The Financialization Of American Education (Let The Debate Begin)
“Reconsidering and reforming our system of higher education should move beyond debates about whether STEM skills—those promoted by the study of science, technology, engineering, and math—trump liberal arts. We need both, not only because it’s impossible to predict exactly what the jobs of the future will be, but also because critical thinking in any field is the most important measure of economic and civic success.”
The Eureka, The 19th-Century Proto-Computer That Generated Latin Poetry
“In July 1845, British curiosity-seekers headed to London’s Egyptian Hall to try out the novelty of the summer. For the price of one shilling, they could stand in front of a wooden bureau, pull a lever, and look behind a panel where six drums, bristling with metal spokes, revolved. At the end of its ‘grinding,’ what it produced was not a numeric computation or a row of fruit symbols, but something quite different: a polished line of Latin poetry.”
Women Dominate This Year’s Giller Prize Shortlist
Of the six finalists, five are women with Gary Barwin, author of Yiddish for Pirates, the sole male finalist for the prestigious prize.
Where Will Chris Thile Take ‘A Prairie Home Companion’?
“Thile’s plan, as suggested by his musical-guest choices, is to invert the formula of Prairie Home. Music will take the lead; guest comics like John Hodgman will provide side banter … His challenge is to curate a musical show that’s as attractive for the Prairie Home faithful as it is for a yet-unrealized younger crowd.” Says Thile about the show’s audience, “My goal is to lose one million and add two.”
What To Do With A Former Saddam Palace? A Museum Of Course
“The Basrah Museum has been planned for eight years and will join the National Museum in Baghdad as one of the most important institutions in Iraq. For the first time in a generation, the people of southern Iraq will have their own museum—a great achievement under extremely difficult circumstances.”
The Best Foreign-Language Oscar Race: Here’s Some Early Handicapping
“Frequent competitors – such as France, Spain, Iran, South Korea and Chile – have opted to bank on festival favorites from directors with significant art-house clout. As tried-and-tested as this method of attack sounds, it’s in fact not a given occurrence.”
Suzan-Lori Parks, Pultizer-Winning Playwright, On Backlash In The Age Of Obama (And Brexit)
“All I can say is that after Emancipation, when the slaves were freed, there was Reconstruction, which was essentially a lot of blowback. So, after Obama’s eight years, there’s serious blowback. People in America are often encouraged not to think. The basis of politics is to heighten their fears and make them buy something. But, you know, y’all just had Brexit. We were like ‘Whaay! We’re not the only stupid ones!'”
Mac Wellman Isn’t Just An Unorthodox Playwright, He’s An Unorthodox, And Great, Playwriting Teacher
Says one former student, Paul Ketchum, “He knows exactly where to put pressure to release the inner playwriting beast of his students. Mac would hate this, but he’s like a fucking dramaturgical acupressure neuromancer.” Wellman talks teaching, structure (he hates it) and gossip with another former student, Eliza Bent.
The ‘Godfather Of Gore’, Filmmaker Herschell Gordon Lewis, Dead At 87
“With his 1963 film Blood Feast, Lewis is widely credited with pioneering the splatter genre, despite it being considered ‘an insult even to the most puerile and salacious of audiences’ in a Variety review. A later critique described it as ‘one of the important releases in film history, ushering in a new acceptance of explicit violence that was obviously just waiting to be exploited’.”
San Francisco Museums’ Controversial Board Chair Keeps Position, Gives Up President’s Title
“Embattled philanthropist Dede Wilsey, who waged an all-out campaign to stay on as head of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco amid probes into whether she improperly spent the institutions’ money, won approval Tuesday to extend her reign as the city’s queen of culture – although with a new title and possibly less power.”
‘You Could Souse Herrings In Chords Like These’: London Critic Smacks Gergiev And The Mariinsky – Hard – For Underrehearsal
Anna Picard: “Precision has never been part of the Gergiev-Mariinsky rough magic package. While not exactly sight-reading, the orchestra played as though rehearsing for the first time, without stopping to correct infelicities of articulation, intonation, blend, balance and ensemble. If authenticity is sounding like a mutinous scratch band in Cherepovets, this performance had plenty of it. You could argue that Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony benefits from a casual approach. But oh, the vinegar! You could souse herrings in chords like these.”
Albright-Knox Gallery In Buffalo Raises $100 Million In 12 Weeks
The feat was “spurred in large part by a $42.5 million pledge from billionaire bond-trader and Western New York native Jeffrey Gundlach. … [His] gift was designed to flush out millions in matching donations from Western New York foundations, corporations and individuals as well as state, county and city government. It did just that.”
He Left The Directorship Of The Rijksmuseum To Open This New Institution – And Two Months Later, He’s Quitting
“[Wim] Pijbes left the position of general director of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam over the summer to lead the Voorlinden, a private contemporary art museum in Wassenaar that was founded by the Dutch art collector and businessman Joop van Caldenborgh. ‘We both had the feeling that it was better for both of us and for the museum to stop and to quit,’ Mr. Pijbes said in a telephone interview.”
