“I asked a friend of mine, an inveterate punster, whether he punned while on dates. ‘Sure, I pun on dates,’ he replied. ‘On prunes and figs, too.’ And well he might, considering the similitude between puns and fruit flies, both of which die practically the instant they are born, but not before breeding others.”
Tag: 03.28.09
First Impressions Of L.A.’s Annenberg Space For Photography
Christopher Knight: “Two things I like: It’s free, and it’s eclectic. […] ASP isn’t stuffy – the design is a mash-up of museum gallery, Apple Store and ArcLight Cinema – but it’s serious and friendly.” On the other hand: “Two things I don’t like: ASP has a corporate aura, and light is a problem.”
Can We Apply Natural Selection To Creativity?
“A Darwinian understanding of culture begins with the observation that the arts appear in every human society and yield intense delight. When evolutionary psychologists detect those qualities, bells start ringing. Universal appearance of a behavior sometimes leads scientists to infer that it evolved before our ancestors’ diaspora from Africa 60,000 years ago (e.g., walking upright).”
What The Google Book Settlement Means To Authors
By May 5 “every author and publisher in America is supposed to decide whether to “opt in,” “opt out,” or simply “ignore” a vast compulsory licensing scheme for the benefit of Google. Most, about 88%, are expected to “ignore.” That’s because they know their online display rights have value, and the last thing they want is to be herded like sheep into a giant contract commitment.”
The Decline Of Poetry Reading?
Poetry, for all its merits, has no program or volume to rival the current popularity of Oprah and Harry Potter, but even so, the decline of its already modest following is noteworthy. Some critics and readers claim that most poetry today is too cloistered and inaccessible, or that it is just plain bad. Yet a telephone survey conducted in 2005 by the National Opinion Research Center on behalf of the Poetry Foundation found that only 2 percent of respondents said they didn’t read poetry because it was “too hard.”
Did Conservators Wreck Shakespeare’s Portrait?
“It has emerged that art conservators who joined forces to restore the two portraits by removing the top layer of paint to reveal the “authentic” portraits beneath, were actually wiping away priceless insights into the changing appearance of Britain’s greatest playwright.”
The Next Big Thing In Classical Music: Non-Classical?
Nonclassical says it speaks for “a new generation of performers/composers [who] are starting to emerge from the world of contemporary classical music/They are keen to redefine the rules and are determined to break out of the constraints of the concert hall/Classical music can be part of everyone’s life.”
Singapore, World Arts Capital?
Singapore is making an “ambitious bid to claim status as a global performing arts city on a par with London or New York — even if it means relaxing some long-held taboos. Theaters here increasingly are allowed to take on risqué social and political themes, a sign this tightly controlled Southeast Asian city-state is starting to loosen up.”
Mapping The Brain – One Gene At A Time
“If the institute succeeds, its maps will help scientists decipher the function of the thousands of genes that help produce the human brain. (Although the Human Genome Project was completed more than five years ago, scientists still have little idea which genes are used to make the brain, let alone where in the brain they are expressed.) For the first time, it will be possible to understand how such a complex object is assembled from a basic four-letter code.”
Cuba’s First Show Of American Art In 25 Years
“The show is expected to attract large numbers of Cuban artists who have spent years working in isolation, with little real contact with what is going on across the straits of Florida.”