“The quest for increased personal productivity – for making the best possible use of your limited time – is a dominant motif of our age. And yet the truth is that more often than not, techniques designed to enhance one’s personal productivity seem to exacerbate the very anxieties they were meant to allay. The better you get at managing time, the less of it you feel that you have.”
Tag: 12.22.16
I Taught Myself Piano In A Prison Cell, Using A Cardboard Box
Demetrius Cunningham, an inmate at an Illinois correctional facility, wanted to learn to play so he could accompany the prison’s chapel choir. But he had access to a piano for only an hour a week. So he mocked up a model keyboard and got busy.
What A Pro Violinist Learns About Listening To Music From Playing For Prison Inmates
Chattanooga Symphony concertmaster Holly Mulcahy writes about what she has performed for prisoners, how she gets them to talk about what they heard, and what they said.
Quick, Where’s The World’s Oldest University? (Not Where You Probably Think It Is)
No, it’s not in Paris or Bologna; it’s not even in Europe. Or Asia, for that matter. What’s more, this university was founded, almost 1,200 years ago, by a woman.
2016: The Year American Cinema Was Saturated In Beauty, And American Reality Was Saturated In Ugliness
“Something rare happened this year: the best American film releases – Moonlight, La La Land, and Arrival – were also the most beautiful.”
How Scentists On TV Went From Bruce Banner And The ‘Gilligan’s Island’ Professor To ‘CSI’ And Walter White
“Gone is the lone genius with a shed full of goofy contraptions and bubbling liquids. Today’s fictional researchers work in realistic labs, with high-tech equipment, and in teams with others. Their dialogue is scattered with words from the latest scientific literature, and they have so much depth and personality that they carry entire shows.”
It’s Time To Link Arts Philanthropy With A Broader Social Mission
Ian David Moss argues that funders have tended to keep their arts programs in a “silo” rather than connecting them with their organizations’ wider goals.
‘The Red Shoes’ A Daunting Property To Put On Stage? Not For Matthew Bourne
In fact, he’s wanted to do it for as long as he’s had his own company. “Virtually every project I have undertaken in my career has had this potential problem attached to it,” he says. “Much-loved pieces that you touch at your peril!”
Denver Evicted A Bunch Of Artists From An Underground Space, So Does It Need To Give Up The ‘Artist-Friendly’ Label?
Perhaps there’s a crisis in the arts in rapidly gentrifying Denver. A new researcher at the University of Colorado Denver has some thoughts: “I want the city to work together with creative producers to benefit both. Sugar-coating anything or obscuring facts is not going to help either side.”
When Opera Stars Actually Have Chemistry Onstage (It’s A Bit Rare)
“It’s like when you want to make a dish in the kitchen, you have good prime materials. Good tomato, good zucchini, good fish. Everything is so fresh. You just need to put it on the grill. Me, Diana, a good conductor, a good director: The ingredients are so good that it’s going to come out something nice.”