“For some people, at least, feeling another’s pain is insufficient: You also experience the urge to harm the person they are in conflict or competition with.”
What If Procrastination… Is Good For You?
“If procrastination is so clearly a society-wide, public condition, why is it always framed as an individual, personal deficiency? Why do we assume our own temperaments and habits are at fault — and feel bad about them — rather than question our culture’s canonization of productivity?”
The Fight To Save Paris’s Oldest Bookstore
“It’s difficult to imagine the shuttering of a bookstore causing a similar outcry anywhere else—not to mention direct government involvement in the matter of a private lease. This has something to do with what the French call l’exception culturelle.”
Why Is Academic Writing So Dreadful?
“The familiarity of bad academic writing raises a puzzle. Why should a profession that trades in words and dedicates itself to the transmission of knowledge so often turn out prose that is turgid, soggy, wooden, bloated, clumsy, obscure, unpleasant to read, and impossible to understand?”
Carol Ann Duffy: My First Five Years As Poet Laureate
“When Carol Ann Duffy was appointed poet laureate in 2009, the first woman to hold the post in its nearly 350-year history, she set herself several goals that included setting up new prizes, giving support to new festivals and helping to generate commissions for poets.”
Can L’Exception Culturelle Save Paris’s Oldest Bookstore?
“This month, the Librairie Delamain’s lease is up for renewal by the Qatari company Constellation Hotel Holdings, which … plans to double the bookstore’s rent to 100,000 euros per year – nearly a tenth of their annual revenue.” But now the Académie Française and the nation’s minister of culture have gotten involved.
Legal Battle Over Astérix Ends As Co-Creator And Daughter Kiss And Make Up
“It was a dispute as bitter and drawn-out as Astérix the Gaul’s campaign against the Romans. On Friday, however, the illustrator Albert Uderzo … and his daughter … buried the hatchet after a court threw out a case brought by Sylvie Uderzo claiming her father had been tricked into selling off part of the family heritage.”
Longwood Gardens, Near Philadelphia, To Give Its Fountains $90M Upgrade
“With more than one million visitors a year, Longwood – the former estate of the industrialist Pierre S. du Pont, who designed and built the Fountain Garden in 1931 for his own entertainment – is the most popular public garden in the country.” Currently, the fountains’ original plumbing – described as “a network of Band-Aids” – is still in use.
Yes, It’s Time To Admit You’re Powerless Over Netflix And Ask A Higher Power For Help
That is, are you addicted to binge-watching? You can – and should – overcome it by understanding the way TV plots work.
Self-Assured, Genre-Busting Movies On The Rise
“‘Dangerous’ is the word that comes to my mind because these are movies that refuse to settle down or behave properly. They do their own thing.”
The Next Iteration Of Los Angeles’ Gorgeous (But Challenged) Union Station
“The plan also calls for remaking Alameda itself as it runs in front of the station, making it easier for pedestrians and cyclists to navigate. Complicating this goal, the city’s existing plan for Alameda actually anticipates widening the street to make room for the heavier car traffic produced by a busier Union Station.”
Is The Google Library Project Fair Use (And Is It Hurting Authors)?
“Regarding the effect on potential market value — you think that might be something that would vary from book to book, but the court really did not consider it that way. It treated the books in the aggregate.”
What Does A Designer Think Of The Flap Around Los Angeles’ 99-Seat Theatres?
“I have come to find the 99-seat plan to be a blessing and a curse. It allows for creative freedom and risk taking in production. With such a vast talent pool in Los Angeles, the work often can be amazing. It can also be terrible.”
When A Theatre Boxes Out Critics On Opening Night
“Critics are invited to a separate ‘media night’ five days later – and this is a formula that the company intends to follow for the rest of the season.”
The Night Baby Hipsters Completely Swarmed The NY Art Book Fair
“Nate: If you had told me three years ago that I’d be mentioning Coachella while talking about the NY Art Book Fair …
“Alanna: Haha, yeah, right? It’s great though, print is alive and well.”
First Theatre Certified Paying “Living Wage”
“Theatre Delicatessen has said it will pay all of its permanent staff the London living wage, which is £8.80 an hour. All other temporary staff, such as box office attendants and bar staff, will get the living wage rate of £7.65 an hour.”
What Do You Do With Taller Dancers?
“Some companies are more tolerant of taller star ballerinas than corps dancers. The question is how to advance beyond the back row.”
Vinyl’s Back! And So Are The Pressing Plants That Make Them (But They’re Getting Stressed Out)
“Despite the increased public demand for vinyl records, spanning mass reissue campaigns of premium-quality vinyl by classic bands such as Pink Floyd to small seven-inch runs by local bands to sell at gigs, press operators say that profit margins are narrowing because of the increased costs involved in locating, refurbishing, installing, operating, and ultimately repairing machines that are no longer made but are pushed harder and faster than they were in their heyday.”
Why Leonard Bernstein Still Grabs Hold Of Our Imaginations
“It turns out Lenny was truly great after all: one of the biggest, most colorful, most popular and recognizable figures in American classical music. And posterity shows no signs of abandoning him. Recording catalogues and publishers’ lists are as full as ever of his recordings, DVDs and Bernstein-related publications.”
Report: Music Sales Dropped Precipitously In First Half Of 2014
“According the Recording Industry Association of America, which collects sales numbers from the major record companies, just under $3.2 billion in music sales was recorded in the first half of 2014. That is down 4.9 percent from the same period in 2013, the association reported on Thursday. But a closer look at the numbers shows how much music consumption patterns are changing.”
Fall American TV Schedule Is More Diverse (Seriously)
“New shows have a high failure rate and some of these programs still feel a bit too much like one long ethnic joke. But there’s also a sense of a page turning in network TV. Finally some networks have realized they can get good ratings and lots of attention by airing series that look more like America.”