Brick or stone facades are giving way to cinder block and artificial stucco, in garish colors selected not by architects, but by tenants' marketing departments.
Here, in Grabove, close to the Russian border and with a large part of the hillside turned to cinder, at least one of the jet's engines hit the ground.
Sing for Hope, the New York-based charity that imported "Play Me, I'm Yours" from Britain, says the pianos will stay put: They are anchored by cables to fences or to cinder blocks.
Pumice cones are structures similar to cinder cones, but they are made up of volcanic glass fragments so riddled with gas-bubble holes (vesicles) that they resemble a sponge and are very lightweight.
Mr. LaChiusa draws an implicit comparison to show just how irrationally driven his heroine is, to take the measure of what she calls "the desire within that burns you to cinder ash".
IF you are of a certain age -- baby boomer, for instance -- the phrase dorm room may conjure these images: cheap Indian spreads on the beds, psychedelic posters taped to cinder block walls and maybe a lava lamp or two.