New Horizons In Merch: Britain’s National Theatre Brands Its Own Line Of Stage Equipment
“National Theatre-approved backstage hardware products will be developed as part of a new relationship with theatrical goods supplier Flints. The tie-up means that props and carpentry departments at the NT will test new products for Flints, including paints and other prop-making tools, which will then be given an NT ‘stamp of approval’ and carried in Flints’ catalogue.”
Ravi Shankar’s Only Opera To Get World Premiere, 4½ Years After His Death
“Days before what was to be his final surgery, Shankar outlined his vision for the complete opera” – titled Sukanya – “to his longtime collaborator David Murphy, who, with the help of Shankar’s daughter Anoushka, has since brought the opera to fruition. ‘He’d written the whole piece in outline – the entire raga structure and almost all the melodies, so it was just a matter of filling in the gaps, which were small,’ explained Murphy.”
The Culture Wars Buffet France, And The Schools Are The Battleground
“Changes to how Joan of Arc and other touchstone historical figures are taught in elementary school, as well as changes to how French, Latin and Greek are introduced, have sparked fierce arguments between right-leaning politicians and intellectuals, who believe schools should foster national pride, and the Socialist education minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem and her defenders, who argue that the curriculum should reflect changes in society.”
Iraq’s Newest Museum Opens – In Saddam’s Former Palace In The City He Tried To Strangle
“The Basrah Museum has been planned for eight years and will join the National Museum in Baghdad as one of the most important institutions in Iraq. For the first time in a generation, the people of southern Iraq will have their own museum – a great achievement under extremely difficult circumstances.”
Brent Assink To Leave San Francisco Symphony
Assink has been executive director for 17 years. “Running an organization presenting more than 220 concerts a year, with an operating budget close to $70 million (and including the crisis years of the Great Recession), Assink guided the orchestra through many challenges, saved it from going deeper into debt, even during the unusually expensive season celebrating the Symphony’s centennial in 2011, and allowed it to maintain high standards.”
Want Creative Kids? Give Them Things That Will Bore Them
“Boredom is where creativity is born. Boredom is not the enemy. Boredom is the friend. Boredom is what gives rise to ‘What happens when I take a picture between my fingers? What happens when I turn the camera sideways?’”
Why Is Tenure Important? It Changes What Professors Tell Us Is True
“When researchers get the message that they better not produce data that might offend the powerful, they end up telling us not what is true, but what we want to hear. Policy separates from reality, and we end up with waste and poor outcomes in education, healthcare, economics, and the justice system. Good policy cannot be built on comfortable fantasies.”
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Teach The Three “R”s? That’s Not What Education Is For
“Instruction is the least important part of education. Most information is accessible from books and the media. Basic literacy and numeracy are important, but many if not most skills used by adults in daily life are picked up on the job. The main objective of education in every enduring society is to transmit authoritative cultural, political, and ethical traditions from one generation to the next.”
$200K Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award Goes To Sarah Ruhl
“Ruhl, 42, is based in Brooklyn and is the author of plays such as The Clean House, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, Passion Play and The Oldest Boy. She previously won the MacArthur ‘genius’ grant and is a Tony nominee and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.”
Is This The Most Beautiful Bookstore In The World?
“The bookstore covers a sprawling 21,000 square feet, draws in more than a million tourists, and sells about 700,000 books every year. And while most of the titles are printed in Spanish, just marveling at the theater-turned-bookshop is worth a trip.”
How Gustavo Dudamel Made His Unscheduled Impromptu Debut Conducting At The White House
The LA Philharmonic conductor was at lunch at the White House last week and the Marine band played. He was impressed. One thing led to another and…
Skyscrapers In LA’s Hot New Arts District? We’re Dubious
“Even the anti-development activists who see every tall building in Los Angeles as a giveaway to moneyed interests or a threat to the existing character of the city may find something to admire here. We’d be wise to hold on to some skepticism, though.”
How To Pay For Finishing Orlando’s New Arts Center? Mayor Calls For Resort Tax
“Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs … revealed a new plan, in a memo to county leaders, that lays out a path to get the arts center the final $45 million in tourist development tax dollars it needs to start the $185 million second phase that includes the 1,700-seat Steinmetz Hall acoustical theater.”
A 12-Step Program To Erasing Black Artists
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Google Should Buy Twitter And Attach It To YouTube: Columnist
“If you combined the fastest and slowest types of social media, the result could be both must-see and never-forgotten.”
Researchers Restore The First-Ever Computer-Generated Music
“A computer scientist and a composer have restored an ancient recording of the first ever computer-generated music. Jack Copeland and Jason Long remastered a recording of three melodies, including “God Save the Queen,” made by the BBC in the labs of computer pioneer Alan Turing in 1951.”
The African American Museum Is Finally Open. Now What?
“The new museum opens with all the usual tensions already in place. Among its major donors are banks that played a brutal role in predatory loan scandals that targeted African American communities as well as companies that manufacture the cigarettes, food and soft drinks that play such a big part in the plague of diabetes and other health issues that afflict the black population. This doesn’t mean that the museum can’t be independent, or that the scholars and curators who created the exhibitions were in any way compromised by pressure. But it does mean that it could take substantial fortitude to, say, mount an exhibition about racism and professional sports when one of museum’s major funders is the NFL. In the age of the modern, mass-market museum, freedom and independence are never a given; they must be reasserted and defended with every new exhibition.”