“This then is the strange rags-to-riches tale of two mild-mannered librarians … who went hunting for fairytales and accidentally ended up changing the course of historical linguistics and kickstarting a whole new field of scholarship in folklore.”
Tag: 05.02.18
Bernini Sculpture Loses A Finger – Just After Being Restored
“The accident reportedly happened as the statue” – a marble of Saint Bibiana – “was being lifted back into place above the altar of Santa Bibiana, the church in central Rome for which Bernini created it in 1626. The newly restored work had been on loan for the first time in its history to the capital’s Borghese Gallery, which recently hosted a major exhibition of the Baroque sculptor’s masterpieces.”
Rise Of The Fake Museum
Call it the Kusama effect. Since Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Room exhibition has taken off (the recent Los Angeles opening of her show at The Broad sold out their 50,000 tickets in less than two hours), it has fueled a debate around selfie-friendly art. Although Kusama’s artworks were not necessarily made for the smartphone (many were made in the 1960s), it’s still part of the “made-for-Instagram” exhibits, or “selfie factories”.
Kanye West’s ‘Slavery Was A Choice’ Argument Is Way Older Than He Thinks, And Way More Dangerous
“Kanye West’s ‘freethinking’ condemnation of generations of enslaved people’s failure to rebel,” explains Rebecca Onion, Slate‘s resident historian, “is drawn – whether he knows it or not! – from a dangerous ideology that’s older than the United States.”
‘Mime Is Probably Now At Its Lowest Point In Its Modern History’ (But It’s Slowly Coming Back)
Marko Stojanovic, co-founder and president of the World Mime Organization, writes about what made mime popular in the periods it was and the state of the art around the world today.
New Thinking About The Context Of Classical Music
Why does the classical music industry only look to its own professionals to solve its problems? I know musical enthusiasts whose opinions are no less informed or apposite than my own and work in professions where thinking laterally and finding creative solutions is a daily requirement. Surely these people are better able to understand conundrums and see resolutions than I am.
The New York Times’ Chief Movie Critics Send Memos To Hollywood
“Every so often, … Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott, fire off a number of thoughtful memos to the movie industry and the industry-adjacent. These messages are largely ignored, which does not stop Ms. Dargis and Mr. Scott from continuing this semi-serious tradition. Given the new summer season and how deeply fraught the past year has been – Harvey Weinstein, Netflix, #MeToo, #oscarsalittlelesswhitebutnotmuch – it was time for our critics to weigh in again with their thoughts (and complaints).”
France Begins Multi-Billion-Euro Program To Revive Downtowns Of Smaller Cities
“France’s city centers are about to get one of the biggest makeovers in their history. Following an announcement last month, the country is launching a vast €5 billion ($6.1 billion) plan called Action Coeur de Ville (Action: Heart of the City) intended to revamp 222 city cores … in what the French call Villes Moyennes, ‘average cities’ with populations between 15,000 and 100,000 … over the next five years with new stores, offices, co-working spaces, and renovated housing.”
Alice Provensen, Award-Winning Illustrator Of Children’s Books, Dead At 99
“Mrs. Provensen, who also wrote several picture books, worked for 40 years alongside her husband, Martin Provensen, illustrating such works as The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown, The Fuzzy Duckling, Katie the Kitten and adaptations of classic literature. … They evoked the world of post-Impressionist Paris in their Caldecott Medal-winning 1983 book The Glorious Flight, about the first airplane journey over the English Channel, by French pilot Louis Blériot in 1909.”
The Dangers Of Absolutist Thinking
In our research – and in clinical psychology more broadly – absolutist thinking is viewed as an unhealthy thinking style that disrupts emotion-regulation and hinders people from achieving their goals. Yet we all, to varying extents, are disposed to it – why is this?