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 ( 7846 )
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The College Biz, Under Fire?
Over the past year or so Joseph Nocera, a NYTimes columnist, has been waging war against the NCAA. He believes, reasonably enough, that Big Time college... Read more
Posted on 22 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Family Business (The Sopranos)
Originally published in The Valve in April 2008.I’ve now seen 17 episodes of The Sopranos – the entire first season plus the first four episodes of the second... Read more
Posted on 21 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Nobuyoshi Araki at Mana Contemporary
The other day Greg and I decided to check out Mana Contemporary. We had nothing particular in mind, but we’d read about the place in The New York Times and... Read more
Posted on 21 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Up Close and Impersonal
Posted on 21 June 2013
PHOTOGRAPHY,
SELF EXPRESSION
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Guilty! (Of Something), the the Drone Has the Evidence
Over at Marginal Revolution Alex Tabarrock has a post based on the premise that so many laws and regulations are in place in the United States that all of us... Read more
Posted on 21 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Will the Real Wharhol Stand Up?
Crispin Sartwell in The New York Times:As the ur-postmodernist, Warhol’s entire artistic practice and persona stood, quite intentionally, in opposition to... Read more
Posted on 21 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Synch and Society, Two Articles: A Synthesis and Review and a Study of Applause
Here's a review and synthesis of recent work and thinking on human synchrony (from the Dartmouth lab of Thalia Wheatley):Thalia Wheatley, Olivia Kang, Carolyn... Read more
Posted on 19 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Contemporary Studio Space, Circumstantial Curation
Posted on 18 June 2013
CREATIVITY,
SELF EXPRESSION
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Ponyo for Adults
Reposted from a year and a half ago. Miyazaki is always worth thinking about.We know, of course, that cartoons aren’t just for kids, right? Read more
Posted on 17 June 2013 CULTURE, MOVIES, PHILOSOPHY -
Some Varieties of Light Experience
Posted on 16 June 2013
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Essay-Reviews: Origins of Music, Neuromemetics
I've recently uploaded two essay-reviews to my SSRN page:Synch, Song, and Society. Human Nature Review, Volume 5, 2005, 66-86. Read more
Posted on 16 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
James Turrell, Artist of LIGHT
The New York Times has a fascinating article about this artist.It is difficult to say much more about the piece without descending into gibberish. This is one o... Read more
Posted on 16 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Music and Motion
A couple of months ago I posted a precis of "Music and movement share a dynamic structure that supports universal expressions of emotion" by Beau Sievers,... Read more
Posted on 15 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
History and Future of Higher Education
HASTAC is organizing a course on this topic. From the course description:This is a curated collection of blog posts and op ed pieces on "The History and Future... Read more
Posted on 15 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Culture Memes Information WTF!
I’ve been thinking a lot about information recently, mostly as a consequence of reading Dan Dennett on memetics. I’m uncomfortable with his usage, and similar... Read more
Posted on 14 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Gene/culture Co-evolution
Over at Language Log Mark Liberman has a good post on gene/culture co-evolution. The point of departure is an opinion piece that Simon Fisher and Matt Ridley... Read more
Posted on 13 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sympathy for Others and the Old Squash and Stretch, Aka Sympathy for the Objects
Here we go again. It's complicated, but not really.The research is about the ability of 10-month old infants to feel empathy for others. That's nice, and not... Read more
Posted on 13 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Smile, and the Whole World Anticipates It
From Medical Express:Smile and the world smiles with you—but new research suggests that not all smiles are created equal. The research shows that people actuall... Read more
Posted on 13 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Primary Colors RGB
Reference: Read more
Posted on 13 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Gives New Meaning to Human-aided Translation
From The New York Times:Inspired by a harrowing episode when Mr. Frankel could not communicate the symptoms of a virulent stomach bug to a pharmacist in Beijing... Read more
Posted on 12 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
