These observers captured the moment when civilization turned from typographic culture—itself a massive break from the largely oral culture that preceded it—to electronic media. They’re the metaphorical physicians who noted the first symptoms of a worsening malaise we’re seeing now. In other words, our internet-and-smartphone-driven age does not represent, as we might think, its own huge shift from the Enlightenment tradition, but rather the most recent stages of a shift that started with disembodied voices and faces streaming out of clunky boxes. – Wired
Blog
Canadian Radio Banned “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” Then Reversed The Decision; Is This Progress?
Outrage — the hallmark of 21st-century discourse — still exists, but the radio flip-flop on banning indicates the paradigm may be shifting toward a reasonable middle ground, with space for the sorts of varied responses one hopes for in a debate that is in theory black and white but, in practicality, is filled with shades of grey. – Toronto Star
The “New Silk Road”: Where The Global Future Is Being Shaped
As the West becomes increasingly fractious and polarised, the New Silk Road countries are working more closely together. At the centre of this is China with its giant economy and its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), often referred to as a New Silk Road, which exemplifies the changes in global influence. – Irish Times
A Debate About “After” Poems: Homage Or Theft?
There’s nothing straightforward about the debate, and nothing particularly new about the “after” convention. Poetry is a medium in which sampling, allusion, and conversation have always been part of the game. – New York Magazine
A First: In LA This Year More Women Artists Than Men Had Solo Shows
The tally comes from adding up exhibitions, both major and minor, that opened since January at the J. Paul Getty Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art; UCLA Hammer and Fowler museums; Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Craft and Folk Art Museum; California African American Museum; and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. (With zero, LACMA was the unfortunate outlier.) That’s impressive. – Los Angeles Times
New Music from Madagascar: Toko Telo
There was a definite frisson at this year’s WOMEX for Toko Telo, a Malagasy trio with two acknowledged stars. — Michal Shapiro
Rethinking The Role Of Musicians In Culture
“There is a school of thought in contemporary classical music that music should be above everything else, that it should have a purity about it. To me, that doesn’t make sense. Everything we do in art comes from what’s around us and who we are as humans.” – NewMusicBox
Mark-Anthony Turnage’s ‘Greek’ is back after 30 years — and its tattoos still aren’t smeared
Mark-Anthony Turnage redefined British opera with Greek. But that was in a different world: 1988. When the piece arrived at the Brooklyn Academy of Music this month, I imagined it like some seriously aging hipster whose many once-edgy tattoos are turning to mud. I was throughly, and ecstatically, wrong. — David Patrick Stearns
According To Uber Data: The World’s Top (Car-Accessible) Destinations
Report: Research Tends To Undervalue Social Impact Of The Arts
Broadening the focus to include more qualitative and mixed method techniques could make it easier to improve practice and integrate arts interventions more deeply into the healthcare and justice systems, it suggests. “The outcome that’s the easiest to measure is not necessarily the best thing to measure,” the report notes. “Is a different type of ‘gold standard’ possible?” — Arts Professional