Author: Douglas McLennan

How Being Bored Helps Us

We should not fear being bored, say psychologists James Danckert and John D Eastwood, the authors of Out of My Skull: The Psychology of Boredom. Their research has revealed boredom to be widely misunderstood, perhaps even unfairly maligned. Boredom evolved to help us, says Danckert. It signals that we are unengaged, in need of an activity to satisfy us. “I think that’s a good thing, in a lot of ways. How we respond to it is up to us. I think you can minimise it. But do you want to totally eliminate it? I don’t think you do.” – The Guardian

We Might Need To Redesign The Backends Of Theatres

“The best analogy I can provide is the changes we’ve seen in travel since 9/11. Once it was clear that security screenings were here to stay, new airports were designed with that reality in mind. There is no finer example than the airport in Indianapolis where space for screening was designed into the original plan and has contributed to the airport being chosen as one of America’s ten best year after year. Contrast that with Newark Airport where security has been shoe-horned into hallways and gate areas that were not designed for it and aren’t the least bit conducive for it either. Nearly every performing arts venue of any scale in the world is the equivalent of Newark Airport.” – Dance Enthusiast

Emmanuel Macron’s Plan For Culture Over The Next Year

He said the coming months should be ones of “learning and culture,” as opposed to travel and leisure. (France has also imposed limits on international travelers for the summer months). He added that artists would need to invent new forms of culture, saying that “nothing prevents us from inventing something else, in smaller forms with no public or little public.” – Artnet

Virologist: Don’t Count On Going To Shows, Festivals, Events Before Next Year

“We will ultimately return to enjoying such collective experiences – as they “appeal to the human nature” – but only after most people in the country have either been infected with the disease (herd immunity), or inoculated (vaccines or combinations of drugs) in some way. In “the near-term”, he says, “it’s just not going to happen. I think this year is basically a write-off, if I’m honest with you,” he adds. – BBC

The Rebirth Of The Drive-In

Before the coronavirus crisis, the drive-through had been fast losing status, often deployed as a symbol of obesity and the worst of car-dependent urban design. In many cities, it had been subject to outright bans. The drive-in, meanwhile, is nearly extinct, with just a few still operating in Southern California. But during the pandemic, drive-throughs have become a weird sort of societal glue. And the drive-in has been reconsidered. – Los Angeles Times

Shakespeare’s Work Was Repeatedly Interrupted By The Plague. Where Is It In His Plays?

The theatre historian J. Leeds Barroll III, who carefully sifted through the surviving records, concluded that in the years between 1606 and 1610—the period in which Shakespeare wrote and produced some of his greatest plays, from “Macbeth” and “Antony and Cleopatra” to “The Winter’s Tale” and “The Tempest”—the London playhouses were not likely to have been open for more than a total of nine months. It is all the more striking, then, that in his plays and poems Shakespeare almost never directly represents the plague. – The New Yorker