“What better way to turn unsuspecting listeners on to new music? While most people probably wouldn’t purchase a ticket to a concert for music they know very little or nothing about, might they stop on a street corner or subway platform to listen to something unfamiliar? What if the answer is yes?”
Tag: 01.05.11
NASA Picks ‘Most Absurd Science Fiction Film of All Time’
“2012, Roland Emmerich’s gleefully comprehensive demolition job disaster movie, … was deemed the silliest and most scientifically flawed film at a conference in California.”
Your Brain Cells Are Savvy Shoppers
“Individual human brain cells can be savvy shoppers, tuning their behavior to precisely reflect the worth of a candy bar, finds a study published [this week]. … Understanding how these bean-counting neurons operate may help scientists get a better idea of how the brain assigns value to objects.”
Baltimore Pocket Opera Announces Shutdown
American Opera Theatre “announced Tuesday that its next production – a double bill of Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” and the stage premiere of Melissa Dunphy’s “The Gonzales Cantata,” a setting of the transcripts of the congressional hearings of former attorney general Alberto Gonzales – would be its last.”
Marion True Speaks Out About Her Prosecution By The Italian Government
“Unfortunately, facts played little role in the Italian court’s charges or the media’s presentation of them. The intention was to use the case against me to condemn publicly the collecting of antiquities and to terrorise museums and collectors, especially in the United States. Remarkably, no European or Asian museum has been pressed in this manner, though there are recently purchased objects in many, pieces that were offered to me for the Getty but that I declined to propose.”
Another Request To Remove Art From Hide/Seek Show
“Jim Hedges, a hedge-fund specialist and art aficionado, recently wrote to Martin Sullivan, director of the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in Washington, DC, requesting that his loaned work Untitled, Self-Portrait by Jack Pierson be removed from the Hide/Seek NPG exhibition ‘until such time as the David Wojnarowicz video is reinstated in its full unedited version’.”
“Talent” Shows? Here’s Why They’re A Bad Idea
“The ‘talent’ cult is wrong in itself. No worthwhile art has ever been made by talent alone. Art is about ideas, feelings, original views of the world, new styles and profound insights: art, even the very greatest art, exists in and seeks to act on the social world of human beings.”
Cutting the N-Word From Huck Finn: For Schools, It’s the Least Bad Option
“[C]lassrooms – and the school systems they’re embedded in – aren’t always idealized teaching spaces: One too-graphic sex scene in an otherwise age-appropriate book, and an administrator may decide to nix it. Or a teacher may swap it for a book that’s less likely to get them angry phone calls from parents. … If taking out the n-word means more students can be exposed to [the book], well, I’m not convinced that that’s a horrible thing.”
Cutting the N-Word From Huck Finn: Does the One Word Really Matter?
“But is there never any justification for altering a classic – even if the revised edition would serve a specialized audience (like high school students) or readers who feel assaulted and are unable to get past that epithet?” Nine writers hash it out in the NYT‘s Room for Debate.
What Do London’s Ballet Stars Make of Black Swan?
Lauren Cuthbertson: “Some of Nina’s character felt accurate. We’re all obsessive in how we approach a new role … But in the film it’s all so extreme.” Edward Watson: “[W]hile this film shows the drive ballet dancers have to become perfect, it makes what we do look so naff and laughable. … The one cliche they didn’t go for so much was the bitching.”