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Author Archives: editor, facilitator, decider
TEDTalks: Thelma Golden on art & culture
“Ideas worth spreading.” That’s the philosophy behind TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design). When you find yourself seeking inspiration, optimism, and the elusive incubation of good ideas—just google “TEDTalks.” Click on any and all results you find. I guarantee you’ll experience … Continue reading
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Tagged Art, art and culture, culture, TED, TEDTalks, The Studio Museum Harlem, Thelma Golden, what is culture?
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Why I love the Kindle
I’ll start with a defensive-sounding disclaimer: I love me some books. I love me some old school books. By way of evidence (also somewhat defensively) I offer this snap of my recent haul. Long story, but most of these books … Continue reading
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Tagged bibliophiles, books, culture, e readers, kindle, Nook, what is culture?
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When the artist is a liar
“I’ve always had a knack and penchant for going toward humorous irony.” That’s what celebrated Seattle artist Charles Krafft told Salon in a 2002 interview. And if you were looking for irony in his work, it was easy to find. A … Continue reading
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Tagged Charles Krafft, Disasterware, FAMSF, Jen Graves, The Stranger, Timonty Burgard
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The biblioclasts
In the scale of assaults that mankind inflicts on mankind, it’s hard to argue that biblioclasty, the torching of libraries, much compares with the worst crimes that all too often occur in times of war, conquest, and oppression. We’re informed … Continue reading
Love your geek job? Rap about it.
It’s been a few days since anyone shook themselves up over the Harlem Shake, so we’re clearly desperately in need of something new to go inexplicably viral. So enter Andrew Finklestein, Google employee and self-proclaimed hippity-hopper. His “Welcome to Google” … Continue reading
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Tagged AlpineKat, Andrew Finklestein, CERN, Google, Large Hadron Collider
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It’s nearly upon us: The National Day of Unplugging
Call it the Luddite Sabbath: from sundown tonight to sundown Saturday, we are urged to disconnect from our electronic tethers; and reconnect, if only for a while, with a simpler life. Read a book (one made of paper). Ride your … Continue reading
100 years ago: the American art scene arrived
Can a single art exhibition alter a nation’s cultural consciousness? Could it usher in new appreciation, even new archetypes for how art is created and enjoyed? In 2013, probably not. Contemporary culture is too fractured, entertainment too micro-targeted for such … Continue reading
Out with the substance, in with the shallow
Edward Gibbon, in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, summed up his many exhaustive volumes by diagnosing late-empire Rome with an illness of its civic virtue. Civis Romanus stopped caring about its place in society, about … Continue reading
Chris Brown gets his comeuppance? Probably not, but we can dream
Can we all agree that Chris Brown is an asshole? If not, then I’ll hasten to add that I don’t really think that’s just my opinion – I think that Chris Brown has empirically proven his own pettiness, small-mindedness, brutishness, … Continue reading
Pregame starts in 3, 2, 1…
This is the Deconstruction’s third blowout Super Bowl Sunday, and cheers to that. Cheers to you too, and your team if you’ve got one, and to your health (whether you’ve got that or not). And that’s that—the rest of my … Continue reading
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Tagged a. fuente cigars, Edgar Allan Poe, Inver House Scotch Whisky, sports culture, superbowl
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RIP Patty Andrews (Feb. 16, 1918 – Jan. 30, 2013)
It’s fitting, now that we’re debating the roles of women in warfare, that we bid farewell to the last surviving member of the Andrews Sisters. It’s true that there were women who served more directly in World War II. More … Continue reading
Random acts of culture
Hats off to the Knight Foundation, for decades of community-based philanthropy in support of progressive journalism, media, and the arts. (Originating, I’m proud to say, from my very own home town.) And particular heart-felt cheers for their ongoing project, Random … Continue reading
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Tagged arts, culture, flash mobs, Knight Foundation, Random Acts of Culture, what is culture?
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The business of sports and the culture of deceit
The two American sports personalities that caught our attention last week couldn’t be more different. One was a star ascendant, whose future couldn’t have been brighter. And the other was already far into his downward spiral, tarnished by suspicion and … Continue reading
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Tagged culture, cycling, deceit, football, Lance Armstrong, lies, Mante Te'o, Notre Dame, Oprah Winfrey, sports
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A new look at Mozart
We learned this week that we have another look at the face of history’s most talented composer. This undated 18th-century portrait has been identified by Austrian researchers as one of just 14 known likenesses of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This painting … Continue reading
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Tagged Amadeus Mozart, classical composers, culture, enlightenment, music, what is culture?
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Les Mis will unman us all
I dreamed a dream where I could go to the movies without publicly embarrassing myself. I’m a highly empathetic person, you see. When I see pain, I feel pain. And although I’m thoroughly masculine—truly as masculine as masculine can be—my … Continue reading
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Tagged Anne Hathaway, culture, film, hemingway, jon stewart, Les Misérables, literature, Michael Gerson, Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, what is culture?
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