“It’s tough to be creative every day when your life is fundamentally ordinary. It’s tiring. And, since most writers toil in relative isolation, it’s anything but social.”
Category: AUDIENCE
Is Theatre About The Working Class, But Made For The Middle Class, Always ‘Poverty Porn’?
“It can be troubling to sit in an expensive theatre seat – that might cost close to what some people live on for an entire week – and watch actors portray the less fortunate.”
The Classicist Who Thinks We Can Actually Beat Internet Trolls
“She responded, battling back her antagonists and becoming something of a folk hero in the process. Now her engagements often combine her two pursuits, as her talk at Women in the World did: tracing the history of misogyny from the ancient world to today.”
The Best View In Rotterdam Is From The Roof. So The City Is Building A Grand Staircase To Get You Up There
“Today, Rotterdam is a hub for landmark buildings and experimental construction, with new projects including MVRDV’s market hall and the OMA-designed De Rotterdam. The Stairs will be built next to another of these new additions – the railway station by Benthem Crouwel, MVSA and West 8.”
Trolling Subway Riders With Fake Book Covers
Scott Rogowsky has been getting video of the reactions of New Yorkers to such book titles as Definitely Not Porn | So What Are You Looking At? Mind Your Own Business; Human Taxidermy: A Beginner’s Guide; Slut-Shaming Your Baby; and 1,000 Places to See Before You’re Executed by ISIS.
Boring Architecture Is Literally Unhealthy For Us
“A growing body of research in cognitive science illuminates the physical and mental toll bland cityscapes exact on residents. Generally, these researchers argue that humans are healthier when they live among variety – a cacophony of bars, bodegas, and independent shops – or work in well-designed, unique spaces, rather than unattractive, generic ones.”
Department Of Don’t Worry: Books Will Never Be Replaced By Digital Files
“The book industry is too complicated to distill into any one of those sweeping theses. Print books have persisted, but ebooks are not going away. Amazon is powerful, but physical bookstores are still here. The book is not immune to the powerful digital forces that have re-shaped so much of the rest of the world. At the same time, books have been able to resist the forces of change because books really are different.”
Coming Soon: Smartphone-Friendly Movie Theatres?
“When you tell a 22-year-old to turn off the phone, don’t ruin the movie, they hear please cut off your left arm above the elbow. You can’t tell a 22-year-old to turn off their cellphone. That’s not how they live their life.”
Is This The World’s Oddest YouTube Star?
“Two years after ‘Eye to Eye’ baffled the country by giving birth to a huge cult following, the Pakistani singer Taher Shah returned this weekend with a second music video, ‘Angel,’ that has gone viral. … For most of the new video, Shah walks around a golf course wearing a tiara and a purple gown (bathrobe?), showing off his chest hair.”
North Carolina: Do Musician Boycotts Do Any Good?
“Although performers have been using their power to appear—or not—to send political messages for decades, the efficacy of the gesture in fights over North Carolina and Mississippi’s laws remains unclear. But musicians played a very public role in fighting segregation in the U.S. and apartheid in South Africa.”