How serious is the gap between experience and the words we have? Serious. The need to render experience for others is tied to a need for others to understand us, and when unfulfilled, leaves an emptiness that hollows out our sources of motivation. – Nautilus
Month: September 2019
Why Are Books Rectangular? This Is Why
“It turns out that there are a lot of forces converging to make this shape ideal, and to get the whole picture, we’ll have to look from three angles: the anatomy of a reader, the history of publishing, and — in a brief departure from the world of books — the magic numbers behind printing.” – Book Riot
What’s This About Classical Music Evolving?
“The music itself is not the problem, in fact it’s what we do best—it’s our core product. Yet so many organizations think that if we change the product, it will help the bottom line, but it won’t.” – New York Observer
Dvořák Was Sure ‘Negro Melodies’ Would Be The Foundation Of American Classical Music. Why Did It Remain So White?
There was a point at which a number of African-American composers were writing serious, important work, writes Joseph Horowitz. “Racial prejudice, personal and institutional, obviously inhibited the potential success of a Dett, Dawson, Still, or Price. But a subtler prejudice was aesthetic.” – The American Scholar
Flutist Eugenia Zukerman On Dealing With Her Alzheimer’s
Zukerman, 74, has Alzheimer’s. She was diagnosed about three years ago after her two daughters insisted that she get checked. At the time, Zukerman thought nothing of the memory slips… – Albany Times-Union
The Reinvention Of Opera Philadelphia
The refrain “adapt or die” haunts many performing arts organizations, so it’s fascinating to find one that heeds the warning, discovers what it needs to do—and then actually does it. – The Philadelphia Citizen
After 40 Years, ‘For Colored Girls’ Returns, As A Celebration And As A Weapon, To The Theatre Where It Was Born
Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf “has been part of the canon since it became a Broadway hit in 1976. Still, [the play] doesn’t get a lot of professional productions; it’s been much more a staple of college theater. … But at a moment when race and gender are so prominent in the tumultuous civic dialogue — and when black playwrights, particularly women, are pushing both the content and form of contemporary American drama in new directions — the time seems right to revisit Shange’s text.” – The New York Times
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: Amazon Says It Will Let Random People Give Answers For Alexa Questions
The system will use game mechanics to engage users — people will be able to earn “points” each time the assistant shares one of their answers. – CNBC
‘Unmanly Grief’ — Performing A Trans Hamlet
“Jenet Le Lacheur — a transfeminine Brit who earned recognition, before coming out, in the West End production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child — has … [recently starred] as Hamlet in Daniel Winder’s dystopian production of the Shakespeare play … The fact that Winder’s Hamlet was nonbinary and transfeminine was largely subtextual — a subtle but important thread running through the production.” – HowlRound
Why Is Netflix Canceling So Many Shows?
The more original shows Netflix orders, the more likely it is to cancel those that don’t perform well. The company relies on an “efficiency metric” to decide what shows should be kept and which should go. If a series is able to retain subscribers with a risk of leaving or bring in new subscribers (like Stranger Things), it gets renewed. If it can’t, it’s probably going to be canceled. – The Verge