At $6.01m after fees, the guitar is the most expensive ever sold at auction, Julien’s Auctions said. Bidding in Los Angeles opened at $1m and was won by Rode Microphones founder Peter Freedman. – BBC
Author: Douglas McLennan
The Summer Of Drive-In Culture
Up and down the country, drive-ins are opening as canny entrepreneurs see a business opportunity. It’s going out but staying in at the same time, and only a cynic (that’ll be me) would suggest it combines the worst of both. Cinemas, concert halls, theatres, galleries and standup gigs are closed, festivals abandoned. And yet we yearn for live art and entertainment. Hence recent drive-in gigs at an airport in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and at a car park in Bratislava, Slovakia. Across the world, people are leaving lockdown, getting into their cars and chasing down what passes for live culture at this difficult time while still socially distancing. – The Guardian
At What Point Did Humans Become Creative?
At some point, from around 40,000 years ago in Europe, we see evidence of these behaviourally modern humans in a sudden flourishing of cultural artifacts in the archaeological record. So what caused anatomically modern Homo sapiens to turn into behaviourally modern people? – Aeon
Was The Fall Of The Roman Empire Due To Plagues?
By its nature, Roman civilisation seemed to unlock the pestilential potential of the landscape. The expansion of agriculture brought civilisation deeper into habitats friendly with the mosquito. Deforestation facilitated the pooling of water and turned the forbidding forest into fields where mosquitos more easily multiplied… The Romans were environmental engineers extraordinaire. – New Statesman
Before 1834 The Word “Scientist” Didn’t Exist
The word “scientist” first appeared in March 1834, while Darwin was surveying the Falkland Islands on overland expeditions from the HMS Beagle, being no scientist but an explorer, adventurer, observer, and diarist. The word began as a passing joke in The Quarterly Review. The wit who coined it was the English philosopher and Anglican clergyman William Whewell, and the context was a positive, though excruciatingly patronizing, review of a best seller of popular science by the mathematician and physicist Mary Somerville. – New York Review of Books
When Public Assets Become Private – Why We Should Care
Only a public agent can speak in our name. So mass privatisation doesn’t simply shift decision-making away from public institutions to unaccountable, private entities; it also undermines shared civic responsibility and the very existence of collective political will. – Aeon
Movie Theatres Struggle To Make Audiences Feel Safe
“You don’t want to make all the health stuff too obvious. Because if it feels like they’re checking in for a flight, they aren’t going to come. But you have to let them know somehow. So it’s really hard.” – Washington Post
Opera By Phone? We’ve Got You Covered
“I had worried that the just-for-me performance would be awkward. The prospect triggered flashbacks of unwanted serenades by accordionists and fiddlers playing for tips on European restaurant terraces. And though I was game for playing my part in the flirtatious conversation, I was mindful of the stern warning On Site Opera had sent ticket holders to uphold “a respectful artistic experience for all.” The last thing I wanted was to try something cute that would come out creepy.” – The New York Times
New York Is A Cultural Capital. Right Now That Future Is In Doubt
According to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s timetable, theaters and concert halls will be part of the fourth and last phase of reopening, but even the brand-name institutions wonder how easily they can pick up where they left off. – New York Magazine
The “Bernie Madoff Of The Art World” Had Settled Into Vacation Life
Bemused locals were left to digest the fact that the pleasant newcomer to their island paradise, who had been helping out at the local animal shelter, was in fact a fugitive art dealer who stands accused of, among other things, selling millions of dollars worth of overlapping shares in valuable pieces of art, in one of the greatest art scams this century. – The Daily Beast