“Postmodernism has lost its value in part because it has oversaturated the market. And with the end of postmodernism’s playfulness and affectation, we are better placed to construct a literature that engages earnestly with real-world problems. This new literature can, in good faith, examine complex and ever-shifting crises – of racial inequality, capitalism and climate change – to which it is easy to close one’s eyes.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
Is Classical:NEXT The Most Important Development In New Music?
Frank Oteri thinks so: “I’ll say unequivocally that the 2017 edition of Classical:NEXT (c:N) was the most vital music get-together I’ve participated in in the last 12 months, quite possibly even longer. And, more importantly, I think c:N has the potential to be the most viable international gathering place for open-minded music-focused people, despite its name.”
Cincinnati Symphony Gets A New Executive Director
“Jonathan Martin, 60, a native of Atlanta, is coming from Dallas, where he has served as president and CEO of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra since 2012. He also served for nine years as general manager of the Cleveland Orchestra, including the period when the Ohio orchestra moved back into Severance Hall following a major renovation.”
Akron Ponders Turning A Freeway Into A Big Urban Park
“The Innerbelt National Forest is the idea of Hunter Franks, a San Francisco-based artist who has been working in the Akron community since 2015. He plans to populate the freeway with potted plants, public seating, and programming meant to reconnect the two communities severed by the freeway 40 years ago. The project just received a Knight Cities Challenge grant, which is giving $15 million to projects in 26 American cities.”
Why Shouldn’t We Have Imaginary Friends? (They’re Very Stimulating)
“The vivid world of make-believe people is for children only. (If you’re not convinced of the ubiquity of this assumption, just imagine the water-cooler conversation that would ensue if a co-worker casually let slip, “I spent my lunch break imagining how a young girl I dreamt up might respond to being lost in a foreign country.”) It may be considered acceptable for an adult to play video games or fantasy baseball…but evidently in order to become functional adults each of us must renounce our personal Puff the Magic Dragon.”
Study: Doodling Unlocks Creativity
“A research team led by Girija Kaimal of Drexel University found just a few minutes of doodling or freestyle drawing activates the brain’s reward system, leaving people feeling more creative and confident in their problem-solving abilities.”
Did Bob Dylan Take Parts Of His Nobel Speech From SparkNotes?
Those familiar with Dylan’s music might recall that he winkingly attributed fabricated quotes to Abraham Lincoln in his “Talkin’ World War III Blues.” So Dylan making up an imaginary quote is nothing new. However, I soon discovered that the Moby-Dick line Dylan dreamed up last week seems to be cobbled together out of phrases on the website SparkNotes, the online equivalent of CliffsNotes.
The Greatest Music Festival Ever (And No, It Wasn’t Woodstock)
“The idea for Monterey Pop, a model for subsequent rock music festivals from Woodstock to Bonnaroo, emerged from a conversation in early 1967 among Paul McCartney, the record producer Lou Adler and the folk rock band the Mamas and the Papas. They weren’t thinking of the war; they were thinking of music — in particular, why rock wasn’t considered an art form alongside the likes of jazz.”
Scientists Use Mathematics To Discover Multi-Dimensional Structures In The Brain
“It is as if the brain reacts to a stimulus by building then razing a tower of multi-dimensional blocks, starting with rods (1D), then planks (2D), then cubes (3D), and then more complex geometries with 4D, 5D, etc. The progression of activity through the brain resembles a multi-dimensional sandcastle that materializes out of the sand and then disintegrates,”
Lost Jackson Pollock Painting Found In Arizona Garage
“When a Scottsdale, Arizona, man was headed to a retirement home, a neighbor helping with the move found the collectible in the garage and suggested contacting an auctioneer to appraise it. Josh Levine, owner of the auction house who was called to look at the poster, estimated the signed Lakers memorabilia would be worth about $300. But when they went to the man’s garage, what they found could be 50,000 times more valuable.”