“Linguists instinctively decry the loss of language much as conservationist biologists once mourned the loss of every single species. But conservation is in the midst of a paradigm shift, moving towards acceptance that not all species can be saved, that invasive species are not always bad and that human-engineered ecosystems are not necessarily inferior to natural ones.”
Tag: 10.08.16
La Scala’s Ballet Director Resigns After Eight Months
“Mauro Bigonzetti, who was appointed as head of the La Scala Ballet at the beginning of this year, has been forced to step down. A severe back problem has persisted since the beginning of the summer.” In May, more than four dozen of La Scala’s dancers publicly protested Bigonzetti’s planned repertoire for this season.
Pierre Tchernia, 88, ‘Monsieur Cinéma’ And Graddaddy Of French Television
“To retrace his career is to range through 60 years of television history, from [the old] Radiodiffusion française to terrestrial digital television. Like three other Pierres – Desgraupes, Dumayet, Sabbagh – Tchernia was one of the pioneers of this new medium that was tentatively invited into French homes.” (in French; Google Translate version here)
St. Louis Artists Stage Protest Of Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis
More than 20 artists have withdrawn from this weekend’s Open Studios STL presented by Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. The moves come amid criticism of a racially charged exhibit at the museum, although a museum spokesman says it has received a variety of reasons for the withdrawals.
How Did The Satirical Turnip Prize Become So Highly Valued?
“What started as a tongue-in-cheek award for locals has expanded into a global competition, with dozens of artists from around the world now vying each year for the turnip-impaled trophy on a rusty 6-inch nail.”
Is It Possible To Return To The Plasticity Of Our Teenage Brains?
“You might find it easier to pick up Chinese, but you might also remember more acutely all the disappointments and traumas that you’d prefer to forget.”
Biography Is Almost A One Hundred Percent White (Male) Lives Matter Club. What Gives?
“Given that there are so few educational programs or degrees in biographical writing, practitioners tend to come from diverse professional backgrounds, including journalism and history. Unfortunately, that seems to be where much of the diversity ends.”
The True Freshness – And Possible Revolution – Of Issa Rae’s New HBO Series
“It’s taking a genre that’s long been pitched at one small sector of the viewing audience, and drawing the circle a little wider.”
Why We Love Psychological Thrillers Like The Girl On The Train
Blame Wilkie Collins, but also, “a cynical interpretation would be that it is a thriller that an intelligent person is happy to be seen reading. Hawkins’s novel gained a place on Barack Obama’s summer reading list, thereby endorsed as the thinking person’s page-turner. A couple of years ago it was Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, also made into a glossy and violent film, that successfully filled this niche.”
A Designer Who Changed Everything
“Elaine Lustig Cohen, whose prolific graphic design career began — almost accidentally — with signage for the celebrated Seagram Building in Manhattan, died on Tuesday at her home in Manhattan. She was 89.”