Perfection isn’t real, and now publishing is starting to push “realistic” self-help books (possibly because everyone into the category had already bought, and then Konmarie’d, all of the ones that said humans were perfectable?). – The Guardian (UK)
Blog
Netflix Put Castilian Spanish Subtitles On ‘Roma’ In Spain Until Alfonso Cuarón Complained
You know, it’s hard to understand the word “mamá,” better put “madre” in there. Wait. What? “Netflix is essentially sending a message that the way we speak is not better than the way we write, and that’s a very old-fashioned idea,” said a linguistics professor. – The New York Times
The Day Mainstream Culture Died
Jared Marcel Pollen: No taste is triumphant anymore. This is to say that the mainstream is itself in peril as much as the domination of any narrative art within it. Indeed, the very notion of a mainstream seems to be perishing in overproduction and disaffection with the cultural gatekeepers. – 3AM Magazine
Mystery Over Why Easter Island’s Giant Heads Are Where They Are Is Solved
The heads are unforgettable, standing watch over Easter Island’s windswept plains. Clearly they served some function, but was it more than ceremonial? The answer, say scientists, is yes. And a practical yes at that… – The Guardian
The Silent Film Era Produced 10,000 Movies. The Vast Majority Have Been Lost Or Destroyed
Because early motion pictures were released on nitrate film, which is dangerously flammable and susceptible to decay—only to become even more flammable as it deteriorates—the majority of these films are no longer with us today. While the exact number of lost films is unknown, a study commissioned by the Library of Congress ballparks the surviving number at a scant 14 percent. – Smithsonian
Research: Why We Like Horror Films? They’re Good For Us
“Horror movies tend to imaginatively transport consumers into fictional universes that brim with dangers,” the researchers write. “Through such imaginative absorption, people get to experience strong, predominantly negative emotions within a safe context. This experience serves as a way of preparing for real-world threat situations.” – Pacific Standard
How Verdi Took Care Of His Friends: A Retirement Home For Opera Singers
Using his own fortune, Verdi built the retirement home for opera singers and musicians, a neo-Gothic structure that opened in 1899. The composer died less than two years later, but he made sure the profits from his music copyrights kept the home running until the early 1960s, when they expired. Today guests pay a portion of their monthly pension to cover basic costs – food and lodging — while the rest comes from donations. – NPR
The Market Economy Model Has Crippled All Sorts Of Professions
We are all customers now; we are all supposed to be kings. But what if ‘being a customer’ is the wrong model for healthcare, education, and even highly specialised crafts and trades? – Aeon
A Year After The Emmett Till-Whitney Biennial Furor, Dana Schutz Is Back At Work
“Now, Ms. Schutz admits that she is ‘guarded’ about the controversy …, saying only that [painting Open Casket] was an attempt to ‘register this monstrous act and this tragic loss.’ But she acknowledged that may have been an ‘impossible’ task.” Even so, she doesn’t regret having painted the piece or the subsequent conflict: “It’s good those voices were heard.'” — The New York Times
The Taste-Maker Industrial Complex
It used to be that a handful of glossy magazines and fashion houses determined what’s cool. No longer. And perhaps that explains how “streetwear” has taken over and become big business. – BBC