“In new comics, paintings and popular books, depictions of Vishnu, Rama and other greats in the Hindu pantheon are being reimagined to give the deities broad shoulders, six-pack abs, flashy get-ups and smoldering good looks.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Where Hearing Voices Can Be A Good Thing (Other Places’ Schizophrenia Is Not Like American Schizophrenia)
“A new study suggests that schizophrenic people in more collectivist societies sometimes think their auditory hallucinations are helpful.”
The World Around Us Shapes the Delusions Inside Us
“The current view of delusions is that they are the result of biology gone awry, of neurons in the brain misfiring, but [Joel and Ian Gold] argue that delusions are in fact the result of the interaction between the brain and the social world.” (audio)
John Malkovich Gets Very Rude About The Sydney Opera House
“I mean, I don’t know, I have only played in about 200 opera houses, and it certainly has acoustics that would do an aeroplane hangar a disservice. For a catholicity of reasons, it’s not the wisest place to put on anything … with the possible exception of maybe a circus.”
Has Philly’s Historic Gay Bookstore Been Saved?
“Owner and cofounder Ed Hermance told PW that he is in the midst of working out an agreement with the same potential buyer that he had alluded to in an e-mail blast to customers two months ago, a local LGBT organization.”
Singapore Unbans Gay-Themed Children’s Books It Had Banned
“Singapore has stopped its national library from destroying two children’s books with gay themes, after an outcry over literary censorship in the tightly regulated city-state.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 07.24.14
Big Questions Re: Museum of African Art’s New Dream
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-07-25
Celebrating the Power of SLAKE
AJBlog: CultureCrash | Published 2014-07-24
Koons, Whitney, Wynn and My “Greater Fool” Theory of Trophy Art
AJBlog: CultureGrrl | Published 2014-07-24
Managing expectations
AJBlog: Sandow | Published 2014-07-24
Survivor stories
AJBlog: Performance Monkey | Published 2014-07-24
What is Creative Placemaking?
AJBlog: Field Notes | Published 2014-07-25
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Met Opera’s Peter Gelb Gives Unions Ultimatum: Contract In One Week Or Lockout
“The labor strife at the Metropolitan Opera took on a new urgency Wednesday when its general manager, Peter Gelb, sent the company’s orchestra, chorus, stagehands and other workers letters warning them to prepare for a lockout if no contract deal is reached by next week.”
Six Arrested In $1M StubHub International Hacking Case
“Six individuals in Russia and the United States have been charged with taking part in a broad international hacking scheme that attacked over 1,600 StubHub users’ accounts and fraudulently purchased more than $1 million in tickets.”
Hollywood’s Favorite Non-Dance-Movie Choreographer
“If you’ve seen a movie in the last 20 years, chances are you know the choreographer Marguerite Derricks’s work, if not her name. Austin Powers’s epic go-go dance through the streets? Ms. Derricks’s idea. Abigail Breslin’s climactic strip routine in Little Miss Sunshine? Ms. Derricks was just off camera, encouraging Ms. Breslin to claw like a tiger. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s tango in Mr. and Mrs. Smith? Well, Ms. Derricks was Ms. Jolie’s first partner.”