“The world went into shock earlier this year after Islamic State released videos of its bearded operatives smashing ancient artworks with sledgehammers and drills. But after U.S.-led airstrikes on refineries and tankers reduced the group’s $1 million daily oil revenue by nearly two-thirds, the razing gave way to looting for sale via eBay, Facebook and Whatsapp.”
Tag: 06.28.15
Junot Díaz Remembers The First Time He Got Beaten Up
“As these things go, it wasn’t too bad. I didn’t actually lose any teeth or break any limbs or misplace an eye. … I was furious and ashamed, but above all else I was afraid. Afraid of my assailants. Afraid they would corner me again. Afraid of a second beat-down. Afraid and afraid and afraid. Eventually the bruises and the rage faded, but not the fear.”
How Your Personality Affects Your Creativity
Researchers “found that focused attention generally decreased people’s creative performance, but focused individuals still did better than mind-wanderers when both personality types tried to solve problems analytically.”
The Day Columbia Records Dumped Four Of The Jazz Greats
“There are different versions of how Ornette Coleman, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, and Charles Mingus were let go by Columbia, over the years tending to crystallize in a single-day narrative that’s sometimes been referred to as “Bad Day at Black Rock,” a nickname for Columbia’s midtown Manhattan headquarters that also evoked a noir film of the 1950s.”
The New Helsinki Guggenheim – Where’s The Sizzle?
“It is extraordinary that a design that triumphed over 1,700 competitors should turn out to be rather ordinary. It is respectful, yet teases out no identity unique to Helsinki. The design considers no new way to look at art that would make it a must-visit. (The Guggenheim Bilbao transformed yet belongs.) It does not look like a gaudy franchise of a global brand bent on commodifying culture, as opponents feared it would, but neither does it look essential.”
Authors React To Amazon’s Plan To Pay By The Numbers
“A look at the numbers, though, recalls the joke that the difference between a writer and a pizza is that a pizza can feed a family. The average payout barely cracks $1 a book. Only the first reading of a page counts. Books that are reread, on this scheme, are of no greater value. And the unread novel, which has been an important part of the publishing industry if not literature, will be worthless.”
Readers Versus Critics, Round 497: The New Fifty Shades Of ‘Grey’ Book
“Readers, as their buying patterns have suggested for some years, do not need a critical imprimatur to select their next read.”
Here’s What Happened When One Foundation Consolidated Its Giving And Focused On The Arts
“Long a contributor to causes across the board, from homeless shelters to opera companies, the organization began steering all of its funding toward the arts. Culture needed the money, the thinking went, and by targeting one area, the foundation could set itself apart from its peers and become a real player in the community.”
Music Streaming Services Are Pretty Terrible At Discovering New Music
“Though I keep listening out of animal curiosity for what comes next, I am almost never surprised. I always feel as if I’m shopping somewhere, and the music reflects What Our Customers Like to Listen To. The experience can feel benignly inhuman.”
Principal Ballet Dancers, Aging Gracefully
“Retirement is there, it is going to happen. This is going to sound morbid and I don’t know if I should say it, but it’s a bit like dying. You know you’re going to die, everybody does, but you don’t stop what you are doing because of that. You don’t slow down because you know you are going to have to retire. You get on with it, you keep taking the vitamins, you go to Pilates, you do what you have to do to survive in this thing that we do.”