“But are evangelists like Shafer selling tiny houses short when they position them as antidotes to consumerism? After all, it’s just as easy, and perhaps both more accurate and more strategic, to position them as potent temples of consumerism, a way to revel in the materiality of day-to-day existence.”
Tag: 01.20.11
Young People Today Don’t Know the Meaning of the Word ‘Thrift’
“For the last few years, I’ve been asking students in my college classes to define the word thrift. After a few seconds of blank stares, I suggest that perhaps they have heard this word in conjunction with thrift stores. ‘So thrift means vintage or used?’ a student will venture.”
Making Wuthering Heights Into Ballet (Don’t Try This at Home)
“‘Getting Bronte’s characters onto the stage proved to be very difficult,’ Deborah Dunn says. ‘From specific people, they dissolved into generalized gothic archetypes. I just couldn’t get across the story. I was resorting to pantomime, and those scenes had to go’.”
How the Soloflex Changed America
The story of the device that changed ideas about home exercise, pioneered the use of hot shirtless guys in print advertising, and prompted the invention of the TV infomercial.
Why America Is Losing Its Edge In Innovation
“Scientists and engineers are celebrities in most countries. They’re not seen as geeks or misfits, as they too often are in the U.S., but rather as society’s leaders and innovators. Why does this matter? Because if American students have a negative impression – or no impression at all – of science and engineering, then they’re hardly likely to choose them as professions.”
The Troubling Performance Of Smithsonian Chief Wayne Clough
“What is most troubling in these interviews is that Clough seems to be blaming this controversy not on intolerance, or the threat of censorship, but on his curators. It is the job of a museum head like Clough to hire the best possible curators and then let them curate.”
Crowdsourcing Commissioning
“As a result of the rise of collaborative financing tools and social-networking technologies, the commissioning process has become more multifaceted.”
Republicans Detail Cuts (Include Eliminating Cultural Funding)
Cuts include elimination of (among others) the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Smithsonian Director Wayne Clough On Removing Video From “Hide/Seek”
“I think it was very important to cut off the dialogue that was headed towards, in essence, hijacking the exhibit away from us and putting it into the context of religious desecration. This continues to be a powerful exhibit about the contributions of gay and lesbian artists. It was not about religious iconography and it was not about desecration.”
You Really Can Expiate Guilt Through Physical Pain
“While it may strike many as medieval, ritual self-punishment continues to be practiced by certain groups of both Christians and Muslims. Newly published research from Australia suggests why this pain-inducing practice has survived through the centuries: It provides psychological benefits to the self-flagellating faithful.”