest of us don’t, or who sees the moment that we miss, who can still capture “the brow’s fair grace, eyes’ sparkle, and beauty of face.”

Tell us: What do you think of photography at concerts? Do you take photos? What if the artist asks the audience not to? Leave a comment over here.