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Kenneth Lu (CC-BY)
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By Thomas Hedges, Center for Study of Responsive Law —
Independent theaters and films are struggling to survive the transition to digital cinema.
Posted on Feb 15, 2013
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By Jean Randich — “Participation in the arts is a guarantor of other human rights because the first thing that is taken away from vulnerable, unpopular, or minority groups is the right to self-expression,” Francois Matarasso says in “Acting Together, Volume II.”
Posted on Nov 20, 2012
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AP/Michael Probst
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By Chris Hedges — If universities think a Milton Friedman or a Friedrich Hayek is more important than a Virginia Woolf or an Anton Chekhov, then we become barbarians.
Posted on Jul 9, 2012
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Still by (CC-BY)
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Along with 11 other Americans and an Israeli, Robert Zimmerman on Tuesday received the highest civilian honor his nation can bestow. Bob Dylan’s contributions to music go without saying, but did you know he also published three books of art? You might say Dylan has gone eclectic (ouch). (Full list of honorees after the jump.)
Posted on May 29, 2012
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By Dexter Palmer —
In “Republic of Noise: The Loss of Solitude in Schools and Culture,” Diana Senechal argues that the omnipresence of computers, tablets and smartphones hampers our ability to commune not just with one another, but with ourselves.
Posted on May 25, 2012
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This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: Occupy and labor activists target gay-friendly marketing, Mitt Romney’s immigration issues, Ron Paul challenges liberals, Lisa Bloom on pop culture dieting and Apple lovers take action.
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Photo illustration from an image by Colin Grey (CC-BY)
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This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: Occupy and Labor activists target gay-friendly marketing, Mitt Romney’s immigration issues, Ron Paul challenges liberals, Lisa Bloom on pop culture dieting and Apple lovers take action.
Posted on Feb 3, 2012
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By David Sirota — Here are 10 current words and phrases that my kid may never know because they might end up as relics of a lost vernacular, starting with “civil liberties.”
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Paulina Spencer (CC-BY-ND)
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As cultural epochs go, the rave scene didn’t last very long, and because mix tapes and foam parties don’t translate well to radio replay, a small but important slice of America’s musical history has vanished. Enter concerned ex-ravers who are working to restore those thumpy beats and archive them online.
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AP / Julie Jacobson
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By Christopher Ketcham — It is clear that nowhere in American commercial life, save perhaps the graveyard, is there a space not polluted by electronic voices.
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By David Sirota — Overwrought Reagan/Bush-era pop culture first equated “terrorist” with “Muslim,” using sporadic atrocities committed by individual Islamic extremists to demonize all Muslims.
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By Ruth Marcus — If there is a better illustration of the decline of American culture, the triumph of technology over privacy, and the end of shame as a motivating force, I can’t think of one.
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Flickr / Gelay Jamtsho (CC-BY-NC-SA)
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Bhutan, that tiny, idyllic country nestled between China and India, has a thing for male genitals. However, an influx of tourists and their prudish ways threatens the ancient art of penis worship, the Global Post reports. ... (more)
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By William Pfaff — All of the populated (or formerly populated) world possesses its own past in ruined or replicated or restored form, capable of generating awe among the people of our time. But some live on because the crafts of the past continue to provide sustenance.
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Flickr / Clay Junell (CC-BY-SA)
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By Deanne Stillman — Once upon a time, a cowboy saved my life. I think of him in certain moments, at the sight of red rocks, for instance, or the hint of a desert storm. Now, the time has come to tell his story.
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AP / Nasser Ishtayeh
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Olive trees are a symbol of the long history of many Palestinian families, and some Israeli settlers have now launched assaults on the trees, cutting down and torching them and at times attacking farmers in what many observers believe is part of a crescendo of settler militancy.
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By David Sirota — Historian Daniel J. Boorstin famously predicted that real news and serious discourse would eventually be replaced by a “new kind of synthetic novelty” called “pseudo-events”—synthetic for their media-manufactured artificiality, pseudo for their lack of authenticity.
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AP / Ariel Schalit
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It may be obvious to some, but Palestinians aren’t the only people upset about Israel’s settlement activity. More than 60 Israeli theater professionals have joined a boycott against a new West Bank cultural center in Ariel, an Israeli settlement 12.5 miles within Palestinian territory.
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Adam Block / Mount Lemmon SkyCenter / University of Arizona
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By Deanne Stillman — A couple of days after I arrived in Tucson, there came a party invitation. The public was invited to the top of Mount Lemmon for a viewing of the annual Perseid showers, a breathtaking display of shooting stars. While I generally brake for sand, I also hit the road for star parties.
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AP / Alexandre Meneghini
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By T.L. Caswell — Catalonia has imposed a 2012 ban on the tradition, which is losing support throughout Spain. Could this toxic mix of blood lust and male preening finally be on its way out?
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Mr. Fish
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By Mr. Fish — The following is an interview with professor Noam Chomsky examining the question of why the counterculture, which had been so endemic to the politics of dissent in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, no longer seems to exist in any viable way.
