So much of critical authority depends on confidence of opinion. To change your mind risks undermining that authority, an act of self-subversion. But I still think the better path is honesty. – The New Republic
Blog
Music As Universal Language? It Starts With Something Local
“Conceptually, one might argue, Western classical music is tailor-made for global promulgation since a score written in country A in year X could theoretically be rendered equally well by musicians in either country B in year Y or country C in year Z. But, of course, thanks to the advent of recording technology well over a century ago, those folks in A, B, and C can now easily listen to each other. As a result, any locally made music has the possibility of reaching a global audience. ” – NewMusicBox
Director Of The Uffizi Demands Germany Return Painting
Eike Schmidt, who is German himself, said Berlin had a moral duty to give back the painting, Vase of Flowers, by the 18th century Dutch artist Jan van Huysum. It was looted from Florence by German soldiers in 1944 and is now owned privately by a German family. – The Telegraph (UK)
New Thinking On How The Mind Predicts Behavior
A revolutionary, and now widely accepted, countermodel to Freud’s scheme goes by the term “predictive mind.” The theory comes in different flavors, but overall it holds that automatic processes play a central role in the mind, allowing us to predict events quickly and accurately as they arise. Learning, experience and consciousness constantly improve our implicit, or unconscious, predictions, and we take note of events only when the predictions fail. – Scientific American
Why Roboticists Are Hiring Animators To Make Their Robots Cute
“To produce a robot that can carry out complicated practical tasks is so costly that these devices remain the preserve of industry and defence. Instead developers are working with emotion in mind.” — 1843 Magazine
The Year in CultureGrrl: Impolitic About Art & Politics
Once again, art-lings, let me offer you my Best Wishes for an Art-Full New Year, along with CultureGrrl’s Top 20 Stories for 2018. And I’ll end this post with a postlude about an issue that I’ve largely ducked this year — the vexing question of whether museums should be “political” and if so, in what ways. — Lee Rosenbaum
Recent Listening: O Canada
Let’s mention just a few recent recordings by Canadians whose work has caught the ears of the Rifftides staff. — Doug Ramsay
Millions Of Cable Subscribers Lose Access To Local Stations In Fees Dispute
Tribune, which controls 33 broadcast stations across the affected markets, had asked Charter to pay more than twice what it currently does for the same content going forward, said Charter spokeswoman Nathalie Burgos. “That is more than we pay any other broadcaster. They’re not being reasonable,” Charter said in a statement. – Washington Post
Lewis Carroll’s ‘Hunting Of The Snark’: Nonsense Poem? Or Meditation On The Nature Of Reality?
Lit scholar Nina Lyon makes the case that it’s both: Carroll was, by profession, a mathematical logician, and he saw the corner into which the field of logic and metaphysics was backing itself during his lifetime. — Aeon
London’s Nightclubs Are Dying. Berlin, By Contrast Is Investing In Its Night Life
London’s mistreatment of its nightlife is such a tragedy. A city without clubs is a colorless place, and allowing them to disappear means marginalized communities vanish; young people flee the city, and arts and creativity suffer. With London fast becoming a playground for developers and a city that only the rich can afford it would do well to replicate Berlin’s example. – CityLab