“In this sense, a philosopher, academic, or any kind of writer is the worst person to ask about how to live a fulfilling life. Their obligation to themselves is not to resolve their own problems, but to plumb the depths of their own discontent, seeking after a truth in unhappiness. It is not likely that anything that can be articulated in an intellectually honest essay can bestow a fulfilling life on you.”
Virginia Symphony Loses So Much Funding, It Won’t Play At Colonial Williamsburg On The Fourth Of July
“They approached the Williamsburg City Council, which indicated it would kick in about $23,000 to pay for the orchestra. And they launched an online Kickstarter campaign to raise another $31,000 to pay for the staging, audio set-up and large video screen. But this year’s efforts weren’t successful.”
The Poky Little Puppy Problem, Or, Why So Many Terrible Children’s Books Are Such Classics
“The problem is that young children have terrible taste and enjoy garbage. Another problem, which compounds the first problem, is that they want to hear the same books hundreds of times in a row. So for all the joys that storytime can offer, it frequently entails a kind of dismal self-abnegation that’s too excruciating even to describe as tedium.”
Government-Sponsored Special Departments For Trolling
“The Columbian Chemicals hoax was not some simple prank by a bored sadist. It was a highly coordinated disinformation campaign, involving dozens of fake accounts that posted hundreds of tweets for hours, targeting a list of figures precisely chosen to generate maximum attention. The perpetrators didn’t just doctor screenshots from CNN; they also created fully functional clones of the websites of Louisiana TV stations and newspapers. The YouTube video of the man watching TV had been tailor-made for the project. A Wikipedia page was even created for the Columbian Chemicals disaster.”
The Rock Critic, R.I.P. (All But The Burial)
“What Robert Christgau once called the ‘rock-critic establishment’ has been eclipsed by a more assertive culture of fandom. And although music criticism as an art form—a window onto literature or painting or new forms of journalism or politics in the broadest sense of that term—still exists in pockets, the idea that the critic could serve as a gatekeeper of popular taste sounds preposterous.”
Politically Correct? What’s Wrong With That?
“What has come to be called “political correctness” used to be known as “good manners” and was considered part of being a decent human being. The term is now employed to write off any speech that is uncomfortably socially conscious, culturally sensitive or just plain left-wing. The term is employed, too often, to shut down free speech in the name of protecting speech.”
Investing In Broadway – A Fun Way To Lose Money
Broadway producers may use the Internet for all sorts of things, but rarely for raising money. Shows are financed pretty much the same way they were 50 years ago, face to face and on the phone.
The Brooklyn Museum’s Dynamic New Director Has Big Plans
As visionary, ambitious, and successful as Anne Pasternak’s programming has been at Creative Time, it’s a leap, to say the least, for her to assume leadership of the encyclopedic Brooklyn Museum, which has a staff of more than three hundred and fifty and resides in a five-story McKim, Mead & White building, whose oldest bits date back to 1893.
Iraq’s National Museum Reopened In February. It’s Struggling
“Three months later, however, and the museum is struggling to attract visitors. Some Baghdad residents insist they aren’t aware of its existence, despite a much publicized ceremony to mark the occasion, while others have stayed away because of a recent uptick in terrorist attacks—one of which struck a nearby café—that has persuaded many to cut down on nonessential movement.”
This Just In: Arts Criticism Isn’t Dead
“Digital-age publishers are obsessed with the idea of community; of building it and/or finding it and/or representing it. There is no such thing as “community,” at least as far as it relates to how people consistently or predictably respond to the things you put in front of them. Therefore, don’t take any “community” for granted. It doesn’t really exist.”
Analysis Of Major Book Awards Shows Novels From Female Perspective Less Likely To Win
“After analysing the winning novels of six literary awards from the past 15 years, the British-American novelist Nicola Griffith concluded that books written by men about men or boys were far more successful than those written by either sex and offering the point of view of women or girls.”
Music Critic Gets Fed Up, Snatches Cell Phone From Hand Of Oblivious Audience Member
David Patrick Stearns: “And just because the [Vienna] public is among the most cultured on the planet doesn’t mean the cellphones are under control. Despite a preconcert warning announcement, one woman pulled out her phone just as Lisa Batiashvili had begun the quiet, slow-burning opening movement of Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1. Only eight rows from the stage, the phone kept beeping and burbling, its owner entranced by it and oblivious to those nearby shooting her daggers. So the problem was addressed American-style …”
The Poet On His Island: The Final Interview With 2011 Nobel Laureate Tomas Tranströmer
“The stroke Tranströmer suffered in 1990 paralyzed him on one side, stealing most of his speech. … Over the afternoon I ask questions that Monica translates into Swedish, and then he responds, to which she seeks greater clarification, and on it goes. In between, Tranströmer steers her questions and extrapolations with his face, his few words, gestures, and the tone of his voice. They touch and regard each other constantly throughout this process. It is hard to tell, watching the two of them, who is the conductor, and who is the symphony.”
