“The current generation of fictional drugs, rather than bubbling up from nature’s underworld, parachute into stories and novels from the corporate-technological top down. The recent nightmare drugs — for they are, exclusively, nightmares — are pharmaceuticals. … The self’s integrity is under assault not by illicit indulgences but by capitalism’s imperative to market us shiny neurological upgrades — and by our complicit desire to be thus reworked.” — The New York Times Book Review
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IRS: Aretha Franklin Owed $6+ Million In Back Taxes
The IRS “proof of claim” filings entered Dec. 12 and 19 say the amount owed is cumulative, beginning with an unpaid assessed balance of $1,305,403 in December 2012 and including $552,718 due by the end of this year. – The Daily Beast
John Waters Says All His Work Is Political (‘But I’d Never Say That!’)
Among the other things he says: “The National Brainiac, that’s what I really wish I could edit. Imagine me being the editor of a tabloid for intellectuals. Imagining hiding outside their apartments for bathing-suit pictures of Philip Roth.” (Also: “Sample sales are vicious.”) — ARTnews
How Our Brains Know Where We Are (Our GPS)
The recent marriage of neuroscience with the fields of computer science and artificial intelligence that have really strengthened this perspective. Work at this interface has shown that a brain that uses an absolute, invariant model of the world to model and negotiate changing environments requires more computational resources than one that uses relative information. – Nautilus
Actor-Director Hunter Foster, New Artistic Director Of Redhouse In Syracuse
The 49-year-old is a Broadway veteran, with leads in Urinetown and Little Shop of Horrors under his belt, but he didn’t start directing in earnest until five years ago, at Bucks County Playhouse, where he stayed on as artistic associate until this job came up. — The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY)
Really? Color Of The Year?
Pantone’s color of the year for 2019 is “living coral”. And in case 2018’s color slipped by your notice, it was ultra violet. – The Guardian
The Ten Biggest Upheavals Of Lincoln Center’s Tumultuous Year (And Yes, There Were Even More)
“Scandals rocked some of its biggest institutions; around the fountain there was a twilight-of-the-gods feeling. … And it was not just Lincoln Center’s independent constituent organizations that faced turmoil: Governance woes continued to plague the center itself, which manages the campus.” — The New York Times
Women Are Inventing Their Own Nashville Country Music
Even though the stranglehold of bro country has given way to various softer, smoother gestures, the men of the format still dominate terrestrial, satellite, and streaming playlists. But it’s not like country’s rising generation of women are content to keep following a prescribed promotional path that’s leading only to frustration and a sense of futility. I’ve found it illuminating to consider how the moves that Morris, Cam, Musgraves, and so many others are making count as artistic and professional survival strategies. – Slate
Britain’s Film Industry Is Thriving Just Now, But They’re All Afraid Brexit Will Wreck It
“If there are members of the UK cinema community who think Brexit is a good thing, they are all but impossible to find. Actors and film-makers were virtually unanimous in their advocacy of the remain campaign before the 2016 referendum. They still are, but now they are, at least, resigned to the reality of Brexit, as much as any industry can be.” — The Guardian
Amos Oz, Giant Of Israeli Literature, Dead At 79
“The author of 18 books in Hebrew and a longtime candidate for the Nobel Prize for literature, Oz was best known for novels including Black Box, In the Land of Israel and A Tale of Love and Darkness, his bestselling autobiographical novel. Much of his work, both fiction and non-fiction, explored kibbutz life and picked apart his characters’ often complex relationships with Israel and modern politics – reflective of his own. — The Guardian