“Thanks to the arts, Philadelphia feels different today. But now that the building boom of new facilities is over, the question is whether the city and its benefactors can muster the support to become savior to the arts.”
Tag: 09.23.13
Why JK Rowling Should Buy A National Newspaper
“She could certainly afford to buy a newspaper; owning one is pretty unlikely to bankrupt her. And it would give her a far greater chance of changing the mood music of British politics than the occasional article ever could.”
Matthew Bourne Is Expanding His Company
“The choreographer said his organisation was about to enter a period of ‘development and growth’ over the next two years, which will include the revivals of the ‘crowd-pleasing hits'” – The Car Man and Edward Scissorhands – alongside new large and medium-scale projects … [including] a dedicated rehearsal and studio space.”
The Joy Of Watching Movies On A Plane
“[It’s] the purest hit you can get: mainlining movies straight into your brain, unfiltered by environmental factors. … There is no friend or partner with whom to confer, no vexing stranger munching popcorn, no professional-critic colleague sighing extravagantly at the boring bits. Unlike at home, there is none of your own clobber around you; unlike on the tube, you’re in this for the duration.”
It’s In The Data: War Historically Drove Innovation, Not Agriculture
The standard theory, which Turchin calls the “bottom up” theory, is that humans invented agriculture around 10,000 years ago, providing resource surpluses that freed people up for other ventures. But what Turchin and his team have found is that the bottom-up theory is wrong, or at least incomplete. “Competitions between societies, which historically took the form of warfare, drive the evolution of complex societies,” he says.
Philosophy Needs Debate To Be Worth Anything
“New technology is changing the landscape in which philosophical conversations — and arguably all conversations – take place. It has allowed contemporary philosophers to reach global audiences with their ideas, and to take philosophy beyond the lecture halls. But there is more to this ‘spoken philosophy’ than simply the words uttered, and the ideas discussed.”
What George Orwell And Edward Snowden Have In Common
Morgan Meis: “Whenever I see Edward Snowden, the NSA whistle-blower, I think of a young George Orwell standing in the field in Burma. … Like Orwell in the elephant story, Snowden comes off as someone trapped in a bad situation. He has unpleasant facts to show us. He knows what happens to messengers bearing bad news.”
Of Course The Booker Prize Should Be Open To The World’s Writers!
Sophie Hardach: “All over London, Spanish-staffed coffee chains sit next to West Indian chicken stalls and Turkish hairdressers. Britain is becoming more like America: a magnet to migrants from all over the world. This includes migrant writers, and not ones just from former colonies. The Booker’s old criteria, then, were out of step with reality.”
When They Let Ain’t Into The Dictionary
Author David Skinner talks with the Lexicon Valley guys about the hell that broke loose in 1961 when Merriam-Webster’s Third American Dictionary admitted words like ain’t and beatnik, cited Mickey Spillane and Betty Grable instead of Shakespeare and Lincoln, and changed the entire philsophy behind American lexicography.
Auction Houses See A Business In Digital Art
“At one point, digital art was a sort of niche. But it is now so ubiquitous, it has thoroughly invaded the contemporary art landscape. It is also pushing contemporary art in new directions.”