In this “Lexicon Valley” podcast, linguist John McWhorter talks about how pidgins arise and gradually develop into new languages.
Blog
What Can We Learn From The Progress Of Civilization?
“The news here is that the lives of most of our progenitors were better than we think. We’re flattering ourselves by believing that their existence was so grim and that our modern, civilized one is, by comparison, so great. Still, we are where we are, and we live the way we live, and it’s possible to wonder whether any of this illuminating knowledge about our hunter-gatherer ancestors can be useful to us.”
Why Bellini’s Norma Is The ‘Mount Everest’ Of Opera Roles
As Renata Scotto once said, “You want to climb the mountain. You know you are supposed to climb the mountain. But it is so difficult.” What makes it so difficult? James Jorden gives a thorough breakdown of the part’s challenges, musical and dramatic, with audio and video examples.
Cincinnati Enquirer Lays Off Last Of Its Arts Critics
Classical music writer Janelle Gelfand was the last of the Enquirer’s arts writers to go. At its peak, the Enquirer had a theater, art, movie, food, classical, pop, and books critics, each with their own beats. The move comes only weeks before the city’s Music Hall was to reopen after a major makeover. Gelfand was leading coverage of the reopening.
Jeff Bridges Is Fine With Being The Dude Forever
“It’s been nearly two decades since The Big Lebowski, a tale about an emphatically nonchalant man named Jeffrey ‘the Dude’ Lebowski who gets forced over the precipice of chalance, transformed Jeff ‘the actor’ Bridges into an unwitting pop cult leader. … Jeff Bridges isn’t turned off by this, as some already famous actors might be – by the fanatical, undying popularity of a weird thing he did once, back in 1998, that no one has ever forgotten, that people quote at him ad nauseam. He’s too imperturbable, too Dude for that.”
Why The New York Times Will Recommend A Play With A Dirty Word In The Title But Won’t Print That Title
When Ben Brantley reviewed a revival of Suzan-Lori Parks’s Fucking A (a take on The Scarlet Letter), he wrote, “since I am not a character in this work but an employee of The New York Times, I shall be referring to this play only as ‘A.’ (The full title places an Anglo-Saxon adjective before the ‘A,’ one commonly used on cable television but not considered fit for print here.)” Commenters were not impressed: “Given the rather grisly subject matter, I’m wondering if the people who might attend the play would get the vapors if they were to see the name in print.” So the standards editor for the Times explains why the paper won’t print “Fucking A.” (The commenters remain unimpressed.)
The Incredible New Theater At Chicago’s Navy Pier
“The public won’t get in to Chicago Shakespeare’s $35 million, 33,000-square-foot one-of-a-kind new space until Sept. 19, when James Thierree’s The Toad Knew opens. But you don’t have to wait to see the Yard – a theater where the seats can literally float in midair and the stage can morph into just about any shape imaginable. Crain’s has obtained exclusive images of the Yard’s interior, designed by Chicago’s Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture and the UK’s Charcoalblue.”
‘Mother!’ – What Does It Mean? Its Director And Stars Explain Hollywood’s Weirdest Movie In Years
Melena Ryzik talks to Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, and Darren Aronofsky. And no, they don’t agree on what the film means, or even necessarily what it’s about.
‘Mother!’ – Darren Aronofsky Tells How He Made This Strange Film (And Got Hollywood To Let Him Do It)
“Say what you will about Darren Aronofsky, but the guy knows how to get a reaction out of people. … We caught up with Aronofsky a few months before the film’s premiere, while its contents were still top secret, to talk about its allegorical meaning, its startlingly unusual use of Kristen Wiig, and the surprising difficulty of its postproduction process.” (Warning: spoilers included.)
Lillian Ross, Legendary New Yorker Reporter, Dead At 99
“[Her] innovative journalism appeared in the New Yorker magazine for eight consecutive decades, and whose profiles and articles were considered forebears of both the nonfiction novel and unsparing modern celebrity profile.”