As a 15-year-old in Liverpool, the woman who is now the artistic director of the Southbank Centre had fallen in with the proverbial bad crowd and was spiraling downhill – until a timely word from her headmaster led her to start a drama club. She’s never forgotten the difference it made.
Tag: 08.26.13
Shanghai Opens Public Library In Subway System
“Shanghai’s Metro Line 2 is turning a new page with a library taking literally an online approach. Passengers will be able to select a book at one station, and return it to any of the other stations with customized bookshelves.”
Al Jazeera America Debuts, And The Republic Survives
Lawrence Pintak finds that the news network hardly offered the “inflammatory programming” some conservative groups warned of. “Think NPR with pictures (and a little political baggage). The reporting was solid, the few ‘expert’ guests really were experts, interviews were, for the most part, intelligent, and the rundowns were a predictable mixture of the top stories of the day. ”
Linda Ronstadt Stricken With Parkinson’s Disease
“So I can’t sing at all. In fact I couldn’t sing for the last five or six years I appeared on stage, but I kept trying. I kept thinking, ‘What if I tried singing upside down? Or standing on my head? Or while juggling? [Laughs] Maybe I’d be able to sing better then. So I didn’t know why I couldn’t sing – all I knew was that it was muscular, or mechanical.”
How 500 Years Of Weird Condiment History Led To Clear Glass Ketchup Bottles
When Europeans first found up about ke-chap, it was made from fish guts fermented in salt. After centuries of changes and adaptations of ingredients (walnut ketchup was Jane Austen’s favorite), the tomato made its way into the recipe. But that’s not why Henry J. Heinz decided that clear glass bottles were good for business.
32-Year-Old Shakespeare Santa Cruz Folds
“The financial picture, for so many years, is something we’ve tried to get in order. But the numbers in this last fiscal year were just too large.”
Study: Research Findings In US Prone To “Wow” Factor
“Somehow the researchers there are subtly more pressured than elsewhere in the world to make strong discoveries. This very idea that you do science to make strong discoveries is natural but it’s a problem to science itself. Science should be about doing good, precise studies. Not necessarily about getting exciting new results every time.”
The Myth Of A Definitive Shakespeare Text
“The notion that there’s a canonical text for any Shakespeare play is a myth imposed by the institution of publishing (in which Shakespeare didn’t take part), and the mechanics of printing. A printing press, whether a 17th century press or a modern offset press, is a device that can’t react to change. It’s a device that needs a stable, settled text. We create that text, and the myth behind that text, as part of the publishing enterprise.”
The Debate Continues – Yet Another New Study Finds Music Makes You Test Better
“It finds that, among a group of high-performing high school students, grades were consistently higher for those who continued music classes compared to those who dropped them after two years of compulsory training.”
Cultural Unpacking Of Miley Cyrus’ Twerking
Cyrus’ performance was a bomb both in the traditional critical sense, and in the blowback it’s producing both for her and for the black women she’s emulating and appropriating. As Chloe Angyal summed it up, “That we consider Miley ‘off the rails’ when she mimics age-old, harmful stereotypes of Black women says a lot.”