03.03.14 – Page 2 – ArtsJournal Wayback

Composer Robert Ashley, 83

“As well as being known for his radical reinvention of the operatic form, fusing electronic music into his operas and theatre works, Ashley also co-founded the Cooperative Studio for Electronic Music in 1958 alongside Gordon Mumma, before creating the performing arts event ONCE Festival in the 60s. He won the John Cage Award for Music from the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts in 2002.”

Could Starbucks Replace Your Local Bank?

“At U.S. Starbucks stores, nearly one-third of the transactions are now handled with the company’s pre-paid cards — which act as tiny de facto savings accounts. How long before Starbucks takes this to the next level?”

The Oscars: Hollywood’s Conflicted Selfie

Andrew O’Hehir: “The 2014 Oscars may be mercifully remembered for who won what, rather than for Ellen DeGeneres’ labored pizza-delivery gag or the star-studded selfie that allegedly ‘broke Twitter’ and may finally have convinced an entire generation of young Americans that social media is hopelessly lame.”

West Bank’s Freedom Theatre, Three Years After Its Founder’s Assassination

“Jenin, a camp in the north of the West Bank with more than 16,000 registered Palestinian refugees, is at the heart of a cultural resistance movement. … And tucked away within the camp is Freedom theatre, founded in 2006 by Juliano Mer Khamis, who believed in using cultural resistance to fight against occupation. He was killed in 2011 by a masked gunman outside his theatre.”

The Germ Theory of Democracy, Dictatorship, and All Your Most Cherished Beliefs

“Our moment-to-moment psychological reactions to the threat of illness, [some researchers] suggest, … may explain many of the basic differences we observe between cultures. How does your culture behave toward strangers? What kind of government do you live under? Who are your sexual partners? What values do you share? All of these questions may mask a more fundamental one: What germs are you warding off?”

Someone Left Pompeii Out in the Rain (And It Started to Crumble, Again)

“Heavy rains over the weekend provoked several collapses at the archaeological site of Pompeii, highlighting once again the fragility of one of the world’s most famous open-air museums.”

U.S. Supreme Court Will Hear Amazon Warehouse Employee Case

“The Supreme Court said that it would hear a class action lawsuit filed in 2010 by former employees of Amazon contractor Integrity Security Systems who claim that, under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), they deserve back pay for the time” – 15 to 30 minutes each way – “they spent in security checks at the beginning and end of the day, which the warehouse mandated to prevent employee theft.”

‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull’ Led to Everything Wrong With Post-Reagan America

Well, that what Heather Havrilesky argues: “Reading [Richard] Bach’s novella can feel like pinpointing the exact moment in American history when our disillusionment and outrage at society’s massive, grand-scale failures yielded to a new kind of personal arrogance, a championing of the individual over the group no matter the cost.”

Tag: 03.03.14