“The concepts and ideas we celebrate — like our spiritual beliefs and daily habits — are a choice, though sometimes it feels like we “have” to celebrate them, even if we don’t feel like it. Culture is ours to do with as we choose, and that means that we can add, subtract, or edit celebrations or holidays as we see fit — because you and me and everyone reading this makes up our culture, and it is defined by us, for us, after all.”
Meet The Philosopher Who’s Helping Keep Google Out Of Court
Oxford professor Luciano Floridi is helping Google comply with the EU’s right-to-be-forgotten ruling by helping the search engine’s programmers and attorneys change the way they understand and think about the issues involved – including the nature of identity in the Internet age.
Could “The Interview” Change The Way We Get Movies?
These dynamics could evolve over time, of course, as viewing habits do; if so, “The Interview” will surely be seen as a watershed moment in the evolution of film distribution.
The Art Newspaper’s Five Predictions For The 2015 Art Market
Economic chaos! Dealers endangered! Leaderless sale rooms!
Macedonians Form Human Chain To Protect Modernist Building From Added Baroque Façade
“The protest was part of a series of events starting in 2013 that have attempted to stall this aspect of the creeping Skopje 2014 project, a controversial and costly plan to give the city’s buildings makeover in the neoclassical or baroque style.”
Ricardo Porro, 89, Visionary Architect Championed, Then Spurned By Fidel Castro
“[He] lived long enough to see his two National Art Schools – begun during a utopian moment in the Cuban revolution, then abandoned as counterrevolutionary – newly embraced around the world as the crown jewels of modern Cuban architecture.”
How Do We Arrive At A Science Of Consciousness?
“Philosopher Alva Noë explores ideas in a new book that suggests consciousness and self is best looked at by combining insight from Western science, Indian philosophy and contemplative practices.”
African And Black Writers Need No Instructions From Ben Okri On Liberating Their Minds And Their Subject Matter
Somali-American literary scholar Sofia Samatar: “It’s beyond depressing to hear a writer of Okri’s stature, who himself writes powerfully about overwhelming subjects, board this broken-down train. … If, as Okri insists, ‘we must not let anyone define what we write’, why should black and African writers listen to Ben Okri? The essay’s demands and commands make it impossible to read as the expression of a quest for freedom.”
Jazz In 2014: A Culture Of Complaint
“Jazz in 2014 — or more accurately, the discourse around jazz in 2014 — often resembled a crescendo of gibes and gripes, with each new affront calling forth a fresh wave of umbrage. In the end it wasn’t any single skirmish that led to my air of weary resignation, but rather a brisk accumulation of them, quickening into a blur. And what surprised me was the exasperation I felt not only with jazz’s cynical assailants, but also with its gallant defenders.”
The Art Of Great Theatre Posters
“Whether it’s the sexed-up photograph of Neil Patrick Harris on Broadway or the pared-down treatment of a domestic drama in a regional theater, the best posters convey the conceptual complexities of the plays they serve.”
Really? This Was The Top-Grossing Movie In The UK In 2014?
“The film made £34.27 million in ticket sales this year to claim the top spot at the British box office, beating runner-up The Inbetweeners 2 by over £1 million in takings.”
Another Theatre Agrees To Pay Living Wage To Its Workers
“We think it’s a good thing to aspire to, and we’re able to pay that. Our staff work long hours, often unsociable hours, and they work very hard. They’ve been key to the success of the Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall in recent years, and we think it’s only right that is recognised.”
The Medical Costs Of Loneliness
“The range of harmful neural and behavioural effects of perceived isolation documented in adults include increased anxiety, hostility and social withdrawal; fragmented sleep and daytime fatigue; increased vascular resistance and altered gene expression and immunity; decreased impulse control; increased negativity and depressive symptoms; and increased age-related cognitive decline and risk of dementia.”
Annie Proulx Wishes She’d Never Written “Brokeback Mountain”
“I wish I’d never written the story. It’s just been the cause of hassle and problems and irritation since the film came out. … One of the reasons we keep the gates locked here is that a lot of men have decided that the story should have had a happy ending. They can’t bear the way it ends – they just can’t stand it.”
