Category: ideas

“The closure of Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s controversial play Behzti at the Birmingham Rep last December exposed a troubling conflict in British theatre. So how does the theatre industry progress into the 21st century, ticking all the right multicultural and ethnicity boxes while reserving the right to be offensive, or at least critical, in its discussion of our increasingly fragmented society and its faiths?”

Turns out movie studios are spending much more on advertising their movies than they take in. In 2003, they spent, “on average, $34.8 million to advertise a movie and earned, on average, just $20.6 million per title. Even if the studios had made the movies for free—which, of course, they didn’t—they would have lost $14.2 million per film on the theatrical run.”

Why do some artists continue innovating and broadening their horizons throughout their careers, while others stall out after a big hit or two, and spend their declining years living off the fumes of that momentary success? “Everyone can name artists who thrive beyond what is considered their prime: Bach, Rembrandt, Hitchcock, Stravinsky, Matisse painting from his wheelchair. But equally there are those who feel that at a certain point packing it in is the graceful thing to do.” The reasons behind such artistic progression may go deeper than one might imagine: in fact, it may have much to do with the way the human brain evolves over the course of a lifetime.

These days, it seems as if self-help books can turn anything on Earth into an inspirational get-up-and-go speech. “And now the popularization of artists and museums has yielded something else to feel ambivalent about: the first art-focused self-help book, ‘How Rembrandt Reveals Your Beautiful, Imperfect Self: Life Lessons From the Master.’ [Roger] Housden’s book is largely focused on Rembrandt’s renowned self-portraits, in which he charted the changes in his visage from cocky youthful promise to destitute old age. The gist is that despite Rembrandt’s all-too-human flaws, he at least had the courage to repeatedly face himself in the mirror – and we can learn from this example.” Hey! You in the back! Quit rolling your eyes! Housden is actually (we think) serious.

As people live longer, the age when they are at their greatest creativity has gone up a bit. But the length of time people are extraordinarily creative hasn’t increased. So why is that?

Okay – we’ve had doctors for a long time, and to be honest, a lot of the time they’ve only guessed at what makes us better. But more and more, they’re nailing down real answers to what makes our bodies work. So you want to build a better brain? Here are 11 things you can do to improve and retain mental health…

Where does sarcasm come from? Turns out it’s a very specific part of the brain. “By comparing healthy people and those with damage to different parts of the brain, they found the front of the brain was key to understanding sarcasm…”

“In the wake of the creationist “Scopes monkey trial” in 1925, the evangelicals (though technically victorious) realised they had lost the PR battle, and retreated from American public life. Now they are popping up all over the place, from the bestseller lists to pop music. In the wake of Scopes, the Bible Belt (H. L. Mencken’s tag) was seen as a home of hicks. Now evangelism is the religion of the upwardly mobile, of McMansions and office parks, with evangelicals almost drawing level with (traditionally upper-crust) Episcopalians in terms of wealth and education.”

The war in Iraq isn’t even over yet, and already, the mass marketing juggernaut is gearing up to sell a sentimental version of it to a public that seems all too ready to embrace the pre-nostalgia. “Taking aim at the 18-to-34 set, publishers will soon roll out first-person tales from the front… Meanwhile, television, which couldn’t locate a young audience for its Vietnam-era American Dreams, may end up with two series set in Iraq – a cable drama from Stephen Bochco and a network comedy from Golden Girls writer Mort Nathan.” Why the rush? It’s a new post-Vietnam generation, says the conventional marketing wisdom, and they’re ready to get past old ideas about war as a national humiliation, even if their parents aren’t.

‘If you draw the timelines, realistically by 2050 we would expect to be able to download your mind into a machine, so when you die it’s not a major career problem. If you’re rich enough then by 2050 it’s feasible. If you’re poor you’ll probably have to wait until 2075 or 2080 when it’s routine. We are very serious about it. That’s how fast this technology is moving: 45 years is a hell of a long time in IT.'”