If The Arts Could Just Commit To Professional Development (Wait! Don’t Yawn!)
“We have to build a culture in our sector that recognizes and embraces the idea that continuing skills training and opportunities to gain more knowledge is critical to our survival and must be available to everyone at all levels of their careers – throughout their careers.”
What Happens When Four Annoyed Siblings Accidentally End Up At A Play
“Something magical began to happen in us. The yawns turned into smiles of interest. The slumps in the chair turned into leans of anticipation. And by the end of act two, the eye rolls were not directed at me but at certain characters in the play.”
The Battle For Ballet At The Bolshoi Rages On (And On)
“Why does the Bolshoi matter outside Moscow? Many seasoned balletgoers ultimately prefer the styles of certain Western companies or that of the Mariinsky Ballet of St. Petersburg. Yet your knowledge of ballet is incomplete until you’ve witnessed how the Bolshoi can seem the most red-blooded, exuberant and viscerally stirring of ballet companies.”
How Did Gaming Suddenly Get Great Narratives? (And Where Can It Get Some Respect?)
“Video games are inherently playful, which means many non-players still believe they are also frivolous and childish. There has been an increasing effort by some game-makers to address more substantial topics and themes.”
Why Don’t People Like Google Glass?
Basically, it makes them look “stupid.” — “I don’t think our society’s rejection of Glass is necessarily rooted in stated concerns about privacy, exclusivity, class dynamics, disconnection from the world, or many of the other arguments that have been put forth. These are well-established, modern problems that Glass makes only marginally worse. Instead I believe the resistance to Glass is about our fear of assistive technology”
Alastair MacLeod, 77, Who Wrote One Of Canada’s ‘Greatest Books Of All Time’
“There is something terribly ironic about writing about Alistair MacLeod on a deadline. I bet he’d find it funny. I would too if I wasn’t in tears.”
Advertisers Force Pixelated Posters Of Prince Charles On Tube Users
“The decision was made by our advertising contractor without reference to us and does look to have been a little over enthusiastic. We will speak to them about it.”
Finding An Artist’s Original Color, Behind The Frames
“It’s so weird. You think you know an artist, and then science tells something different about him and you’re like, ‘Oh, well that doesn’t fit my idea of what this artist is.’”
Poetry, Sex, And Agatha Christie
“All through childhood I wrote verses and mysteries. There is, for me, one connection: structure. My poetry is metrical, rhyming. My crime novels are highly structured. I never start out with a dead body. I start with an impossible scenario. Opening questions should be mysterious, weird, intriguing and contain the seeds of the solution.”
Spain Bans Aerial Drones – And Deeply Wounds Its Film Industry
“Cromática 45 says it has had four orders cancelled since last week; Camfly has seen 15 orders disappear, ‘all the work until October’; and the Andalusia Film Commission has even had to stop a project for the Andalusian regional government. ‘Today the answer [to clients] is that it’s not possible. We’ll see about tomorrow,’ says Querol.”
Is There *Any* Way To Make The Comcast/Time Warner Merger OK?
Maybe? “There is no better example of the existence of our Second Gilded Age than Comcast. Government has made it possible for the company to exert economic power unheard of a generation ago. If this deal is to go through, Comcast should be required to pay dearly for the privilege of exerting market domination.”
The Fired Creator of ‘Vampire Diaries’ Bites Back With Fan Fiction
“In one of the stranger comebacks in literary history, Ms. Smith is independently resurrecting her stories about the adolescent undead. She’s publishing her own version of ‘The Vampire Diaries’ digitally on Amazon, as fan fiction, creating a parallel fictional universe that many hard-core fans regard as more legitimate than the official canon.”
Falling In Love Over And Over, With Bookstores
“My favorite day at that store was when the power went out for a few hours but we didn’t close. We experienced booksellers manned the computer-less information desk, answering questions using only our amassed knowledge of books in print. It was like bookseller thunderdome, and I have to say that I killed it.”
Remembering The Architecture (And Everything Else) Of The 1964 World’s Fair
“An adult puppet show, ‘Les Poupees de Paris,’ that included figures of Elvis and Frank Sinatra, became the area’s biggest hit.”
