“Robert Proctor explains that ignorance can often be propagated under the guise of balanced debate. For example, the common idea that there will always be two opposing views does not always result in a rational conclusion. This was behind how tobacco firms used science to make their products look harmless, and is used today by climate change deniers to argue against the scientific evidence.”
Email Is A Rabid Bat. But It’s Not Going Away Anytime Soon
“Email has evolved into a weird medium of communication where the best thing you can do is destroy it quickly, as if every email were a rabid bat attacking your face. Yet even the tragically email-burdened still have a weird love for this particular rabid, face-attacking bat.”
Life At One of England’s Last Tolstoyan Communes
“These days, the Brotherhood Church of Stapleton … has just four residents, plus a friendly deaf cat, some chickens, and a large, lumbering cow.”
Netflix Launches In 130 More Countries
“Chief Executive Reed Hastings took the stage … to announce during a keynote speech that Netflix was switched on in countries like India, Russia, Vietnam, Nigeria, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Turkey and Indonesia. … [The service] is now in more than 190 countries, with the notable exception of China.”
The Woman Who Will Transform The National Theatre Of Wales
“Kully Thiarai is a breath of fresh air and exceptionally well placed to ensure that NTW is an arts organisation that is original, radical and relevant in the 21st century.”
Why Music Seems So Much Louder Today
“Compression leaves distinctive signs on recordings that audio engineers can use to analyse forensically how the loudness war has progressed through the decades. Scientific studies show that the loudness of hit records kept increasing from about 1989 to around 2004. After that, the increase in loudness seems to have slowed.”
Why The British Tell Better Children’s Stories
“If Harry Potter and Huckleberry Finn were each to represent British versus American children’s literature, a curious dynamic would emerge: One defeats evil with a wand, the other takes to a raft to right a social wrong.”
The Folks At Miami City Ballet Explain ‘Why We Dance’
“For its 30th Anniversary Season, Miami City Ballet asked members from every rank of its international, 51-member company to tell their stories; what inspired them to dance, and what motivated them to devote their lives to this incredible physical and artistic discipline.” (video)
Why Do We Watch/Read/Listen To Some Things Over And Over Again?
The most obvious reason is something called the “mere-exposure effect.” Quite simply, people prefer things they’ve previously been exposed to. The effect makes sense from an evolutionary point of view: If we’ve been through a door 100 times and know what’s behind it, we no longer have to worry that a predator is waiting beyond the threshold. But how does this relate to re-consumption of media?
Scotland’s Arts Funder Under Fire For Supporting Artist’s ‘Poverty Safari’
“Creative Scotland launched a strident defence of their decision to put £15,000 into a project that sees artist Ellie Harrison not allowed to leave Glasgow for a year. The news of the Glasgow Effect ‘durational performance’ caused a social media storm with hundreds of people taking to Harrison’s Facebook page to attack both the artist and the funding body.”
China Is Moving Into Hollywood In A Big Way
“China’s film industry is healthy and prolific in its own right, and Chinese businesses are opening their pocketbooks with the aim of establishing a presence internationally. … The script has been flipped. Chinese money can now dictate details of American blockbusters explicitly, not just on the consumer end.”
In An Age Of Creeping Machines, How Do We Retain Humanity?
Increasingly the world around us is being modulated by machine. We’re addicted to our devices even when we don’t want to be. So how do we express and fulfill our humanity even as machines become more important?
Should Literary Diversity Extend To Your Economic Class?
“It seems to me that socioeconomic class is a tougher sort of diversity to bring to writing. Unlike the other varieties, it’s at odds with what readers are used to and what they’re likely to want—namely wealthier, more glamorous, or just less drudgery-having versions of themselves.”
Esquire’s New, Not-So-Overwhelmingly-Male List Of 80 Books Every *Person* Should Read
“What can we say? We messed up. Our list of ’80 Books Every Man Should Read,’ published several years ago, was rightfully called out for its lack of diversity in both authors and titles. So we invited eight female literary powerhouses, from Michiko Kakutani to Anna Holmes to Roxane Gay, to help us create a new list. Each participant made 10 picks.”
