“The storytelling one encounters in the theater is found nowhere else in life. … These stories are how we come to an agreement about just what is this world is. To experience them together is to renew our shared understanding, and to give ourselves a common point around which to debate life’s big questions.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Bullshit Studies As An Academic Discipline
A longread report on “Calling Bullshit in the Age of Big Data,” a full course taught by two data scientists at the University of Washington who believe that teaching bullshit detection is one of the main purposes of education – and crucial for a healthy democracy. (Be sure to look out for Brandolini’s Bullshit Asymmetry Principle.)
The Original Cat Video (It Was Made In 1894)
“Thomas Edison might be best known for the electric lightbulb, but he was also a connoisseur of strange short films.” And one of those odd little movies was Boxing Cats. (includes video)
The Ones They Missed In The List Of ‘The Most Influential People In Dance Today’
When Dance Magazine published its list last week, the editors asked readers to tell them whom they unjustly left out. And readers definitely did.
Remaking School Libraries Into Hotbeds Of High Tech
“[There’s] a national movement to turn K-12 librarians into indispensable digital mavens who can help classroom teachers craft tech-savvy lesson plans, teach kids to think critically about online research, and remake libraries into lively, high-tech hubs of collaborative learning – while still helping kids get books.”
Librarians On Horseback, The Bookmobiles Of The Great Depression
Eliza McGraw tells the story of the Pack Horse Library, a WPA program that served the isolated, book-starved towns of the eastern Kentucky mountains.
Diverse Casting In Movies Pays Off At The Box Office: Study
“While women, people of color, LGBTQ folk and other historically marginalized communities in Hollywood continue to insist ‘diversity pays,’ the box office success of films with diverse casts such as Hidden Figures ($230.1 million worldwide) and Get Out ($251.2 million worldwide) is inevitably deemed a ‘surprise.’ A new study and database crafted by Creative Artists Agency, however, is aiming to take some of the surprise out of box office performance, noting that across every budget level a film with a diverse cast outperforms a release not so diversified.”
The Problem With ‘Woke’ Pop-Culture Criticism
“The takes are scorchingly hot, the opinions often on point. And yet the pronounced progressiveness of opinionated pop culture writing stands in direct contrast to the increasingly regressive nature of America’s actual politics. What accounts for the discrepancy?” Shaun Scott explains what.
‘A Shimmering African Canopy’: A First Look At The 2017 Serpentine Pavilion In London
Says Francis Kéré, the first African architect to design the annually built structure, “I was inspired by the big tree in my native village of Gando [in Burkina Faso]. The community always gathers in its shade. I wanted to create a place that would encourage people to come together, with spaces where you feel enclosed and protected, or choose to look out to the park.”
$166.3 Billion – That’s How Much U.S. Arts Nonprofits Outside LA And NYC Generated In 2015
“The average culture vulture in the US spends an additional $31.47 whenever she attends an arts event: almost $17 on food, about $4.50 on souvenirs and gifts, over $3 on local transportation – it all adds up. This is the micro level of the $166.3 billion in economic activity that the nonprofit arts sector contributed to the US economy in 2015, according to a study released on Saturday by Americans for the Arts.”