The Case From ‘Serial’ Gets A Sequel Podcast – With More New Evidence
“If the listeners who were hooked by Serial have tuned into Undisclosed – a follow-up podcast from different producers – they may find themselves surprised by how much there is left to discover about the murder and investigation that followed. If Serial‘s thesis is that facts are elusive, Undisclosed‘s counterpoint seems to be that the past is less murky than you might think.”
Serious Filmmakers Are Trying Out 3-D – So Why Aren’t They Taking It Seriously?
Daniel Engber: “I’ve been looking forward to the moment when 3-D emerges as a mode unto itself – not a gimmick or a money-making adjunct to the standard fare but an art form of its very own. … With some notable exceptions, the new breed of uppity 3-D seems less like an exploration of the format than an exercise in camp appropriation – a way of punching up at corporate greed and spoofing Hollywood excess.”
TV Is Losing Ad Dollars. Meanwhile The Internet…
“Mobile advertising and social gaming will see steady double-digit growth. Other media, like the global music market and magazine publishing, will grow less than a percent annually on average. The only decline will be in newspaper publishing, which will see advertising drop roughly 3 percent a year through 2019.”
Does Living In Skyscrapers Change You Psychologically?
“Given the age of our species, living more than a few stories up is a very recent phenomenon. This tempts one to conclude that high rises are unnatural, and some would argue that what is unnatural must be, in some way, harmful.”
How Streaming Is Changing The Music Business (For Good And Bad)
“For a large part of the recording industry, the move to embrace streaming actually solves a long-time paradox: one of ownership. Over digital music’s 30-year evolution, from the public introduction of the compact disc in 1981 to the international expansion of Spotify in the last half-decade, the question of whether listeners owned the music they purchased got murkier.”
Now That Everyone’s A Photographer, It All Seems So Democratic. Except For Artists…
“Many artists are ready to self-fund their first opus because they believe that they need a release early on in their career rather than after having developed a 30 or 40 years practice. That’s fine if it changes their life. But if it doesn’t make a difference, I wonder if they’ll be in a position to spend another 20 or 25,000 dollars the next time around. In a way, it has become about whether or not you have access to money, rather than the value of your work. It isn’t as democratic as we like to think.”
Four Essential Truths About Today’s Pop Culture (Trust Me, You’ll Feel Better)
We live in a wonderful age, an age in which no one tells us to put away our childish things. This makes us think these things never stopped being for us.
How Good Are Your Ears? A Humbling Test In Compressed Sound
Many listeners cannot hear the difference between uncompressed audio files and MP3s, but when it comes to audio quality, the size of the file isn’t (ahem) everything.
Sheesh, The Stuff Ya Gotta Do When You Get A Tony Nomination
“The week of the Drama Leagues is the peak of what publicist Chris Boneau calls ‘the month of hate,’ a post-nomination frenzy leading up to the Tonys on June 7.” Here’s (just) some of what the nominees have to do during “the month of hate” – even as they keep performing eight shows a week.
Iraq’s National Museum Is Open Again – Now People Have To Start Coming
“Guides and curators say the museum has averaged about 300 visitors a day since it reopened [in February] … Those who do brave the risks of terrorist attacks and the traffic, which is snarled by regular checkpoints, say they are thrilled to see the museum’s collection, which has been largely closed to the public for the past 20 years.”
Jean Ritchie, Appalachian Folk Song Legend, Dead At 92
“With her clear, uninflected soprano voice, Ms. Ritchie helped spark renewed interest in traditional folk music. She became a fixture at Greenwich Village coffeehouses and often appeared on the New York radio broadcasts of folk singer Oscar Brand and occasionally on television. She played a key role in introducing younger musicians to the mountain dulcimer, an elongated stringed instrument that she strummed on her lap while singing.”
The Top Ten Musicals Of All Time (As Chosen By A Brit Critic)
Mark Shenton of The Stage selects some no-brainers (Sweeney Todd, A Chorus Line), some head-scratchers (Pippin?), some obscure-to-Yanks titles (what’s The Hired Man?), and some appalling omissions (where are West Side Story and Gypsy??).