“Are these experiences an authentic way of experiencing live music? Or do they indicate a transition towards a dystopian cultural milieu? In this scenario, we might end up losing sight of the multi-sensory and collective aspects of live music and experience it instead alone at home through a VR headset or a similar technological device.” – The Conversation
Author: Douglas McLennan
How Zoning Laws Change The Course Of Cities
How? Michael Kimmelman takes a tour of 42nd Street in New York City to understand how the street became what it is. – The New York Times
A Kinder Gentler Social Medium?
In a landscape of social networks, Telepath stands out because it’s more about your interests than who you know, and it requires real names for the conversations. It’s also positioning itself as a kinder, more inclusive network by making a point to establish ground rules and moderation up front. – Protocol
Choir Practice In Spain Infects 30 Of 41 Members
After one member of the chorus tested positive following the Sept. 13 performance, more than 40 other members and their close contacts went into isolation, the chorus said. Since then, at least 30 singers have tested positive, the Sallent municipal government said. – Seattle Times (AP)
Uncertainty Can Be A Good Thing
The examined human life reflects, we suggest, a new kind of relationship with our own expectations and uncertainty. Yet it is one that we have somehow constructed within the inviolable bounds of a biologically bedrock drive to minimise long-term prediction error. How is this neat trick possible? – Aeon
Not Some Vow Of Poverty – Getting Paid In The Arts
The money being made in the cultural sector isn’t being made by artists. It is being made by digital platforms and corporate conglomerates. These are deliberate transfers of wealth, not unintended consequences. – ArtsFuse
Ford Foundation: Record $160 Million Lifeline For The Arts
The Ford Foundation this week is announcing an unprecedented $160 million-and-growing initiative called America’s Cultural Treasures, with substantial grants going to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) organizations across the country. The grants are, in most cases, the largest ever for the 20 recipients in the first round. – Washington Post
The Pervasive Toxicity Of Online Misinformation
Today, those wishing to sow discord don’t need bots to post and spread their falsehoods and distortions. They have plenty of unwitting people to do that, their beliefs and actions warped by a “behavioral modification system. That mistrust has destabilized democracy around the world. – Wired
This Fall’s University Enrollments Are Down
Although the enrollment declines were steepest at community colleges (-7.5 percent), undergraduate enrollment fell at all types of colleges, including private nonprofit four-year colleges (-3.8 percent) and private for-profit four-year colleges (-1.9 percent). The decline was more modest at public four-year colleges (-0.4 percent), although there were differences across public four-year institutions according to location, with rural institutions seeing the biggest decline (-4 percent) and urban institutions seeing slight gains (+0.5 percent). – Inside Higher Ed
Christgau: Remembering The Volatile Stanley Crouch
“Crouch was a fervent American who was an even more fervent African American. He loved to perturb all comers by arguing that in the end the Middle Passage was good for Africans, but nowhere near as much as he loved to praise the richness and diversity of the Black cultures that the horrors of slavery made possible. For him, the peak of these cultures was jazz — from Armstrong to bebop, please, post-’60s not so much.” – Los Angeles Times