A glance at the research reveals that the paper map still thrives in the digital era, and there are distinct advantages to using print maps. – CityLab
Tag: 01.23.19
Ariana Grande And The Complications Of Cultural Appropriation
“Appropriation remains one of the hardest-to-talk-about phenomena in pop culture, which is, fundamentally, a hodgepodge of widely circulated ideas that originated in specific subcultures. One line of thought puts it in economic terms: Are marginalized creators being materially harmed and erased? But on another level, there are questions of aesthetics and tastes. Does the pop star draw upon her influences in a way that feels original? Does her work disrespect or honor those influences? Is there a double standard in how her work is received?” – The Atlantic
The Racial Reconciliation Fantasies The Oscars Love So Much? Really, It’s All Just Transactional
Critic Wesley Morris nods to The Blind Side, Crash, and The Help, but he concentrates, of course, on current contender Green Book and its Oscar-winning predecessor Driving Miss Daisy, as well as non-Oscar-contender The Upside. He points out that those films’ central (interracial) relationships are all based on employment — “pay-to-playmate transactions,” he calls them — and contrasts them to the more realistic employer-employee relations in a film that should have been an Oscar contender, Do the Right Thing. — The New York Times
The Baltimore Symphony’s Contract Extension Agreement Just Expired
For now, all the drama is in the music. But tensions continue to simmer beneath the surface. The musicians had been operating under a four-month extension of their previous one-year contract that expired Sept. 9. – Baltimore Sun
Daily Mail Flagged As Unreliable News Source By Microsoft’s New Browser
“Visitors to Mail Online who use Microsoft Edge can now see a statement asserting that ‘this website generally fails to maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability’ and ‘has been forced to pay damages in numerous high-profile cases’. The message, which is produced by a third-party startup called NewsGuard, tells readers to proceed carefully given that ‘the site regularly publishes content that has damaged reputations, caused widespread alarm, or constituted harassment or invasion of privacy’.” — The Guardian
Humanity’s Cognitive Diversity Is Narrowing. This May Be A Big Problem
On all continents, even in the world’s remotest regions, indigenous people are swapping their distinctive ways of parsing the world for Western, globalised ones. As a result, human cognitive diversity is dwindling – and, sadly, those of us who study the mind had only just begun to appreciate it. – Aeon
Australian Ballet Cancels Season’s Major Premiere Due To Graeme Murphy’s Illness
One of the centerpieces of the company’s 2019 season was to have been Murphy’s full-length adaptation of the Oscar Wilde story “The Happy Prince.” But, due to what’s being described only as “a medical issue,” Murphy — who spent 31 years as director of Sydney Dance Company, which he led to international renown, and has since been active as a freelance choreographer — is unable to finish the piece. — Limelight (Australia)
So The Times Thinks It’s Wonderful That Yannick Nézet-Séguin Is Openly Gay. What About The Paper’s Own Role In Keeping The Closet Shut For So Long?
Joel Rozen: “Closeting rarely happens in a vacuum; it requires a hostile culture of gay suppression and mechanisms like the popular media to thrive. Rather than simply acting like the secrecy of high-profile gay men in Manhattan was a random phenomenon, a story such as Woolfe’s could just as well have addressed the music press’s past complicity in making homosexuality a secret in the first place.” — Slate
U.S. Government Shutdown Could Torpedo Tintoretto Show At National Gallery
“The exhibition of 16th-century Italian master Tintoretto — one of the most anticipated art shows of the year — is set to open March 10, along with two complementary exhibits on Venetian prints and drawings. Preparations for the shows are weeks behind schedule because of the prolonged shutdown, the longest in history.” Three other Smithsonian museums have already had to postpone exhibitions due to the shutdown. — The Washington Post
Jonas Mekas, Giant Of American Underground Film, Dead At 96
“It is rare to have consensus on the pre-eminence of any person in the arts. But few would argue that Mr. Mekas, who was often called the godfather or the guru of the New American Cinema — his name for the underground film movement of the 1950s and ’60s — was the leading champion of the kind of film that doesn’t show at the multiplex. … In addition to making his own movies and writing prolifically about the movies of others, Mr. Mekas was the founder or a co-founder of institutions that support and promote independent filmmakers” — most notably the journal Film Culture and the museum-library Anthology Film Archives. — The New York Times