Mar 25 ‘Sweetgrass’ Documents a Dying Tradition Through Quiet Observation Sweetgrass, a film by Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Ilisa Barbash (a husband-wife team of visual anthropologists currently working at Harvard), documents one of the last of these journeys with lush, yet unsentimental intimacy. Continue reading
Mar 24 Smithsonian Fine Tunes a New Collection of Appalachian Blues By Arts Desk The migration of the blues from the fields of the Mississippi Delta to clubs on the southside of Chicago has been well-documented by historians and musicologists, but there is also a rich tradition in and around the Appalachian mountains that… Continue reading
Mar 23 Coming Soon to Hollywood: Movie Derivatives Moviegoers will soon be able to decide which films to see based not on stars or tomatoes, but on how well they're being traded by investors. Two investment firms are working to develop a futures market for movie derivatives that… Continue reading
Mar 22 Weekly Poem: ‘Achilles’ By Jason Breslow British Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy wrote "Achilles" after English soccer player David Beckham suffered a season-ending injury last week. Beckham, 34, was headed for what would have likely been his last World Cup this summer. Continue reading
Mar 19 Conversation: Still Unsolved, Gardner Heist Remains Largest Art Theft in History By Tom LeGro Twenty years ago this week, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston was the site of the biggest art heist in history. Jeffrey Brown talks to Ulrich Boser, author of "The Gardner Heist" and who has been following recent developments… Continue reading