The Internet has redeemed graduation season for those of us whose commencement speakers failed to inspire. One of the chief digital pleasures of the season is truffling up words of wisdom that seem…

Before the advent of digital studio technology, a degree of imprecision naturally resulted from the recording process. It may now be too easy to erase and correct perceived errors. As Brian Eno has…

For years, an urban legend circulated online and in documentaries, purporting how a groundbreaking musical instrument stored at a Bay Area university was dipped in a psychedelic drug.

There are purists out there who think computers ruined electronic music, made it cold and alien, removed the human element: the warm, warbling sounds of analog oscillators, the unpredictability of…

Johannes Kepler determined just how the planets of our solar system make their way around the sun. He published hi

It’s an old joke at this point—the hipster’s retro-obsession with vinyl is an affectation as bogus as louvered sunglasses and high-waisted acid washed jeans, right? Well, there are plenty of people who buy records and listen to them, too.

What is a Muppet? Homer Simpson once offered this explanation: "It's not quite a mop and it's not quite a puppet, but man..." — before cracking up with amusement. "So to answer your question, I don't…

On the week where Alabama Public Television banned an episode of the kids’ cartoon Arnold for showing a gay wedding (just after banning abortion the week before), let’s go back to a time when the…

Before the “Game of Thrones” Season 7 premiere, The Washington Post took a look back and noted every on-screen death from the first six seasons. Here are all 1,243 deaths in illustrated form, including who, how, why and where.

Procrastination is a skill, an art, a slight-of-hand technique. I’m procrastinating right now, but you’d never know it. How many tabs do I have open in my multiple browser windows? Pick a number, any number. How many tasks have I put off today? How

How do you tell the stories of larger-than-life cultural figures—of people whose histories intersect with pivotal moments in American history, whose careers set new standards for excellence—without…

httpv://youtu.be/d2afuTvUzBQ The ever-flickering lights, the ever-present screen, the stupefied spectators immune to a larger reality and in need of sudden enlightenment—Plato’s allegory of the cave from Book VII of The Republic is a marketing department’s dream:

We all remember the world maps that hung on the walls of our classrooms, the ones at which we spent countless hours staring when we couldn't focus on the lesson at hand. Did we look at them and…

Juxtapoz writes: "Never invited to be the part of Venice Biennale, Banksy once again invited himself to showcase his work. Using a typical pop-up stand that usually sells tacky paintings and…

Fleetwood Mac lost one lead singer and guitarist after another in the 70s, first to a mental health crisis, then a religious cult, then dramatic firings and relational breakdowns. They were in a bit…

In most of the performances of John Cage’s famously silent composition 4’33”, the performer sits in front of what appears to be sheet music (as

The American folk revival of the 1950s and 60s paid dividends in the 1970s, a decade we usually associate with prog rock, disco, funk, and punk. These were the years of some of Crosby, Stills & Nash…

Jean-Michel Basquiat was keenly sensitive to the way the art market thought about him. He was compared to “a preac

James Taylor Sings James Taylor, a BBC broadcast from November 1970, appears above. Though the nearly 40-minute solo performance showcases a player who has developed and mastered his distinctive…

Put yourself in the mind of an artistic young woman who goes to see Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs when it first opens in 1937.

A robot created by MIT students Ben Katz and Jared Di Carlo managed to solve a Rubik’s Cube in a record-breaking, lightning-fast 0.38 seconds. The video above shows it happening in real time, then in…

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to adopt a new method for projecting the future health risks of air pollution that experts have said is not scientifically sound.