“The fact that internships are so prevalent in the creative industries is concerning, because the creative workforce lacks ethnic and socioeconomic diversity, particularly at entry level. If internships without measures to ensure equal access are common, there is a risk that the diversity of the sector will suffer.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
Today’s “Thought Leaders” Tread A Very Narrow Line
Today, our most famous purveyors of ideas sell themselves to the wealthy much like the courtiers of the Middle Ages. Daniel Drezner notes that these ideas are therefore shaped by the “aversion” that plutocrats share toward addressing the problems we face. Inequality? Global warming? Populist nihilism? An explosion of global refugees? From a Silicon Valley perspective, Drezner notes, such things are not a failure of our system but rather “a piece of faulty code that need[s] to be hacked.” Examining data from a survey of Silicon Valley corporate founders, Drezner notes their shared belief that “there’s no inherent conflict between major groups in society (workers vs. corporations, citizens vs. government, or America vs. other nations).”
The Theatre Designer Who Designed Modern America
“While older utopias often were predicated on returning to the virtues of an imagined past, a key figure behind this utopia of the new was Norman Bel Geddes, a theatre designer turned industrial designer. Bel Geddes is best known for designing the General Motors Futurama exhibit at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, a huge and hugely celebrated vision of the world of 1960, full of towering modernist skyscrapers in new cities and lots and lots of cars.”
When Was The “Golden Age” Of Pop Music? Researchers Conduct A Fascinating Study
Overall, “Music of the 1940s was preferred to music of its neighboring decades, and the same was true for music of the 1960s. The music of the 1980s also showed a peak, but … only for the younger participants.”
Was This The Most Influential Music Teacher Of All Time?
We should raise a cheer to the woman who contributed so much, with so little fanfare, to the history of 20th and 21st Century music. Don’t take my word for it. “Nadia Boulanger,” says Quincy Jones, “was the most astounding woman I ever met in my life.” And he’s met a few.
Martha Nussbaum: Where Is Our Public Discourse On Ideas?
“When a profession is protected by academic freedom and tenure, it tends to turn inward. To a large extent that’s good. The great philosophers of the past who wrote so beautifully—Rousseau, John Stuart Mill—had to write beautifully because they had to sell their work to journals. They had to sell books to the general public because they could not hold positions in universities. Mill was an atheist, and, therefore, could not hold a position in a university. It’s a good thing that we’re protected by tenure and academic freedom, but we should realize that it creates a risk of getting cut off. Scholars should write, at least sometimes, for the general public. But if I tell my graduate students to write for the general public, where are they going to publish?”
There’s A Difference Between Reading Digitally And Reading Print Books. We Should Understand It
“There’s no question that digital technology presents challenges to the reading brain, but, seen from a historical perspective, these look like differences of degree, rather than of kind. To the extent that digital reading represents something new, its potential cuts both ways. Done badly (which is to say, done cynically), the Internet reduces us to mindless clickers, racing numbly to the bottom of a bottomless feed; but done well, it has the potential to expand and augment the very contemplative space that we have prized in ourselves ever since we learned to read without moving our lips.”
As AI Machines Get Smarter, They’re Showing Racist and Sexist Biases
“A lot of people are saying this is showing that AI is prejudiced. No. This is showing we’re prejudiced and that AI is learning it.”
Done With Opera (Sort Of) Renée Fleming Heads To Broadway
“At a time when opera houses are more and more trying their hand at presenting musicals (the bone of contention among opera-lovers is whether this is a great thing or a betrayal of the art form), “Carousel” is one of the musicals most often cited as quasi-operatic. Indeed, the role of Nettie Fowler, which Fleming will play, was originally written for an opera singer, Christine Johnson, in 1945, and has often been sung by opera singers since — Denyce Graves, Shirley Verrett and Stephanie Blythe are among previous interpreters of the role.”
How Construction Workers Accidently Found The Coffins Of Four Archbishops Of Canterbury
“Last year, during the refurbishment of the Garden Museum, which is housed in a deconsecrated medieval parish church next to Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s official London residence, builders made the discovery of a lifetime: a cache of 30 lead coffins that had lain undisturbed for centuries.”