Some psychologists and anthropologists say that processes built into the human brain – different cognition for animate and inanimate objects, separate consciousness of the body and the mind, “an overdeveloped sense of cause and effect which primes us to see purpose and design everywhere” – mean that the predisposition to religion is deep-rooted “and that atheism will always be a hard sell.”
Tag: 02.04.09
Debating a Secretary For The Arts
In 2008, the U.S. Conference of Mayors offered a 10-point plan for how the president could help American cities. One of the points was “the creation of a cabinet-level Secretary of Culture and Tourism charged with forming a national policy for arts, culture and tourism.”
Theatre Reviews? There’s Got To Be A Better Way
“Does the average newspaper reader even skim – much less read – a review of the latest production from a small theater company she’s never heard of and has no intention of seeing? Probably not. But she might well read movie reviews and almost certainly reads feature stories about the movie industry, even if she sees only two or three movies a year. I believe it’s because, in part, newspapers provide stories about the film industry that explain and inform, yet provide little real coverage of the theater community in this town.”
Mourning A Premiere Record Label
“In times like these when household names are vanishing daily, the loss of a record label hardly qualifies for national mourning. But the abolition of Decca is more than just another colophon going to the wall. Decca represented something to artists and record buyers.”
David Plouffe To Get At Least $1.5M For Obama Campaign Book
For all the book industry’s financial woes, publishers competed hard for the inside story from the new President’s campaign manager. Plouffe’s agent says 17 imprints bid for the title.
Oh, The Classicists Hate The Modernists, And The Modernists Hate The Classicists…
Witold Rybczynski: “Architects are unbending in their judgments. My Modernist friends hold multipaned windows, ogee moldings, and wallpaper beneath contempt; my Classicist friends deride bare walls, uncomfortable furniture, and pipe railings… Why are architects so dogmatic? Partly, it’s because architecture is a zero-sum game.”
Please, Make Insulting Chick Flicks Go Away
“Simone de Beauvoir famously announced that ‘One is not born a woman, but becomes one,’ in her 1949 treatise The Second Sex. She might have added: ‘But it takes Hollywood to turn one into an hysterical fashion-mongering man-craving anorexic caricature.’ … The good news, for right-thinking women everywhere, is that the contemporary cardboard chick flick may yet eat itself without any help from feminist producers or activist audiences.”
‘Fundamental Flaws’ In Fringe Ticketing, Report Finds
“An independent report into the box office fiasco at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe has found ‘fundamental flaws’ in the way it was run. The world’s largest arts festival was plunged into chaos last summer when its new box office system malfunctioned. Thousands of people were left without tickets and many performers claimed their shows were undersold.”
For Chart Nerds Only: A Space For The Strictly Classical
“A new chart for ‘purely classical’ music has been launched, the Official Charts Company has announced. The specialist classical chart,” which debuts in the March issue of Gramophone, “will be based on weekly sales of recordings which are 100% classical. The OCC’s long-running combined classical albums chart requires 60% of an album’s repertoire to be classical.”
Shaw Festival’s Associate Director Resigns
“Neil Munro is stepping down as associate director of the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., for health reasons, the festival announced Wednesday… Munro suffered an infection in 2008 and had to step aside last March from directing An Inspector Calls.“