“Language was once thought to be the defining characteristic of humans. These days we are more likely to consider it as part of a continuum of animal communication. … Arguably, [humans’] way with words reaches its apogee in gossip.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
How Else Are Humans Different From Animals? We Have Sex In Private
“This coyness is not just the consequence of particular cultural or moral views. ‘It is the rule across all kinds of human societies,’ says cultural anthropologist Frank Marlowe of the University of Cambridge.”
Sydney Theatre Company Posts First Deficit In Three Years
“A lacklustre response to its 2011 season and a splurge on IT systems have combined to push Sydney’s premier theatre, Sydney Theatre Company, into the red for the first time in three years … a sharp turnaround from a profit the year before of nearly $1 million.”
Sydney Dance Company Sees Attendance Rise By Nearly Half
“Sydney Dance Company, led by artistic director Rafael Bonachela, has turned in an operating surplus of more than $500,000 and a 47 per cent increase in paid attendances. Almost 50,000 people saw SDC perform in Sydney and on tour in Australia and overseas.”
A Look Inside (And On Top Of) The Paris Opera
Your correspondent travels from the honeybee hives on the roof of the Palais Garnier, through the opulent auditorium and foyer, back to the 19th-century stage machinery, and over to the office of director Nicolas Joël at the glass-and-granite Opéra Bastille.
Jerry Saltz Hates Big Art Auctions
“Not just because they’re freak-show legal casinos, spectacles where the Über-ultrarich can act out as profligately in public as possible, trying to buy immortality, become a part of art history, make headlines, and create profit. … I hate them for what they do to art, for the bad magic of making mysterious powerful things turn into numbers.”
The Second-Most Expensive Painting Sold Wednesday – And Its $7.5M Rip
Picasso’s Woman Seated in a Chair, which sold for $29.2 million at the same Sotheby’s auction where Munch’s The Scream sold for $120 million, suffered a tear while at a New York gallery in 2008 – damage for which the then-owner’s insurance company paid out $7.5 million. (Sotheby’s says the painting is now in “very good condition.”)
Who Complains Most About Political Polarization? The Polarized
“According to a new study, the people who most strongly believe that the political system is dividing into two extreme camps with little to say to each other themselves have relatively extreme views. It’s an interesting form of projection: You don’t think the other guy necessarily agrees with you, but you think he shares your own degree of partisanship.”
Britain’s Coolest Music Joint (Vogue Italia Says So) Serves Up Ale And The Avant-Garde
Cafe Oto, in a former warehouse (naturally) in east London, offers music ranging from the Sun Ra Arkestra to Korea’s Balloon & Needle collective to Sean Lennon and Yoko Ono to experimental opera – all to rooms full of 200 listeners, teenagers to octogenarians, listening in attentive silence.
Swedes Are Spending Their Lunch Hours Dancing At Raves
“It started in the fall of 2010 when 14 friends decided to dance their lunch breaks away in their office garage. They called their gathering ‘Lunch Beat.’ As rumors about this literally underground movement spread, more and more people joined in. Today, Lunch Beat events are being arranged by a core group of organizers at venues around Sweden, attracting up to 600 people each time.”