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In January, 1977, while most Americans were busy watching “Roots,” seventeen thousand people convened in Lagos, Nigeria, for the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC). A monthlong extravaganza that featured delegations from more than fifty…

Quite a few lovers of English literature raised a glass—specifically a Macallan single malt Scotch with a dash of water—this past April. The occasion? The centennial of the birth of the greatest comic writer of his generation, and kingfish of…

Oh, the reality television we’ve seen! In the past couple of decades, we’ve had a show where complete strangers wed, in order to see whether they can grit their teeth and stay together (“Married at First Sight”); a show in…

Vinyl records have made a comeback in recent years, with music fans opting for the warm sound and tangible experience of vinyl over digital formats. According to a study, vinyl sales have grown steadily in recent years, and are now…

It was 1948 or so, and the comedy duo Freeman F. Gosden and Charles J. Correll faced a dilemma. Radio was no longer the nation’s dominant form of entertainment, and Gosden and Correll’s long-running program, “Amos ’n’ Andy,” about a…

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story The trend toward long movies has a commercial aspect and an artistic one, and occasionally, as in the new live-action version of “The Little Mermaid,” they converge. With heavy competition from…

One of the last videos taken of Elliott Smith shows him at the Fonda Theatre, in Los Angeles. He’s sitting in a metal stacking chair, wearing faded dark pants and a T-shirt that says “I 💔 METAL.” He’s slumped over…

The U.S. is in the midst of an “everything” shortage. The country is experiencing a shortage of chickpeas and peanuts, threatening two of Americans’ most beloved edible spreads. The U.S. is also running low on Christmas trees, garage doors, lumber, feminine care products,…

Photograph from Alamy  The Swiss composer Othmar Schoeck, who lived from 1886 to 1957, is little known outside his native land, but his moments of fame have been as striking as they are strange. For one thing, Schoeck gained the…

Hendrith Vanlon Smith, Jr. said, “Good cities implement good systems design – systems that cultivate life, systems that utilize waste, systems that promote wellbeing among its residents.” Bad cities, by contrast, instill fear and paranoia among their residents.  That paranoia leads…