Yearly Archives: 2021
The US Constitution: Is It Holding Back a Fairer Culture Or Holding Us Back?
Two new books reveal the widening gulf between those who see the Constitution’s age as a sign of its wisdom and those who see...
How The Week Shapes Our Perception Of Time
When you think it’s a Tuesday and it turns out to be Wednesday, you feel disoriented in a way that you don’t typically if...
How Marcella Hazan Became An Italian Food Guru
At the height of her career, she became so popular that Bloomingdale’s created a boutique in its storefront on Fifty-ninth Street called Marcella Hazan’s...
Oxford University’s Library Was A Mess. Then Sir Thomas Bodley Made An Extraordinary Offer
Over the course of fifteen years, until his death in 1613, Bodley would oversee the transformation of Oxford’s library from this empty shell to...
Big Thinkers Get Together To Debate “Information Disorder”
Mis- and disinformation are not the root causes of society’s ills but, rather, expose society’s failures to overcome systemic problems, such as income inequality, racism,...
Machine Learning Is Teaching Us How To See The World Differently
The opacity of machine learning systems raises serious concerns about their trustworthiness and their tendency towards bias. But the brute fact that they work could be...
Being Bilingual Really Does Help Your Brain. It Took America A Long Time...
From the start of World War I, for about 50 years, scientists and the government were convinced that using another language alongside English decreased...
Pushing And Shoving — Why Music Riles The Young
Why are generation after generation of young people drawn to these places where they’re pushed, jostled, pummeled or worse? Why do they run into...
Davóne Tines Is Transforming The Song Recital — And Maybe Even Classical Singing Itself
The bass-baritone has made programming an art in itself, building evenings around a sermon or a Langston Hughes poem, slipping from Bach to jazz...
Christie’s Ploughs Ahead With Controversial Pre-Columbian Sale, But a Third Fails To Sell
The house’s “Pre-Columbian Art & Taíno Masterworks” sale was preceded by an in-person protest, a slew of media articles, and a petition that circulated on change.org, signed by...
A Political Consultant Turns The Story Of His Downfall Into An Autofiction Musical
Hank Morris was a serious player until then-New York state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo prosecuted him. His new show, A Turtle on a Fence...
The Little Engine Trying To Chug Its Way Up The Hill: Literary Review Of...
Thirty years on, the LRC still feels like a very Canadian experiment, addressing the country’s challenges even as it faces them itself. - Toronto Star
As Audience For Foreign-Language Streaming TV Soars, There’s A Shortage Of Translators For Subtitles
Talk to some of the skilled professionals who do the translating, however, and it seems this is yet another case where there's not a...
A Climate Change Imperative For Artists
We have to find a new art and a new psychology to penetrate the apathy and the denial that are preventing us making the...
Why Dancing Is Good For Your Physical And Mental Health (According To Neuroscience!)
"Wouldn't it be great if science could confirm … that dancing is one of the best things we can do for our heath, joyful...
Some Encouraging Data On Whether And When Audiences Will Return
"In this blog, we first examine the historic impact of COVID on performing arts ticket sales and then we use the data to simulate...
As People Continue To Work From Home, Will Weeknight Performances Remain Feasible?
Fewer people than back in The Time Before will be able to swing by the theater or concert hall after leaving the office. Will...
Spotify Moves Into Audiobooks The Silicon Valley Way — By Buying A Company
The acquisition of audiobook platform Findaway lets Spotify "quickly bring a large catalog of audiobooks to its massive user base … in the way...
Strike Averted As IATSE Accepts Deal With Hollywood Studios
"The membership of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees has voted to ratify a new three-year agreement, ending the threat of the first...
One-Day Strike Called At Museum Of Fine Arts, Boston
"More than 96% of the union, which represents public-facing staff, library workers, educators, curators, conservators, and administrative and professional workers, voted to picket outside...
La Mama Theatre Rises From The (Literal) Ashes
No, La MaMa in New York didn't burn down. But La Mama in Melbourne did. Founded in 1969 and an important venue for developing...
Work You’re Ashamed Of? (The Cultural Implications)
Whether or not a certain line of work is shameful or honorable is culturally relative, varying greatly. Farmers, soldiers, actors, dentists, prostitutes, pirates and...
Dance Is Huge On Insta And TikTok. Is It Also Harmful?
Users who look at videos and pictures of bodies deemed attractive by broader society will be shown more of those images, potentially feeling worse...
45,000-Year-Old Painting Of A Warty Pig Upends History Of Art
The famous animal paintings in the Chauvet cave, of France, are dated at around thirty-five thousand years old; the Sulawesi warty pig outdoes them by...
Five Books That Will Change The Way You Think About Climate Change
In contrast to the simplistic idea that all we need to do is implement a set of technological and lifestyle changes, they offer a...