“Before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors, the Aztecs had a philosophically rich culture, with people they called ‘philosophers’, and their specious counterparts the ‘sophists’. We have volumes and volumes of Aztec thought recorded by Christian clergymen in codices” – and it can bear comparison with the Greeks and Romans. Sebastian Purcell gives a basic introduction.
Tag: 11.11.16
CEO Who Stabilized Atlanta’s Woodruff Arts Center Is Stepping Down
Virginia Hepner arrived at the Woodruff, which includes the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Alliance Theatre and the High Museum of Art, in May of 2012 – at a point when the ASO was going through financial woes and bitter labor battles and a Woodruff employee had embezzled $1 million. She’ll be leaving it in much better shape next May.
Live-Streaming Is Absolutely Huge In China, And It’s The ‘Loser Generation’ That’s Fueling It
“Currently, about 46 percent of China’s 710 million internet users watch young people, mostly girls, sing, dance, and eat bananas erotically (OK, that has been banned) live on the internet.” The demographic that performs for the webcams, and that watches it, calls itself diaosi – losers.
The Man Who Brought Western Classical Music To South Korea
San Francisco Symphony violinist Kum Mo Kim, who’s currently touring South Korea with the orchestra, shares the story of her father, John S. Kim, who founded the country’s first symphony orchestra and, during the Korean War, was discovered by no less than the Vice President of The United States, who brought him to the U.S. to study.
Rosamond Bernier, Best Art Lecturer Ever, Dead At 100
“In 1971, the Met booked her for four art lectures. Audiences were enthralled. She became one of the hottest tickets in town.” And that was just the beginning.
America Is Becoming Like Ionesco’s ‘Rhinoceros’
Teju Cole lays out the parallels.
How A Technical Writer Created The Award-Winning Short Story That The Movie ‘Arrival’ Is Based On
Ted Chiang writes so slowly that he spent five years researching linguistics before coming out with “Story of Your Life.”
Can The Canadian National Ballet Move The Cultural Conversation As It Turns 65?
Or is it just another ad for sequined pointe shoes with no meaning? “It is with both bewilderment and sadness that one might look over the National Ballet of Canada’s 2016/17 season and think: What can be considered vital among it? What conversations can these ballets possibly provoke?”
How Toronto Finally Learned To Love Its Street Art
Former mayor Rob Ford led such an attack on graffiti that artists fought back with a fierce clarity – and city officials decided to start paying artists instead of fining them.
Post-Trump Election, Our TV Political Dramas Are Looking A Bit Haggard
“The powerful women in or near the Oval Office on Scandal, Veep, Madam Secretary and House of Cards, who until Nov. 8 seemed to reflect or be just a step ahead of the news, now seem like an increasingly distant dream. And on shows like Designated Survivor and Graves, about a current and former president, respectively, outlandish plots about ethnic bias and immigration pop out and appear more believable.”