“We have become surrounded by information technology; our furniture includes iPods and plasma displays, and our skills include texting and Googling. But our capacity to understand the role of information has been sorely taxed. “TMI,” we say. Stand back, however, and the past does come back into focus.”
Tag: 04.11
Uncle Oscar Hammerstein
“Oscar once said he started writing musicals in order to make money and that, once he had made enough, he planned to devote himself to straight plays in order to say what he thought important. As he began to experiment with the form, however, he found that…”
The Translator/The Translated – Like No One Else
Arthur Rimbaud and John Ashbery are radical practitioners who have divided critics and readers. Ashbery says of Rimbaud that he “resembles no one else”; the same could be said of Ashbery.
Our Zombies, Ourselves: How The Undead Lodged Themselves In Pop Culture
“[We] might reasonably have expected the first modern zombies to start showing up around 1919,” in the wake of the Industrial Revolution and World War I. “And yet not until 1968, at the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, did the zombie as we know him really make the scene.”
The Trouble With Authenticating Andy Warhol
“In the 15 years since the authentication board was created, it has frequently come under fire for what some observers have considered secretive, arbitrary, or biased decision making. The lawsuit and the Brillo-box scandal, critics say, revealed detailed information about some of the board’s practices that raises serious questions about its procedures and its responsibility to owners of Warhol works.”
Should The Smithsonian Crowdsource Its Curating?
A policy of inviting the public into the “pre-decisional” process directly contradicts the panel’s assertion that “curatorial freedom of expression, expertise, and authority” are vital. It would turn the Smithsonian into a sitting duck for all manner of groups that want to implement an agenda. Opening exhibition preparation to crowdsourcing is not a way to anticipate controversy–it’s a way to assure it.
Why Artist Ai WeiWei Criticizes The Chinese Government
“If I am in this kind of society and if I don’t even speak up, I really feel meaningless.”
Our Big Television Failures
“For 50 years, we have bombarded our children with commercials disguised as programs and with endless displays of violence and sexual exploitation. We are nearly alone in the democratic world in not providing our candidates with public-service television time. Instead we make them buy it–and so money consumes and corrupts our political discourse.”
Is American News Coverage Getting Worse?
James Fallows: “I now think it’s worth facing the inevitability of the shift to infotainment and seeing how we can make the best of it.”