Over the past 50 years, abebuu adekai – “proverb boxes,” fantastical caskets hand-carved from wood – “have become one of Ghana’s most unique cultural exports. The curious tradition of burying people in coffins shaped like everything from lobsters to busty women is primarily practiced in Accra and has spawned over 10 workshops in the capital city.”
Computer Analysis Of Bestselling Books Reveal What Works. So Can Computers Show You How To Write A Bestseller?
“Most writers of literary fiction regard bestsellers with a mixture of envy for the numbers involved and disgust for the kind of writing that often racks them up. Le Devoir lightened its assignment by presenting it as a game, with a reader poll to decide the winner.”
Can You Think Yourself Into Becoming A Different Person? On Neuroplasticity
“It’s hard, for the non-scientist, to understand what, exactly, neuroplasticity is and what its potential truly is. ‘I’ve seen tremendous exaggeration,’ says Greg Downey, an anthropologist … and co-author of the popular blog Neuroanthropology. ‘People are so excited about neuroplasticity they talk themselves into believing anything.'”
Cameron Carpenter’s Majestic Machine: A Massive Virtual Pipe Organ For Touring To Concert Halls
“The computerized programming of the International Touring Organ delivers what’s in essence a digitized synthesis of the sounds of Carpenter’s favorite pipe and electronic organs” – theater organs as well as church and concert-hall instruments – with “five manuals (keyboards), a specialized pedalboard, and controls for the stops [as well as] a supercomputer/amplifier unit, the brains of the array, and an expansive proprietary system of specialized speakers. But no pipes.”
Why Are Some People Habitually Late?
“There’s no single cause. Chronic lateness is a kind of end-product phenomena. People can have very different sorts of motives and patterns” – several of which are explored here – “that lead them to be chronically late.” One common factor: we they honestly don’t mean to be rude.
Once-Famous Floating Hotel To Become Phnom Penh’s Center For Cambodian Arts
The Boat, long abandoned, will be renovated into a complex with art studios, rehearsal and performance spaces, office facilities, restaurants and galleries.
Whoever The NY Philharmonic’s Next Music Director Is, It Won’t Be Salonen
“That leaves two conductors who are considered leading contenders for the position: Jaap van Zweden, the music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, and Manfred Honeck, the music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra — though dark-horse candidates have been known to emerge victorious in the orchestra’s past searches.”
Is Kentucky’s New Governor Eliminating The State’s Arts Council?
“It is not clear whether an alternative agency will be formed or whether the arts will be folded into another agency. In either case, oversight of the arts will become political with changes in personnel and programs with each election.”
Ghiberti’s Bronze Doors On Baptistery In Florence Replaced By Replicas
“For nearly 600 years, Lorenzo Ghiberti’s panels depicting scenes from the life of Christ on the north doors of the Baptistery in Florence were exposed to the elements and other vicissitudes of time. Now, the gilded bronze doors with their 28 panels have been replaced with replicas made by a team of artisans using the materials and techniques mastered centuries ago by the Renaissance sculptor and his workshop.”
Akram Khan Responds To Open Letter Criticizing His Remarks About Female Choreographers
“I would hope that the work I have done throughout my career to help support anyone with talent would demonstrate to those that don’t know me well, and to my colleagues in the dance industry that do know me, that “those comments are simply not where my heart lies.”
Who Knew What, When Is Key To Art Forgery Trial
“You’re looking at a vast pool of money chasing a finite pool of art,” said Pepe Karmel, associate professor in the art-history department at New York University. “The temptations are huge.”
The Utopian Workplace Of Tomorrow Is Here Today
“You can charge for delivering happiness only if you can measure it.”
Another Nude Artist, But This Time On The Toilet For Two Days To Prove How Shitty Contemporary Art Is
“Spectators are invited to sit on a toilet opposite from Ms. Levy and engage with her (though touching the artist is strictly forbidden).”
How We Mourn Baby Boomers, Especially The Famous Ones
“For the famous, immortality may actually be achieved during a lifetime, but the rest of us have to wait until death, when the ice releases our youths, and we become all of our selves again.”
Progress In The Arts? Not Sure That’s A Relevant Idea
“What is progress? In culture, and especially in high culture, progress is the attempt to make something better, which implies hierarchical thinking: if there is something better, this means that there is also something worse.”
Oops! Sotheby’s Reveals Loss From Taubman Sale Guarantees
“On Friday, the auction house announced that it expected to lose $12 million in the fourth quarter of 2015 as a result of the A. Alfred Taubman sale, with half the loss because of a shortfall and half because of related expenses.”
Academy Of Motion Pictures Endorses Membership Reforms In Responding To Diversity Protests
The board said its goal was to double the number of female and minority members by 2020.
Idris Elba Talks To British Parliament About Importance Of Diversity. And Nails It
“How many wonderful stories out there haven’t we heard because the person behind it didn’t have the right look, race, sexual orientation, or whatever else? How different might our worldview be if we were exposed to more realistic representations of society? To find that out, we need to see people with a wide range of backgrounds put in charge of programming and development.”
A Black Boycott Of Oscars? It’s Complicated
“The idea of boycotting the Oscars is an attractive show of solidarity; but it is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg as it pertains to racial biases in Hollywood. Non-white actors and filmmakers continually face further marginalization and fewer opportunities; and if anything, the Oscar backlash is proof that fans and contributors are remaining vigilant in their scrutiny of Hollywood.”
Edmonde Charles-Roux, 95, Prize-Winning Novelist And Editor Of French Vogue
“Ms. Charles-Roux, a decorated nurse and resistance fighter during World War II, found her way into fashion when she was hired in 1946 as a writer for a new women’s weekly, Elle. Two years later, she began writing for the French edition of Vogue, which installed her as editor in chief in 1954 … Four months after she [was fired from] Vogue, To Forget Palermo, her first novel, won the Prix Goncourt.”
Opera’s New Divas – The Directors?
“In generations gone by, conductors and stage directors worked as a pair, often for a long time, and mutually agreed upon their hierarchy. Today, conductors and stage directors maintain schedules that send them across the world, meaning that the creative duo may not meet long before the first rehearsal. In the past, stage directors would quickly have acquiesced to conductors’ demands.”
What Went Wrong At The Fort Worth Symphony
“About 15 years ago, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra underwent a dramatic transformation. It hired a new music director, Miguel Harth-Bedoya. It launched the Millennium campaign, which eventually raised $28 million for an orchestra endowment. … And then the recession hit during the 2008-09 symphony season.” And while the stock market and the economy, nationally and locally, have bounced back since 2009, the FWSO’s endowment and annual revenues have not, despite increased ticket sales and new contributors.
Another Big Cable Merger Faces Rising Opposition
“Comcast’s failed $45 billion merger with Time Warner Cable collapsed last year under pressure from regulators, who found that the combined company would have had both the power and incentive to inhibit the future of streaming video. Now, as rival Charter Communications seeks approval for its $67.1 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, critics point to the same potential for harm.”