There is nothing wrong with making things easier, in most cases, and the history of technology is filled with examples of amazing advances brought about by reducing complexity. Not even the most hardened Luddite, I suspect, wants to go back to the days of horse-drawn carriages and hand-crank radios. But it’s worth asking: Could some of our biggest technological challenges be solved by making things slightly less simple? – The New York Times
Haruki Murakami Is Not Going To Explain His Weird, Weird Books To You
About the scene ion Kafka on the Shore in which fish fall from the sky: “People ask me, ‘Why fish? And why are they falling from the sky?’ But I have no answer for them. I just got the idea that something should fall from the sky. Then I wondered: what should fall from the sky? And I said to myself: ‘Fish! Fish would be good.'”
Now Recruiting: A New Company Of ‘Monuments Men’
“A former Gulf War tank commander is recruiting experts to form a specialist unit” — called the Cultural Property Protection Unit — “that will protect cultural heritage in war zones, similar to the role carried out by the famed Monuments Men who saved artistic treasures from the Nazis during the Second World War. … The new unit will draw on members of the [British] Army, Navy, RAF and Royal Marines. Civilians who want to join will have to enlist in the Army Reserves.”
Professor Convicted For Embezzling Sentenced To Play Piano In Senior Homes
“[Dr. Alexander] Neumeister admitted in June to stealing roughly $87,000 while working for New York University, according to court records. … [A federal judge ruled that] must play piano for at least an hour, twice a week at facilities for the elderly in Hartford, New Haven, Waterbury and Bridgeport for the next three years.”
The ABT Dancers Taking On Harvard Business School
Last year, Crossover Into Business program director and HBS professor Anita Elberse was developing a case study on ABT, and reached out to the company executive director Kara Medoff Barnett, an alumna of HBS. “Anita mentioned the Crossover Program as an experience that has been transformative for professional athletes,” says Barnett. “We looked at each other and had the same idea: How about inviting the ABT dancers to sit next to the NBA players?”
The Roald Dahl Museum Was Massively Flooded This Year, But It’s Reopening
Appropriately punny for a museum that celebrates the author of The BFG, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and James and the Giant Peach (not to mention Matilda), “Isabelle Reynolds, from the museum, said: ‘We hope the closure hasn’t put a dampener on things.'”
The ‘French Scorsese’ Is Trying His Hand At A Western
French director Jacques Audiard won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival for directing The Sisters Brothers. How did one of France’s greatest filmmakers, who consistently discusses and urges more gender equality in film, wind up with a hypermasculine Western?
Helena Almeida, Portuguese Artist Who Bent The Boundaries Among Genres, Has Died At 84
Almeida had a signature technique of inserting herself into her art, whether that was video, photography, performance art or other media. “‘I turn myself into a drawing,’ she said by way of describing her art. ‘My body as a drawing, myself as my own work.'”
Twenty Years Ago, An Indian American Actor Wrote A Play For Himself, And Now He Revisits It
Has anything changed for Asians and other people of color in the theatre and movie world? Aasif Mandvi: “When you tell a story in Hollywood about brown people or black people or any people of color, it’s got to an extraordinary story. It’s got to be the worst thing or the best thing. It’s got to be like, [film trailer voice] “He was born a free man and then he was sold into slavery, and then he got onto a game show and won a million dollars. It’s 12 Years a Slumdog Millionaire!” It’s got to be Crazy Rich Asians, it can’t just be Asians, you know?”
Who Started The Biggest Library Fire In Modern History?
It’s a mystery – one that Susan Orlean, author of the new The Library Book, says may never be solved. But she started out wanting to write about the day-to-day life of a city library. “”I liked the idea of doing it in L.A., out of this contrarian idea that people don’t associate libraries with L.A., which made it kind of delectable.
The Dance Contest That Offers A Country In Pain A Chance To Celebrate, Together
The competition – where dancers from three different areas in Mali are asked to perform dances from other areas or traditions – was imagined as a way to bring some unity to a country wracked by tensions among the groups. “Over six weeks, TV audiences shared the fate of eight young men and women from different regions, who shared a house Big Brother-style in Bamako, the capital. Each week they performed before an audience and the TV cameras, their numbers progressively falling as a competitor was eliminated by a vote by the public and the jury.”
Scottish Ballet To Audience: Tell Us Where You Want Us To Perform And We Grant Your Wish
“It can be anything from the dancers performing at a birthday party or on the banks of Loch Ness, or even the chance to get on stage and be part of a Scottish Ballet show.” A judging panel including Susan Calman, Fred MacAulay and Dame Darcey Bussell will decide which of the wishes are granted in 2019.
Why Predictions Of The Future Have A Cultural Blind Spot
When it comes to culture we tend to believe not that the future will be very different than the present day, but that it will be roughly the same. Try to imagine yourself at some future date. Where do you imagine you will be living? What will you be wearing? What music will you love? Chances are, that person resembles you now.
