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 ( 7275 )
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Samurai Champloo Episode 23
That episode is entitled Baseball Blues and it depicts a vicious baseball game between an American team captained by Admiral Joey Cartwright and a Japanese... Read more
Posted on 23 July 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hierophants of Unacknowledged Inspiration
For my sister, on the day before her birthday.I’ve been thinking of Shelley’s famous essay, A Defence of Poetry (1821), which I have read in full, but only... Read more
Posted on 23 July 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Urban Pastoral with Green and Other Materials
Posted on 22 July 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
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Leapin’ Lizards: Three Lessons from Marching Band
Like many musicians, I was in a marching band in middle school and high school, the Marching Rams of Richland Township in Western Pennsylvania. We were a very... Read more
Posted on 22 July 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
How Do We Account for the History of the Meme Concept?
First, in asking THAT question I do not intend a bit of cutesy intellectual cleverness: Oh Wow! Let’s get the meme meme to examine it’s own history. Read more
Posted on 21 July 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Physical Symbol System Hypothesis
The intellectual partnership of Allen Newell and Herbert Simon began at the RAND corporation in the early 1950s and became one of the most fruitful... Read more
Posted on 21 July 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
It's Time for a Malick Friday
Do you want your Malick with fennel?Or tomato?Perhaps birches in Winter are more your style:Or maybe you just want to burn:Light my fire, baby! Light my fire!I'... Read more
Posted on 19 July 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Japanese Robots in Space
As I've explained in previous posts the Japanese have a different take on robots than we do: The Japanese and Robots, The Robot as Subaltern. Read more
Posted on 19 July 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Corpus Linguistics for the Humanist: Notes of an Old Hand on Encountering New...
I've published another working paper, this one on "digital humanities." Specifically, corpus linguistics. Here's the abstract and the introduction:Abstract:... Read more
Posted on 18 July 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
How I Found a Home in Jersey City and Got Steve Fulop Elected Mayor, Part 3
When the second installment ended I was photographing graffiti and had started volunteering in the Hamilton Park Neighborhood Association. Read more
Posted on 18 July 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
How I Found a Home in Jersey City and Got Steve Fulop Elected Mayor, Part 2
By the end of the first part of this essay I’d made my way to Jersey City and bought a point-and-shoot camera. Jersey City was where I lived, but not my home. Read more
Posted on 17 July 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Why a Graffiti Museum is Beside the Point
Various people have been thinking about a graffiti museum for a while. Graffiti is now in galleries and museum collections, and has been for some time. The graf... Read more
Posted on 17 July 2013 ART & DESIGN, CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
You Know You Want to See It: The World-Wide Wall
Writers are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present; the words which express... Read more
Posted on 16 July 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
How I Found a Home in Jersey City and Got Steve Fulop Elected Mayor, Part 1
On that last, not really. I voted for him and made a small contribution to his campaign and I did one or two others things. But I didn’t spend 10, 20 or more... Read more
Posted on 15 July 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Beyond All Stylz
Revok, Pose, and MSK go deep and cast wide on the Houston St. Wall:In fact it appears that Revok and Pose are metaphorically and technically casting aside once... Read more
Posted on 14 July 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
For the Love, That's Why
Some of NYC's finest brass players gather a Emile Charlap's office once a week on Wednesday afternoons to jam.They opened with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3. The... Read more
Posted on 13 July 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Constructing Spirits: An Exercise in Pluralist Composition
This working paper is available at my SSN site, HERE (PDF).Abstract: It is well known that music can engender altered states of consciousness that are... Read more
Posted on 13 July 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Jersey City: A 21st Century Florence?
THAT role is up for grabs. Maybe it will be taken by a scrappy Asian or African city. But who knows, maybe Jersey City can work some civic magic. One can only... Read more
Posted on 12 July 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Thinking About Language Evolution in the 21st Century
With Some Remarks on Memes, or Dennett Upside Down CakeAbout two years ago Wintz placed a comment on Replicated Typo’s About page in which he lists several... Read more
Posted on 10 July 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Black White Organic Disseminators
Posted on 09 July 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY