Sure, we know about dogs who’ve rescued people and the cat that chased a dog away from a toddler, but seals, hippos, and rats are among the many animals who’ve been observed displaying altruistic behavior. (Especially rats, some of whom have learned to locate land mines.)
The “Culture” Of Big Data (And What It Doesn’t Mean)
“Operating beyond normal science’s simple accumulation of more information, Big Data is touted as a different sort of knowledge altogether, an Enlightenment for social life reckoned at the scale of masses. As with the similarly inferential sciences like evolutionary psychology and pop-neuroscience, Big Data can be used to give any chosen hypothesis a veneer of science and the unearned authority of numbers.”
This Comedy Club Is Literally Charging By The Laugh (So That You Only Pay For What You Get)
The Teatreneu in Barcelona uses facial-recognition software installed in tablet computers on the seat backs to monitor just how much individual audience members laugh at the show. The charge: 30 cents per laugh, to a maximum charge of €24. (Yes, every laugh after your 80th is free.)
David Sedaris Explains How To Overcome Writer’s Block
“There are a lot of college writing textbooks that will include essays and short stories, and after reading the story or essay, there will be questions such as ‘Have YOU Had any experience with a pedophile in YOUR family?’ or ‘When was the last time you saw YOUR mother drunk?’ and they’re just really good at prompting stories.”
A Radical Solution For Amazon: Break Up The Monopoly
“Amazon is the shining representative of a new golden age of monopoly that also includes Google and Walmart. Unlike U.S. Steel, the new behemoths don’t use their barely challenged power to hike up prices. They are, in fact, self-styled servants of the consumer and have ushered in an era of low prices for everything from flat-screen TVs to paper napkins to smart phones.”
Shakespeare As A Model For Cognitive Science
“Traditional approaches to language treated sounds, words, phrases, sentences, and meanings as essentially separable, and choked on language that relied on the multi-level interactions that characterize Shakespeare’s verse. That our brains are continually bombarded by information from all sides, though, is a basic tenet of modern approaches to cognition.”
Four Cities On The Rise In Art
“Some of these cities may be ancient cultural capitals, but their appearance on the global art stage is something new. And their galleries are not only promoting growing local art scenes but also beginning to deal top-notch works by major Western artists.”
Copyright Attorney Chosen To Lead Authors Guild
“Mary Rasenberger is a partner in the law firm Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard and has an extensive background in intellectual property and technology. The Guild has been involved in numerous copyright battles, including a lawsuit against Google over the search engine’s program of scanning snippets of published material.”
New Worldwide Arts Video-On-Demand Service
“Brazil-based site Cennarium will see users around the world able to access recordings of theatre, dance and opera from a variety of countries, with surtitles in more than 20 languages.”
Report: UK Arts Funding Policy Needs An Overhaul
“Too often there appear to be disguised agendas that benefit a small minority of established, and most commonly London based, arts organisations and a privileged section of the population as a whole,” it states, adding that, with the next general election, an “incoming administration should review the arts council’s remit and the policies and structures for delivering it”.
Strike Called Off, Upheaval At Radio France’s Philharmonic Begins To Subside
The past month has been a messy one at the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France: the artistic director was forced out; incoming music director Mikko Franck threatened to cancel his appearances this season; the musicians called a strike and cancelled a concert last Friday and were about to do it again this Friday – all of this over a plan to merge the management of the OPRF with that of the radio network’s other orchestra, the Orchestre National de France. (The widely-shared fear is that there would eventually be a full merger of the bands, with accompanying job losses.) For now, at least, the powers-that-be have calmed everyone down. (in French)
NPR Launches New Multiplatform Jazz Series
“Featuring interviews with jazz greats, and concert video-casts from festivals and clubs nationwide, Jazz Night in America, a new initiative in jazz programming, began Wednesday. A joint endeavor of National Public Radio, Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Newark radio station WBGO (88.3 FM), it will bring jazz to audiences through its website, video and webcasts, as well as on radio.”
Where Do I Start With Patrick Modiano, The New Nobel Laureate?
