“In France, which houses the biggest Jewish community in Europe, the Ashkenazi legacy has been sadly shrinking.” (What, the Sephardim are chopped liver?) “In the latter half of the 20th century, what French Jews call their imaginary Yiddishland has been reduced to a small patch. … However, there is reason for hope. In Paris, a new generation of entrepreneurs are launching initiatives to perpetuate the Yiddish way of life.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
The House Of “Maus”: Excavating Art Spiegelman
Or more accurately, as Alisa Solomon explains, watching Spiegelman’s career-long excavation of himself.
Against Empathy
“Most people see the benefits of empathy as too obvious to require justification. This is a mistake.” Continuing the post-Sontag genre of “Against [Whatever]”, Paul Bloom hosts a forum featuring, among others, Sam Harris, Peter Singer, Marianne LaFrance, Barbara H. Fried, and Simon Baron-Cohen.
How Heiner Goebbels Got Harry Partch’s Insane Magnum Opus Onto The Stage
“Partch’s masterpiece is the bizarre 1960s music drama Delusion of the Fury. It is outlandish and magnificent and … if it is hardly ever staged that’s because it can’t be: it requires its very own orchestra of hand-built instruments, each one specially invented by Partch to play his unique microtonal music.” But Goebbels – who has created a few insane music-theater spectacles of his own in his day – pulled it off.
What Do You Get When You Cross “Survivor” With “Dungeons And Dragons”?
You get “a world of inept archery and ill-fitting armor, where people who have no business trying to save a kingdom have been given the responsibility to do just that.” You get The Quest, “set in a fictional kingdom called Everealm, but it actually takes place in the Land of LARP: live-action role playing” – into which ABC has transplanted the standard one-elimination-per-week competition show.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 09.03.14
Good News From The Middle East
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-09-04
An LA Novelist Pleads With Amazon
AJBlog: CultureCrash | Published 2014-09-04
Frank Gehry Works His Magic on the Philadelphia Museum (with videos)
AJBlog: CultureGrrl | Published 2014-09-03
Flowering Barbed Wire Means War
(in praise of Sir Jonathan Mills’s eight years at the helm of the Edinburgh Int’l Festival)
AJBlog: Plain English | Published 2014-09-03
Gramex to U.S. classical collectors: “Send us your enemies!”
AJBlog: Condemned to Music | Published 2014-09-03
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Chicago Symphony Picks CEO To Succeed Deborah Rutter
“The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association has selected Vancouver Symphony Society president/CEO Jeff Alexander to be its next president, pending a board meeting Wednesday, the Tribune has learned.”
What Do You Do About Streaming Music When You Just Can’t Give Up Your CDs? Asks Alex Ross
“Recently, while moving my CD collection to new shelving, I struggled with feelings of obsolescence and futility. Why bother with space-devouring, planet-harming plastic objects when so much music can be had at the touch of a trackpad? … What was once known as building a library is now considered hoarding.”
Ancient University In India Reopens After 800 Years
“Around 800 years after it was razed by foreign invaders, Nalanda University reopened its doors on Monday in an attempt to reclaim its ancient glory of an international knowledge destination. The new university, set up on a sprawling 443-acre campus built near the ruins of the ancient seat of learning in Bihar, aims to rebuild the intellectual rigour of the old school initially with a school of environmental studies and a school of historical studies.”
Does A Strong Belief In Evil Make Someone More Intolerant?
“But what does it mean to believe in evil? How do our attitudes about its existence shape our worldviews? While researchers stampeded over one another to understand evil behavior in the wake of the 20th century’s seemingly endless bloodletting … much less research has been done into how the idea of evil itself colors our understanding of the world and its inhabitants.”