“Local and national holidays are being celebrated with new vigour. … State media are boosting the use of Chinese medicine when people fall ill, wearing Han robes when they get married, and keeping fit by practising tai chi and other ancient sports. … By presenting himself as the defender of traditional values, [President Xi Jinping] hopes to harness the conservative forces in society. He also seeks to divert attention from the party’s own culpability in creating the supposed spiritual vacuum.”
Tag: 08.17.17
How Does The Brain Make Memories?
Memory may appear to be a reproduction of images, sounds, and even thoughts that can be stored in the brain in a manner analogous to the way information can be stored on a CD, but it is becoming increasingly evident that this is too limited an understanding.
Why Political Documentaries Are Filling Our Screens
If audiences are getting tired of the formulaic story arcs of blockbuster movies, then there’s a safe haven in political documentaries, which are enjoying a renaissance.
Trisha Brown Remembered: A Reckless Disregard For Boundaries
“Trisha Brown’s dance made a singular impression, but it’s hard to remember specifically what she did. Most photos of her show her aiming in several directions at once, but they’re deceptive. They make her dancing look static when she never was still. I’ve never seen such a fluent body. Yet she didn’t look as if she was just flinging herself around.”
Bought And Not Paid For: $24 Million Richter And $15 Million Bacon Caught In Tangle Of Lawsuits
At the center of the mess is a 28-year-old Chinese businessman who allegedly bought the Bacon with borrowed money that was never repaid and refused to honor his guarantee for the Richter when it failed to sell at auction.
Instrument Designed By Leonardo da Vinci Is Built For The First Time
“The unusual instrument is a hybrid of elements from a harpsichord, an organ and a viola da gamba. It looks like a harpsichord and has a set of strings, but rather than being plucked, the strings press against rotating wheels covered in horse hair – the same mechanism that produces sound in string instruments.”
You Want Diversity In The Arts? What About Political Diversity?
Should we care if art doesn’t reach the people who might learn something, reconsider a point of view, or see the dangers of a current value or belief?
At Long Last, The (Hal) Prince Of Broadway Is Coming To Broadway
The man who produced and/or directed more than 21 Broadway musicals and brought now-classics to the Great White Way had some issues getting his own story to the stage. “A shortage of investors was at one point an issue, astonishingly – or perhaps not so, given the proliferation of jukebox musicals and movie and brand adaptations that have attracted latter-day Broadway producers. Prince, now 89, was never fazed. ‘So many of the shows I’ve done were met with cynicism, initially,’ he says.”
Spotify Removes White Supremacist Music After Charlottesville
It’s not the only tech company trying to remove the influence of actively racist groups from its site. “The existence of racist music on music platforms isn’t a new phenomenon. Nearly three years ago, the Southern Poverty Law Center pointed out to Apple and the iTunes Store that they were selling, and thereby profiting from, openly racist, neo-fascist musicians, like the hardcore band Skrewdriver.”
In The 1850s, A Scientist Decided To Study The Brain Like It Was A Secret Garden
For Santiago Ramón y Cajal the brain was a beautiful, inconceivably complex, and self-regulating ecosystem, and he set out to write the field guide to its flora and fauna: “Like the entomologist in pursuit of brightly colored butterflies, my attention hunted, in the flower garden of the gray matter, cells with delicate and elegant forms, the mysterious butterflies of the soul, the beating of whose wings may someday—who knows?—clarify the secret of mental life.”