Dear Class Of 2020: You’ve Been Cheated. Time To Build A Bridge To The 16th Century
“The most momentous event in your intellectual formation was the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, which ushered in our disastrous fixation on testing. Your generation is the first to have gone through primary and secondary school knowing no alternative to a national regimen of assessment. And your professors are only now beginning to realize how this unrelenting assessment has stunted your imaginations.”
Where Are The Women Artists? Not Here (And Maybe They Shouldn’t Be?)
The first major survey of abstract expressionism since 1959, which has just opened at the Royal Academy, has been accused of displaying too much testosterone. Commentary developed on social media from early visitors asking: “Where were the women?” But what exactly were they expecting? The telling word from the critic is “few”. There were not many women in the movement to be included in the first place.
The Country’s Only Scientific Glassblowing Degree Program
“As they blow into glass tubes, they hover over bright orange flames that reach as high as 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s hot enough for those stiff tubes to bend like rubbery taffy and twist into candy-cane shapes or snake coils that look machine-made.”
E-books May Be Slipping, But Publishers Hear Audio Is The Next Big Thing
“E-book sales have fallen precipitously for months, in part because many publishers have raised their prices after negotiating with Amazon and gaining the ability to set their own prices.”
The Person Dancers Depend On To Make Those Tutus Flare
“If fashion is chimerical fantasy, Mr. Happel brings a dose of earthbound reality to the work: Will all that detailed embroidery read from far away? Will dancers actually be able to raise their arms in that bodice?”
In The Shadows Of Hollywood, Does Abuse Of Young Actors Thrive?
“If the event resembles a harmless and burlesque version of the better-known award shows, there also has been a darker side to it at times. A handful of people who were actively involved with the show or attended it have been found by authorities to have troubling backgrounds with minors, including two men who were convicted of committing sex crimes against children.”
When A Theatre Venue Shuts Down Suddenly In Virginia, Arts Groups Have To Scramble
“Other venues are stepping in to fill the artistic void, but many people are still expressing disappointment and doubt about the future of the downtown theater.”
The Superhuman Demands Of Singing Tristan
“Young singers usually build their careers by taking on gradually longer and more demanding roles. But the metallic colors and lower vocal center of gravity of prospective Tristans often make them an awkward fit for traditional young tenor repertory.”
A Sneaky Idea To Ship Bikes Safely By Disguising Them As Televisions
Apparently, delivery companies value flat-screen TVs more than bikes.
The Ballerina Triplet Who Escaped The Nazis But Is Still Dancing [AUDIO]
“When things got painful, we’d hug each other and speak either French or German with each other and dance together.”
Yes, Let’s Keep On Talking About Who ‘Gets’ To Write What, And Why
“A writer has the right to inhabit any character she pleases — she’s always had it and will continue to have it. The complaint seems to be less that some people ask writers to think about cultural appropriation, and more that a writer wishes her work not to be critiqued for doing so, that instead she get a gold star for trying.”
Fine, Let’s Talk About Sombreros And Lionel Shriver
Francine Prose: “Like much of Shriver’s talk, this paragraph contains a kernel of truth encased by a husk of cultural and historical blindness. It seems clear that one part of the fiction writer’s job is ‘to step into other people’s shoes.’ But to paraphrase Freud, sometimes a hat is more than just a hat. Sometimes it is a symbol—and a racist one, at that.”
The Writing Life, And All Of The Self-Sabotage It Includes
“I am locked in a battle between self-doubt and self-discipline, and the former usually wins. I have the concentration of… oh, I like your shoes. It is so much easier to plummet down the sinkhole of Twitter.”
Monty Python’s Terry Jones Diagnosed With Dementia
“Jones, who is from Colwyn Bay in north Wales, was a member of the legendary comedy troupe with Terry Gilliam, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin and the late Graham Chapman. He directed Monty Python’s Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life and co-directed Monty Python and the Holy Grail with Gilliam.”
The Intimate Details Of Theatre Poster Design
“I wanted something that you would look at, and without having it hit you heavily, you would understand it came from the ’20s and ’30s. We wanted to show a certain modernity that had style.”
Rolling Stone Sells Almost Half Of Itself To An Investor From Singapore
“BandLab’s investment provides Rolling Stone with the opportunity to expand into the live event, hospitality and merchandising businesses in Asia—areas where BandLab has experience. Its flagship product is a digital platform for creating and sharing music.”
The 32-Year-Old ‘Fixer’ Of Pop Songs
“His is a story of why endurance and persistence are essential in the music business – even if your career seems only to consist of blind alleys at the start.”
This Week in Understanding Audience: Baby Boomers Reinvent The Movie Experience
This week: Baby boomers are breathing new life into movie theatres… Dance clubs are languishing as millennials stay away… Netflix reveals at what point we get hooked on TV series… How the audience changes when admission is free… The Ticket bots strike again on Broadway.
Five Stories/Trends From This Week’s ArtsJournal: How The Arts Speak To Real Life
This Week: Why is it so hard to tell if American theatre is thriving or not?… Have art and technology had a falling out?… Perhaps TV is the solution to our political polarization… The music industry seems to be finally getting it together… A cautionary tale about getting swallowed up by the online world.
Should The Minnesota Orchestra Start Looking For A Successor To Osmo Vanska?
“Much remains uncertain about the future, with orchestras everywhere battling to stop declining attendance figures. In these rapidly evolving circumstances, the relatively short three-year extension to music director Osmo Vänskä’s contract, announced in May 2015, was probably the sensible option for management and conductor. It does, though, snap sharply into focus the real possibility that Vänskä could be gone by August 2019.”
Trending On AJ
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A Rising New Opera Star In The Rarest Of Voice Ranges
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Should The Minnesota Orchestra Start Looking For A Successor To Osmo Vanska?
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San Francisco Might Want To Push This Woman Out Of Museum Management - But She's Not Ready To Go
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Fort Worth Symphony Cancels All Concerts Through Early November
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Buffalo Philharmonic Board Chair Arrested On Corruption Charges
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Images Of Los Angeles That Go Far Beyond The Postcards
“In the photographs of Anthony Hernandez, there are no swaying palm trees or cinematic sunsets. Instead, for half a century, this born-and-bred Angeleno has trained his unblinking lens on another L.A. — a city of the aged, of the working class, of the destitute.”
Jordanian Writer About To Stand Trial For A Cartoon Is Shot Dead Outside Of Court
“Hattar, a Christian, was arrested on August 13 after posting a caricature on his Facebook account that depicted a bearded man in heaven smoking in bed with women, asking God to bring him wine and cashews.”
Baby Boomers Are Returning To The Movies, Reshaping Cinema Again
“More than the actual films though, it is the surrounding experience at the cinema that is pulling this generation through the doors. ‘Event cinema’, such as live-streamed ballet and opera, ‘is particularly valued’ by older people.”
San Francisco Might Want To Push This Woman Out Of Museum Management – But She’s Not Ready To Go
“Her coal eyes flashed when she was asked to identify the anonymous wag who had told a reporter her run had come to an end. ‘I have no idea, and I’d like to kill them,’ Ms. Wilsey said. No one was going to run her out, she added. She would remain, overseeing politics and fund-raising. And to her detractors she would like to say: ‘You will look like a bunch of idiots. And I am going to laugh myself silly.'”
Is The Era Of The Nightclub Over?
“Even though an estimated half of venues have closed within the past decade, dance music industry figures insisted the scene is in rude health, with people instead choosing all-day events in parks, raves in pop-up spaces and festivals for their weekly freakout.”
Fort Worth Symphony Cancels All Concerts Through Early November
“The musicians, who are represented by the American Federation of Musicians Local 72-147, lambasted management’s decision to cancel concerts scheduled for more than a month away.”
Can An Old Dance Theatre Do New Tricks?
“The theater looks a certain way, the curtain goes up on a company, and whatever happens on a stage can be vastly different from week to week. However, the experience itself of attending the Joyce has grown to be somewhat regular, and this is a way to challenge that.”
What Happens When A Novel You’ve Been Working On For Seven Years Finally Gets Published?
Yaa Gyasi: “This novel was an attempt for me to say: We cannot look away when something like this is happening. We can’t look away. We don’t get to.”
An Explainer: Why Your Social Media Feeds Exploded With Grief Over The Great British Bake Off
“Contestants never say things like ‘I didn’t come here to make friends.’ There are no irritating product placements and — perhaps most incomprehensibly to American audiences — no material riches to be won. That’s right: The winner of ‘The Great British Baking Show’ wins a title and an engraved cake stand, and that’s it.”
Is This Quiet Rule Change A Death Knell For Canadian TV And Movies – And Actors?
“I began thinking about the ship of Theseus. The vessel in question was an ancient Greek ship kept afloat for generations by the replacement of any rotting plank and it is famous as a philosophical paradox: If every plank has been replaced, is it still the same ship?”