A fond look at the life and career of the mathematician-turned-satirical-songwriter-turned-mathematician of whom The New York Times wrote, “Mr. Lehrer’s muse [is] not fettered by such inhibiting factors as taste.” He’s released no new songs in more than 40 years; as he said in 2002, “Things I once thought were funny are scary now. I often feel like a resident of Pompeii who has been asked for some humorous comments on lava.”
Tag: 04.04.18
Is Handwriting Dying? Probably Not, Despite The Evidence
If script is dying, it cannot complain that its day has been short. Its solitary reign may have been ended by the printing press, but it lived on as a citizen in the new republic of letters: official records, account books, botanical drawings, not to mention works for private circulation and personal epistles, continued to be produced by hand for centuries. Then came the typewriter, but even its keys could not strike the death knell of handwriting. Perhaps that machine’s close descendants, the keyboards of our computers and their avatars on our screens, are administering the coup de grâce. Perhaps.
Czech Theatre Has Radical Roots, And Students At A Xenophobic School Are Learning To Reclaim That Tradition
A young American woman who was told she was “too sensitive” after dealing with racist and anti-Semitic remarks from students (and fellow teachers!) started working with a peer to use Theatre of the Oppressed to change the school “The administration saw a theatre club as a benign activity, but little did they know that through games and acting exercises, the very status quo was being challenged.”
Maya Angelou: Poet, Memoirist – And Godmother Of Hip Hop?
She mentored Common, inspired Kanye West, and won three Grammys for her own spoken word poetry. “Angelou saw hip-hop’s innate connection to the tradition of poetry. When asked whether she thought of using students’ interest in rap to lead them to poetry, she replied: ‘Absolutely.'”
Did This Scholar Just Figure Out How To Reconstruct Ancient Greek Music?
We know that most ancient Greek poetry was meant to be sung; we know a lot about the instruments, the rhythms, and the music theory. A few examples of notated melody have survived the millennia. Oxford classicist Armand d’Angour has put all the evidence together. (includes video)
Utopia Is Unattainable. So How About A Protopia?
Protopia is a state that is better today than yesterday, although it might be only a little better. Protopia is much much harder to visualise. Because a protopia contains as many new problems as new benefits, this complex interaction of working and broken is very hard to predict.
‘Dr. Strangelove In Space’: Explaining Stanley Kubrick’s Inexplicable ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’
“Look at the similarities: the Cold War secrecy between the US and Russia, the boardrooms packed with middle-aged men in suits, the supposedly infallible machine which is intent on slaughtering the people who built it. … And look at the convictions which underpin both works: that humans are intrinsically, self-destructively violent, and that anyone who believes himself to be 100% right is probably a dangerous maniac. It may be going too far to call 2001 a cynical political comedy, but if Kubrick hadn’t wanted us to laugh, … he wouldn’t have had a chapter entitled The Dawn of Man, in which man, having dawned, bashes another man’s brains out with a club.”
Could ‘Jesus Christ Superstar Live’ Rehabilitate Andrew Lloyd Webber?
“For years, the Lloyd Webber canon has been a bit of a cultural punching bag. It’s not hard to see why: His two most popular musicals are, respectively, a nearly plotless anthology sung by performers in spandex and fur and a faux opera about a disfigured stalker in pop culture’s most iconic mask … [Cats and The Phantom of the Opera] have allowed him to become a byword for over-the-top mediocrity that people can snub to feel cultured. Jesus Christ Superstar Live, however, reminded audiences of a different side to Lloyd Webber’s canon.”
World’s Tallest Statue Is Going Up In India
The “Statue of Unity”, a 600-foot-tall figure of Sardar Vallabhbai Patel (an anti-colonial leader who became independent India’s first deputy prime minister), is going up on a small island in the Naramada River in the state of Gujarat. The $460 million structure will be twice the height of the Statue of Liberty.
Study: High Incidence Of Concussions Among Theatre Performers
Research revealed 67 percent of those surveyed had experienced at least one theater-related head impact. Astonishingly, 39 percent respondents sustained more than five head injuries and 77 percent had more than three head impacts during their time in theater. Of those who experienced a head impact, 70 percent had concussion-related symptoms but continued working.