All posts tagged: Vivid

Vivid dreams can help sleep feel deeper and more restorative

Vivid dreams can help sleep feel deeper and more restorative

Published by Jenni Sidey

Sleep rarely feels like a simple number. The hours you spend in bed matter, but the feeling of waking refreshed often carries more weight. That sense of having slept deeply can shape your entire day. Yet scientists have long struggled to explain what creates that feeling inside the brain. New research from the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca suggests the answer may lie in your dreams. The study finds that vivid and immersive dreams can help sleep feel deeper and more restorative. The findings challenge a long-held belief that deep sleep requires a quiet, inactive brain. For years, experts linked deep sleep to slow brain waves and low awareness. In that view, the deeper the sleep, the less active the brain becomes. Dreaming, by contrast, was often tied to REM sleep, a stage where brain activity looks more like wakefulness. This created a paradox. How can sleep feel deep when the brain appears active? The new study offers a more nuanced answer. It suggests that the quality of your mental experience during sleep, especially …

No New York by Adele Bertei review – a vivid, vibrant, musical coming of age | Music books

No New York by Adele Bertei review – a vivid, vibrant, musical coming of age | Music books

Published by Sam Flores

You won’t necessarily have heard of Adele Bertei: she was a member of experimental jazz-punk band the Contortions from 1977 and recorded the pop-house single Build Me a Bridge. But her memoir is an essential slice of New York’s bohemian pizza pie, and works in part because she is a relative unknown, not weighed down by her own cultural baggage. Following a troubled, itinerant upbringing, she arrives in Manhattan in 1977 to find a city on its knees. The big apple was in the red, both literally (fires were a regular occurrence) and monetarily (there was a municipal debt crisis). But pre-Aids and post-Warhol’s avant garde grip, it was also a place that was creatively open. Searching for her artistic self, Bertei throws herself into the alternative scene, and as she zigzags into future counter-culture icons, her writing recalls the hip, young gunslinger era of the NME: Joey Ramone “resembled an anorexic hermaphrodite, replete with sex appeal”; Alan Vega from Suicide is “Al Pacino dolled up as a gay hustler on 53rd and Third”. She …

Ancient elephant bones reveal vivid details of a Neanderthal hunt

Ancient elephant bones reveal vivid details of a Neanderthal hunt

Published by skeptic

Elephant bones from Lehringen, Germany, bearing marks of butchery by ancient humans VOLKER_MINKUS In the backrooms of the sleek, modern Schöningen Research Museum in Germany, there are piles of old, mismatched cardboard boxes everywhere. These are the finds boxes from Lehringen, a hamlet 150 kilometres from here. In 1948, the bones of a 125,000-year-old straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) were found in an ancient lakebed at Lehringen. Elephant bones from this time period are not so rare, but this one had a 2.3-metre-long spear sticking between its ribs. This yew thrusting lance was then the oldest complete spear ever found. (A part of a spear from an earlier period had previously been found in Clacton-on-Sea in the UK.) The Lehringen spear is still the only one found lodged in the skeleton of an extinct species of animal. Neanderthals were the only humans in Europe at this time, as far as we know, so the spear appeared to provide paradigm-shifting proof that Neanderthals were big game hunters, not scavengers. It should have become a world-famous find. There …

Ancient bones reveal vivid details of a Neanderthal elephant hunt

Ancient bones reveal vivid details of a Neanderthal elephant hunt

Published by skeptic

Elephant bones from Lehringen, Germany, bearing marks of butchery by ancient humans VOLKER_MINKUS In the backrooms of the sleek, modern Schöningen Research Museum in Germany, there are piles of old, mismatched cardboard boxes everywhere. These are the finds boxes from Lehringen, a hamlet 150 kilometres from here. In 1948, the bones of a 125,000-year-old straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) were found in an ancient lakebed at Lehringen. Elephant bones from this time period are not so rare, but this one had a 2.3-metre-long spear sticking between its ribs. This yew thrusting lance was then the oldest complete spear ever found. (A part of a spear from an earlier period had previously been found in Clacton-on-Sea in the UK.) The Lehringen spear is still the only one found lodged in the skeleton of an extinct species of animal. Neanderthals were the only humans in Europe at this time, as far as we know, so the spear appeared to provide paradigm-shifting proof that Neanderthals were big game hunters, not scavengers. It should have become a world-famous find. There …

Vivid dreams trick your brain into thinking you slept well

Vivid dreams trick your brain into thinking you slept well

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Picture your perfect morning wake-up. Your eyes flutter open, the sun is gently streaming in through the window, and you actually feel rested from the night before instead of groggy. That sensation of getting a really good night’s sleep comes from more than just the recommended seven to nine hours of shut eye. It’s also up to our perception of how deeply we slept without interruption. And dreams may be the key to that perception. Our dreams—particularly the more vivid and immersive ones—could help us feel like our sleep was deeper and restorative. Instead of tiring us out, all of that dreaming may make us feel more rested, according to a study published today in the journal PLOS Biology.  Deep sleep is often thought of as the brain being more “switched off,” with slower brain waves, little activity, and no awareness of the outside world. In this school of thought, the deeper the sleep, the less active the brain.  …

