Why the Future of Movies Lives on Letterboxd
"If Rotten Tomatoes has become a tool of Hollywood’s homogenizing marketing machinery, Letterboxd is something else: a cinephilic hive buzzing with authentic enthusiasm and heterogeneous tastes."
Headlines
- All
- Africa
- Asia
- Business
- Culture
- Environment
- Europe
- Gaming
- Markets
- Middle East
- Movies & TV
- Music
- Politics
- Science
- South America
- Tech
- World News
The Art World After Epstein
How can art institutions reject corrupt funding, the Washington Post lays off its art critic, art books to read this month, and our weekly community columns.
How selfish are we?
An age-old debate about human nature is being energised with new findings on the tightrope of cooperation and competition - by Jonathan R Goodman Read on Aeon
Voluntary stories
The narrative we run in our head is a choice. It might or might not be based on objective reality and verified history. Doesn’t matter, it’s still a choice. There are millions of ways we can remind ourselves about the events of our lives and the systems we live in. But in this
Discover Khipu, the Ancient Incan Record & Writing System Made Entirely of Knots
Khipus, the portable information archives created by the Inca, may stir up memories of 1970s macrame with their long strands of intricately knotted, earth-toned fibers, but their function more closely resembled that of a densely plotted computerized spreadsheet. As Cecilia
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
In this edition: Bezos, paper, scissors; feast or famine; one reason to stay here; any way you slice it; the real Winter Olympics, and more.
The Largest Historical Dictionary of English Slang Now Free Online: Covers 500 Years of the “Vulgar Tongue”
“The three volumes of Green’s Dictionary of Slang demonstrate the sheer scope of a lifetime of research by Jonathon Green, the leading slang lexicographer of our time. A remarkable collection of this often reviled but endlessly fascinating area of the English language, it
I’ve always said more popstars should duet with...
I’ve always said more popstars should duet with puppets, so Sabrina Carpenter and Kermit the Frog singing Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton’s ‘Island in a Stream’ as part of The Muppet Show’s latest special is perfect (to me). 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
Epstein Files Expose the Depths of the Art World's Rot
How do we empower arts leaders to reject funding from corrupt individuals in favor of donors who have proven themselves to be civic leaders?
Art Movements: Ekow Eshun Heads to Santa Fe
The London curator is tapped to curate the SITE biennial, Mnuchin Gallery closes, a buyer spends big money on a tiny Michelangelo foot drawing, and other industry news.
The Triumph of Europe’s Social Democracy
Economist Thomas Piketty, writing for Le Monde ( archive ) on the success of Europe’s social democratic model and countering “the narrative of a ‘declining’ continent”: If someone had told the European elites and liberal economists of 1914 that wealth redistribution would one
Professor Walt Hunter on the merits of challenging...
Professor Walt Hunter on the merits of challenging students: Stop Meeting Students Where They Are . “Whole novels aren’t possible to teach, we are told, because students won’t (or can’t) read them. So why assign them?” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
National Gallery of Art Acquires Stirring Artemisia Masterpiece
“Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy” (c. 1625) is the first work by the Italian Baroque artist to enter the institution’s collection.
Required Reading
This week: the art of writing love letters, Black-owned bookstores across history, poets on the Parthenon Marbles, opening a 1926 time capsule, and more.
A View From the Easel
“We love that we’re able to make art as queer artists inside a church.”
The Mountain That Weighed the Earth . How scientists in...
The Mountain That Weighed the Earth . How scientists in 1774 used a Scottish mountain to estimate the mass of the Earth to within 20% of the modern number by measuring the mountain’s gravitational effect on a precision plumb line. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
Keep the Meter Running With Mouhamadou Aliy & Zohran Mamdani
In addition to his great series Subway Takes , Kareem Rahma does another series called Keep the Meter Running where he hops into NYC cabs, interviews the drivers, and asks them to take him to their favorite places. In the run-up to the NYC mayoral election last year, Rahma
Some cool animations made from Japanese receipts by...
Some cool animations made from Japanese receipts by Michele Merlo . 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
A Haunting in Brooklyn
"At 25, I saw my grandfather’s ghost. At 52, I think of what it may mean to be a ghost."
Tara Donovan’s ‘Stratagems’ Tower Within a San Francisco Architectural Icon
ICA SF situates Donovan's towering sculptures amid a skyscraper's modernist glass gallery. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Tara Donovan’s
Times New Resistance
This is awesome and clever. Minneapolis designer Abby Haddican has made a typeface called Times New Resistance . The letters are identical to Times New Roman (and it even appears as such in font menus, except there’s “an extra space between the words Times and New”) but when
Art Critic Sebastian Smee Laid Off From the Washington Post
The entire team of in-house photojournalists was also cut, as were multiple critics and editors across the Bezos-owned paper’s culture section.
10 Movies to Stream for Black History Month , from The...
10 Movies to Stream for Black History Month , from The Flying Ace (1926) to Killer of Sheep (1978) to Moonlight (2016). 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
8 Art Books to Read This February
The trailblazing sculptural practice of Edmonia Lewis, the birth of modernism in Montmartre, the luminous paintings of Kaylene Whiskey, and Gainsborough’s alluring fashion portraits are among our favorite reads this month.
Hour-long YouTube training session on how to observe &...
Hour-long YouTube training session on how to observe & record ICE/CBP . “This call will give you the tools to exercise your rights in a moment when federal agents are terrorizing our communities and using excessive force.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
Frankenthaler Climate Initiative Opens Applications for Sixth Grant Cycle
The program has awarded more than $17.5 million to US visual arts organizations pursuing energy efficiency assessments and projects.
The Strangers’ Case
I don’t normally say this, but if you watch one thing on kottke.org today, this week, this month, make it this speech written by Shakespeare and performed by Sir Ian McKellen on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The segment starts at ~20:00; McKellen sets it up: It’s all
The Murder of ‘The Washington Post’
"Today’s layoffs are the latest attempt to kill what makes the paper special."
A Major Survey in Paris Chronicles Leonora Carrington’s Esoteric Surrealism
An exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg surveys the artist's eight-decade career. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article A Major Survey in Paris