“Characters on television shows can transmit subtle cues that perpetuate racial stereotypes among viewers, new research suggests.”
Tag: 12.17.09
Dance Can Be Dangerous (Thank God)
Alistair Spalding: “I believe that part of the furore over Javier’s work and its ability to shock is that no one, including the BBC, realised that a piece of choreography could do this. … The reality is that dance is often disturbing, ugly, confrontational, violent and sometimes sexually explicit.”
Seattle Symphony Chief Steps Down
“After just 2½ years, Thomas Philion is reaching his coda. The Seattle Symphony president and executive director announced Wednesday that he won’t renew his contract when it expires in June.”
Three Library Associations Ask Justice Dept. To Oversee GoogleBooks
“The American Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries and the Association of Research Libraries said that there was unlikely to be an effective competitor to Google’s massive project in the near term. It asked the government to urge the court to use its oversight authority to prevent abusive pricing of the online book project.”
Handwriting Is History (And That’s Okay)
“For many, the prospect of handwriting dying out would signal the end of individualism and the entree to some robotic techno-future. … [But h]andwriting slowly became a form of self-expression [only] when it ceased to be the primary mode of written communication. When a new writing technology develops, we tend to romanticize the older one.”
Handel’s Original Messiah Manuscript Now Online
“In the latest addition to its collection of high-resolution ‘virtual books,’ the British Library has uploaded images of the draft score of Handel’s Messiah, scribbled onto 280 pages in the summer of 1741.”
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, ‘Belgium’s Bendiest Choreographer’
The Guardian offers a newcomer’s guide to the man who “went from vogueing his way to first place in a dance contest to mixing ballet, jazz and offbeat moves in shows the world over.”
The Peter Principle Is Not Just A Snarky Joke, Say Academic Studies
“The longer a person stays at a particular level in an organisation, the more most measures of their performance fall – including subjective evaluations and the frequency and size of pay rises and bonuses. It is a finding entirely consistent with the idea that people eventually become bogged down by their own incompetence.”
Theatre Fan Begs Newspaper: Please Hire A Drama Critic
“The current melange of reviewers leaves this theater lover heartsick and confused. In a city with a wealth of rich dramatic productions, the Post-Gazette’s lack of a drama critic is unforgivable.”
Prince Charles Has A Friend In Frank Gehry (Sometimes)
“It’s ok for Prince Charles to be who he is, and want what he wants – God bless him for coming out of the closet and saying what he thinks … I mean some of things he likes, I like, and some of things he’s come out against, well, I’m on his side,” the architect (“I am not a ‘star-chitect'”) says.