The Laughter of the Lamas
They say the laughter of the lamas results from relaxing into an acceptance that nothing lasts and that in fact there is nothing but change.
Dispatches
Colorstruck–in Segregated St. Louis
He had me at the name. Richard J. Powell has written a gorgeous book about Black artists and their use of color, and every page leaps up at you, jolting you into attention.
To Vote Where Genocide Is Remembered
The reality of people living together despite their differences now seems so remote that we have forgotten the power and significance of believing in that reality at all. Social media teems with divisive, bigoted rhetoric serving up menus and lists of “others” who are the problem. Ostracism and xenophobia have for years been the currency, if not the corrosive battery acid, of our nation’s political dialogue.
Is Frivolity Always Frivolous?
After the most gruesome, tough assignments...I went shopping.
Need a Little Sprezzatura….
What passes for nonchalance is often cruelty, perpetrated by the few who can still afford—and wield enough power—to live easily themselves. But sprezzatura! There is a grace to it, and a calm confidence.
Miniature Compositions at an Exhibition
The Unheard-of Ensemble has been taking this collaborative show on the road every summer, from city to city, from year to year, but they had so much fun in St. Louis, were so heartily welcomed by our creative community, and so ably hosted by Stark and Washington University’s Department of Music that they might be back—maybe even to stay. Let us hope so.
How Women, Men, and Barack Obama See Colors
Artist Spencer Finch tiled the colors of Barack Obama’s life. Women will see them better than most men can.
Why Force a Hug?
We need to stop forcing touch—without stopping to touch each other.
New Music for the End Time
The Collaborative Composition Initiative concluded its week in St. Louis with two sets of premieres: nine new pieces performed by the Unheard-of Ensemble at Dissonant Works on South Jefferson Friday night and nine miniatures inspired by works at the Kemper Art Museum performed by
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Maybe Consciousness Is Not That Hard
Remember Abraham Maslow’s pyramid, a hierarchy of human needs that put the basics of survival at the wide bottom, then slanted up to intellectual creativity and spirituality? We wanted to locate consciousness up there at the peak. Antonio Damasio finds it at the foundation.