Yearly Archives: 2023
The Skeptical Neurologist: Does Simply Visiting A Museum Provide Health Benefits?
The question is whether art exposure, alone, is enough to reap its benefits. In other words, does the simple fact of being in contact...
A Difference Of Opinions Is Not Fatal (Or Shouldn’t Be)
The most obvious pitfall of contrarianism is that, just like following the crowd, it outsources your judgement to others, albeit in rejection rather than...
English National Opera Is Victim To The Notion That The Point Of Art Is...
Opera’s contribution to health and welfare, its ability to improve lives, is a happy by-product. It is not the point. It is not opera’s job to do...
Great Book Covers You’ll Never See (And Why)
Ultimately, when you see a book cover in a store or online, you’re really just seeing the tip of the iceberg. Because at most...
How To Judge A Translation
A bad doctor and an uncircumspect translator are both bad in proportion to the good that they would be able to perform if they...
People Absorb Less Information Reading From Screens Than They Do From Paper. Why Is...
The screen inferiority effect (as it's called) has been repeatedly documented in studies, regardless of the language or country involved. The effect is different,...
Learning To Conduct, One “Nutcracker” (And Apprentice) At A Time
If Philadelphia Ballet’s fledgling apprenticeship program needed a success story to tout, Na zir McFadden is it. After his ballet post, the Philadelphian landed a plum:...
The Trafficking Of Looted Syrian Art Is Helping Finance ISIS
"A 2019 study … found that from just two sites of the over 5,000 under their control, the Islamic State looted an estimated $20...
The Rise Of YouTube Charity Porn. Philanthro-tainment?
Charity content on YouTube and most recently TikTok has always been a formulaic and nearly surefire way to gain likes and views. While these...
American Cultural Institutions Are Tearing Themselves Apart Over The Israel-Hamas War
"The conflict is forcing leaders to navigate larger existential questions about the power and limits of arts institutions at this moment, including whether museums...
Report: Access To Local News Declined Substantially In 2023
Residents in more than half of U.S. counties have very limited access to a reliable local news source. More than two newspapers a week...
And The Oddest Book Title Of 2023 Is …
"Sound the trumpets, folks, ring the bells and most importantly crank up that old-fashioned noisemaker that goes 'a-rooo-gha', for Danger Sound Klaxon! The Horn...
When The Oakland A’s Danced “Nutcracker”
The most charming and enduring tradition was the collaboration between the Oakland A’s and Oakland Ballet, which from the mid-1980s through the 1990s paired...
What’s All This About AM Radio Being Eliminated From Cars And Ted Cruz Trying...
Automakers have been gradually leaving AM receivers out of their new-model cars, and they really want — for legitimate reasons — to drop AM...
Facing A $3 Million Deficit, L.A. Public Radio Station KCRW Is Cutting Staff
"KCRW, which has an annual operating budget of about $23 million, relies on member contributions and corporate sponsorships, including studios looking to promote their...
Limelight Was A Church, Then A Disco, Then A Mall, Then A Pizza Joint,...
The de-sanctified sanctuary was Manhattan's hottest nightclub for a while in the 1980s. Shifting fashion and excessive drug use eventually shut the club down,...
The Musée d’Orsay Has Set Up An AI-Powered Vincent Van Gogh To Chat With...
Yes, it's making some typical AI-powered factual mistakes. And yes, visitors keep asking it why it committed suicide. - The New York Times
Detroit Symphony Extends Music Director Jader Bignamini’s Contract To 2031
"The Italian conductor, whose upbeat energy and artistic acumen have galvanized musicians and audiences since his arrival in 2020, has signed a five-year extension...
With Crowds Coming For The 2024 Olympics, The Louvre Raises Its Ticket Price
"Admission will rise from €17 to €22, the first hike of its kind since 2017. Per a statement from the Louvre on Friday, the...
Janet Panetta, Polio Survivor, ABT Dancer And Revered Ballet Teacher, Has Died At 74
Panetta, who was also a "vital presence" in Pina Bausch's ballet company in Germany, "adapted the rigor of classical ballet to promote healthy alignment...
This Year’s Golden Globe Nominees
This year, any discussion of Golden Globe snubs and surprises ought to start with the show itself, since this once-snubbed awards ceremony has engineered...
Michael Brodeur’s Best Classical Music List Of 2023
"Although orchestras and opera companies are still struggling to regain and retain their pre-pandemic audiences, 2023 was a year with so much to hear...
3,700 Versions Of “Silent Night”
George Plasketes, a professor of media studies and popular culture at Auburn University, called the song “almost like comfort food.” Much like “Amazing Grace,”...
Free Speech And The Complicated American University
The real problem was that none of these university leaders made a clear, coherent case for their institutions’ values. So when they did invoke...
Do Kids Even Know How To Use A Dictionary In The Age Of Siri?
A terrifying thought occurred to me. “Do you even know how to use a dictionary?” This was my second son, and it turned out...
