“The Edinburgh Festival revolves around performers and shows. Without them, there is no festival. But there is another gravitational well about which the punters also orbit: the reviewers, and there are no shortage of them.”
Tag: 08.20.12
How Dystopian Novels Are Going Wrong
“Lately, some of the more popular emerging titles seem to be disrupting the basic pillars of dystopia and distracting from the main mission of any dystopian novel: to caution against current societal practices that could lead to such a society’s existence.”
Arts Center In Bogotá Helps Rehabilitate Former Child Soldiers
“Over the past 16 years, the center, run by a Colombian non-governmental organization, Taller de Vida, has worked with scores of former child soldiers from both sides of the war – leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitaries – to help them return to civilian life.”
Zaha Hadid’s Beautiful Tribute To Structural Engineering
Her installation at the Venice Biennale will be “Arum Shell, a tensile steel structure that looks like a mass of the flower from which it gets its name. The algorithmic basis of the structure pays homage to [engineer Frei] Otto’s skill in calculating structural stresses.”
What’s So Political About Music? (Well…)
“For millennia, authors of poetry and prose have run afoul of governments all across the political spectrum for the views expressed in their writings. Visual artists have had their share of censorship problems as well. But music?”
Computer Algorithm Figures Out What Makes Paris Look Like Paris
“You can’t evoke Paris with just the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. You need to find the distinct visual cues that emerge block after block, street after street. In Paris, the algorithm ferreted out the city’s blue and green street signs, tall double-paned windows, balconies enclosed by iron filigree, and, as Pixar captures above, a particular lamppost style. Paris’s je ne sais quoi, is, to the contrary, quite knowable after all — discoverable by both artist and algorithm.”
Why The Rich Donate Less Than Lower Income Americans
“Turns out lower giving among the rich likely has much more to do with where they live and who they live near.”
DC’s Hirshhorn Museum Evacuated After Guard Shoots Himself
“A security guard at the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden shot and killed himself Monday afternoon in a basement locker room, according to authorities. The shooting forced hundreds of patrons to evacuate and drew a large contingent of federal and local police to the area.”
This Classical Radio Station Means It
It’s New Jersey-based WWFM, which has just expanded into New York and Philadelphia on HD. Says station manager Peter Fretwell, “The day I walk into a doctor’s office and hear WWFM is the day we’ve failed, unless the doctor happens to be a serious aficionado. … If it’s art, it deserves full attention. Front and center.”
Does God Damn It? Does Scripture Really Forbid Profanity?
“The Old Testament and other religious texts prohibit taking the Lord’s name in vain, but do the gods have a problem with words like s— and f—?” The answer isn’t straightforward: Of the Abrahamic religions, only one explicitly prohibits what one might call obscene language in its scriptures.