“Given that the final frontier in artificial intelligence calls for some form of consciousness, when it comes, it will almost certainly issue not from the source code of a programmer, but from the lab of a neuroscientist. Then, if romance novels play a role, it will be to ensure, as a true test of intelligence, that they are read not with indifference, but with delight or disdain.”
Are Culture And Cool Just Pretentious Constructs?
“It’s difficult not to feel as though we, as a culture, have reached a dead end, that our quest for authenticity has bred nothing more than a series of postures and attitudes that, if they hadn’t sprung up by themselves, would have been invented by market demographers anyway. Perhaps we are stuck in the age of “cool,” when all roads to larger causes inevitably circle back to the adolescent project of exalting the self.”
Theatre Critic Takes A Month Off, Relearns Why Theatre Is Important
“Plays ask us to come together to engage with people and relationships presented just a few feet away — farther, if you have a balcony seat — while still allowing us the privacy that darkness confers. It offers community and anonymity at once. Additionally, a script or a streaming site won’t provide theater’s ephemerality, the sensation that each performance will never recur in exactly the same way.”
LGBT People Are Not Tragic, And It’s Time For The Stories In Our Culture To Reflect That
Jo Chiang: “Growing up, I found no reflection of that [queer] part of myself in the people around me. But I did have films and television. … Although women who loved women could not live happily ever after, they could drive off cliffs (Thelma and Louise). Or they could set the manor on fire and perish as it crumbled around them (Rebecca). Or they could be suffocated in a senseless and racialized manner for the sake of making a statement (Orange Is the New Black). Or they could get shot (Buffy the Vampire Slayer). And shot (Orphan Black). And shot (The Walking Dead). And shot (The 100).”
Gertrude Stein Wrote A Children’s Book, And Her Style Is Perfect For It
What’s more, Stein gave advice on reading the book that fits almost everything she ever wrote: “Don’t bother about the commas which aren’t there, read the words. Don’t worry about the sense that is there, read the words. If you have any trouble, read faster and faster until you don’t.”
Google’s Computers Wrote A Song. Can Human Musicians Make It Good Music?
“The Star asked Canadian musicians to try adapting the melody to a style of their choosing. How does a robo-composed tune sound in human hands?”
Re-salers Attack: Harry Potter Producers Turn Away Large Number Of Resale Ticket Buyers
“The secondary ticket market is an industry-wide plague, and one which we as producers take very seriously,” Friedman and Callender said in a statement. “Our priority is to protect all our customers and we are doing all we can to combat this issue.”
The Most Physically Demanding Job In America? Dance
“Rounding out the top five of the most physically active jobs in American are fitness trainers and aerobics instructors at No. 2, structural iron and steel workers at No. 3, reinforcing iron and rebar workers at No. 4, and forest firefighters at No. 5. Those four occupations look to be the toughest on earth, yet dancers beat them out.”
Does Comedy Central’s Cancellation Of Larry Wilmore Mean Anything For TV Diversity?
“When a move toward progress is made in the entertainment industry, the parties involved often sweat to death under the harsh spotlight that’s put on them. When a gamble is made and it doesn’t work out, executives don’t just start betting more conservatively. They shut down the whole casino.”
The Freelance Economy Is Booming (So Why Do We Look Down On Freelancers?)
“Often referred to patronizingly by media and politicians as the ‘gig economy,’ there’s a perception that workers only remain outside the traditional job market if they’re unskilled, unlucky or unmotivated. Hillary Clinton once said the freelance economy raises ‘hard questions,’ and business magazines treat the trend more like a plague than an evolution. But if innovation and independent spirit are qualities we supposedly value, what’s so wrong with taking your career into your own hands?”
Is Technology Making Our Culture Generic?
“It’s easy to see how social media shapes our interactions on the internet, through web browsers, feeds, and apps. Yet technology is also shaping the physical world, influencing the places we go and how we behave in areas of our lives that didn’t heretofore seem so digital.”
Lin Manuel Miranda’s New Fight: Ticket Bot Legislation
“The issue has been a fairly personal one for Miranda: ticket prices for his hit musical Hamilton soared to outrageous heights during his final weeks as the show’s lead actor. The New York Times reported that scalpers made $15.5 million off of his last 100 performances alone, and the going price for an orchestra seat at his last show was about $15,000.”
Willem Dafoe And Charlotte Rampling Star In Movie For One Viewer At A Time
“Sculpt [is] a $1.5m feature film by the 38-year-old French artist Loris Gréaud. It will be shown at LACMA’s Bing Theater, an auditorium that normally seats 600 people, but with an almighty caveat: Gréaud has requested that all of the seats be removed except for one, which will sit in the centre of the space, forlorn and exposed.” (Rampling, by the way, plays Grumpy Bear.)
A Video Game For When You’ve Had It With ‘SimCity’: A Dystopian Business Simulator
“In The Founder, there is one goal, and that’s to grow your startup and please those investors until there’s nothing left to give. Along the way, you appease preferably low-payed [sic] employees with perks like office kegs and butter coffee, join the lucrative industries of biotech or defense, and run your competition into the ground with sponsored music festivals and ’causewashing campaigns.'”
What’s Saving Malaysia’s Traditional Puppet Theater From Islamists? ‘Star Wars’
When it came to power in one Malaysian state back in 1990, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party banned the wayang kulit altogether because so much of its subject matter came from ancient Hindu epics. So a pair of enterprising young men turned to a different mythological epic.
How Mark Rylance Shaped His Most Famous Shakespearean Role (The Corset Helped)
“When you live with a woman for more than a decade – as Mark Rylance did, on and off, with a certain countess famed for her beauty and her severity – you come to know her well.”
Edinburgh And Adelaide Festivals Plan Not-Quite-Merger
“Edinburgh is to team up with one of its main overseas cultural rivals to commission major productions, help develop up-and-coming artists and even share staff in future.”
Sculptor To Place 55 Enormous Horses In Front Of Colosseum In Rome (It’s All About Refugees)
“Fifty-five monumental statues of horses are to be placed in front of the Colosseum and at Trajan’s Market in Rome next month. The works, by the Mexican artist Gustavo Aceves, are made from a variety of materials including bronze, marble, wood, iron and granite. The horses are shown in fragments; some of them are standing in boats, others are positioned on top of classical columns.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 08.15.16
When All The Culture Around Us Starts To Look The Same
One of the biggest comforts of fast food is its familiarity. Generic from location to location, you know not only what the food will be and how it will taste, but that the ritual of the experience will be familiar too. … read more
AJBlog: diacritical/Douglas McLennan Published 2016-08-15
Monday Recommendation: Bill Charlap Trio
Bill Charlap Trio: Notes From New York (Impulse!) … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-08-15
Second and Fourth
Young composers are frequently pointed to late Beethoven as an example of the highest achievement of their art, and late Beethoven indeed rewards repeated study. But there are lessons in late Beethoven that have little bearing … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2016-08-15
Gospel (not my usual bag) keyboards revelations
I’ll never be an avid fan, much less an aficionado, of gospel music — but Lift Me Up, Chicago Gospel Keyboard Masters, new from The Sirens, a local independent label, is clearly full of joy and inspiration. … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2016-08-15
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Are All Stereotypes Necessarily Wrong?
“If all beliefs about groups are stereotypes, and all stereotypes are defined as inaccurate, then all beliefs about groups are inaccurate. It is, however, logically impossible for all beliefs about groups to be inaccurate.”