“North American medical schools are beginning to embrace literature in medical curriculum and this trend has now expanded, with physicians attending courses in the spin-off field of narrative medicine.”
Those Studies That Found That Smiling Can Improve Your Bad Mood? Well …
“This concept has been a standard in self-help for many years: Fake it till you make it; sulk until you hulk. Act the way you want to feel, and the rest will fall into place. … Smiling can make you happy or decrease your stress.” Now the studies on which the concept was based have been re-tried by researchers, and the old results haven’t been replicated. Daniel Engber lays out the history.
Truth, Martyrdom, And Shostakovich (Richard Taruskin Takes On Julian Barnes’s Novel)
“This book, I think, is a beautifully written botch, and it has me wondering anew about truth. People have been doing that, of course, for a long time – at least since Pilate confronted Christ. And the wrangling over what the truth might be about Shostakovich and his experiences under Stalin has been going on, it sometimes seems, almost as long.”
Tchaikovsky, Meet Hubble: It’s Not Your Father’s Outdoor Classical Concert Anymore
“Summer symphony audiences are supposed to be easy. Just give them pleasant weather, a nice picnic, craft beer, the 1812 Overture with a few cannons … If only.” David Patrick Stearns looks at some ways – high-tech and low-tech – that classical groups are engaging summertime audiences.
New Russian Gérard Depardieu Gets A Cultural Center Named After Him In His New Hometown
“[The] French-born actor… on Saturday inaugurated a cultural and film centre bearing his name in Saransk, the capital of the Russian region of Mordovia in which Depardieu is a registered resident … [He moved there after] giving up his French passport as a protest against French president François Hollande’s proposal to tax France’s highest earnest earners at over 75 percent.”
What Does A Bad Decision Look Like In The Brain?
“The brain is the most metabolically expensive tissue in the body. It consumes 20 percent of our energy despite taking up only 2 to 3 percent of our mass. Because neurons are so energy-hungry, the brain is a battleground where precision and efficiency are opponents. Glimcher argues that the costs of boosting our decision-making precision outweigh the benefits. Thus we’re left to be confounded by the choices of the modern American cereal aisle.”
Juan Gabriel, Superstar Mexican Singer And Songwriter (On Both Sides Of The Border)
“Sent to live at an orphanage at age four, Gabriel’s rags-to-riches story was as well-known as his glittery outfits and his unrelentingly romantic lyrics.”
How The Tate Is Using Artificial Intelligence To Create A New – And Kind Of Weird – Experience
“The team have created and trained a ‘brain’ to a point where it is simulating certain human attributes and unleashed it online – and it is creating a gallery.”
Two Museum Directors From Opposite Coasts Meet At A Party …
“There were discussions of favorite architects, favorite cities and, yes, favorite museums.”
Top AJBlogs For 08.28.16
What Happens When Critical Opinion Separates From An Audience?
A poll of movie critics worldwide asking about the best movies of the 21st Century so far shows a big gap between the critics and the box office. Is it inevitable as an art form matures that critical taste leaves the audience behind?… read more
AJBlog: diacritical | Douglas McLennan’s blog
This Week in Audience: Are Middle Class Values Stifling The Arts?
This Week: Have orchestra pops concerts lost the pops thread?… A decade of experimenting with pay-as-you-will theatre in Charleston… NBC confirms a shift in how audiences want to watch the Olympics… Are middle class norms … read more
AJBlog: AJ Arts AudiencePublished 2016-08-28
Borne on a West Coast Breeze
The Pacific Northwest Ballet performs during Jacob’s Pillow’s last week of the summer. Pacfic Northwest Ballet in Benjamin Millepied’s 3 Movements. (L to R): Christian Poppe, Sarah Ricard Orza, Lesley Rausch, Seth Orza, and Matthew … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-08-28
The Future of Orchestras Part IV: Attention-Span
A colleague in Music History at a major American university reports that it has become difficult to teach sonata form because sonata forms transpire over 15 minutes and more. This topic – shrinking attention-span — … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2016-08-27
[ssba_hide]
This Week In Audience: Are Middle Class Values Stifling The Arts?
This Week: Have orchestra pops concerts lost the pops thread?… A decade of experimenting with pay-as-you-will theatre in Charleston… NBC confirms a shift in how audiences want to watch the Olympics… Are middle class norms stifling the arts?… What do regular museum goers think about the art?
This Week’s AJ Highlights: That Time Nureyev And Fonteyn Got Arrested In A “Hippie Raid”
This Week: Earthquake Devastates Historic Italian Towns… Has the audience deserted blockbuster movies?… The best new beautiful library of 2016… Is it a good idea to pay young people to try culture?… When superstar dancers were arrested in a 1960s police raid.
In England, A Famous Zaha Hadid Piece Goes Back Up (For Sale)
“It is very poignant. … But all the more marvellous that this master work should be presented to remind us what an extraordinary contribution she made.”
Most Of What We Think We Know About The Brain Is Wrong
“When you divide the brain into bitty bits and make millions of calculations according to a bunch of inferences, there are abundant opportunities for error, particularly when you are relying on software to do much of the work.”
Religion Makes Its Way, Carefully, Into TV Drama
“As important as religion is in the lives of many viewers, television has had a tentative relationship with it. … But are things changing, and how? Here, the New York Times critics Margaret Lyons and James Poniewozik survey how television’s congregation has expanded and where there’s still room for improvement.”
People! You Need To Dress Better In Public! Especially In The Theatre!
“When people were invited onstage at a recent performance of “Penn & Teller on Broadway,” many women looked as if they had stepped out of a jazzercise class, while men ambled around in hideous cargo shorts.”