Dancers Have iPads, Not Discipline, Says Choreographer
The 88-year-old Gillian Lynne “claimed teachers were tougher when she was starting out, adding that venues such as the London Palladium were ‘run with a rod of iron.’”
That Time Josephine Baker Adopted 12 Children And Bought A Castle In France
“She installed what she called her ‘Rainbow Tribe’ in a 15th-century chateau in the South of France and charged admission to tourists who came to hear them sing, to tour their home, or to watch them play leapfrog in their garden.”
The Surveillance Society Hurts – Literally
People “who had any type of contact with the criminal justice system were 31 percent more likely than those who had no contact to not obtain medical care when they needed it. Even people who were merely stopped by police were 33 percent more likely to not seek medical care.”
When A Studio Fire Destroys Everything
Artist Julian Bell: “At first, the blow seeming so clean and entire, I glimpsed a neat image for it. A rectangle had been punched straight through me and I was an empty frame, the picture gone. And I was struck by the way my fuzzy life had suddenly acquired definition, even if only in negative mode. Now I start to sense the rip is more ragged.”
American Sidewalk Cafés Try So Hard, And Get It All So Wrong – Why?
“They might have the appropriate Bistro Collection Café Chairs. But everything else is slightly awry and amiss, as if designed by someone whose understanding of European café culture arose from having once, long ago, seen the Disney film The Aristocats. The café is poorly positioned, poorly arranged, or too exposed to loud traffic and passing cellphone shouters.”
Record Day Started As A PR Move For Indie Stores – And It Worked
“As recently as 2008, only 2.9 million LPs were sold in the United States, representing about 0.7 percent of annual album sales, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Last year those sales climbed to 9.4 million, representing 3 percent of all albums, and the independent, off-the-grid nature of many of those sales may mean that vinyl’s numbers are underreported.”
Trending On AJ
-
The Granite State Symphony Undergoes A Complete Overhaul
-
What's Wrong With The Metropolitan Opera? No, It's WHO'S Wrong
-
What Has Osmo Vänskä Been Thinking - And Doing - Since The Minnesota Board Let Him Resign?
-
The Best Easter Art Is Bloody And Disturbing
-
Pandemonium At San Diego Opera Board Meeting, Followed By New Chairman And Rescue Plan
Premium AJ Classifieds
Americans for the Arts Wants You!
Don’t miss our Annual Convention in Nashville this June 13-15—not only the best professional development opportunity of the year, but also your chance to learn from and network with 1,000+ arts … [Read More...]
MS in Museum Leadership at Drexel University
The Museum Leadership Program at Drexel University prepares future museum professionals to embrace the opportunities and challenges that museums face now and to anticipate those that will shape the … [Read More...]
Sr. Specialist, Communications & Marketing, The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage
Serves as Center’s strategic communications and marketing expert, member of leadership team. Helps develop and manage communications and brand strategies, manages marketing consultations for grantees. … [Read More...]
The Granite State Symphony Undergoes A Complete Overhaul
The New Hampshire orchestra abruptly canceled its last two concerts and let its music director go. Now it’s planning to reopen in the fall with new musicians, a new music director, and a new venue.
What Should Happen To The BBC If It Doesn’t Diversify?
Looks like the broadcaster might be losing a fair amount of money as soon as the government makes it legal for people to choose not to pay their BBC license fee.
What Has Osmo Vänskä Been Thinking – And Doing – Since The Minnesota Board Let Him Resign?
“I think that classical music is always going to be here, as long as there are human beings. But I think that everyone has to think about what is the right way to take care of classical music. It is not the first time when there are problems. I don’t know if there has ever been something which is not called difficult time, in history. I think it’s always time to try to adjust.”
New York Is So Expensive – But Here’s One Option For Artists To Live There
“If our projected costs and occupancy rates were correct (and if the jackhammering would let up), each partner would work 10 to 15 hours a week at the co-op to cover our rent, utilities and shared groceries, freeing up time to pursue the low-to-zero-pay projects we all had in music, art, education and writing.”
When Actors Take To Social Media To Lambaste Reviewers
“Franco’s Instagram post came with the comment: ‘Sadly Ben Brantley and the NYT have embarrassed themselves. Brantley is such a little bitch he should be working for Gawker.com instead of the paper of record.’”