Mark Swed: The Importance Of Pierre Boulez
Boulez believed that it was up to him and his generation of postwar avant-gardists to unleash the musical revolution that Schoenberg’s 12-tone system implied. “SCHOENBERG IS DEAD,” he triumphantly repeated at the end.
Tim Page: Remembering Pierre Boulez
“In later years, Mr. Boulez was by all accounts a gracious, soft-spoken and self-effacing gentleman, much beloved by the musicians with whom he worked. In his composition and his conducting — which he managed with the brisk efficiency of a bank teller giving change — he was the antithesis of the romanticized stereotype of egoistic, heaven-storming musician.”
How Did Spotify Figure Out The Best Music Recommendation Engine?
“Automated music recommendations are hardly new, but Spotify seems to have identified the ingredients of a personalized playlist that feel fresh and familiar at the same time. That’s potentially a big advantage over competitors like Pandora, Google, and Apple, which largely have the same bottomless catalog of music but take very different approaches to picking the best songs for each user.”
Long-Lost Violin Concerto Turns Up Deep In Bowels Of Toronto Library
“James Mason, who works at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music Library, discovered Norwegian composer Johan Halvorsen’s composition while digitizing the library’s thousands of pieces of sheet music.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 01.06.16
When you can afford the very best
A thought experiment: suppose you are in a middle-class household, around the median income. What goods and services do you purchase and enjoy that are the very finest available, such that people in the top … read more
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2016-01-05
Public Policy and Community Engagement
Over a two month period last year, TRG Arts and Engaging Matters partnered on a series of posts examining relationship building as the foundation of effective fundraising, marketing, and community engagement. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-01-05
Will Venice Sell Art to Stay Afloat?
On Jan. 1, I wasn’t paying too much attention to the news, but The Wall Street Journal posted an article that day that should not go unremarked. … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-01-05
New Year’s “Resolutions,” Pasternak Edition: What Artworld Uncertainties Should Be Resolved in 2016?
This is the second in my series of how thorny artworld issues that vexed us in 2015 could achieve satisfying resolution in the year ahead: … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-01-06
Memories of Boulez
So many memories came to me when I read that Pierre Boulez had died. One was something he did when I saw him conduct once at Carnegie Hall. Can’t remember which piece it was … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-01-06
Boulez est mort
I have little to say, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to use a headline I’ve been holding in reserve for three decades. When I interviewed Pierre Boulez in Chicago in 1987, we touched … read more
AJBlog: PostClassic Published 2016-01-06
Passings: Paul Bley, Natalie Cole
Pianist Paul Bley died on Sunday. He was 83. His family announced his death through ECM Records … Natalie Cole died last Saturday at the age of 65. At first, she was reluctant to become a professional singer for fear of comparison with the success of her father … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-01-05
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Scientists Track Relationship Between Music, Emotion And The Brain
“In summary, this study shows that the impulse to create emotionally expressive music may have a basic neural origin,” the researchers write. If their findings are confirmed, they will help explain “the human urge to express emotions through art.”
Scientists See Role For Dance In Treating Neurological Disorders
“Scientists gave little thought to the neurological effects of dance until relatively recently, when researchers began to investigate the complex mental coordination that dance requires.”
What All Great Art Forgeries Have In Common
“At the center of every major forgery scandal of the last century stands someone like Greenhalgh who not only could produce a very convincing fake, but who also understood how to corrupt the very systems of knowledge the art world uses to determine attributions and authenticity.”
Pierre Boulez Dead At 90
“As a young composer he had matched intelligence with great force of mind: He knew what had to be done, according to his reading of history, and he did it, in defiance of all the norms of French musical culture at the time.” As a conductor, “his keen ear and rhythmic incisiveness would often produce a startling clarity. (There are countless stories of him detecting, for example, faulty intonation from the third oboe in a complex orchestral texture.)”