“You might have experienced Modiano’s work without realizing it: He co-wrote the scripts for Louis Malle’s Lacombe, Lucien (1974) and Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s Bon Voyage (2003). But Modiano’s novels are worth reading as well: subtle, rhythmic, and hypnotic investigations into the self and its memory – the perfect thing for the mournful indoor months.”
Nonfiction Writing Deserves A Nobel Every Once In A While, Too
Philip Gourevitch: “It has been more than a half century since any such recognition – a half century that has seen an explosion of great documentary writing in all forms and lengths and styles, and yet there is a kind of lingering snobbery in the literary world that wants to exclude nonfiction from the classification of literature – to suggest that somehow it lacks artistry, or imagination, or invention by comparison to fiction.”
Protest Art Pops Up On The Streets Of Hong Kong
“Among the many more obvious side-effects of the protests – the traffic, the lost workdays – there has been an outpouring of communal creativity.” The number-one motif? Umbrellas, which protesters used to protect themselves from tear gas and pepper spray.
TV’s Renaissance For Strong Women Is Happening In A Surprising Place
“The days of female movie stars retreating to cable – HBO, Showtime, FX – to find good work are coming to a close. Now, by the grace of, well, something, actresses can find plenty of exciting leading roles to play on the big four networks. … How did that happen?”
Why Reading Plays Is So Great
“In fact what I am doing in that moment of reading is acting. I’m not on a stage or in front of an audience; I am not even moving or speaking out loud. … I may be acting silently inside my head, but in that instant, I’m an actor – a unique and rewarding response better elicited by published plays than by any other kind of literature.” Dan Kois demonstrates how this works, with Annie Baker’s The Flick.
How The Man Who Developed The Marshmallow Test Won His Own Battles For Self-Control
Maria Konnikova looks at Walter Mischel (her old psychology professor and thesis adviser) and his struggles – most notably with tobacco – and the techniques he developed to master (some of) his urges.
Tennessee Williams: His Work, His Body, His Body Of Work
Hilton Als: “His writing was the bridge he tried to build between his besmirched, original-sin self – the self that loved the temporary pleasures of sex, but no doubt considered it ‘dirty’ – and the self that sought purification in a world other than this one.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 10.09.14
A Participatory Exhibit I Can Applaud (I Think)
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts
The Winner-Take-All Culture: Beyonce’ Edition
AJBlog: CultureCrash
Catching Up: Logan Strosahl & Nick Sanders
AJBlog: RiffTides
Photo Essay for My WSJ Article on MoMA’s Restoration of Matisse’s Glorious “Swimming Pool”
AJBlog: CultureGrrl
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This Year’s Nobel Prize For Literature Goes To Patrick Modiano
The Swedish committee praised the 69-year-old French writer for “the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation.”
L.A. Seems To Be Swooning Over Australian Ballet’s Dancers
“The dancers have transfixed LA locals – and staff at their hotel. One man arriving with room service for Ms Lockett noticed a hanging tutu. ‘He was just fascinated,’ Ms Lockett said. ‘He said, ‘Stop it! You’re a ballerina!’ She tipped him generously for his enthusiasm. ‘We’d had such a lovely chat.'”
The Broad Appeal Of Theater About Theater
“The playwrights of three current Broadway plays within plays – Tom Stoppard, Terrence McNally and Donald Margulies – discuss why these insider shows draw big audiences.”
Belgrade Philharmonic’s Long Climb Out Of The Rubble Of War
“The reinvention of the orchestra – from an ensemble that had virtually shut down around the time of the NATO bombing campaign to one that has current international tours and dreams of expansion at home – has often been unconventional.”
My Life With Doris Lessing (Words Can’t Describe…)
“When she died last November at the age of 94, I’d known Doris for fifty years. In all that time, I’ve never managed to figure out a designation for her that properly and succinctly describes her role in my life, let alone my role in hers. We have the handy set of words to describe our nearest relations: mother, father, daughter, son, uncle, aunt, cousin, although that’s as far as it goes usually in contemporary Western society.”