Vivid Portrait of Teen Confusion

Vivid Portrait of Teen Confusion

Published by Daniella Wilson

Big Girls Don’t Cry is notable for two impressive debuts: It’s writer-director Paloma Schneideman’s first feature, and its star, Ani Palmer, has never before acted onscreen. Together, they illuminate a messy, searching vibrancy in the story of Sid, a sex-curious small-town 14-year-old who wants more than anything to be cool. The movie — the first produced feature from A Wave in the Ocean, a filmmaking course led by Jane Campion — is alive to the ways that girls, eager for acceptance, can pretend to be tougher and more experienced than they are, and adds the complicating element of queer attraction to the emotional confusion. Schneideman’s keenly observed drama could have been more concise on its way to its culminating New Year’s Eve party, but this story of the summer holiday break in rural New Zealand pulses with a powerful sense of place and terrifically charged scenes of chaotic intimacy, its exceptional performances led by Palmer, Rain Spencer and Noah Taylor. Big Girls Don’t Cry The Bottom Line Rich in sensory detail and sharply observed. Venue: SXSW Film …

Vivid Seats Promo Codes and Deals: Save 10% This March

Vivid Seats Promo Codes and Deals: Save 10% This March

Published by skeptic

Vivid Seats has been part of some of the highest of highs and lowest of lows of my concert-going experience. Because of Vivid Seats, I was able to get a last-minute ticket to Chance the Rapper’s sold-out Coloring Book show at the Oracle Arena in Oakland in 2017 (before he fell off; IYKYK). Vivid Seats helped me (and my sister) see our idol, Bad Bunny for the third time last year amidst the terror of trying to secure limited tickets to see a future Super Bowl performer and heartthrob. While many concerts, sports events, and theater ticket resellers are shady—double-posting limited tickets and gouging prices—Vivid Seats has almost a 4 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot, keeping up with big dog ticket resellers like StubHub and SeatGeek. If you missed out on the initial release of tickets for your favorite artist’s tour, or just want to look for cheap tickets to a Broadway show while in the Big Apple, Vivid Seats has you covered. We have a Vivid Seats promo code and other deals to …

Roman Statues Weren’t White; They Were Once Painted in Vivid, Bright Colors

Roman Statues Weren’t White; They Were Once Painted in Vivid, Bright Colors

Published by José Betancourt

The idea of the clas­si­cal period—the time of ancient Greece and Rome—as an ele­gant­ly uni­fied col­lec­tion of supe­ri­or aes­thet­ic and philo­soph­i­cal cul­tur­al traits has its own his­to­ry, one that comes in large part from the era of the Neo­clas­si­cal. The redis­cov­ery of antiq­ui­ty took some time to reach the pitch it would dur­ing the 18th cen­tu­ry, when ref­er­ences to Greek and Latin rhetoric, archi­tec­ture, and sculp­ture were inescapable. But from the Renais­sance onward, the clas­si­cal achieved the sta­tus of cul­tur­al dog­ma. One tenet of clas­si­cal ide­al­ism is the idea that Roman and Greek stat­u­ary embod­ied an ide­al of pure whiteness—a mis­con­cep­tion mod­ern sculp­tors per­pet­u­at­ed for hun­dreds of years by mak­ing busts and stat­ues in pol­ished white mar­ble. But the truth is that both Greek stat­ues and their Roman counterparts—as you’ll learn in the Vox video above—were orig­i­nal­ly bright­ly paint­ed in riotous col­or. This includes the 1st cen­tu­ry A.D. Augus­tus of Pri­ma Por­ta, the famous fig­ure of the Emper­or stand­ing tri­umphant­ly with one hand raised. Rather than left as blank white mar­ble, the stat­ue would have …

Caleb McLaughlin Voices Vivid Animated Sports Fable

Caleb McLaughlin Voices Vivid Animated Sports Fable

Published by Daniella Wilson

In this era of sports celebrities being paid megabucks, it’s not surprising that a kid would want to become a star player. And by “kid,” I mean a young goat, of course. Sony Animation’s new effort concerns one such goat, Will, who aspires to play in the big leagues despite his small stature. (The title has an obvious double meaning.) Inspired by Stephen Curry’s struggle to succeed despite numerous obstacles — the basketball great serves as producer and has a small voice role — GOAT begins with a very young Will watching a game of roarball (a sort of everything-goes basketball, played by animals) and proclaiming to his mother (Jennifer Hudson) that it’s what he wants to do when he grows up. GOAT The Bottom Line Doesn’t live up to its title, but plenty of fun. Release date: Friday, February 13Cast: Caleb McLaughlin, Gabrielle Union, Aaron Pierre, Nicola Coughlan, David Harbour, Nick Kroll, Jenifer Lewis, Patton Oswalt, Jelly Roll, Jennifer Hudson, Sherry Cola, Eduardo Franco, Andrew Santino, Bobby Lee, Stephen CurryDirector: Tyree DillahayCo-director: Adam RosetteScreenwriters: …

What’s Wrong With Benny Hill? review – a vivid reminder of what millions once found hilarious | Theatre

What’s Wrong With Benny Hill? review – a vivid reminder of what millions once found hilarious | Theatre

Published by Sam Flores

TV has mined a rich seam of golden-age comedian biopics – but Benny Hill has yet to be afforded the posthumous privilege. That’s partly the point of this stab in that direction by Mark Carey, which asks why Hill has been so thoroughly expunged from our comedy pantheon. The reasons are widely known, of course, and rehearsed again here: the former best-loved man on television traded in a humour many modern viewers find sexist, racist and sad. One might hope for greater insight from a 100-minute play on the subject but, for all the pleasures along the way, it doesn’t have a great deal to add. Carey’s play with songs flashes back through Hill’s life from his last days as a “mad recluse” talking to a visiting solicitor about his will. With all other roles played with spirit by Georgie Taylor, we meet Hill’s dad “the Captain”, who sold “rubber johnnies” for a living, and find Benny writing letters to his auntie from the cafes he frequented in France. Between scenes, a babble of online …