We can’t resolve disagreements about how much the information we possess supports a hypothesis just by gathering more information. Instead, we can make progress only by way of philosophical reflection on the space of possibilities, the information we have, and how strongly it supports some possibilities over others. – Aeon
Blog
Is The Strand Bookstore A City Landmark?
Since last summer, Wyden has been locked in a battle with local officials who want to name the Strand’s eleven-story building, which Wyden’s family owns, a city landmark. They argue that, in addition to its literary significance, the 1902 building—designed by William H. Birkmire, a pioneer of early steel-frame high-rises—represents “a particularly robust expression of the Renaissance Revival style.” Wyden disagrees. “It’s not the Taj Mahal,” she said. “It’s a warehouse.” – The New Yorker
Of Writers And Musicians – A Meditation
Daniel Felsenthal: “I spent high school writing papers I never risked neglecting in order to play the drums, reading books I never lied about reading so I could go to a concert instead. I could dream of being a musician all I wanted. Through no conscious intention of my own, I was always training to be a writer.” – The Point
How AI Is Evolving As An Artist
“We have two streams of data: inspiration and aesthetics. The machine explores the space in between them. We’re giving artists more control of the process and pulling back on the autonomy.” The result is an assemblage of fairly trippy prints. Some show a face that’s blurred or swirling. Others look vaguely skeleton-like and macabre. – Fast Company
Climate Change Should Be A Great Subject For Disaster Movies. So What’s With Hollywood’s Failure Of Imagination?
“In a storytelling culture obsessed with bigger stories and higher stakes, climate change should be irresistible. And yet when we try to tell the story — whether it’s motivated by politics or the genre intuition that climate change is horror at the grandest scale — we fail, invariably, to do it well. Why?” Probably, writes David Wallace-Wells, because the threat is too real. – Slate
Fool’s Gold at Metropolitan Museum: Tom Campbell’s Golden Coffin & Golden Parachute
The hits to the Metropolitan Museum’s finances attributable to its previous director, Tom Campbell, just keep on coming. – Lee Rosenbaum
Close-Up Worlds
Bill Young/Colleen Thomas & Co. February 22 & 23
The wall to our right is mirrored; a trio can become a sextet, a duet a foursome. The wood floor — golden brown, unmarred, and glowing — plays a starring role. It all but invites a dancer to rest on it. Or fall to it, roll across it, and spring back up and into the arms of a colleague in one seamless maneuver. – Deborah Jowitt
“Puttin’ On The Ritz” In Moscow
Here’s a Flash Mob video featuring a huge number of Muscovites having more fun than may be legal in Russia, dancing to the most joyous and metrically challenging song Irving Berlin ever composed. – Doug Ramsey
How To Think About SFMoMA Selling A Rothko To Fund Better Collection Diversity?
Charles Desmarais: “SFMOMA’s new collection initiative is hardly in the vanguard of such efforts, but it may keep the museum from falling further behind. And we, the public to whom the museum owes a more holistic, and thus more accurate, picture of art and its history, will be watching closely.” – San Francisco Chronicle
ABC Needs To Stop Trying To Trim The Oscars Broadcast And Embrace Its Oscarness
“If you paid any attention at all to the run-up to this year’s Academy Awards, you might reasonably think the ceremony’s producers and network wish they didn’t have to do the damn thing at all. … ABC learning the wrong damn lesson from the Super Bowl is depressing, because that quintessential Live! Television! Event! offers so much more guidance on which way to go with Hollywood’s big night.” – Flavorwire