The Women Who Built America’s Regional Theatre
Mary John was part of the nascent regional theatre movement, which was led in large part by women: Margo Jones opened Theatre ’47 in Dallas in 1947, Nina Vance opened Houston’s Alley Theatre that same year. And in Washington, D.C., Zelda Fichandler co-founded Arena Stage in 1950. Pat Brown, who would later become the Alley’s second artistic director and a founder of Theatre Communications Group, started the now defunct Magnolia Theatre in Long Beach, Calif., in 1954. For the next 15 years many women like them would work to bring to life a new vision of regional theatre in a country that still mostly looked to New York City,
The Senior-Citizen Audience: A Snapshot
In this research analysis by The Audience Agency, “we look at who older arts and cultural audiences are, what their characteristics as visitors are, how they may engage differently with different art forms and what motivates them. We know that these stats are only part of the story, however, and have included thoughts on good engagement practice and links to inspirational examples and complementary research.”
Trump Signs Landmark “Music Modernization Act”
Intended to update music copyright law for the digital era, H.R. 1551 (formally the “Orrin G. Hatch-Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act”) accomplishes three key things: making sure songwriters and artists receive royalties on songs recorded before 1972; allocating royalties for music producers; and updating licensing and royalty rules for streaming services to pay rights-holders in a more streamlined fashion, via a new, independent entity.
Is It Possible To Create Ballet That Doesn’t Hurt Women?
“It’s hard to deny that traditional ballet causes more pain to women than to men. And the fallout from ballet’s year of #MeToo will force us to examine whether it still has inherent value as an art form, despite the pain it can cause and its structural and gendered imbalances. The fact that we’re exposing ballet’s structural injustices seems like a promising start.”
Nicholas Hytner: Brexit Will Be A Disaster For UK Culture
On Brexit, Hytner said: “You will find nobody in the arts world who doesn’t think there is an enormous black cloud on the horizon in the shape of Brexit. We are so dependent on ideas, talent, people moving freely. Freedom of movement was nothing but good for us. “This is a tomorrow crisis for the classical music and dance world,” he said. “It will just all finish. They need players, dancers … they are dependent on them coming in from the European Union. It will take a little longer in my world.”
The (Not-So-)Great Rikers Island Salvador Dalí Art Robbery
How did a Dalí end up at Rikers anyway? (As an apology gift for a missed photo opp.) After time in the mess hall, a Virginia gallery, and a trash bin, the 3′-by-5′ original ended up near the Pepsi machine in a jail lobby. “The work barely registered with the Department of Correction officers and visitors who passed it. But a plaque next to the painting proclaimed that it was worth an estimated one million dollars.” Well, that was smart. James Fanelli recounts the story of the inevitable, but surprisingly badly executed, heist.
Banksy Declares His Shredded Painting A New Work Of Art, And Buyer Agrees To Pay For It
“‘When the hammer came down last week and the work was shredded, I was at first shocked, but gradually I began to realize that I would end up with my own piece of art history,’ the anonymous [purchaser] said in a statement. Banksy has in turn agreed to ‘re-authenticate’ the piece with a new title, Love Is in the Bin (2018). (It is currently unclear which came first: the collector’s decision to keep the work or Banksy’s decision to re-authenticate and rename it.) Sotheby’s, for its part, is making the most of its publicity coup, describing the work … as ‘the first work in history ever created during a live auction.'”
Chicago Lyric Opera Musicians Reject Management Offer; Sides Battle Via Press Release
“In a press release sent out Thursday evening, the company bitterly criticized the musicians’ union for rejecting the proposal and, for the first time, raised issues about the company’s financial stability and future viability. … The musicians responded by calling the offer ‘a bogus PR stunt.'”
Lyric Opera Of Chicago Is Trying To Solve Its Money Woes The Way The Airlines Did
“Abandoning its past practice of adding competitive routes and bigger planes on a whim, the likes of American and United now have figured out that in order to be profitable they must limit capacity. Better to charge more per seat than risk a half-empty plane. … That’s exactly what the Lyric Opera of Chicago has been trying to do” — and it’s what its orchestra musicians are striking over. Chris Jones points out that, when it comes to culture in a city like Chicago, the economic arguments for limiting supply are not the only important factor.
Fyre Festival Producer Gets Six Years In Prison For Fraud
“Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison Thursday for multiple counts of fraud, including the failed festival in the Bahamas last year where the 26-year-old lured hundreds of millennials with the help of celebrity investors like Ja Rule and Instagram celebrities like Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid.”
Met Museum Says ‘Heavenly Bodies’ Is Now Most Visited Show In Its History
According to the museum’s final attendance figures, the Costume Institute show of couture inspired by Roman Catholic vestments was seen by 1,659,647 people. (What, did they count every person who walked past a pope dress in the Medieval Sculpture Hall or The Cloisters?) That number exceeds the 1,360,957 viewer figure for the 1978 “Treasures of Tutankhamun” show.
Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre Gets A New Artistic Director
The company announced Thursday that acclaimed Canadian director Weyni Mengesha will become its artistic director, starting in January. Paired with the hiring of UK-based arts administrator Emma Stenning as Soulpepper’s new executive director in August, Toronto’s largest not-for-profit theatre company will now be led by two women after a year rocked by legal and internal discord.