Blog

Depressed? You Could Do Worse Than Watch Cheesy Holiday Movies On Netflix

Maybe not 29 movies in a row, of course. But. One writer explains that she opened Netflix in the depths of a serious depression and started watching Christmas Prince. “The movie was terrible. But it was also wonderful. Within a few minutes, I felt something bubbling in my chest. Something I hadn’t felt in weeks. A small spark of happiness. Soon it had grown enough that it actually burst from me in a smile, which became a laugh. I was actually laughing. Half an hour before that I’d been, to quote Anne Shirley (as I always try to do), in the depths of despair, and now I was laughing.” – BuzzFeed

Can We Make A Better Social Media World?

One science fiction writer and futurist says we can – but a lot will need to change. “The issue isn’t technical. It has to do with the way business is being done in Silicon Valley. The problem, as most people know by now, is that tech companies want to grab a ton of private data from their customers without telling anyone why they need it. And this … is bad design for users.” – The New York Times

Conductor Mariss Jansons Dead At 76

He was born and raised in Soviet-occupied Latvia and trained in what was then Leningrad; he became well-known in the West as music director of the Oslo Philharmonic and then the Pittsburgh Symphony. “In the first decades of this century he was frequently awarded the accolade of greatest living conductor. His tours in those years … with his two primary orchestras, the Bavarian Radio Symphony and the [Royal] Concertgebouw [Orchestra] of Amsterdam, were eagerly awaited events and rarely did they disappoint.” – The Guardian

Does Venice Have A Future?

Yes, the water’s up, but the population is also dropping fast. “In the central Castello District, master artisan Paolo Brandolisio — one of only four remaining makers of oars and oar posts for the city’s legendary gondolas — is trying to put his workshop back in order. Brandolisio is trying to salvage his waterlogged oak worktable.” Brandolisio says, “If no one’s left to make wooden boats, they’ll disappear and be replaced by plastic ones.” – NPR

In Kodiak, Alaska, Fed-Up Residents Open Their Own Bookstore

Since the last bookstore closed, people in the town on Kodiak Island have had to use thrift stores and online purchases for their books. But two residents who moved back home to care for ill parents are changing that. One says, “I’ve been surprised to learn what a bookshop means to a community. … I inherently love books, and it was natural that that would be what we chose to pour all of our energy and passion into, but I didn’t realize how much people missed it in our town.” – Anchorage Daily News (Kodiak Daily Mirror)

A Decade After ‘The L Word’ Ended, It Returns To Get More Things Right This Time

Lesbians, the producers of The L Word thought after the show ended its run in 2009, would become more omnipresent in mainstream U.S. culture. Maybe true, but no queer women’s ensemble show arose in its wake (unlike the many, many, many, many, many ensemble shows about straight folks that have been on TV in the past decade). So, what the heck, it’s back – but new, fresh, and much more in tune with what it calls “Generation Q.” – The New York Times

What Does Music Mean?

In Portland, Oregon ArtsWatch’s Matthew Neil Andrews is writing a series about classical music and meaning. For instance: We know music can help people process trauma (think of the Boston Symphony playing Beethoven’s Funeral March from the Eroica the afternoon JFK was murdered) – but what if it’s designed to do that? Does that change the experience? And “the main question is whether using music to address these issues is appropriate and effective. What good do these shows do, in terms of actually stimulating change?” – Oregon ArtsWatch