Tag: 08.15.18

People Are Still Playing Those Pixelated Old ’80s Video Games

“Older games feature pixel-based graphics that can look fuzzy on modern televisions and can be frustrating to play for even experienced gamers. Yet in 2016, Nintendo released a NES Classic Edition console and sold out all 2.3 million of them in just three months. The company made more and began selling them in June 2018.” A pair of media psychologists explain why Gen-Xers in particular remain so fond of dear old Mario and Sonic.

University Of Akron Cuts Art History Degree, Invests More In Dance

Programs cut include bachelor’s degrees in art history, French, geography, math and physics, along with master’s degrees in history, physics, sociology and Spanish. The university said it based its decision on program enrollment and number of degrees conferred in recent years, as well as any “duplication” of well supported programs at other, nearby institutions. Just five percent of students are admitted to the affected programs, the university said. No elimination of full-time faculty or staff is planned. The university also said it was investing in areas of strength identified in the review, such as polymers, dance, cybersecurity and nursing.

The Most Underrated Composer In History? Reconsidering Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

“If your reaction to hearing the name Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is a shrug, even a smirk, you’re not alone.” Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim visits the Bard Music Festival, dedicated to the man Richard Taruskin calls, yes, “the most underrated composer in history.” Responds CdFW, “I can’t say that’s a judgment I quite came to share … But I left Bard with a newfound appreciation for a quality I had never before considered as a factor in music: shame.”

After 24 Years, San Francisco’s Smuin Ballet Finally Buys Itself A Building

“Eleven years after the fatal collapse of the choreographer, which many assumed would also be the collapse of his company, Smuin finally has its home, in a 1949 warehouse next to the old freight line on Potrero Hill.” Says one company exec, “For the first time ever, we will control the schedule, which will allow us to rehearse for as long as we need.”

John Calder, Publisher Who Introduced Beckett, Burroughs, And ‘Last Exit To Brooklyn’ To Brits, Dead At 91

“[He] helped introduce British readers to continental writers including Eugene Ionesco, Marguerite Duras and Alain Robbe-Grillet, and also championed edgy Americans, publishing Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer and William S. Burroughs’ The Naked Lunch.” In 1966 he was convicted of obscenity for publishing Hubert Selby’s gritty novel “Last Exit to Brooklyn. The conviction was overturned on appeal, in a landmark free-speech case.”

Heatwaves And History: Britain’s Broiling Weather Has Revealed Centuries’ Worth Of Archaeological Evidence

“The drought has had [a] surprising effect: All over the country, ghosts have been rising up out of the earth. In the fields of England, Wales and Ireland, the lost lines of houses and settlements, barrows and henges, the street plans of ancient towns from Roman times to the Paleolithic and the Middle Ages — everywhere the past is returning, written on the landscape. These phenomena are known as cropmarks.”

Big Public Radio Merger

Minneapolis-based Public Radio International will merge with PRX, a Boston audio technology company, the firms said Wednesday. The combined organization will reach an audience of 28.5 million people each month in broadcast and online, and have 56 million monthly podcast downloads.