“In recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
The Underappreciated Art Of Painted Movie Backdrops
“Paradoxically, the painted image often looks more realistic than the photographic image. Scenic artists can manipulate backings by adjusting light, color, and texture, helping to support the movie camera’s constructed image. Some information and details can be selectively accentuated, while others can be deemphasized. A photograph, on the other hand, is static and has a tendency to contradict the artifice of the rest of the setting.”
Independent Bookstores Are Making A Go Of It Again (But It’s A Lot Of Work)
“A lot of a bookstore’s success is case-by-case, but the fact that some bookstores are thriving and a lot of bookstores are opening means that there’s something inherently successful in the model.”
UK Closer To Law Banning Ticket Bots
“Although we would not want to close down the secondary market for tickets altogether, clearly the automatic harvesting of tickets sold below market price — so that fans can afford them — for resale at a higher value is wrong.”
Novels Have Shaped Our Notions Of Love And Marriage. Here’s How
The love/marriage story is one of the most enduring plotlines in all literature. These stories have strongly influenced how we look at relationships and what we desire.
Why Gerhard Richter Keeps Destroying Hudreds Of Millions Of Dollars Worth Of His Work
“These were not newly finished pieces that failed to meet his vision or standards; in many cases, they were paintings that had appeared in exhibitions and shows—paintings that Der Spiegel estimates would now be worth around $655 million—before Richter eventually deemed them unworthy.”
Claim: Theatre Is A Refuge In An Age Of Social Media And Divisive Politics
“It’s an imaginative, empathetic exercise, and we could probably all do with a little bit of that. Particularly in this time of social media and polarisation and fake news stories and who we choose to follow making us more extreme. We’re growing further apart. Here is one of the few places we actually have a communal, social experience. Now, more than ever, theatre has not just a possible role but an obligation to preserve these pockets of unmediated, unpoliticised, social, communal, empathetic works.”
So A Man Goes Into An Auction And Buys A Painting. He Turns Around And Sells It At Huge Profit. Now The Seller Is Mad At The Auction House
The auction house is Sotheby’s and the sellers have big questions. “The traders asked Sotheby’s, according to court papers, whether it had been aware that there was a much higher price to be had for the painting. Hadn’t Sotheby’s taken the painting, presale, to an apartment where the Russian billionaire had viewed it? Were the traders misled to favor the Swiss dealer, a valued Sotheby’s client named Yves Bouvier?”
Art In A Time Of Crisis (What To Do?)
How should artists respond in times of crisis? Leonard Bernstein suggested burrowing deeper into art. “A generous interpretation of Bernstein’s words suggests that musicians can transform art’s political impact by doing what they’re already doing – only better. But I’m skeptical of the idea that a more perfect art can really bring into being a more perfect union. Bernstein makes vague allusions to Kennedy’s presumably political “goals,” but the only goals he names are musical ones: intensity, beauty, and devotion. Are these really the ultimate aims of musical performance in a time of violent crisis?”
Was James Booker The Best New Orleans Pianist Ever?
“Booker on a good night was a wonder of the world… Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, and other peers had huge admiration for Booker’s talent; but his long battle with drugs, the mystery of the missing eye beneath the star-emblazoned black patch and the stark swings of mood suggesting bipolar disorder gave him the reputation of a crazy. A loveable crazy, sometimes, but he was also prone to darkness and unpredictability.”