Yearly Archives: 2023
The Shocking Decline Of Reading, Thinking
What I (and everyone I know) is talking about now is a seismic shift in the preparedness, study skills, attention spans, and reading comprehension...
Even Machine Brains Need Sleep
Artificial neural networks are prone to a troublesome glitch known, evocatively, as catastrophic forgetting. These seemingly tireless networks can keep learning tasks day and...
Can We Build Successful Cities Again That Aren’t Centered Around Cars?
A 17-acre, $170 million project that’s been an urbanist obsession since it was announced in late 2019, Culdesac is being watched closely as a test case...
The Importance Of Artists’ Day Jobs
The exhibition blows through the polite separation between artwork and money work. Not only does it name, in wall label after wall label, what...
What’s The Trickiest Part Of Marketing A Movie? Getting The Title Right
"A good title won't save an unwatchable movie. But a catchy name has potential to propel a film into the zeitgeist (see 'M3GAN'), and...
The Sound Of Climate Change (Musicians Are Recording Melting Glaciers)
“It gave people a different way into what I was talking about, other than just showing slides. The sound conveyed what it was like...
Women Are Mastering (And Sometimes Subverting) The All-Male Craft Of Maskmaking For Noh Theater
"When Mitsue Nakamura began, she knew of one other woman in the field, but this year, all four of her current apprentices, some of...
Who Are Wikipedia’s Editors (And Who Checks Them?)
The typical Wikipedia editor is a man (fewer than 10 per cent are women) who works in a desk job which involves being online...
Mexico’s Greatest Living Writer Is 90, And She’s Not Done Writing Yet
"Elena Poniatowska has chronicled every major social movement in Mexico over seven decades, her 40-plus books a one-woman time capsule of a country's modern...
“Democracy Dies In Darkness.” (How About Dance?)
The Washington Post laid off its Pulitzer-winning dance critic Sarah Kaufman. Kaufman talks about what that means. - MDTheatreGuide
There’s Somewhere In America Where Newspapers Are Growing? Yes — Prisons
"According to the newly launched Prison Newspaper Directory by the Prison Journalism Project, there are 24 prison-based newspapers in 12 states. At least four...
22 Years Ago Orchestra Folk Debated The Role Of The Music Director
The frustration of conductors and orchestra musicians was at times quite palpable. One of the instrumentalists, a principal player from a major orchestra, recounted...
A Voyage Into Beeple World: The Digital Artist Opens His New 50,000 SF Studio...
"It is world of digitally birthed babies that pile pink and helpless atop one another, contained in rectangular digital totems, or kinetic sculptures, flowing...
Bees Learn Their Waggle-Dances From Their Elders, Says Researchers
"Booty-shaking worker bees guide their fellow workers to pollen by a form of communication known as 'waggle dancing' — performing steps that map out...
Spain’s Legendary 700-Year-Old Boys’ Choir Will Finally Include Girls — Sort Of
The Montserrat monastery in the mountains of Catalonia, home to the famous Escolania de Montserrat boys' choir, is forming a new ensemble of 25...
Conductor Hans Graf Discovers And Revives A Forgotten Requiem For A Polish King
In 1798, King Stanisław II, exiled to St. Petersburg and knowing he was dying, commissioned Józef Kozłowski, who'd come to the Russian capital a...
Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mother Was An Enslaved Woman, Says Historian
A series of papers, discovered in Florentine archives, concerns the emancipation in 1452 of an enslaved Circassian woman, probably abducted as a girl, named...
The Latest Banksy Mural Was Demolished As Banksy Took Pictures
"The site of Banksy's latest work, an outside wall of a derelict farmhouse in the seaside town of Herne Bay in Kent, has been...
UK Extends Tax Relief For Theatres, Orchestras, And Museums
"The Treasury had doubled the rate of the reliefs ... about 18 months ago to help cultural bodies recover from the pandemic, but the...
“Everywhere” Demonstrates Hollywood’s Move Toward Linguistic Realism
Increasing use of non-English languages and subtitles demonstrates both a trend toward linguistic realism in Hollywood and also broader acceptance of linguistic diversity in...
Why Are Miami’s Arthouse Theatres Disappearing?
“Art Basel, New World Symphony, the Miami Ballet — every single art discipline in Miami has grown and blossomed with the city. The only...
Just What Do “Sensitivity Readers” Do?
Sensitivity readers can become the implied “baddy” or “goody” (depending on where you stand) in such cases, their service seen as the reason that...
A University’s Decision To Sell Its Art And A Battle For The Soul Of...
What is the purpose of studying at a university beyond job training? How can schools like Valparaiso, which emphasize learning outside of vocational courses,...
The Ballerina That Captured Ismene Brown’s Heart
Lynn Seymour’s death last Wednesday undammed an outpouring of truly wrenching sadness from those whom this extraordinary ballerina injected with her poison - as...
What If We’re Thinking About The Culture Of Climate Change All Wrong?
Much of the reluctance to do what climate change requires comes from the assumption that it means trading abundance for austerity. But what if...