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Flickr / audrey_sel (CC-BY-SA)
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Competitive eating (aka food contests) is enough of a cultural phenomenon that the annual Nathan’s hot dog chokedown is broadcast on ESPN. This weekend Joey Chestnut took the honors, but his greatest threat (and some would argue the “sport’s” true champion), Japanese phenom Takeru Kobayashi, was barred from participating. (continued)
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In her recent book, Barbara Ehrenreich takes on the excesses, delusions and unsupported promises of the positive-thinking movement, tracking both its naive and its corrupt manifestations in the worlds of health, business, religion and psychology.
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In this TEDTalk from April, Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig argues that Republicans are better at community creativity.
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Wikimedia Commons
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India is about to enter taboo test mode as it prepares for the release of “Dunno Y ... Na Jaane Kyun,” a film many are calling India’s “Brokeback Mountain.” It’s hoped that the film’s depiction of a gay relationship between two men will help break down social anxieties toward homosexuality.
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Flickr / The City Project
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Culture and history matter, even if it costs money. Someone should tell that to the city of Los Angeles, which is raising rents on the merchant tenants of Olvera Street, a Mexican-heritage historical site downtown that is currently undergoing privatization.
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Why do Americans refuse to believe crime has been going down for a decade? Why are so many of them foot fetishists? And was Rene “I think, therefore I am” Descartes really murdered with a poisoned communion wafer? Answers to these questions and more on today’s list.
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By Chris Hedges — The Internet has become one more tool hijacked by corporate interests to accelerate our cultural, political and economic decline.
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In this interview, Chris Hedges elaborates on his Truthdig column that says democracy in America is a useful fiction.
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Flickr / The City Project
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Olvera Street, the oldest part of downtown Los Angeles, is a pocket of near-authentic Mexican culture where one can buy chorizos, clothing and handicrafts. But the city’s budget crisis is leading to a push to privatize the monument, giving way to an influx of Starbucks and Pollo Loco on the historical street.
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Is it time to remodel Stonehenge? Is M. Night Shyamalan’s latest movie a whitewash? Will the U.S. and China ever go to war? Answers to these questions and more on today’s list.
Posted on Feb 11, 2010
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Look out for those TSA body scanners and cell phones, take a minute to ponder the oddest book titles of the year (including “Bacon: A Love Story”) and read all about the political collapse of the left, right here on today’s list.
Posted on Feb 8, 2010
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Blue whales are changing their tune, medieval trial-by-floating-or-drowning turns out to have been shockingly accurate, and President Obama may have trouble with working people because he’s so damned upwardly mobile—all this and more on today’s list.
Posted on Feb 5, 2010
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Why pork is the new Viagra, tech companies need to stop treating women like girls and what documentarians do when the cameras are off. All this and more on today’s list.
Posted on Feb 3, 2010
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By Fred Branfman — Should progressives hold themselves to a higher standard than the name-calling and intellectual violence that conservative bloggers routinely engage in? Much could rest on the answer to this question.
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After the jump: A comprehensive roundup of why the Democrats suck, the all-white basketball league and how classical music can be used as punishment for schoolchildren.
Posted on Jan 22, 2010
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“Lost” producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse guest star in this Onion clip, joking that the show’s fans are about to get more annoying than ever, driving their roommates and loved ones into emergency “Lost” shelters to escape amateur theories about parallel dimensions.
Posted on Jan 20, 2010
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Flickr / jwillier2 (CC-BY-ND)
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Our culture tends to reward multitasking, sleep-deprived go-getters, but a new study confirms that catching up on sleep over the weekend just doesn’t work. After weeks of less than seven to nine hours a night, “banking” a long stretch on your days off isn’t going to repair your memory, immune system or ability to drive a car. (Continued)
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Professional prankster group Improv Everywhere’s “No Pants Subway Ride” is one cultural trend that appears to be taking off. Despite a frigid winter, participants in as many as 43 cities around the world commuted in their underwear, and we’ve got photos to prove it.
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Respect for elders is universal among primates, Mona Lisa had high cholesterol and guess who’s getting rich off those invasive body scanners? All this and more on today’s list.
Posted on Jan 8, 2010
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google.com / phone
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By Peter Z. Scheer — Google is quietly taking over the phone market for reasons that have little to do with its latest “superphone.”
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VH1 viewers might be momentarily fooled by this satirical Onion clip, which pokes fun at the cable network’s habit of producing low-brow television shows built around the antics of drunk, sexed-up lady folk. A bit nasty, but then so is the material that inspired it.
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By William Pfaff — Will Christmas in America end up like Christmas in Japan, or Halloween in France? That is to say, a merchandising opportunity that eventually flopped.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — This year the culture wars went into recession along with the economy.
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By Ellen Goodman — What does it say when the New York Post hires Eliot Spitzer’s prostitute as a columnist and the bailout babies of Wall Street can’t be bothered to show up to the White House?
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Guantanamo Prisoner’s Case Demonstrates Unfairness of Military Commissions
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