Bbenzon
Humankind got its start on the African savannas some hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years ago. At various times in our cultural history we’ve moved to distinctly new cultural ground, as it were. And so we are moving now, and have been for the past half century. This blog is how I see that move. Intellectually, I'm broadly interested in culture and the brain. Within that compass, anything could show up here. Literature and films (including animation), certainly, music as well, and graffiti. But, other things may show up as well. It's a blog, don't you know, it moves.
MY BLOGS
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New Savanna
http://new-savanna.blogspot.com/
Humankind got its start on the African savannas some hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years ago. At various times in our cultural history we’ve moved to distinctly new cultural ground, as it were. And so we are moving now, and have been for the past half century. This blog is how I see that move. I'm broadly interested in culture and the brain. Within that compass, anything could show up here. Literature and films (including animation), certainly, music as well, and graffiti. But, other things may show up as well. It's a blog, don't you know, it moves.
LATEST ARTICLES ( 6400 )
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Jazz at Mid-century, Changes Are Coming [4 Albums in '59]
A very interesting video about four important, and now classic, jazz albums that come out in 1950. From the description of the video on YouTube: 1959 was the... Read more
Posted on 19 February 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Billions (the TV Show) and Game Theory
I've now turned this into a PDF file which you can download here: https://www.academia.edu/37815917/Mind-Culture_Coevolution_Major_Trans... In the early 1970s... Read more
Posted on 18 February 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Nationalism and the Novel
An elegant argument about literary nationalism in Journal of Cultural Analytics today. Contra Pascale Casanova's thesis about the nationalism of minor... Read more
Posted on 18 February 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
RIP J. Hillis Miller
W. J. T. Mitchell on J. Hillis Miller and "the hospitality of criticism" at the @CriticalInquiry blog: https://t.co/aXKgqYgsTe— Alan Thomas (@alnthomas) Februar... Read more
Posted on 12 February 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Trump Lost the Election, but Will His Demogogic Conception of the Presidency...
From: Bob Bauer, Trump’s Answer to the Senate and the Constitutional Stakes in the Pending Trial, Lawfare, Feb. 9, 2021:However, the hope that the election woul... Read more
Posted on 10 February 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Critique of Disaster Films, Praise for Kim Stanley Robinson [Media Notes 54]
Peter Baker has an interesting piece in the NYTimes: We Live in Disastrous Times. Why Can’t Disaster Movies Evolve? It opens with a discussion of George... Read more
Posted on 09 February 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Certification Riots @ 3 Quarks Daily
Ever since 1/6 I’ve been thinking about the events of that day. A week ago I posted an essay to 3 Quarks Daily about them: Tectonic Tremors, Ghost Dancing, and... Read more
Posted on 07 February 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Adam Neely, Polyrhythmic Juggling (sorta')
What's intersting is the interpersonal coordination involved. See my post, "Cooperation, Coupling, Music, and Soccer," for a discussion of some of the issues... Read more
Posted on 04 February 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Monk in Monk [Thelonious]
There are many expressive photos of Thelonious Monk—but this one (by Lawrence N. Shustak) makes you feel you're peering into what he's thinking while he... Read more
Posted on 31 January 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Georgia O'Keeffee: Digitized and Online
Explore 1,100 Works of Art by Georgia O’Keeffe: They’re Now Digitized and Free to View Online https://t.co/sTPiPK4ANi pic.twitter. Read more
Posted on 30 January 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Mark Blyth: 29 Seconds on Brexit [and Everything Else, Including Trump] –"The...
Here's the complete text (from June 24, 2016): If you want to understand Brexit and what happened last night, Britain's relationship with the EU, the whole... Read more
Posted on 30 January 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Did the Beatles Know Music Theory?
That’s the subject of this video by David Bennett, who has done a number of posts analyzing music by the Beatles: What’s music theory and why does this... Read more
Posted on 27 January 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
James Flynn Obituary [the Flynn Effect]
The New York Times has an obituary for James Flynn, known for the so-called "Flynn effect." What's that? Roughly, over time, IQs in a society rise? Read more
Posted on 27 January 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Animal Gait and Oxygen Consumption
"Animals appear to switch gait at approximately the speed where the oxygen consumption curves of the two gaits cross." https://t.co/IZtRNUu5qe pic.twitter. Read more
Posted on 26 January 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
1/6 is an Unmistakable Sign That the Tectonic Plates of American Society Are...
00:00 Glenn Show 2.0 and reactions to the storming of the Capitol06:42 What if it was BLM protesters that stormed the Capitol? Read more
Posted on 22 January 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Five Pieces (7), Five Walls [under the Thruway]
Posted on 22 January 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
David Bruce on Rhythm in Music: Language, Micro-rhythm
The nature of language rhythm affects rhythmic pratice in speakers of a language Have you ever wondered whether the way you speak, the language and the... Read more
Posted on 21 January 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
About Sea Shanties, an Musical and Historical Analysis [Adam Neely is Very Good]
I've now turned this into a PDF file which you can download here: https://www.academia.edu/37815917/Mind-Culture_Coevolution_Major_Trans... In the early 1970s... Read more
Posted on 20 January 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Secret of Swing Unveiled?
I've now turned this into a PDF file which you can download here: https://www.academia.edu/37815917/Mind-Culture_Coevolution_Major_Trans... In the early 1970s... Read more
Posted on 20 January 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
“Spontaneous Combustion” at the Capitol Building on Jan 6
Sociologist Keiran Healy has a fascinating conjectural account of what happened at the Capitol Building on January 6, 2020: From the moment he knew he’d lost th... Read more
Posted on 11 January 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY