A revolutionary, and now widely accepted, countermodel to Freud’s scheme goes by the term “predictive mind.” The theory comes in different flavors, but overall it holds that automatic processes play a central role in the mind, allowing us to predict events quickly and accurately as they arise. Learning, experience and consciousness constantly improve our implicit, or unconscious, predictions, and we take note of events only when the predictions fail. – Scientific American
Now Here’s An Inventive Re-Purposing Of An Old Church: A Skate Park
“Before its official closing in 1992, St. Liborius was declared a City Landmark in 1975 and recognized as a National Historic Place four years later. Today, it exists as a shell of a church, where the stained glass windows shine vibrant light on skate ramps instead of pews.” — Atlas Obscura
Actor-Director-Writer Peter Masterson (‘Best Little Whorehouse In Texas’) Dead At 84
He played key supporting roles in The Stepford Wives, In The Heat of the Night, and The Exorcist, and he directed the film adaptation of The Trip to Bountiful, but his biggest impact was probably with his musical about a brothel called The Chicken Ranch. — Houston Chronicle
A Good Bookshop Is About So Much More Than The Price Of Books
Duh, right? That’s what independent booksellers have been saying for years. As a collective, we may finally be getting it. “The best booksellers are not, strangely, just there to sell books: their knowledge allows them to arrange the books you see on shelves in a concerted way, not just to pack the shelves on the offchance they’ll make a profit.” – The Guardian (UK)
A Writer Heads To The Woods To Escape Noise. Here’s What She Learned
A writer I admire once told me, “few people have an imagination when it comes to their lives.” I loved this. It flipped the notion that everyone was doing life right except for me — the common refrain of my consciousness — squarely on its head. The fact that I had abandoned my career at 35 for a pipe dream, didn’t have a partner, and was leaving the greatest city in the world to spend the summer writing in a cabin alone wasn’t wrong, it was imaginative. – Medium
A Bit Of Stalinist Utopian Design, Now Available On AirB&B
A pair of architectural history buffs bought this 377-square-foot apartment in a 1932 Constructivist building in Moscow, restored it, and furnished it with copies of avant-garde Soviet furniture and design, including the famous Suprematist chair and table by Nikolai Suetin and upholstery from a design by artist Lyubov Popova. All yours for a mere $75 a night. — The Art Newspaper
New Awards, And A New Sense Of Community, For Chicago’s Latinx Theatermakers
“Latinx theatre and theatremakers in Chicago are consistently ignored, erased, or misunderstood by both critics at mainstream publications and the city’s one major awards body, the Joseph Jefferson Awards. And this is not to mention the wider demonization of Latinx people by the current political administration and the long history of racism and state violence facing people of color that is endemic to the United States. The ALTAs” — presented and produced by the Alliance of Latinx Theater Artists of Chicago — “were a response to a deeply felt need by the community and offered an alternative to majority-white modes of professional recognition and prestige.” — HowlRound
After A Year, Rijksmuseum’s Branch In Amsterdam Airport Is Reopening
The Rijksmuseum Schiphol was the world’s first museum satellite at an airport, with a rotating selection of ten Golden Age paintings displayed (at no charge) for a few hundred thousand visitors each year. Leaks in the roof above had required the space to close last January. — The Art Newspaper
Once World Capital Of Oil-Painting Copies, Chinese Town Tries Move Into Original Art
A decade ago, the Shenzen suburb of Dafen produced three-quarters of the world’s supply of oil reproductions of famous paintings such as Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. “[But] what was once pejoratively described as something akin to a citadel of copycats is now trying to rebrand itself as an incubator of original art,” albeit with limited success so far. — Hyperallergic
Florida Orchestra In Tampa Bay Names New CEO
Mark Cantrell “might be the most versatile hire in the organization’s history.” Currently chief of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and a longtime freelance trombonist, he has also been a professional pilot and a competitive sled-dog racer. — Tampa Bay Times
The Pros And Cons Of Ballet’s Ranking System
Most European companies have at least five ranks for their dancers, based on the system developed at the Paris Opera Ballet. Most North American companies limit themselves to corps de ballet, soloist, and principal; the Joffrey does without rankings altogether. And when Dutch National Ballet artistic director Ted Brandsen wanted to make his company’s seven-rank system more egalitarian, the dancers themselves objected. Joseph Carman looks at the advantages and disadvantages of dancer ranks. — Dance Magazine
Rock On! Philosophy Festival To Take America By Storm
Depending on the venue, shots of Socrates, Kant and Nietzsche will be supplemented with chasers of yoga, tai chi, meditation, music, dance and virtual reality experiences. – The New York Times
Why Is This Piano-Playing Robot Different From All Other Piano-Playing Robots?
