“A widespread public bewilderment at the ‘Deconstructivist’ showcase buildings that they are told is great modern architecture is well known. But less well understood is that most of the Western world’s architectural academy are militantly disdainful of most popular conceptions of architectural comeliness. And this disdain extends not only to the “classical” in public and commercial buildings but equally to the average person’s ideal of a home and neighborhood.” – The American Conservative
Author: Douglas McLennan
Study: More Innovation In Denser Neighborhoods
Neighborhoods with higher street density not only have more patented innovations, but more citations of the patents they generate. This suggests that neighborhoods with denser streets help facilitate greater knowledge exchange and higher levels of interaction over the ideas they generate. – CityLab
Writing Versus The Performance Of Being A Writer
No doubt social media in particular seems to represent the triumph of the writerly type over the writing itself. But DeWitt, Baker, Whitehead, and Atwood are among our most accomplished writers; so what if they’re willing to play the type on occasion? It might seem possible to just perform the office of writer—thoughtfully curated Instagrams of to-read piles, tweets geo-tagged at the MacDowell Colony—but it’s still a publish-or-perish business. – The New Republic
Are You Creative Or Do You Just Make Lots Of Mistakes?
A new study reports that it “turns out that your penchant for variability, such as when you toss a new ingredient into a recipe or follow a creative hunch into the unknown, is often driven by brain errors that are imperceptible to you. Your curiosity is a mistake.” – Fast Company
Lara St. John: I’m Disappointed With Curtis Institute’s Response To My Abuse Charges
St. John writes a letter to Roberto Diaz, president of the school: “You and the Board have failed both this venerable institution and the Curtis community.” – Lara St. John
Pittsburgh Has A Shortage Of Mid-Size Concert Halls. Does It Matter?
Sure, there’s Heinz Hall, where the Pittsburgh Symphony performs, but that’s 2,700 seats, and smaller ensembles can’t really fill the hall. It’s depressing to be in a half-empty hall, even when there are lots of people there. So what to do? – Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Mark Morris’s Rollicking New Memoir
“I was never ashamed of being a sissy, and I wore the bullying as a badge of honor,” he writes. “I knew what was going on and I knew who I was, so I took care of myself by being funny. Nevertheless, every solo I made up in the first part of my career was a humiliation dance in one way or another.” – Washington Post
Jean-Paul Dubois Wins Goncourt, France’s Top Literary Prize
Published in August, Mr. Dubois’s novel “Tous les hommes n’habitent pas le monde de la même façon” (“All Men Do Not Live in the Same Way”) is a story narrated by a man languishing in a Canadian prison for an unknown crime. – The New York Times
Is The “Crisis” In The Humanities Because They’re In The Wrong Zip Code?
Without the blunt, binaristic borders between zones — humanities versus sciences, humanities versus social sciences — the disciplines could connect across the much more complex and multifarious surfaces and interfaces they have with each other. Scholars could interact with their counterparts in all fields without the burdensome assumption that they represent more — an entire community more — than their specific area of expertise. – Inside Higher Ed
Vinyl Music Is Outselling CDs. Why?
Vinyl sales have been surging in the last few years, as CD sales stay flat and digital downloads decrease. In the United Kingdom, data from 2016 reveals that vinyl LP sales revenue surpassed that of digital downloads. And in the United States, LP sales are on par with the sales of CDs. – The Conversation