“New images have been released of the planned cultural quarter in London’s Olympic Park that will house a 550-seat dance theatre for Sadler’s Wells. The Stratford Waterfront area, previously known as Olympicopolis, will also contain new dance studios run by Wayne McGregor Random Dance, a new campus for University of the Arts London and a second, east London venue for the Victoria and Albert museum.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
Power Of Positive Thinking? Researchers Say Maybe Not So Much
“Indulging in undirected positive flights of fancy isn’t always in our interest. Positive thinking can make us feel better in the short term, but over the long term it saps our motivation, preventing us from achieving our wishes and goals, and leaving us feeling frustrated, stymied and stuck.”
Baker’s Dozen: Man Booker Prize Announces 2016 Longlist
“In the third year that the prestigious British literary award has been open to any author writing in English, the U.S. nabbed five entries on the long list.”
What Silence Does For Us
“We like silence for what it doesn’t do—it doesn’t wake, annoy, or kill us—but what does it do? When Florence Nightingale attacked noise as a “cruel absence of care,” she also insisted on the converse: Quiet is a part of care, as essential for patients as medication or sanitation. It’s a strange notion, but one that researchers have begun to bear out as true.”
Musicians Complain Politicians Don’t Have Permission To Use Their Music (But Here’s Why They Won’t Sue)
A campaign may obtain “public performance” licenses from performing rights organizations like ASCAP or BMI, which typically allows for the use of whatever songs are in their catalogs. Trump’s campaign very well may have secured such licenses to play songs on the trail.
So You Want To Build A Performing Arts Center. Here’s The Cost-Benefit Proposition
Do you believe that arts centers create jobs? That they improve business? That they enrich the lives of the community? As a community in Colorado considers building another new center, Ray Rinaldi looks at the experience of some of the state’s other arts centers and their impact on their communities.
Why Women Are Starting To Have More Leadership Roles In Orchestras
“Doors are beginning to open for female conductors not due to any delayed sense of fair play, however, but for the simple reason that there are more women in symphony orchestras these days and they are much less resistant to being led by a woman than the male-dominated orchestras of the past.”
Music Fans Are Excited About Virtual Reality. But The Music Industry Is Slow To Catch Up
“Interest in the technology is outpacing actual VR music products, however, and few virtual reality performances have been released.”
What Was It About Nudity In Renaissance Art That Was So Shocking?
“Works of art get lost for many reasons, but there is a suspiciously high destruction rate for those involving nudity. Leonardo da Vinci’s Leda and the Swan was one of the first openly carnal depictions of myth in art, delighting in a big-bosomed, curvy-hipped Leda. Today, this painting is only known through drawings and copies. A French owner probably destroyed it deliberately.”
End Of An Era: The Last VCR-Maker Quits Production
“The VCR itself was outmoded by the DVD player in 2001. That’s the year that people started watching more DVDs than VHS cassettes. So, while it was refreshing to see that VCRs had made it this far into the 21st century, it was interesting that it was eight years after the very inventor of the term had given up on the technology.”