“Creative Entrepreneur” Or No, The Artist Is Definitely Not Dead Yet
Robinson Meyer hits back at William Deresiewicz’s jeremiad: “His reading suffers a tremendous flaw: Deresiewicz cannot discriminate the substantial from the faddish. What’s more, his historical work is incomplete – he mistakes a very new idea for a very old one. Deresiewicz’s artistic philosophy aspires to timelessness, but it’s younger than most of his Millennial subjects.”
Is Social Media Killing The Professional Critic?
Mmmm-maybe …
Milan’s Symphony Orchestra Saved For Another Year As Italian Government Finally Guarantees 2015 Funding
Since the fall, the management and supporters of the Orchestra “Giuseppe Verdi” have been warning that, because €3 million in promised government funding since 2013 had still not arrived and no subsidy for 2015 had been allocated, the ensemble could be forced to shut down. With less than 48 hours remaining until the new year, Italy’s culture minister at last came through. (in Italian)
The Strange Connections Between What We’re Hearing And How Things Taste
Turns out there is actually a science to the music or background noise in restaurants, cafes and grocery stores – and to why airline food tastes bland.
Hong Kong’s Oldest TV Station Near Collapse
Asia Television Ltd. (universally called ATV) hasn’t been able to pay its employees for December, and only this week gave them half of their November salaries; its broadcast license could be cancelled in the new year. “Yet there are no sympathetic calls among the city’s public to help save the local institution, which in recent years has lost most of its programming power and cultural cache, as it instead targets mainland Chinese viewers.”
The Apartment Building That’s Been Home To Broadway Types Since The Days Nobody Else Would Rent To Them
“For all the changes that have come to Broadway, where the only thing more drastic than the astronomical ticket prices are the astronomical rents for apartments in the area, the Whitby has largely remained a bastion for performers and their patrons. But rather than being a haven for struggling artists, the building is now much more a home for successful ones.”
“Literally” And “Awesome” Aren’t Destroying English, Steven Pinker Reassures Us
In a Q&A, the cognitive scientist and linguist talks about rules of usage (and lack of them), the usefulness of emojis and italics, and his grammar feud with The New Yorker‘s Nathan Heller. He even explains the psychology that keeps grad students churning out academic jargon instead of decent writing. (And then there’s the hair …)
Top Posts From AJBlogs 12.30.14
On The Art Movie Docket: Matisse and …
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2014-12-30
Brooklyn’s Warehouse Clubs Crumble
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2014-12-30
“Strict Separation,” “Transparency”: My Q&A with John Elderfield on Princeton/Gagosian Loyalties
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2014-12-30
Best Dance of 2014
AJBlog: Fresh Pencil Published 2014-12-30
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Study: Internet Tops Friends, Family As Sources Of Information
“In a report we issued this afternoon, we found that for a cluster of problems with government connections more people turn to the internet than to experts or family members. This preference for the internet isn’t the case for every person’s every problem. But it was interesting to see how much the internet has moved from the periphery of people’s lives a decade ago to the center of their information environment now.”
Broadway Box Office Surges Over Holidays
“The Broadway League said Monday that shows on the Great White Way pulled in $40,993,950 for the week ending Sunday, better than the same week last year when 30 shows attracted $38,783,854. Attendance also went from 290,386 in 2013 to 318,721 this year, with crowds taking advantage of mild New York weather and Christmas falling on a Thursday.”
The Two-Time Oscar-Winning Best Actress You Probably Never Heard Of (She Just Died At 104)
Luise Rainer’s meteoric rise and rapid descent has mystified movie fans for decades. It was almost impossible to believe that — after winning an Academy Award for her wrenching performance in “The Great Ziegfeld” in 1936, and then following it up with a triumphal turn as O-Lan in “The Good Earth” a year later — Rainer was not on her way to being one of Hollywood’s most enduring film stars.”