We’re Awash In Stories. We’re Addicted To Stories. To What Effect?
Now that we have more storytelling than ever, has empathy increased apace? If stories have such sunny effects, why has the big bang of...
An Economist Wonders: Why In The Arts Are “The Greatest” All Oldies?
Why are composers like Mozart, Beethoven and Bach widely regarded as the greatest of all time? Why is it that in a 1985 survey of art experts...
Club To Harness Dancers’ Body Heat To Power Building
What if dance-floor catharsis could be good not only for the soul but also for the planet? This month, SWG3 and the geothermal energy...
Sydney Festival’s About To Begin, And More Than 20 Artists Have Backed Out
"More than 20 acts have pulled out of the 2022 Sydney festival, just 48 hours before opening night, boycotting the festival over a sponsorship...
No, Your Attention Span Didn’t Just Shrink. It Was Stolen
A small study of college students found they now only focus on any one task for 65 seconds. A different study of office workers...
The Most Overlooked Or Underrated Film Performances Of 2021
The list includes a couple of huge movie stars whose work this year hasn't caught fire, a few lesser-known talents, a couple of very...
Stephen Lawrence, Composer Of Sesame Street Music, 82
From Muppets to major stars, Lawrence composed the music for hundreds of Sesame Street songs. He also served as music director for Free to Be... You and...
Why Are Some Comedians In China Performing In English?
It's not (or not just) to try to fly under the censors' radar. (video) - BBC
Boston-Area Church Pays “Royalties” For Performing African-American Spirituals
"Today, we as a church will begin the practice of collecting ‘royalties’ ... for the spirituals we sing and worship. Whenever we sing Negro...
Egyptians Love Belly Dancing, But They Give The Dancers No Respect
The roots of raqs sharqi go back centuries, but its practitioners are treated more like sex workers than artists. (Parents will happily hire a...
Venice’s Calatrava Footbridge Is A Visual Surprise in An Ancient City. But Pedestrians Have...
The glass floor of the bridge is slippery, and locals have learned to be careful. Warning signs posted by the city didn't help. So...
Sinclair Lewis, The Writer Who Nailed Middle America
He had a difficult personality, an unseemly personal life, and a late-life plunge in the quality of his work, writes editor Robert Gottlieb, but...
Designers Are Actually Making Solar Panels Attractive To Look At
In the hope that improved aesthetics will lead to wider adoption, solar technology companies and their designers are creating panels with decorative patterns, various...
Sandra Jaffe, Co-Founder Of Preservation Hall In New Orleans, Dead At 83
She and her husband were driving home to Philadelphia from their honeymoon, stopped in New Orleans, heard traditional jazz, and basically never left. Their...
Classical Music Can Help Society Recover From The Pandemic, Says Director Of London’s Wigmore...
"Throughout the crisis, the industry has begun to construct a new narrative shaped to accommodate great artistic expression for everyone. As we rebuild our...
New York’s Three Big January Avant-Garde Festivals Are All Cancelled
The Under the Radar Festival (theater), Prototype (opera), and Exponential Festival (multiple genres) — much-anticipated events in what was once a barren January calendar...
Film Festival To Try Mass Hypnosis On Its Audience
In prior years, the Göteborg Film Festival, in Sweden's second city, has put viewers in coffins and kept one lucky attendee alone in an...
There Will Be No McDonald’s At Rome’s Baths Of Caracalla (Phew!)
The fast-food behemoth had originally obtained the city's permission to build the outlet on the site of a former garden center near the baths....
Stop Blaming Tribalism For What Ails Us
Although the notion that group solidarity leads inevitably to prejudice, animosity, and conflict is common, it is also incorrect and potentially dangerous. - The...
Latest Blockbuster Music Catalog Sale: David Bowie For $250 Million
The deal, for more than 400 songs, also includes soundtrack music; the material for Bowie’s short-lived band Tin Machine from the late 1980s and...
Opera House Appoints Italy’s First Woman Music Director
The Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv said she was surprised to learn she was making history after receiving the offer from the Teatro Comunale opera...
When Harry Reid Helped Michael Heiser Realize His Magnum Opus
A lesser-known part of his legacy—one that’s arguably just as enduring as his political feats—is his campaign to preserve Nevada land that is host...
Under The Radar Festival Is Canceled
The Public announced the cancellation on Twitter today. Considered one of the top international theater festivals focusing on new work, Under The Radar 2022...
Entertainment Stocks Didn’t Have A Great 2021
Disney had its worst year since 2008. Discovery, ViacomCBS, AT&T and AMC Networks also ended down. Netflix, Fox, Lionsgate and Sony rose. Comcast was flat. Fubo, a...
Streaming Has Made Counting Viewers Trickier
Of course, there has been grumbling for decades about Nielsen’s methods or the validity of box office projections, but there was generally some kind of verdict once...
