“Here’s the thing: in order for fees to work, there needs be something worth paying to avoid. That necessitates, at some level, a strategy that can be described as “calculated misery.” Basic service, without fees, must be sufficiently degraded in order to make people want to pay to escape it. And that’s where the suffering begins.”
Tag: 12.26.14
They’ve Gone Mad For Tango In Tbilisi
“Caminar, cruce, gancho, ocho. The dance steps are not usually associated with the South Caucasus, but thanks to a prolonged period of stability following Georgia’s 2003 Rose Revolution the country is increasingly connected to the outside world – and starting to enjoy pastimes that come from afar.”
Is Art Dead In New York? (Naw, Just Reinvented)
“Embedded in the premise that art in New York is dead is often a fetishized nostalgia for the 1970s and early ’80s, a cheaper, more chaotic time when high crime, civic neglect and the threat of bankruptcy opened whole neighborhoods to artists.”
How Much Can You Trust Published Scientific Research?
“Has published research become less reproducible than it was in the past? We’ll likely never know, but the history of science is filled with examples of researchers arguing over the reproducibility of a published result—and then stumbling onto a completely new discovery.”
The “Culture” Problem (What Is It?)
It goes without saying that “culture” is a confusing word, this year or any year. Merriam-Webster offers six definitions for it (including the biological one, as in “bacterial culture”). The problem is that “culture” is more than the sum of its definitions. If anything, its value as a word depends on the tension between them.
What The Met Opera’s Downgraded Bond Rating Really Means (And Doesn’t Mean)
“How bad is this rating? Bloomberg noted it was ‘three steps above junk’. … [But] this does not mean, as some have interpreted, that the Met is three steps away from being placed in the worst possible category of borrower.”
Free The Calder In The Senate Office Building!
“The four, black aluminum clouds comprising the once-mobile component of Mountains and Clouds – one of the final works of sculptor Alexander Calder, which dominates the Hart Senate office building’s 90-foot-high atrium – haven’t drifted for more than a decade. They once rotated at a gentle speed, but have been frozen in place for years after a bearing failed.” Now one senator is trying to get the sculpture moving once more.
Buddy DeFranco Played The Clarinet With Frank Sinatra, But His Great Jazz Skill Shone In Other Venues
“Captivated by the complex, challenging new sounds and increasingly aware that the music market was evolving, Mr. DeFranco moved quickly to carve out a fresh career in bebop, a perilous undertaking on an instrument that requires nearly superhuman skill and dexterity to keep up with bebop’s sometimes freakishly fast tempos.”
When, And How, Did Western Movies Embrace Hinduism?
“‘Look at the first Matrix movie,’ says producer Peter Rader. ‘It’s a yogic movie. It says that this world is an illusion. It’s about maya – that if we can cut through the illusions and connect with something larger we can do all sorts of things.'”
The Departing Smithsonian Chief Has Spent Thousands Of Hours Looking For Hometown Artifacts
“The secretary said that his quest would have been easier had the Smithsonian finished digitizing its vast collection, but added, ‘I wish I started it earlier because it’s made me appreciate these collections in a way I didn’t when I took on the job’ six years ago.”