“I have no desire to disparage or dismiss anything Jobs has done for his company, for its stockholders, or for millions of people who are incurably addicted to incessantly checking their tiny Apple phones or washing their brains with endless streams of music–I just want to explain why Jobs is no Edison.”
Tag: 09.30.11
LA’s Murals Plagued By Graffiti
“As Los Angeles’ graffiti problem escalates, the city’s reputation as the mural capital of the world is in jeopardy as its famous wall pieces are disappearing under a sea of spray paint. They are being targeted by vandals who flout the long accepted code that they are off limits for tagging.”
Russell Banks On Writing Novels Vs. Short Stories
“You really can’t live inside the head of another human being long enough in the short story. … When you start a novel, part of the point is to forget where it began. A novel imitates the flow of time. So, 75 pages into a novel, you can’t remember where it began. And that’s the point: Just like in your life, you can’t remember where it began.”
How Women In Love‘s Naked Wrestling Got Past The Censors
‘The controversial nude wrestling scene in the 1969 film Women in Love was passed for release only as the result of a secret pact between the then British Board of Film Censors and director Ken Russell, it has been revealed in archive correspondence released by the BBFC.”
‘The Closest Thing The Dance World Has To An Online Museum’
“Since 1932, companies from around the world have performed at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, located on a former farm in Becket, Mass. Just this past March, the Pillow launched a performance video collection (danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org) … A priceless treasury of history and art, this movable feast could very well suck you in by surprise.”
Hallucinogenic Mushrooms Seem To Have Genuine Psychotherapeutic Value
“A single high dose of the hallucinogen psilocybin, the active ingredient in ‘magic mushrooms,’ was enough to bring about a measureable and lasting personality change – “openness’ – lasting at least a year in nearly 60 percent of the 51 participants in a new study, say Johns Hopkins researchers.”
Retiring, But Only To Form His Own Dance Company
New York City Ballet principal Charles Askegard takes his final bows with the company — but already has plans for his new venture, the aptly named Ballet Next.
Mahler’s Spectacular, Grand, Tragic, Overworked Life
John Adams: “For all its professional, emotional and physical crises, Mahler’s life was exemplary for an artist who, no matter how loud the outside world might pound on the walls of his concentration, vigilantly maintained an unobstructed direct line to his creative self, keeping it uncorrupted and unblocked to the end.”
Peer Around The Next Corner – Moving Beyond “Travel Porn”
“High-end travel is as much a part of neocolonialism as rubber plantations.” How to change that? Ditch the guides, and walk.
Sylvia Robinson, 75, “Mother of Hip-Hop”
“She achieved her greatest renown for her decision in 1979 to record the nascent art form known as rapping, which had developed at clubs and dance parties in New York City in the 1970s. She was the mastermind behind the Sugarhill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight,’ the first hip-hop single to become a commercial hit.”