Blog

What’s Working On Netflix? Romantic Comedies

Eighty million subscribers watched Netflix romcoms this summer. Netflix released a series original movies as part of its “Summer of Love” over the past few months, including “Set It Up,” “The Kissing Booth,” “Like Father,” “Sierra Burgess Is a Loser” and the aforementioned “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.” The company said Tuesday that it was already in production of “the next set of original rom-coms” for its members.

The Price Of Aesthetics

Rather than lament the pervasive influence of money on contemporary art, “The Price of Everything” examines the relationship between commerce and aesthetics from different angles. “You can’t have a golden age without gold,” someone says, and by that standard we are currently in an epoch of platinum. The sale and resale of work by living and recently dead artists is a multibillion-dollar market, which bothers some people more than others.

Paul Allen, Art Collector

While best known as a pioneer in the technology industry since the mid-1970s, Allen developed a reputation as a ferocious art collector, building a highly regarded collection that was notoriously guarded—for many years, he demanded that his employees keep quiet about his holdings. He made his first appearance on the annual ARTnews “Top 200 Collectors” in 1997, and has been listed in each edition since 1999.

What It Means To Live A “Bookish” Life

What is the true point of a bookish life? Note I write “point,” not “goal.” The bookish life can have no goal: It is all means and no end. The point, I should say, is not to become immensely knowledgeable or clever, and certainly not to become learned. Montaigne, who more than five centuries ago established the modern essay, grasped the point when he wrote, “I may be a man of fairly wide reading, but I retain nothing.” Retention of everything one reads, along with being mentally impossible, would only crowd and ultimately cramp one’s mind.

Fake News And Trust And How To Fix The News

Testimony happens any time you believe something because someone else vouched for the information. Most of our knowledge about the world is secondhand knowledge that comes to us through testimony. After all, we can’t each do all of our own scientific research, or make our own maps of distant cities. All of this relies upon norms of testimony.

And The Survey Says: Americans Like The Arts

The report is based on a nationally representative sample of over 3,000 adults, and it updates a similar study that was conducted two years ago. According to the survey, Americans are highly engaged in the arts-as attendees, arts makers, art purchasers and arts advocates-and they believe that the arts promote well-being and help us understand other cultures in our communities. They also support public funding of arts and cultural organizations in their communities, and believe in the critical role of the arts in K-12 education.