Malcolm Gladwell argues that the weak personal ties one develops online aren’t sufficient to motivate people to fight hard for a cause (as did the strong interpersonal ties within Martin Luther King’s movement). Jonah Lehrer counters that the Web enables weaker ties to form among larger groups – making it easier to mobilize a critical mass of people for a cause.
Tag: 09.29.10
‘The Rise and Fall – Then Rise and Fall and Rise – of Phoenix Dance Theatre’
The history of this Leeds-based troupe “is a story of small beginnings, high-flying, and a couple of crash landings. Along the way, lots of people have had lots of views about what it is or should be, with the result that this company has had more incarnations than a Hindu deity.”
Will Philip Seymour Hoffman Play Willy Loman?
“Director Mike Nichols and Philip Seymour Hoffman are secretly – well, not anymore! – laying the groundwork for a revival of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman next year on Broadway. Hoffman, 43, is too young for Willy Loman – the script says Willy’s 62 – but both the role and the play have fascinated him for years.”
Rupert Murdoch’s Arts Channel to Air Dance in 3D This Weekend
“Dance, Dance, Dance will be broadcast on Sky’s new 3D channel this weekend, and will include Men Y Men, from the [English National Ballet], which uses ten male dancers, and Counterpoint, choreographed by Shobana Jeyasingh, which sees 20 female dancers perform to original music by Cassiel.”
L.A. Theaters Try a Free-Ticket Lottery
For this year’s Free Night of Theater, LA Stage Alliance is trying an online lottery “in which people can sign up at www.FreeNightLA.com in hopes of obtaining a pair of tickets to as many as five shows.” So far, more than 35 theaters are taking part, with more to join.
Director Arthur Penn, 88
Before (and after) his Hollywood career – Bonnie and Clyde, The Miracle Worker, Little Big Man, Night Moves, and so on – Penn assembled an estimable body of work in television and on Broadway. “But during his heyday in the late 1960s and early ’70s, Penn was in the vanguard of American filmmakers and is considered a pivotal figure in American cinema.”
Jakarta Gay Film Festival Attacked by Masked Islamists
“The protesters, members of the Islamic Defenders Front, chanted homophobic slogans and accused organisers of the Q! film festival, now in its ninth year, of blasphemy, threatening to burn down a venue if screenings did not halt.”
Why Neuroscience Can’t Tell Us If the Web Is Making Us ‘Stupid’
“[The] term ‘intelligence’ is so broad and complex that neurological research hasn’t begun to explain it in its totality … The reality is, everything we remember affects our neural circuitry – rewiring is how our brains store information – and neural circuitry is the wrong level of analysis for thinking about broad effects on intelligence.”
Demand-Based Ticketing. Ready To Pay A Fortune?
“Fans booking tickets for gigs at one of Britain’s most popular arenas have reported being charged up to four times the price of ordinary seats – not by a suspicious-looking third party, but by the venue’s official website.”
Opera Composer Loses Appeal Over Newspaper Review
Keith Burstein claimed he was defamed by an Evening Standard review of his opera, Manifest Destiny, which said it made suicide bombers appear heroic. Burstein, who claimed the review implied he was sympathetic to suicide bombers, lost his appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.