Upon its debut in 1725, The Four Sea­sons stunned lis­ten­ers by telling a sto­ry with­out the help of a human voice. Vival­di drew on four exist­ing son­nets (pos­si­bly of his own prove­nance), using strings to paint a nar­ra­tive filled with spring thun­der­storms, summer's swel­ter, autum­nal hunts and har­vests, and the icy winds of win­ter. The com­pos­er stud­ded his score with pre­cise­ly placed lines from the son­nets, to con­vey his expec­ta­tions that the musi­cians would use their instru­ments to son­i­cal­ly embody the expe­ri­ences being described.
Thursday, January 15, 2026 | 6:00 p.m. | The Redwood Room SAN FRANCISCO, CA - (December 4, 2025) - The Clift Royal Sonesta Hotel, a San Francisco landmark since 1915, continues its new monthly speaker series, "Making History Fun Again," designed to honor the city's legendary past through lively storytelling and unforgettable personalities. On Thursday, January 15, 2026, The Clift welcomes Joseph Amster, historian, journalist, performer, and founder ofEmperor Norton's Fantastic San Francisco Time Machine , appearing in character as Emperor Norton, one of San Francisco's most beloved and eccentric historical figures.
Amazon.com Inc. ( NASDAQ: AMZN) has been one of the stock market's biggest success stories ever. The company had its initial public offering in May 1997 and traded for an astonishingly low split-adjusted price of just seven cents per share. Since then, the stock has gained over 294,600% as the company has grown into the linchpin of e-commerce. Since its inception, Amazon has become a mainstay in the Magnificent 7 and now commands the fifth-largest market cap of any publicly traded company.
It's hard to describe what Bobby Witt Jr. is doing right now without using words like "historic" or "unreal." The Royals' shortstop just completed a five-game stretch unlike anything Major League Baseball has ever seen, becoming the first player in history to tally 10 hits, 8 RBIs, 6 extra-base hits, 4 stolen bases, 2 home runs, and a walk-off hit in a five-game span.
