Captain Kirk and “Star Trek” has been the springboard for everything subsequent to that. Of course, one has no idea what would have happened. That’s one of the most formless of questions, “What would have happened?” because you don’t know.
End Of An Era: The Last VCR-Maker Quits Production
“The VCR itself was outmoded by the DVD player in 2001. That’s the year that people started watching more DVDs than VHS cassettes. So, while it was refreshing to see that VCRs had made it this far into the 21st century, it was interesting that it was eight years after the very inventor of the term had given up on the technology.”
What Science Knows About The Accuracy Of Trusting Your Gut For Decisions
“We humans are oddly fond of trusting our guts. Well, that might not be such a great idea: The same people more likely to go with intuition over rational thought are worse judges of others’ emotions, according to new research.”
Here’s A Kind Of Synesthesia We Haven’t Encountered Before: Seeing Ideas As Shapes
“[Jonathan] Jackson sees his thoughts as shapes. Every person he meets, every sentence he reads, and every decision he makes are presented as data points on a kind of continuously moving mental scatter plot, creating figures he compares to constellations.”
‘A Musical Whose Time Has Gone’: Three D.C. Critics Have At ‘Phantom Of The Opera’
Anne Midgette: “With its emphasis on spectacle and size, Phantom certainly reflects a particular era of musical theater: the stage equivalent of 1980s-style big hair.”
Philip Kennicott: “Phantom looks better today than it did when it was new … [it] seemed to me then as it does now a testament to the degradation of theatrical taste.”
Nelson Pressley: “Now I sort of like the kitsch.”
Europe’s First Underwater Art Museum
“Off the coast of the Spanish island of Lanzarote, the easternmost of the Canary Islands, lies the completely submerged Museo Atlántico, an oceanic exhibition of the sculptures of British artist Jason deCaires Taylor.”
What Will The Internet Of Things Mean For Theatre?
“Performers, audiences, and spaces can influence and manipulate each other, and the input-output system. In the classic theatre—the technician over there is sitting in the dark and is not supposed to be seen. But they’re there and they’re everywhere. The interesting thing is the whole theatre space is rigged in a very hierarchical way. But the Internet of Things is modular, so the idea is that everybody in the room can potentially become the operator or performer of a given system.”
We Have A Complicated Attitude Towards Poetry. Why?
“Somehow saying something is like a poem serves as a better advertisement than identifying something as a poem. Aren’t we supposed to prefer the actual to the resembling?”
This Startup Says It Can Help Artists Painlessly Protect Their Copyrights
“Using the same technology that verifies the world’s bitcoin transactions (the blockchain), Blockai wants to assist artists by making it easy to timestamp your protected works all while attempting to spot those infringing on your intellectual property by scouring the Web for offenders.”
Three Ballerinas Talk About The Reality Of Dancer Wellness
“Wellness among women in the ballet world is a complex and evolving subject. There’s the constant threat of injury ending an already short career, the mental pressure to excel within an elite company, the physical demands of ten-hour rehearsal days and evening performances — all being juggled by dancers who are in many cases still teenagers.”
The Art Dealer Who Sold To George Lucas And Then Morphed Into A Museum Mogul
“Close to 18 years ago she transferred ownership of thousands of works from the gallery to the museum, and none of those works are on offer. Clearly, her heart is more in being a museum owner than a merchant. Why? Bragging rights.”
Making Reality TV A Lot More Real
“I actually cried from happiness… because I always wanted to be on TV. Because I wanted to be like the regular people on TV.”
What This Composer Did After Writing An ‘Instant Classic’ Opera
“I imagined the sound of a countertenor rotating within polyphony sung by a female chorus — that was the starting point for the score. … The poetry I chose abounds in imagery of stars and moonlight, and I wanted to try to capture a silvery tone for the whole piece.”
The Pavarotti Family Tells The Trump Campaign To Stop Using The Opera Singer’s Voice
“Pavarotti’s widow, Nicoletta Mantovani Pavarotti, and three daughters issued a statement this week calling on the campaign to stop using his music, saying that ‘the values of brotherhood and solidarity which Luciano Pavarotti expressed throughout the course of his artistic career are entirely incompatible with the worldview offered by the candidate Donald Trump.'”
Artists Erect Monument To Mark U.S.-Mexico Border (The One From 1821)
“For their project, ‘DeLIMITations,’ the artists placed 47 steel obelisks along the route of the 1821 border, from the coast of Oregon to the Gulf of Mexico, stopping in Medicine Bow, Wyo.; Dodge City, Kan.; Waurika, Okla.; and many other towns. Before this undertaking, the 1821 border had never been formally surveyed in its entirety.”
Can Pokemon Go Transform Public Spaces?
“The game gives users a heightened appreciation both for public space and the architectural and historical landmarks in their city. Apparently, so many players have flocked to the National Mall in Washington DC that the National Park Service has encouraged rangers to help people find Pokémon, and learn about historical monuments in the process.”
Michael Caine Changes His Name To Michael Caine, Thanks To ISIS
“The legendary British actor, born Maurice Micklewhite, has legally changed his name to the showbiz moniker he adopted in 1954 because of the rise in airport security checks prompted by Islamic State.”
What’s The State Of Our (Theatre) Nation?
A lot happened at the country’s largest theatre conference, and it happened during some intensely theatrical times in our nation’s political history. What does it all mean?
Locavores Love Farms In Theory, But Practice Is Quite Different
“Farmers will continue to rely on off-farm income to pay their bills. They will choose loan payments over savings accounts, chicken feed over dental care. They will face the heartbreaking decision to leave their farms.”
Study: Music Can Change Listeners’ Behavior
“Songs that deal with social topics seem to have an impact on our cognition and behavior,” the University of Wuerzburg’s Nicolas Ruth writes in the journal Psychology of Music. “Musicians espousing such messages would be pleased to know that their music has a real — if small — effect on people’s behavior.”
Looking For “Great” Composers Of Our Age? The Idea Of Greatness Might Not Work
“Fixed and hierarchical ideas of ‘greatness’ feel off-kilter with the times, even socially divisive in their narrow view of what greatness is and how it manifests itself not only musically, but also culturally and demographically.”
Israeli Defense Minister Compares Great Palestinian Poet’s Work To ‘Mein Kampf’ (As Godwin Shakes His Head)
“The controversy erupted after Army Radio, which has been under pressure from right-wing politicians to broadcast more patriotic programming, aired a show about the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish, a revered figure among Palestinians whose work is a staple of school curriculums.” (Wait, who’s Godwin again?)
How London’s New Mayor Plans To ‘Democratise The Arts’
Sadiq Khan: “I don’t want Zone 1 to hog the best arts and culture in our city. There are 33 boroughs, I want to democratise the arts so that every Londoner can benefit from the world’s best art. Love London will give you a discount to enjoy that.” (Love London is a planned card for London residents offering discounts on performance tickets.)