Great video essay on the channel ‘The Pop Detective’ on a trope that is used in the US television show The Big Bang Theory of adorkable mysogyny: “Adorkable misogynists are male characters whose geeky version of masculinity is framed as both comically pathetic and endearing. And it’s their status as nerdy nice guys that then lets them off the hook for a wide range of creepy, entitled, and downright sexist behaviors… These types of characters are shown engaging in a variety of harassing, entitled, and sexist behavior where women are concerned. They consistently stalk, spy on, lie to, and try to manipulate the women in their lives. They’re overbearing, they refuse to take ‘no’ for an answer, and they often ignore the basic tenets of consent.”. Also check out their other video on The Complicity of Geek Masculinity on the Big Bang Theory.
Agree with this article from the Washington Post on how it seems that so much classical is being promoted as soothing or something to fall asleep too: “This is a deeply unsatisfying way to describe one of our most storied art forms. Even music that is superficially calm and slow can contain depth, tension and difficult themes. The industry sells classical music as a mellow monolith when it is in fact capable of stirring any and all emotions, serving any and all ends — divine and hellish. The way we talk about culture, any culture, shapes how we think about it, so we should not be so narrow in our choice of language.”.
The obsession with shopping for hidden treasure pictures is drastically changing these spots.
On a larger scale than this article from the NY Times, this is one of those things that worries me when governments try to digitise classrooms: “It could happen that the children of poorer and middle-class parents will be raised by screens, while the children of Silicon Valley’s elite will be going back to wooden toys and the luxury of human interaction”.
How to make art more valuable: have it involved in a public spectacle. But this his hardly new, see the story of the Mona Lisa and how it got popular after it was stolen.
“In effect, the auction house, with the support of Banksy, brought together the split ends of contemporary art: the work of traditional craftsmanship and the art-event, with its reactionary social media hue and cry.” More here.
I have to say that my breakfast doesn’t really change much. Fun article on changes in breakfast habits around the world.
Nice video on what mainstream yoga imagery usually leaves out , via @kottke.
DNA tests are becoming on of my pet peeves: “marketing campaigns for genetic-ancestry tests also tap into the idea that DNA is deterministic, that genetic differences are meaningful. […] making DNA out to be far more important in our cultural identities than it is, in order to sell more stuff” Recommended read from The Atlantic.
The Washington Post on Elon Musk: Elon Musk is the ‘poster boy’ of a culture that celebrates ‘obsessive overwork.
Via @1843magazine: the old supersonic Concord plane that could fly from Paris to New York in about 3.5 hours as a symbol for the Jet Set lifestyle and indifference to the environment. Read about it here.