Life is awash with inducements to stupidity and greed. The bizarre, defiantly anti-utilitarian practice of making and enjoying art can function as a respite, a space for genuine reflection and reevaluation – as R.M. Rilke learned while staring at a broken ancient statue of Apollo, art can help us see that we must change our lives, if we want to live truly well in our short time. In our time that space is being increasingly colonised by the same venal lusts that already run so much of the wider world.
Month: July 2018
World’s Oldest Conductor Dies At 101
Edward Simons apparently became the world’s oldest active conductor when he took up the baton at age 100 to conduct Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings on Sept. 10, during the “2017 Annual Concert for Remembrance, 9/11,” at Grace Episcopal Church in Nyack. Guinness World Records currently lists Spain’s Juan Garcés Queralt, who conducted a concert at age 99 and 311 days, as the oldest, but is reviewing an application to recognize Simons’ achievement.
Beyonce And Jay Z’s Video In The Louvre – Does It Change The Way We Look At Museums?
The music video is a true feast for the eyes as beautiful people take over a beautiful place in ways we’ve never seen — because people of color rarely have the opportunity to claim such spaces, a fact that adds to the extraordinariness of the couple’s feat. However, while the Carters’ accomplishment underscores the egregious lack of representation and audiences of people of color in art spaces, it also perpetuates the damaging notion that art is a luxury.
We’ve Reached Peak Screen. So Tech Companies Are Wondering What’s Next
Tech has now captured pretty much all visual capacity. Americans spend three to four hours a day looking at their phones, and about 11 hours a day looking at screens of any kind. So tech giants are building the beginning of something new: a less insistently visual tech world, a digital landscape that relies on voice assistants, headphones, watches and other wearables to take some pressure off our eyes.
The Man Building Robots That Look (And Increasingly Act) Human
Last year, Hanson Robotics released its first consumer robot, Professor Einstein, a $199, 16-inch animatronic companion for kids that can answer questions, play brain games and discuss science and math. This year the company, which has about 50 employees, plans to release updates for Professor Einstein and to produce about 100 copies of Sophia and other human-sized robots. The androids function as programmable machines that can be used to train doctors, deliver therapies for depression, care for the elderly and interact with customers. Most importantly, Hanson is excited about all the functions people have yet to dream up. Imagine your iPhone without the apps.
Tim Berners-Lee Invented The Internet. It Went Wrong. Now He Has A Plan To Fix It
From the beginning, in fact, Berners-Lee understood how the epic power of the Web would radically transform governments, businesses, societies. He also envisioned that his invention could, in the wrong hands, become a destroyer of worlds, as Robert Oppenheimer once infamously observed of his own creation.
Tracking Down A Father’s Actions Through His Favorite Novels
What does it say about a dad that he adores the original Swedish noir? “Sjöwall and Wahlöö didn’t just inspire other Scandinavian writers to embrace the murder mystery: they shaped the genre so completely that all of their descendants bear their eccentricities. The Martin Beck series is bizarre, a fitting starting point for what has become a multimillion-dollar industry selling other bizarre, exasperating books.”
The Man Booker Prize Turns 50, Flawed But Still The Best Judge Of English-Language Literature
Or is it? “AL Kennedy, an otherwise seasoned critic, was moved to declare the prize ‘a pile of crooked nonsense’ in which the winner was decided by ‘who knows who, who’s sleeping with who, who’s selling drugs to who, who’s married to who, and whose turn it is.'”
Great Protest Music Outlasts Its Time (And Then Comes Around Again)
“Truly great works build a bridge not only between the concerns of their time and a longer historical struggle, but also between the performer’s feelings and the common well of human sentiment. The most consequential protest songs get referenced again and again for a reason: their power, both felt and understood, never dies.”
How *Lady Bird* Made A Star Out Of Its Main Character’s Best Friend
Beanie Feldstein played the titular character’s best friend Julie – and she stole most of the scenes she was in, with people tweeting “I want a movie about Julie!” Instead, Feldstein landed her first lead role. “As soon as we saw her in Lady Bird, we knew we’d both found Johanna and seen someone who was going to be a superstar. … From the moment you see her, you root for her.”