“It may be time to understand that the writing culture of an earlier era was a matter of fashion, much like the elaborate clothing required of anyone who stepped outside. And just as fashions can be utilitarian—houses weren’t as well heated in the old days, making all those textiles more necessary most of the year—writing ability mattered more when it was the main way one had to communicate with the world beyond one’s self.”
Tag: 05.10.15
Brooklyn’s Hipster Mecca Gets A Classical Music Venue
“A long-discussed plan to turn a disused sawdust factory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn into a venue for classical and contemporary music appears to be now taking shape. Organizers of the 13,000-square-foot space on Friday announced plans to open this October with a program of ‘genre-spanning music at accessible ticket prices.’ The venue is to be called National Sawdust, and will host, among other performances, three concerts of the New York Philharmonic’s Contact! series.”
Will Philadelphia’s Next Mayor Pay Attention To The Arts, Which Have Led The City’s Renaissance?
“Like a prospector who discovers a gold mine then watches others pull riches from it, the Philadelphia arts and culture community has been looking around and wondering when its turn will come. Center City is a boomtown, its vibrant street life and desirable real estate in large part a consequence of arts pioneers taking a chance on new facilities and expanded missions more than two decades ago.”
Satyajit Ray’s Great ‘Apu Trilogy,’ Restored And Returning To Movie Screens
“Now, a new generation of filmgoers has a chance to discover Ray’s humane genius in a rerelease of the [films]” – Pather Panchali, Aparajito, and The World of Apu – “first in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles in May, and then in selected theaters around the country, after a lengthy and painstaking restoration by the Criterion Collection in collaboration with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.”
Encore: Celebrating 25 Years Of The Only Lit Prize To Honor Second Novels
“In particular, as suggested by the phrase ‘the difficult second novel’, things can get tough after first publication. If your first book has gone like the clappers, you’ll probably be feeling pressure, both self-generated and from expectant publishers; at the same time, … your schedule may seem to conspire against you ever writing another word.”
Canada’s Most-Visited Museum? (Sorry, Toronto)
“For the second year in a row, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts can claim to be the most-visited art museum in Canada, beating out both the Royal Ontario Museum and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Slightly more than one million people visited the MMFA in 2014, making it the 58th most popular art museum in the world and the 12th most popular in North America.”
What Is It About America’s Inability To Learn Other Languages?
“Less than 1 percent of American adults today are proficient in a foreign language that they studied in a U.S. classroom. That’s noteworthy considering that in 2008 almost all high schools in the country—93 percent—offered foreign languages, according to a national survey.”
Can “Art Therapy” Effectively Fight Terrorism? (Here’s Somewhere It’s Working)
“The clients were taught through examples of how to express their feelings and release their aggressive tendencies through drawings and paintings. ‘Get that negative energy out on the paper…. ‘It is safe here’ was the theme of one art therapy session.”
I Was David Letterman’s Animal Handler
“I never could have imagined that my career would involve sitting beside sloths and snakes on a late-night TV couch.’ “Jungle” Jack Hanna writes about the baby hippo he brought to his first appearance on Dave’s show, the camels that took out all the ceiling panels, the hyena that drank from Dave’s mug, the armadillos that mated on his desk, and the beaver that bit him on set. (includes video clips)
Why The U.S. Lags Just About Everybody In Second Language Acquisition
“It isn’t that people don’t think language education important. It’s that they don’t think it’s possible.”