“The past few decades of work in the cognitive sciences of music have demonstrated with increasing persuasiveness that the human capacity for music is not cordoned off from the rest of the mind. On the contrary, music perception is deeply interwoven with other perceptual systems, making music less a matter of notes, the province of theorists and professional musicians, and more a matter of fundamental human experience.”
Blog
Remember Rose Marie? She’s Now 94, Still Working, And Walked The Women’s-Equality Walk For Her Whole 91-Year Career
People of a certain age will remember her from Hollywood Squares; those slightly older know her from The Dick van Dyke Show, where she played a TV writer who kept right up with her male colleagues. But she had her own 15-minute national radio show when she was a toddler and did her first national vaudeville tour at 7 – and she’s still doing voice-over work today. Also, as she tells Rachel Symes, she told off a Hollywood sexual harasser back in the 1950s (and suffered some consequences).
Newly-Released Diary Shows Bin Laden Was Radicalized After Visiting Shakespeare’s Birthplace
A summer trip to the UK as a teenager and visits to Shakespeare’s birthplace convinced Osama bin Laden that the west was “decadent”, the late leader of al-Qaida and architect of the 9/11 attacks wrote in his personal journal shortly before he was killed by US special forces in 2011.
The ‘Most American Of Operas’ Is All About Empowering Women
And that’s not exactly common in opera. So which work is this? The Mother of Us All, Virgil Thomson’s and Gertrude Stein’s fantasia about Susan B. Anthony and the fight for women’s suffrage in the U.S. (The description is Anthony Tommasini’s.)
Why Twyla Tharp’s Best Dances Are ‘Classical’
“‘It’s a confirmation of sorts when the old pieces live,’ she says. ‘Back in 1973, people gave me flak because that work didn’t look classical enough. I said, ‘This may not be your version of ballet but ‘classical’ is simply what survives.'”
Museum Of The Bible Says It Won’t Promote Any Specific Religion – Will Its Conservative Christian Funders Stick To That?
“Financial documents and interviews reveal a tangled relationship between the nonprofit museum; Hobby Lobby and its owners, the conservative-Christian Green family; and the National Christian Foundation, a donor-advised fund that supports key soldiers in the national battle for conservative Christian values. … The murky ties between the three entities have attracted the attention of museum and nonprofit experts who have expressed concern about the project’s political agenda, potential conflicts of interest and compliance with tax laws.”
In This Day And Age, Is There Any Point In Knowing The Bible? (Yea, Verily)
As literary scholar Grant Shreve argues, themes, characters, and memes from the Bible are everywhere in American culture, even in 2017. (Besides, he says, knowing your Bible might have helped you figure out what the hell was going on in mother!.)
The Hong Kong Bookseller Who Got ‘Disappeared’ Has Re-Released Pre-Modern China’s Dirtiest, Kinkiest Novel
“When associates at Causeway Bay Books in Hong Kong went missing about two years ago – and its scandalous books about mainland Chinese politicians were destroyed not long after – Woo Chih-wai thought he’d lost everything.” Reporter Vivienne Chow recounts how, partly to earn some money back, he republished a very long, very graphic erotic novel from the 1730s titles Preposterous Words.
‘Sundance With Chinese Characteristics’ – Can An Indie Film Fest Work When The State Approves All The Movies?
“It is the question hovering over the weeklong festival that opened on Saturday in the ancient walled city of Pingyao: Can you create and showcase independent films in a country that frowns on independence, much less dissent?”
You Know What’ll Bring Revolution To North Korea? Soap Operas
“Kim Jong Un’s iron grip on the North Korean people is weakening, and an information campaign rooted in soap operas and dramas could help advance a civilian uprising, a prominent defector told a congressional panel Wednesday.”