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 ( 6824 )
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Intensities, Light at the Threshold of Pain
This series was in part inspired by Mark Changizi's remarks on visual pain.Beyond this, I wonder: Are these photographs? Well, of course they are. I took them... Read more
Posted on 22 November 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Above and Beyond, from Golf to Blues
I was rummaging around on my hard-drive, looking for something I know is there, someplace, or at least it was, some time long ago – I mean, there’s stuff on thi... Read more
Posted on 22 November 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Some Recent Trends in Continental Thought: A Parable in Flowers
BeingBecoming The End of Western Metaphysics Read more
Posted on 21 November 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Bleg: Memory for Serial Order
I’m looking for ethnographic evidence about how people recall events. I’ve got my own personal experience, which is just that, and I’ve got accounts in two... Read more
Posted on 21 November 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
Posted on 20 November 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
5Pointz is Dead! Long Live Graffiti!
It’s been coming for some time now, the death of 5Pointz. The building’s owner, Jerry Wolkoff, decided to cash in on his investment, as is his right, and put... Read more
Posted on 20 November 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
It Takes a Village…to Tell a Story, to Mount a Play, to Make a Film
For some time now the exemplary situation I bring to mind when I think about literature (and, increasingly over the last decade, film) is that of the tribal... Read more
Posted on 19 November 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
From Today's Catch
Here's the dilemma of the American politician. Over there on the far right of the picture you see the Statue of Liberty, given to America by the people of... Read more
Posted on 18 November 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Walter Murch on Collective Creativity
Two summers ago I was working on a series of posts about Apocalypse Now. One day I got an email from one Walter Murch, a man I did not know. But I knew the... Read more
Posted on 18 November 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Accounting for the Great Divergence Between Europe and Asia
Stephen Broadberry (h/t Tyler Cowen):...the Great Divergence of living standards between Europe and Asia had late medieval origins and was already well under wa... Read more
Posted on 16 November 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Living Fossiles
Jared Diamond (The World until Yesterday), and others as well, have argued as though current hunter-gatherer societies are all but direct examples of how our... Read more
Posted on 16 November 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Disney Goes Meta: Why the Jam Session in Fantasia?
The film takes place in two worlds: the Real World and the Rest. The Deems Taylor interstitials represent the Real World, while all the individual episodes... Read more
Posted on 16 November 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Photo Ontology 1
Five photos, each distinctly different from the others, together they suggest a world. Read more
Posted on 16 November 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Music: Ride the Lizard, Valkyrie, Ride It!
Years ago, when I was working as a program assistant in the Chaplain’s Office at Johns Hopkins, we got word that a new gospel singer was in town. Would we... Read more
Posted on 15 November 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Homes by the Homeless (& the Power of Pictures)
When I first spotted the site in the above photo it was by accident. I was walking under the 14th Street viaduct and noticed some furniture and stacked boxes.... Read more
Posted on 15 November 2013 CULTURE, PHOTOGRAPHY, SOCIETY -
Description Redux, Again: On the Methodological Centrality of Diagrams
Broadly considered, description is how phenomena are brought into intellectual discourse. Such discourse is thereby bounded by the scope of the descriptive... Read more
Posted on 14 November 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Ecstasy at the Left Bank
Duke Ellington was one of the great musicians of the last century, and his band was one of the great bands. But the fact is, touring is rough, and there were... Read more
Posted on 13 November 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Five Extraordinarily Creative Communities, But Maybe Six
Shakespeare, Ellington, Disney, Apocalypse Now, English at SUNY Buffalo, Mana Contemporary (?)I was thinking about Apocalypse Now, an extraordinary film, as I... Read more
Posted on 12 November 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Freud Does Disney
I've now created a working paper out of two long posts offering psychoanalytic instights into Fantasia and Dumbo. The SSRN link is here. Abstract and... Read more
Posted on 11 November 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Flowers from Someone Who Lives Here
I post a number of photos at a private website. This one seems to be a particular favorites:The folks at that website DO like photos for their formal... Read more
Posted on 11 November 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY