Bbenzon
Description
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 ( 7628 )
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Signs of the Pending Apocalypse/implosion in Academic Literary Criticism
I just posted the following as a tweet stream on Twitter: Signs of the lit crit apocalypse/implosion, #1) 2011: Andrew Goldstone asks: "Just what is that... Read more
Posted on 04 January 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The New York City Subway is in Desperate Need of Repair
Here's an estimate in the context of the economic output of the area: Just this partial list — I haven’t included the platform doors, for instance — brings the... Read more
Posted on 04 January 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Natural Language is Irreducibly Computational
Not so long ago I made three assertions: The process whereby word forms, whether spoken, written, or gestured (signed), are linked to meaning/semantics is... Read more
Posted on 02 January 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
When Ravi Bhalla Was Sworn in as Mayor of Hoboken US Senator Cory Booker Spoke o...
Sometime in the late summer or early fall of last year, 2017, I noticed that Ravi Bhalla, who was running for mayor of Hoboken, where I live, was holding a... Read more
Posted on 02 January 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Criticism in an Age of Delirium: Levine’s Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy,...
I don’t know when I first learned of Caroline Levine’s Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network (2015), but it was some time after it had won the Modern Languag... Read more
Posted on 01 January 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Communes, "intentional Communities" Anyone?
Marina Benjamin, "Utopia Inc", Aeon: Only a handful of communities founded in the US during the 19th century’s ‘golden age of communities’ lasted beyond a... Read more
Posted on 01 January 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Rahsaan Works the Crowd
Rahsaan Roland Kirk is one of my favorite musicians. I first heard him on his album, Rip, Rig, and Panic, probably in the summer of 1966 or perhaps that fall. Read more
Posted on 30 December 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Christmas at My Sister's Home in Philadelphia
Posted on 29 December 2017
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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My Kind of Photo – WILD! Lions, and Thunder, and Dragons – Well, Lions Anyhow...
I love shooting into the sun, and I was certainly doing that here. It was late afternoon – in the topiary garden at Longwood Gardens outside of Philadelphia –... Read more
Posted on 28 December 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Women Posing for a Photographer and Having (delicious) Fun [#naked]
Ove four years ago I went to an exhibition of photographs by the Japanese photographer, Nobuyoshi Araki. Many, but by no means all of them, were of women,... Read more
Posted on 28 December 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Jakobson’s Poetic Function and Textual Closure
Note: This consolidates several older posts and, in the last section, adds a bit of detail.Roman Jakobson’s poetic function[1] is one of the best-known and... Read more
Posted on 25 December 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The World of Children's Competitive Dance
Lizzie Feidelson in the NYTimes:The children who enter these competitions train up to 30 hours per week, primarily on weekends and after school. Read more
Posted on 25 December 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Saturday Ramble: Ethical Criticism and Too Much to Do
“Deck the Halls with Double Joy” –It’s early Saturday morning, December 23, 2017. In a couple of hours I head off to Philadelphia to spend the Christmas... Read more
Posted on 23 December 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Manhattan from Hoboken
Posted on 22 December 2017
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Textual Closure and Literary Form
The process whereby word forms, whether spoken, written, or gestured (signed), are linked to meaning/semantics is irreducibly computational. Read more
Posted on 22 December 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Enjoyment in Music
PERSPECTIVE ARTICLEFront. Psychol., 13 December 2017 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02187A Neurodynamic Perspective on Musical Enjoyment: The Role of... Read more
Posted on 21 December 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
From Canon/Archive to a REAL REVOLUTION in Literary Studies
Another working paper, title above, abstract a contents below.Download at:Academia:... Read more
Posted on 21 December 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Four Phrases Coined by H. G. Wells That Endure
Adam Roberts, in a post from September: I'd say that there are four phrases in particular, out of all the many phrases and ideas Wells coined, that have... Read more
Posted on 20 December 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
H. G. Wells and Harvey Weinstein as Mama's Boys, After a Fashion
H. G. Wells and Harvey Weinstein? Two very different guys to be sure. Weinstein is much in the news these days as a sexual predator. He's a very successful movi... Read more
Posted on 20 December 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Monk Says... Thelonious That is
Thelonious Monk’s 25 Tips for Musicians (1960) https://t.co/xWGToCzx3O pic.twitter.com/hDtNsTu7QS — Open Culture (@openculture) December 18, Read more
Posted on 18 December 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