Scientists and engineers have been building and programming piano-playing robots for decades. But there’s something different about a new robotic hand that tickles the ivories with techniques usually reserved for humans. — The New York Times
Stendhal Syndrome Gets Lethal: Tourist Finds Botticelli’s Venus Literally Heart-Stopping
An Italian man broke down and suffered a heart attack after gazing at Botticelli’s Birth of Venus (ca. 1485) at the Uffizi Galleries in Florence over the weekend. The unnamed man was treated by a group of four visiting doctors with a defibrillator and was rushed to a hospital where he is currently recovering.” — Artnet
New Comics Publisher Wants To Do For Comics What Streaming Services Did For TV Series (Binge!)
“In an industry where buying monthly, serialized stories is the norm, TKO is presenting an alternative: binge releasing its mini-series; simultaneously selling collected editions of those stories; and offering the first issue of each comic free. TKO is also selling directly to readers and retailers from its website, not through normal distribution channels.” — The New York Times
Protestors Demand Disney Drop Trademark Of Swahili Phrase ‘Hakuna Matata’
More than 52,000 people so far have signed a petition accusing Disney of “colonialism and robbery” after it trademarked the phrase (which means “no worries”) in connection with the upcoming release of the live-action remake of The Lion King. — The Guardian
Should Aziz Ansari And Louis C.K. Be Addressing The #MeToo Allegations Against Them In Their New Acts?
Jason Zinoman: “The answer has to do with the peculiar nature of stand-up, an art form in which the elephant in the room does not lurk in the background. It stands right in front of the microphone raising its trunk to the ceiling.” — The New York Times
American Orchestras Have A Pay Equity Problem, And The Solution Is Radical Transparency
Jumping off from Boston Symphony principal flutist Elizabeth Rowe’s gender pay discrimination lawsuit, equal opportunity law scholar Nancy Leong and freelance oboist Tenly Williams argue that “substantive reform cannot happen without radical transparency regarding hiring, promotion, and pay. … While transparency is stressful and uncomfortable at the outset, it is also the key to unlocking equity not only for women but all demographics.” — Slate
After Tumultuous Year, New York Public Radio President Laura Walker To Step Down
In a memo to staff, Walker said that “the Board and I have agreed that the time has come for me to move on.” (Her contract was due to expire in June; she steps down at the end of March.) Over 23 years, Walker presided over extraordinary growth at WNYC, the US’s largest public radio outlet, but a series of scandals and controversies over the past year led to more general criticism of her management style and extremely high pay. — Current
Banksy’s Latest Guerrilla Art Strike Is Even More Depressing Than Dismaland
His latest mural, which popped up in the Welsh steel town of Port Talbot, shows a child catching snowflakes on his tongue — except that the flakes are actually ashes from a dumpster fire behind his back. Merry Christmas! — The Guardian
Pioneering African-American Ballerina Raven Wilkinson Dead At 83
“She began studying at the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1955 when she was just 20 years old … [but] eventually left the prestigious dance theater after six years, during many of which she was subject to continued racial discrimination.” She went on to work at the Dutch National Ballet and later New York City Opera. — Essence
Warhol’s Warhorses at the Whitney: Insert Your Own Meanings Here
What most transfixed me about Mustard Race Riot was not the grim subject matter (which I saw anew through the perspective of our current racially charged moment), but Warhol’s uncanny prescience about our media-saturated world. — Lee Rosenbaum
Falla and Flamenco — “The Birth of Spanish Music”
According to my friend the remarkably loquacious Spanish pianist Pedro Carboné, the “birth of Spanish music” occurs during the third of Manuel de Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain. — Joe Horowitz
Want To Succeed? Listen To Those Who Disagree With You
Philosophers go to conferences to find critics who can help them improve their theories. All of us need to recognise the value of listening carefully and charitably to opponents. Then we need to go to the trouble of talking with those opponents, even if it means leaving our comfortable neighbourhoods or favourite websites. – Aeon
Propwatch: the crown and buckets in Richard II
Richard II gives up power – though it’s not his choice. Shakespeare stages this concretely – a crown passed from one to another. The supposed divinity of majesty proves portable as a party hat. Richard, as often, reaches for an arresting metaphor: here, two buckets on a well. — David Jays