“Currently, about 46 percent of China’s 710 million internet users watch young people, mostly girls, sing, dance, and eat bananas erotically (OK, that has been banned) live on the internet.” The demographic that performs for the webcams, and that watches it, calls itself diaosi – losers.
Author: Matthew Westphal
At Least There’s One Place Where Clowns Are Not Creepy
In Mexico, street clowns are beloved – and they can actually make a living. Jonathan Coumes visits with a trio of them in the city of Querétaro.
Makeover Mania: What’s Up With The Urge To Redesign Everything?
“A designer sees a problem, proposes a solution, makes a difference. Such tidy narratives fuel a reigning ideology in which every object, symbol or pool of information is just another design problem awaiting some solution. The thermostat, the fire extinguisher, the toothbrush, the car dashboard – all have been redesigned, whether anybody was clamoring for their alteration or not.” A deep dive into the thought, and the process, behind this makeover mania.
Can Designers Redesign These Six Everyday Items And Make Them Better?
The items are the bike lock, the cell phone tower, the hospital gown, the toilet, the airport baggage carousel, and the prescription-medicine label. We think one of them is elegant but frivolous, one might work well but is unlikely to be adopted anytime soon, one’s confusing, one is genuinely ingenious (if it really works), one is “why didn’t anyone think of this before?”, and one should be put into production immediately. See if you agree.
The Man Who Brought Western Classical Music To South Korea
San Francisco Symphony violinist Kum Mo Kim, who’s currently touring South Korea with the orchestra, shares the story of her father, John S. Kim, who founded the country’s first symphony orchestra and, during the Korean War, was discovered by no less than the Vice President of The United States, who brought him to the U.S. to study.
Rosamond Bernier, Best Art Lecturer Ever, Dead At 100
“In 1971, the Met booked her for four art lectures. Audiences were enthralled. She became one of the hottest tickets in town.” And that was just the beginning.
‘The Master Of Space And Time,’ Rocker Leon Russell, Dead At 74
After starting his career as a much-in-demand session pianist (he put together Joe Cocker’s US band), he spent the ’70s as a rockabilly star in his own right. (Elton John was once his opening act.) “He wore a cocked top hat, and with salt-and-pepper hair past his shoulders and a beard that reached his chest, created an inscrutable image that was equal parts shaman, tent revival preacher and cosmic ringmaster.”
America Is Becoming Like Ionesco’s ‘Rhinoceros’
Teju Cole lays out the parallels.
There Is No Such Thing As ‘Western Civilization’ (And That’s Not Just A Barb)
Kwame Anthony Appiah, from this year’s BBC Reith Lecture: “I think you should give up the very idea of western civilisation. It is at best the source of a great deal of confusion, at worst an obstacle to facing some of the great political challenges of our time.” For a start, what exactly is “the West”?
The Earliest Films Directed By Women, Some More Than 100 Years Old, Are Being Collected And Released
Between 1910 and 1929, the height of the silent film era, numerous women had developed enough skill and clout to helm their own movies. But most of their work had been set aside and forgotten, and one distributor has launched a project to put it back together.