This mix of genius, the dark history of the mid-20th century and wonderful anecdotes and gossip about intellectual life in Oxford and Cambridge make for a good read. There are some fine philosophers around today but the smart money would still bet that the next major biography of a philosopher will be about someone born before the First World War. – The Critic
Author: Douglas McLennan
Why Producers Are Killing Movie Theatres
“We’re witnessing a transformation of what it means to watch a movie. For over a century, film was at its core a theatrical art form: While it’s true that movies could be watched on TV, the primary cinematic experience was immersive viewing in a theater surrounded by strangers. Now there is a push to make the movie theater merely one platform among others, offering an experience deemed no more meaningful than watching the same feature-length visual narratives on a home entertainment system, a laptop, or even a cell phone.” – The Nation
Paris Olympics Will Include Breakdancing As A Sport
The Olympics announced on Monday that the competitive dance form will be among the new sports set to debut during the 2024 games. The Olympics website states that breakdancing (named “breaking”), skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing will be new categories for the next summer Olympics. – Deadline
It’s Time For Movies To Move On Beyond Theatres
“It’s time for the creative cinema establishment to catch up to the movie audience because when the pandemic is over, cinema in theaters may only survive in art houses that are the equivalent of vinyl for music purists.” – Deadline
The Complicated Legacy Of James Beard (And What It Says About American Food Culture)
“In the decades that followed World War II, no public figure prosecuted the cause of introducing America to seasonality, freshness, and culinary pleasure with greater vigor than James Beard. Gay, bow-tied, effusive, charismatic, and possessed of a lavish appetite, Beard had the misfortune to live in an era at once bigoted, repressed, paranoid, abstemious, and uninterestingly dressed. Today he is best known for the awards dispensed by his eponymous foundation, which remain, 35 years after his death at the age of 81, the most prestigious in the American restaurant industry. But of the man himself, contemporary memory is fairly shallow: He exists mostly in outline, as the bald, long-dead bon vivant beaming out at America’s eaters from illustrations, portraits, and the obverse of the culinary medals that bear his name.” – The New Republic
Man Posing As Building Owner Hires Artist To Paint Mural, Then Disappears
“Joshua Hawkins said a man named “Nate” hired him last month to paint a mural on his building and offered Hawkins more than he was asking to do it. Hawkins said he met that man twice, first when the man dropped off paint and the first half of the payment, and again when the man brought the final payment before the piece was finished.” – Central Illinois Proud
The Pandemic’s Threat To American Culture
Joseph Horowitz: “More than handwringing, this litany invites historical analysis. Why is no one in Congress or the White House talking about protecting crucial cultural interests, echoing discussions abroad? For three centuries, Americans regarded Europeans as cultural parents; we would emulate, learn, and grow. Where does that relationship stand today? Are we still growing up? Reverting to infancy? Opting out?” – The American Scholar
Does Cancel Culture Even Exist? (A History)
“So much has been written about cancel culture in the past year that weariness sets in just reading the words. What it is, what to call it and whether it even exists are all in dispute. The term is shambolically applied to incidents both online and off that range from vigilante justice to hostile debate to stalking, intimidation and harassment.” – The New York Times
How The Shutdown Virtual World Has Leveled Creativity
“What has happened, then, during this time without physical training spaces for artists? In the long months that have passed since isolation began, we have had to overcome the creative blocks related to the lack of spaces—theatres, practice rooms, street stages—and have been engaging in discussions about the new challenges, such as the control of our bodies produced by the confinement and public health policies, the rethinking of the staging of our works, and the reformulation of creative projects with the technological resources that we have.” – HowlRound
Examining The Politics Of Cultural Appropriation
“Permission to use another group’s cultural expressions isn’t something that it’s possible to receive, because ethnicities, gender identities, and other such groups don’t have representatives authorized to grant it. When novelists, for example, write outside their own experience, publishing houses now routinely enlist “sensitivity readers” to make sure they say nothing that will offend—but once the books are published, novelists are on their own. There’s nothing they can do to rebut the accusation that the products of their imagination were “unauthorized,” nothing they can do to ward off the charge that they’ve caused harm by straying outside their lanes.” – Dissent