“Like today’s tech moguls, Guglielmo Marconi was heavily contested by some of his rivals. Like them, he rose above the fray by sheer determination, as well as talent, luck and vision. But more than any of today’s icons – more than Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and the rest – Marconi was uniquely at the center of the communication revolution of his time.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Why Startup Companies Need Philosophers On Their Strategy Teams
“When a business is beginning, often times its struggles are existential in nature. Consultants can come in and teach you the finer points of agile, scrum, kanban – you name it. Accountants can come in and teach you how to make sure you don’t lose track of your money. But precious few can come in and tell you what your business is really going to be at a deep level. But that’s the kind of stuff philosophers are trained to do.”
‘The Simpsons’ – The Best TV Show Ever? Definitely, Say Matt Zoller Seitz And Alan Sepinwall
“The Simpsons is so ambitious, intimate, classical, experimental, hip, corny, and altogether free in its conviction that the imagination should go where it wants, that to even begin to explain all the things The Simpsons is, and all the things it does, you would need an immense Venn diagram drawn on a football field, each circle representing different modes of comedy.”
Culture Is Dead, And Entertainment Killed It, Writes Mario Vargas Llosa
“The great majority of humanity does not engage with, produce or appreciate any form of culture other than what used to be considered by cultured people, disparagingly, as mere popular pastimes, with no links to the intellectual, artistic, and literary activities that were once at the heart of culture. This former culture is now dead, although it still survives in small social enclaves, without any influence on the mainstream.”
Signifying Nothing And Everything: How Harambe The Gorilla Became The Perfect Meme
“Over the summer, Harambe evolved from ordinary tragedy to perfect meme: defined only by its ability to replicate … In a reversal of Marshall McLuhan’s classic dictum, Harambe is the message that became a medium, capable of carrying any signal, without becoming identified with any of them.”
Why More Longtime Museum Curators Are Leaving For Auction Houses
“As the director of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh for the past five years, Eric Shiner worked to expose the broadest possible public to the Pop artist’s work. Now, instead of showing Warhols, he is selling them.”
The Latest Found Material For Artists? Old Departure Boards From Train Stations
“These boards, most remarkable for the flapping, clacking sound they make as their split-flap cards flip to reveal new information, are often called Solari boards, after the Italian company that invented them. … Even as the old boards retire from transit hubs, they can still be found in unlikely places, as artists, designers and tinkerers save them, or make their own versions.”
Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, 79, Author, NPR Commentator, Champion Of Gullah Culture
“Smart-Grosvenor first gained widespread attention in 1970 with the publication of her book Vibration Cooking or, The Travel Notes of Geechee Girl. Later she would gain even greater fame as a regular contributor to NPR and host of her own television cooking show.” (Among her many other gigs: backup singer for Sun Ra.)
Fort Worth Symphony Musicians Vote To Authorize Strike
“The strike authorization vote comes as the American Federation of Musicians Local 72-147 plans to reopen contract negotiations with symphony management on Wednesday morning. Musicians rejected a proposed four-year deal that included lower annual pay on Sunday.”
Bye-Bye, Baby: Broadway’s ‘Jersey Boys’ To Close After 11 Years
“The jukebox musical about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons opened on Nov. 6, 2005, and won four Tony Awards, including for best new musical, in 2006. It is now the 12th-longest-running show in Broadway history; at its closing [on Jan. 15], it will have played 4,642 performances.”