“As cities, counties, and states update outdated bridges, upgrading their lighting systems to LEDs is inevitable. With that move comes the opportunity to throw in some low-cost civic razzle-dazzle.”
Tag: 11.15.16
Oxford’s Word Of The Year For 2016 Is Way Too Apt For Comfort
Collins Dictionaries’ choice was Brexit. Their Oxonian colleagues didn’t opt for Brexit or for any variation on Trump; what they did choose is all too relevant to both.
A National Museum Reopens After 72 Years – With A Religious Kerfuffle, In One Of Europe’s Least Religious Countries
At issue is a digital artwork showing an image of the Virgin Mary: press a button and it shatters. (The artist says the piece is about iconoclasm.)
Anti-Establishment Outsiderism? Our Popular Culture Gives Us A Steady Stream Of It
“They are dark and bleak and often end in death. Some double as articulations of the political exceptionalism of ordinariness itself. Most, though, do something more basic, and more pessimistic: They assume the fundamental dirtiness of politics, and the related idea that any hope we’ll have of purifying the system must come from outside of it. They leave very little room for optimism about the hulking beast that is “the establishment,” very little room for hope that the system in place—one populated by career politicians—can take compassion and make it scale.”
How Big Was Leonard Cohen’s Impact On Popular Music? Even Bigger Than You Thought
Scott Timberg follows the trail, from Cohen’s discovery by Judy Collins and then Fairport Convention through Gen X grunge and alt-rock up to today.
Los Angeles Passed A Law That Resulted In A 95% Decrease In Porn Production. Now Voters Have Done Away With That Law…
“L.A. has seen a staggering 95% drop in on-location porn permit requests in the last four years, following the passage of a separate 2012 county measure requiring condoms, according to county permit data. But porn industry leaders say they are now bullish that the defeat of Prop. 60 as well as other recent condom-related victories will reverse the exodus.”
Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Minnesota Orchestra Conductor Laureate, Suffers Stroke
The 93-year-old, who was the orchestra’s music director for 19 years and remains beloved there, had surgery following the stroke on Sunday.
Provocative: Do We Need To “De-Colonize” Our Music?
“The companies with the financial resources and the political clout often impose a uniformity on the consumption of the music they believe is popular and therefore profitable. Given the ubiquity of their total command of the internet, the “world” becomes their colony and the “popular” tastes rule, again to the detriment of the indigenous music, but also to art music and to any other music with a limited audience and appeal. This scenario has forced indigenous music and even our beloved ‘classical’ music into competing with everything—sports, popular music, even each other.”
Smart Business? The Business World Could Learn A LOT From Dance
Turns out that the habits, discipline and creativity of dancers offers excellent lessons for business leaders…
How The Interstate Highway System Transformed The St. Louis Accent
Time was that St. Louisans said “good marning” and ate “carn on the cob.” Then along came I-55 and the Northern Cities Vowel Shift.