An Iranian teenager had thousands of Instagram followers with videos of herself dancing – without a hijab – to pop music. Last week she was arrested, and on Friday state TV aired her “confession.” In response, many young people are now posting to social media videos of themselves dancing; the hashtag is Persian for “Dancing is not a crime.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
George Clooney Briefly Hospitalized After Motorcycle Crash
The 57-year-old actor, who is in Sardinia shooting a TV adaptation of Joseph Heller’s novel Catch-22, was riding a scooter when he was hit by a car that failed to yield right-of-way at an intersection. He has reportedly been discharged from a local hospital with only minor injuries.
The Bizarre Dance Epidemic Of Summer 1518
“Five centuries ago, the world’s longest rave took place in Strasbourg – a ‘plague’ of dancing that was fatal for some. What caused it? Art, poetry and music of the time can provide some clues.”
‘Yellow Submarine’ At 50: The Beatles’ Candy-Colored Cartoon Utopia
“The fantastical story of the Pepperlanders and the Blue Meanie menace is resistance cinema in the truest sense, albeit in a register so idealistic it barges past the point of naïveté. … A children’s film about pacifism winning out over imperialist annihilation might seem an odd combination, but in the cannabis haze after the Summer of Love, nothing made more sense.”
Tom Wolfe, Cartoonist
“Tom Wolfe, who died on May 14, had a lesser-known but not-so-secret passion: He loved to draw caricatures and cartoons with the same incisive, sarcastic wit that came through in his written social commentary.”
Writing Clearly Is Harder Than It Looks: Francine Prose
“The simplest definition may be best: To write clearly means that another person can understand what we mean. Someone (not us) can figure out what we are trying to say. Of course, an intelligent seven-year-old could point out the problems with this.”
Inside The Jimmy Awards: A Week With America’s Most Gifted High School Theatre Nerds
“For a certain group of musical theater fans, Christmas comes in June. This Christmas has everything yours does. It has beloved songs. It has lights. It has pageantry. It bestows gifts. It involves pilgrimages across great distances. It is the Jimmy Awards, and it is the most wonderful time of the year. ‘What are the Jimmy Awards?’ you ask, like an innocent child. Short answer? They are the high-school Tonys.”
Language Attrition: How People Can Forget Their Mother Tongues
“Most long-term migrants know what it’s like to be a slightly rusty native speaker. The process seems obvious: the longer you are away, the more your language suffers. But it’s not quite so straightforward. In fact, the science of why, when and how we lose our own language is complex and often counter-intuitive. It turns out that how long you’ve been away doesn’t always matter. Socialising with other native speakers abroad can worsen your own native skills. And emotional factors like trauma can be the biggest factor of all.”
Brooklyn’s Big, Busy Pirate Radio Scene
“Transmitted from the roofs of churches and apartment buildings, unlicensed radio stations offer listeners spiritual sustenance, immigration information, and news from home.”
Companies Who Use Ticket Bots Now Face Unlimited Fines In UK
“Industry groups hailed the new law, which comes amid a wider effort to crack down on secondary ticketing, where touts use websites such as StubHub and Viagogo to resell seats at in-demand events for vast mark-ups. But a leading security and ticketing expert warned that the most prolific touts would still be able to get their hands on tickets using tried-and-tested methods.”