“The fact is that by focusing exclusively on monetary issues, the current conversation prevents us not only from remembering the higher objectives of an undergraduate education, but also from recognizing just how bad a job our institutions have been doing at fulfilling them. Colleges and universities have a lot to answer for; if they want to regain the support of the larger society, they need to prove that they are worthy of it.”
Tag: 06.19.14
People Who Think They’re In Control Of Life (Even Though It’s Not Real) Seem To Resist Depression
“The rose-colored glow, no matter how unwarranted, helped people to maintain a healthier mental state. Depression bred objectivity. A lack of objectivity led to a healthier, more adaptive, and more resilient mind-set.”
Why Our Orchestra Is Performing Sibelius In A Parking Garage
“Multi-Story grew out of experimenting with performing classical music in as many different spaces as possible (bars, clubs, warehouses, and museums). We wanted to get our friends to hear classical music, and felt, instinctively, that escaping the stiffness and formality of concert hall would be the way to do this.”
Fighting Trolls: US Supreme Court Rules You Can’t Just Vaguely Patent An Idea
“On Thursday, the court upheld the notion that an idea alone can’t be patented, deciding unanimously that merely implementing an idea on a computer isn’t enough to transform it into a patentable invention.”
Beyond House Of Cards – Netflix To Produce A Talk Show
Netflix’s best shows are prestige pieces born fully-formed for our binging pleasure—House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Arrested Development—not the looser medium of the celebrity gabfest. But if the service is going to tip its toe into the waters of what we typically call “late night TV” (a term that’s nearly meaningless in the on-demand world of streaming television) there’s no one better partner than Chelsea Handler.”
A Museum That Lets You Use Its Work As Raw Material For Creativity
“With their pen, visitors can download all their selected items into a screen, and begin designing: They could decorate a room, or modify a classic piece of furniture.”
Why All Our Movie Heroes Look The Same
“While no sensible person would ever claim that the Hero’s Journey (another name for it) is the only form of narrative on the market, the model has proven indisputably pervasive, undeniably powerful, and irrefutably profitable. But is it inescapable, too?”
Here’s How Superstar Artists Got To Be Superstars
“According to Don Thompson, the economist and author, some 45,000 artists in New York and London alone are struggling to make a living; around 75 in New York have superstar status, earning seven figure sums. But this figure can be read the other way as well: probably at no moment in history have there been so many, and so many very rich, artists.”
I’m A Best-Selling Writer! (But Here’s The Cold, Hard Financial Reality)
“It was the kind of story that could bankrupt a writer. I’d now devoted five months to writing and peddling “Boom” and wasn’t even halfway to earning out my $2,000 advance (less than the overrun on my travel). The cruelest joke, though, was that 700 to 800 copies made “Boom” a top-rated seller.”
The Trey McIntyre Project Was A Success. So Why Kill It?
How could a choreographer and artistic director in his prime walk away from such uncommon success?