For years, the promise of instant book publishing hovered just over the horizon, like the promise of flying cars. This decade, it finally came true. – Washington Post
Tag: 12.24.19
Does All Music Have Something In Common?
Why Our New Year’s “Starting Over” Motivations Don’t Work
Results from six studies support this idea that focusing on the pursuit of a goal can be helpful in the long term. The researchers encouraged more than 1,600 people who had just achieved a personal goal to reflect on their recent success through the lens of either a “destination” or a “journey.” They found that those who thought about their goal as part of a journey were more likely to continue making progress towards it—even though they’d supposedly already achieved it. – Nautilus
50 Years At The Church (Literally) Of John Coltrane
For Franzo and Marina King, who had begun taking Coltrane’s music and ideas seriously as a world view, he had not passed away. He had merely ascended. Franzo had always imagined becoming a preacher one day. He had now found his God. The Kings’ jazz club was refashioned into a temple, where members participated in the organizing and uplift common in the Bay Area of the sixties. – The New Yorker
Why Are So Many Christmas Feel-Good Movies Anti-City?
You don’t have to watch many of these movies to see the bad rap that cities get. Before our protagonist (usually a single woman) gets enchanted by twinkling lights and prop Christmas trees, she must first flee the grey, cold-hearted metropolis that leaves her feeling some combination of lonely, overworked, and grumpy. – CityLab
Choreography For Business: Teaching The Corporate World Dance
After Rachel Cossar retired from Boston Ballet, she started a class called Choreography in the Kitchen to teach restaurant workers healthy ways to lift, bend and reach with poise. Then she was asked to create a similar program for the fundraising department at Harvard. Both classes became popular, with long waiting lists, and Cossar has now turned Choreography For Business into a thriving enterprise. – Dance Magazine
How Art Training Helps Doctors, Police See Detail
“As I rose through the ranks, people would ask me, ‘Did the art background and training have an effect?’ There is something to that. By training in the art field, your brain tends to adapt and see things in a way people might not see.” – Artsy
Disney Cuts Lesbian Kiss From Singapore Release Of Star Wars ‘Rise Of Skywalker’
“The country’s media regulatory body said Disney removed the clip to avoid the film being given a higher age rating. It is PG13, which means parental guidance is advised for children under 13. … Singaporean censorship guidelines state that films containing LGBT themes or content as a subplot may be restricted to viewers aged 18 and above, while films focusing on homosexuality may be hit with a 21-and-over rating.” – The Guardian
Medieval Painting Found In Old Lady’s Kitchen Blocked From Leaving France
“Christ Mocked, by the 13th-century Florentine painter Cimabue, had hung for decades above a cooking hotplate in the kitchen of a 1960s house near Compiègne, north of Paris, before it was spotted by an auctioneer who had come to value furniture for a house move. But after the unsigned work was bought at auction in October by US-based private collectors, the French state this week classified the painting as a ‘national treasure’ and refused it an export certificate. The move gives the French state 30 months to attempt to find [€24 million in] funding to acquire the picture itself.” – The Guardian
Not Celery
“Did you see my cardoons?” Mike pointed to a pile of leafless, longer celery. I have eaten cardoons, I remember, at an optimistic Sicilian-only restaurant in Manhattan, long- and quickly gone, and in one other place, forgotten. Never saw them in a market before, and the produce guy, who pretends to know me, was proud. I looked, touched, and didn’t buy, a cooking coward. Then I drove back. – Jeff Weinstein