But yes, a complainant actually argued that the book “encourages children to use violence against their fathers”, demanded that it be removed from the library shelves, and even asked that the city pay damages.
Fanny Ardant At 65: ‘I Love Everything That Is Dangerous’
Says the French screen legend, “I have arrived at an age where I don’t want to build. I want to destroy! So if I have the opportunity for a dangerous relationship, I will take it.”
One Of Britain’s Greatest Artists Was Obsessed With Theories Of Color
Turner “broke things down as follows: YELLOW: Glory BLUE: Duty RED: Power GREEN: Servitude PURPLE: Authority.”
Why I Teach Plato To Plumbers (Yes, The Humanities Are Important)
Scott Samuelson: “I also teach Plato to nurses’ aides, soldiers, ex-cons, preschool music teachers, janitors, Sudanese refugees, prospective wind-turbine technicians, and any number of other students who feel like they need a diploma as an entry ticket to our economic carnival. As a result of my work, I’m in a unique position to reflect on the current discussion about the value of the humanities, one that seems to me to have lost its way.”
Why You Shouldn’t Trust Wikipedia
“To the casual reader, much of Wikipedia appears adequate, but be warned, nothing can be trusted. If your life depends on it, go elsewhere. Sources can be biased, but at least with other sources you know who has written what you are reading. With Wikipedia, you do not. Everyone has an agenda, but with Wikipedia you never know who is setting it.”
How To Make A Computer Chip As Energy Efficient As Your Brain (There’s Progress)
“Scientists are making significant strides when it comes to modeling computers on the power and efficiency of your brain, an ongoing project that could transform both health and computing.”
‘Your Complete Guide To The Murder Of Net Neutrality’
Michael Hiltzik: “[FCC chairman Tom] Wheeler’s proposal will turn the Internet as we know it into the private preserve of a handful of rich and powerful companies. It will make them richer and more powerful. And you’ll be getting the bill.”
The Most Linguistically Fascinating State In The Union
Can yinz guess which one? We dink so.
Sex Lives Of The Post-Holocaust Philosophers, Dramatized By The Man Who Invented The Birth-Control Pill
In his 11th play, Carl Djerassi – now 90 and irked that most people have no idea that he’s done anything since he developed the oral contraceptive at age 28 – depicts Theodor Adorno and Hannah Arendt investigating what was in the famous briefcase Walter Benjamin carried across the Pyrenees. The answer: porn.
Guitarists’ Brains Are Different From Everyone Else’s (Science Says So)
Researchers report that they’ve found that guitarists can synchronize their neural networks (gosh, like string quartets?) and, when they’re shredding, turn off the parts of the brain associated with big-picture goals (maybe like jazz musicians riffing?). But what about violists and bassoonists, huh?
The Onion To Take On BuzzFeed And Upworthy
“This June the satire site – stuck for now in the hopelessly 20th century business of spoofing reported, written news articles – will launch Clickhole.com.”
No, Neuroscientists Can’t Read Your Mind… (Yet)
“What they’ve done–so far, anyway–really doesn’t live up to what most people have in mind when they think about mind reading. Then again, the stuff they actually can do is pretty amazing. And they’re getting better at it, little by little.”
Why High Dropout Rates For MOOCs Don’t Matter
“The fact that sequentially presented content pretty much always sees a declining participation rate is a grim truth that we’re in some contexts shielded from.”
San Diego Opera Makes A Third Of $1M Crowdfunding Goal In Four Days
A company spokesman “said that 544 households had pledged that sum as of mid-afternoon Tuesday, for an average gift of $604” and a total so far of $328,475.
Tony Nominations Show Broadway’s Woman Problem
“The 2014 Pulitzer Prize for theater went this month to Annie Baker for her play The Flick. The runners-up were Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori for Fun Home, and Madeleine George for The Curious Case of the Watson Intelligence. All those works have two things in common: They were written by women, and they didn’t play on Broadway.”
Ai Weiwei Erased From Shanghai Art Show In Old Communist Style
“The name and works of Ai Weiwei have been removed from a show in Shanghai about the history of Chinese contemporary art because of pressure from local government cultural officials,” according to the artist himself and a Swiss dealer who helped organize the exhibition.
Why It’s Odd That ‘The Little Prince’ Is So Popular
Adam Gopnik: “Of all the books written in French over the past century, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince is surely the best loved in the most tongues. This is very strange, because the book’s meanings – its purpose and intent and moral – still seem far from transparent, even seventy-five-plus years after its first appearance.”
Newest Producer Of West End Musicals: English National Opera
“The subsidised company has announced a long-term partnership with commercial producers Michael Grade and Michael Linnit, which it said would see it present ‘world-class musical theatre’ in its London Coliseum home. It is understood that ENO hopes these productions may transfer to the West End.”
London’s Five Biggest Arts Institutions Get More Lottery Money Than 33 Local Governments Combined
The National Theatre, the Royal Opera House, Sadler’s Wells, English National Opera and the Southbank Centre have, over the past 18 years, have been given £315 million of Lottery arts funding. In that same period, the 10% of England’s local authorities with the lowest levels of community arts engagement received £288 million.
Metropolitan Museum Gets A Resident Theater Company
“As the museum’s first theatrical group in residence, the Civilians, a self-described center for investigative theater, will collaborate next season with Met curators and visitors to create works of theater inspired by objects in the museum’s American and Egyptian art collections.”
Spain Charges Montserrat Caballé With Tax Evasion
The superstar soprano, still not fully retired at age 81, is accused of dodging more than €500,000 in taxes on roughly €2 million in income in 2010 by using the good old tax haven ploy.
Berlin’s Hottest, Strangest Piano Recital Venue
“Forget the Berliner Philharmonie. The hip place to hear classical music here in the capital of Germany isn’t the late Hans Scharoun’s acclaimed concert hall but a former tram-repair shop with free booze and a collection tin for donations” – not to mention a bunch of restored historic instruments and the guts of other old pianos strewn about the place.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 04.29.14
Measuring success
AJBlog: Sandow | Published 2014-04-29
174 LACMA Donors = $4.1 Million + 10 Varied Acquisitions
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-04-30
From Wagner to Sedaka: Heppner’s “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,” His (and Beal’s?) Swansong (with video)
AJBlog: CultureGrrl | Published 2014-04-29
Diva breaks a leg. Literally.
AJBlog: Slipped Disc | Published 2014-04-29
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Mile-High Orchestra Concerts: The Weed-Powered Orchestra
“The concerts, organized by pro-pot promoter Edible Events, will start May 23 with three bring-your-own marijuana events at the Space Gallery in Denver’s Santa Fe arts district and culminate with a large, outdoor performance at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Sept. 13. They are being billed as fundraisers for the CSO, which will curate a themed program of classical music for each show.”
It’s Don’t-Cancel-My-Favorite-TV-Show Season
This is when the “Save My Show” campaigns get going. Online petitions and snail-mail letters sent to execs who pay other people to ignore these things. Ever see a TV show set in an office or a police precinct where there’s paper on people’s desk? A lot of that is letters from people pleading that some long-cancelled show featuring a teenage dreamboat is kept on the air.