“In Southern California, where he lived for most of his life, Bradbury was an active and familiar presence in the theater scene, adapting some of his popular fiction for the local stage while also penning original theatrical creations.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Endless Battles Over L.A.’s Southwest Museum Might – Might – Be Ending Soon
“One of Los Angeles’ longest-running and most adversarial cultural disputes – over the future of the Southwest Museum in Mount Washington, and its prized collection of Native American artifacts – has a chance of shifting to a less contentious footing.”
How Smart Are Plants? Can They Think?
Botanist Daniel Chamovitz argues that a plant “can see, smell and feel. It can mount a defense when under siege, and warn its neighbors of trouble on the way. A plant can even be said to have a memory. But does this mean that plants think – or that one can speak of a ‘neuroscience’ of the flower?”
Lucy Guerin Auditions Non-Dancers For The Dance Piece She’s Touring In The States
“If the idea of watching 40 mostly unathletic blokes trying to execute an arabesque or a leg extension with the slightest semblance of grace sounds funny, that’s because it is. As Guerin explains, … ‘You need to be prepared for laughs. … It’s not malicious, but people will find you – what you do – funny. You’ll find, though, that the untrained guys are always the stars of the show. Always.'”
Waiting (And Waiting) For Australia’s New Cultural Policy
“Kevin Rudd’s Labor government proposed a new cultural policy in 2007 … Five years, two major reports and almost two federal electoral cycles later and the arts sector is still waiting.”
The Intrepid Ones: Muxes, The Third Gender Of Oaxaca
“The indigenous Zapotec culture of Oaxaca is not divided by the usual dichotomies: gay or straight, male or female. There’s a commonly accepted third category of mixed gender – people called muxes (said to derive from mujer – Spanish for ‘woman’). Some are men who live as women, or who identify beyond a single gender.”
Video Games That Adapt Themselves To You, Based On Your Facebook Page And Twitter Feed
Designers are working with artificial intelligence technology to create games that personalize themselves based on players’ social media data – for example, “games [based] on news articles using personal opinions gathered from Twitter users.”
103-Year-Old Composer Elliott Carter, Telling Stories
The Unquenchable Uncle Elliott talks about the time Stravinsky snubbed Sinatra, drinking in speakeasies, why he’s still writing new music, and why he’s lived so long (he has no idea).
Annals Of Design: How The Broom Became Flat
We can thank our friends the Shakers.
Hit Hollywood Franchise, Or Semiotic Text? Academics’ Fixation On Alien
Academics have always loved science fiction, of course. … But the cottage industry of analysis that has sprung up around Alien is something else again. … We’ve had Alien as feminist allegory … Alien as mothering fable … Alien as abortion parable” – not to mention Marxist critique and Freudian field day. Tom Shone surveys the literature.