April 2011
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“Even if you’re a political junkie, chances are you never gave much thought...”
– The American Prospect on “The Debt-Ceiling Doomsday Device.”
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WatchHere’s a little teaser for our May 2011 digital music sampler. If you still haven’t downloaded our April sampler—featuring awesome new female-led independent music—today is the last day to get your hands on it. Grab it here.
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Art for the Fun Of It at Walker's Open Field →
There may be only one outdoor venue that has played host to a weekly drawing club, a Suzuki youth violin performance, square dancing and flamenco, an outdoor rock concert for 10,000 fans, and instruction in the art of the bullwhip. The place is the Walker Art Center’s Open Field, in Minneapolis.
“The whole idea behind the Open Field is that we’re doing experiments,” says Andrew Blauvelt, the...
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The Crockpot: A Weekly Link-Digest from Utne
With this cool interactive map, you can trace 23 historic journeys, from Amelia Earhart’s attempt to fly around the world to Tom Wolfe’s Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test trip.
Do you have writer’s block? Go back to bed, and take your laptop with you.
In the shadow of the lunacy surrounding Obama’s birth certificate, Superman and DC Comics have an announcement of their own regarding the Man of...
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“Both development and agriculture are broken, and the answer to each is in the...”
– Architect Quint Redmond on bringing a food supply system to new neighborhoods.
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WatchWe reviewed the new album by Colin Stetson, avant-saxophonist extraordinaire, in the latest issue of Utne. Read the review here and check out the video above. You won’t be sorry.
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“I don’t know how to talk about what poetry is, except to talk about the...”
– Songstress Jolie Holland on the differences between music and poetry. More here …
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Bob Dylan in China →
“I have had the time of my life,” Ann, a 16-year-old Chinese girl said. She began listening to Dylan on the Internet when she read a children’s book that alluded to him. “It is hypocritical and censorship that the government had to review the songs he’d sing.”
A correspondent of Utne Reader made it to the historic Bob Dylan concert in China and heard the reaction of many audience members....
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“14 million.”
– That’s about how many musicians and bands are registered on MySpace. At such a staggering number, you can’t help but wonder if there are any good band names left.
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“What people outside of here need to understand when you’re talking about the...”
– Marlene Orr describes some of the contradictions in play in the tar sands oil extraction debate. Read more …
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Mopey Kids Should Read More →
Hey you gloomy skateboarding adolescent, are you feelin’ down? Maybe you should turn off the Joy Division album and pick up some Emily Dickinson. The chances of being a happy, well-adjusted teenager, reports The Independent, are much greater if you keep your nose in the crease of a book. Read more.
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“Many of us can bring about positive effects on our brains and overall...”
– Greater Good’s Jason Marsh on new research that shows meditating just 30 minutes a day can strengthen your brain in areas of memory, empathy, and stress reduction. Read more …
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“The framing of the country’s unemployment trouble as an unfortunate metastasis...”
– Lewis Lapham on the servant problem and American jobs. Read more.
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“The bicycle is a parody of a wheeled vehicle—a donkey cart without the cart,...”
– P.J. O’Rourke on the tyranny of cycling.
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The Crockpot: A Weekly Link-Digest from Utne
Sex advice columnist Dan Savage has become one of the country’s foremost ethicists. Just don’t ask Sen. Rick Santorum what he thinks of this.
We couldn’t have summed this up any better than Good: “Liberal Brains Bigger in Areas of Complexity; Conservative Brains Bigger in Areas of Fear.”
What makes us care? E.O. Wilson’s thinking on the subject has gotten the eminent biologist in hot water...
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“I don’t understand people who wander around New York City with ear buds in,...”
– Musician Steve Earle on writing, addiction, his new album, and mortality. Read the whole interview …
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WatchGuerilla gardeners and chairbombers around the world are taking to the street under the banner of “tactical urbanism” (here’s a round-up on the trend). Would you go rogue for urbanism?
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Ever wondered what makes the super rich lose sleep... →
A new, uniquely intimate survey conducted by Boston College’s Center on Wealth and Philanthropy reveals the most personal fears, anxieties, hopes, and dreams of America’s affluent. Read more …
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Micro-dosing and Hunger Alleviation →
In an effort to combat drought conditions, some farmers in Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries, have adopted a simple technique known as “micro-dosing,” which involves the application of a small bottle cap full of fertilizer directly to the roots of crops, and spares farmers the time and expense of fertilizing an entire field. According to the October 2010 issue of New...
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Sexless in the City →
Most guys can be justly accused of being obsessed with their own anatomy, and it’s no secret that the pharmaceutical industry has been zealous in pandering to that obsession. If you need confirmation of Big Pharma’s keen interest in the subject, just check out the offers for Viagra in your junk-mail folder.
It’s unlikely, however, that you’ll receive any offers for pink Viagra for the gals....
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Is there a perfect level of background noise when... →
Telecommuting via laptop and wireless Internet is a relatively new phenomenon. There is, however, a long history of people - especially writers - working from a favorite coffee shop or cafe rather than an office. Today we tend to associate the phenomenon with the Paris of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, or the coffeehouses of Vienna at the turn of the 20th Century. The poet Peter...
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“Thus, it appears to me that a true avant-garde experimental music cannot exist....”
– From Adieu, Avant-Garde, by NewMusicBox’s David Smooke.
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The life-saving case for bifurcated legal... →
In recent years, DNA profiling has saved the lives of a number death row inmates. When it comes to arson, however, DNA typing is often useless, as any such evidence is usually incinerated. As a result, writes Radley Balko in Reason, prosecutors rely on the testimony of fire investigators and psychologists to support their claims of criminal intent.
Take the case of Cameron Todd Willingham. In...
