“While the source of remembered information can be crucially important (Did I read that in The Onion or the daily newspaper?), so is its destination.” And yet we frequently don’t remember what we’ve already told to whom. Research suggests “that destination memory is relatively weak,” which “helps explain several embarrassing, and annoying, kinds of social interaction.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
When An Exhibit Feels Like A Pop-Up Version Of An Article
Visitors to the “Terra Cotta Warriors” show at the National Geographic Museum spent “more time on the texts that line the galleries’ walls than on the statues displayed across their floors. It was often easier to get face time with a 2,000-year-old terra cotta warrior than an unjostled view of the text panel that explained him.” So why “were we so happy to be there?”
Before Mesopotamia, An Almost-Civilization Thrived
Millennia ago, the graves of Old Europe “held an impressive array of exquisite headdresses and necklaces and, in one cemetery, the earliest major assemblage of gold artifacts to be found anywhere in the world. The striking designs of their pottery speak of the refinement of the culture’s visual language.”
As A Minor Mies Is Demolished, A Critic Cheers
“It was good to see the demolition crews pulling down the building by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. … If Mies’ name were not associated with this unremarkable shed, would anyone have cared about it? No. Did the building, stripped of its famous name, have the merits to stand on its own? Again, no.”
North Shore Music Theatre’s Suitor Seems A Good Match
“With luck,” Rhode Island theatre owner William Hanney “will offer a road map for other struggling arts organizations in Massachusetts, injecting some business savvy into enterprises that suffered from an excess of vision and a deficit of common sense.”
Washington National Opera Cuts Productions, Staff
“Following weeks of rumors about serious financial difficulty, the Washington National Opera on Monday announced cutbacks, not only to staff, but also to programming for next season. The 2010-11 season will present only five operas, down from six this season and seven in 2008-09.”
In Praise Of Audiobooks, Which Have Not Died After All
“It takes a good three days to record a medium-sized novel. Just you and the words, for hour after hour. There are pitfalls you really only discover when you’re reading aloud. … And then there are other problems.” Such as some actors’ notoriously “loud stomach noises.”
Actors’ Equity Executive Director Resigns
John P. Connolly has left the union “four months before the end of his term. Longtime Equity officer Carol Waaser, who had been set to retire in February, has assumed the role of acting exec director, serving in the post until a new exec director is selected next year.”
When An ‘Author’ Needs A Writer
“Midwives, collaborators, co-authors, co-writers, writers-for-hire, book doctors, ghosts–call them what you will–give aid and adjectives to athletes, politicians, movie stars, moguls, miscreants and the briefly famous who are asked to tell their stories and don’t know how.” Which doesn’t mean, of course, that the writing pro will get credit for the work.
Could Ombudsmen Curb The Excesses Of Reality TV?
“Maybe it’s time networks investigate the idea of creating positions for reality TV ombudsmen — executives whose sole job would be to keep track of reality show ideas and rules, and to speak up if any lines were crossed.” That way, “at least the process would include a somewhat objective third party.”