"In the 1660s, the French philosopher Blaise Pascal speculated, 'the sole cause of man's unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.' Pascal surely knew it was hard…
"Said another way: Whose America did Oklahoma! depict?" (For one thing, the show is lily-white, and the state at the turn of the 20th century was decidedly not.) "And is the musical's vision…
Psychology researcher Mohammed Al-Mosaiwi writes about what computerized data analysis has revealed about the words and phrases depressives use, and about the practical uses for that knowled…
How can video games be confused for reality when its players view them as escapism and freedom from reality? In their book Rules of Play, scholars Katie Salen TekinbaÅŸ and Eric Zimmerm…
Assessing this year's crop of nominees, one can detect certain trends that indicate where the Oscars are heading and why. I offer three, all of them holding out the promise that the Academy …
"IMAX is hugely popular, while virtual reality movies are gaining steam. But what about film inventions that never took off? When will they get their due? ... We asked four film experts to e…
From African rhythms through early spirituals to the Hammond organ, ethnomusicologist Robert Stephens tells the story of black America's sacred music.