In The 1930s, The Hammond Organ Took America By Storm, Setting A New Standard
The Federal Trade Commission held an entire hearing in 1937 to evaluate the Hammond’s sonority. The Commission sought to determine whether a series of advertising claims about the Hammond’s timbre were “deceptive, misleading and false.” Though many of the hearing’s participants believed their testimony would go down in history as an important reckoning of what constituted “real” and “good” musical sound, the affair is largely forgotten today. What the hearing does offer is an unusually detailed record of contemporaneous arguments over the quality and value of a new electronic sound. – New Music Box
Reasons To Care About The Bauhaus 100 Years On
“If you like airy, light-filled buildings, functional furniture, elegant, affordable design, sans-serif typography and clean-lined graphic design, you care about the Bauhaus. Equally, if you hate boxy, flat-roofed buildings, relentless standardization, the death of curves, ornament, the ironing out of cultural differences and overly rational planning, you care about the Bauhaus.” – Washington Post
The Case Against The Obama Presidential Library
In the Obama center case, foes of the $500 million plan have centered their objections around the site location—a perch in an historic park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux in 1871. Almost no one objects to the Obama Presidential Center coming to Chicago’s South Side, but some feel that it hoovers up an existing community asset instead of creating a new one. The question has lingered over the project since its introduction near the end of the president’s tenure in 2015. – CityLab
Social Platforms Want To Cut Down On Spreading Fake Conspiracy Theories. But There’s A Problem…
Part of the problem for platforms like YouTube and Facebook — which has also pledged to clean up misinformation that could lead to real-world harm — is that the definition of “harmful” misinformation is circular. There is no inherent reason that a video questioning the official 9/11 narrative is more dangerous than a video asserting the existence of U.F.O.s or Bigfoot. A conspiracy theory is harmful if it results in harm — at which point it’s often too late for platforms to act. – The New York Times
Composer Dominick Argento, 91
“In addition to his fourteen operas, he composed song cycles, choral pieces and musical monodramas, establishing himself as one of the most adept practitioners of text-setting within his generation of American composers. Though his polystylistic idiom ranges from opulent Romanticism to acerbic dissonance, his melodic lines are unfailingly well suited both to the voice and to the straightforward delivery of the words.” – Opera News
Cultural Objects Versus Immigrants – A Disconnect
“Since the independence of West African countries throughout the late 1950s and early ’60s, the retention of objects and the simultaneous rejection of people has become ever more fraught. Young undocumented migrants from former French colonies stand metres away from the Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, a museum in Paris full of their inaccessible patrimony. The migrants are treated with contempt while the objects from their homelands are cared for in museums and treated with great reverence. The migrants will be deported but the objects will not be repatriated. The homeland is therefore only home to objects, not people.” – Aeon
Peter Tork Of The Monkees Dead At 77
“If the Monkees were a manufactured version of the Beatles, a ‘prefab four’ who auditioned for a rock-and-roll sitcom and were selected more for their long-haired good looks than their musical abilities, Mr. Tork was the group’s Ringo, its lovably goofy supporting player.” – The Washington Post
Film Critic Carrie Rickey Talks About Weinstein, #MeToo And Movies
“Naturally, as a woman and a mother, I am not for sexual predation of women in any industry. That kind of goes without saying. Before Nora Ephron died, she made a list of the things she wouldn’t miss. I think number one or two on that list of things I won’t miss are more panels about why there aren’t enough women in film. That’s kind of how I’m feeling now. We talk about it, and we talk about it, and nothing fucking changes. You can quote me on that.” – The Smart Set
The Inconveniences Of Truth In A Non-Objective Age
Scepticism about common-sense things has been on the agenda of philosophers for centuries, but only as a plaything confined to the study. It does not spill into everyday life. So, what on earth do people mean when they say we are living in a “post-truth” world? – New Statesman
UK Study: Young People Under-represented In Arts Organizations
Just 2% of the cultural sector is made up of people aged 16-19, despite these making up 3.2% of the working population – a representation gap of over a third. – Arts Professional
How Leaders Bend History For Their Own Purposes
The past is once more being bent to suit present purposes in the hope of ushering in something that may one day look as bizarre as anything in this history of “past futures”. – New Statesman
The Challenges Of Trying To Define “Cool”
What exactly is ‘intellectual cool’? For a start, although it includes intellectual trends, or what we sometimes call ‘fashions,’ it obviously is not just this. And here we run up against a very difficult problem – what we call ‘cool’ never describes itself, never declares itself, and never advises who it will be visiting next. People who write about Spinoza will never say they’re doing so because he’s really cool at the moment. Equally, ask a hipster who they hate the most and they will say, without a moment’s hesitation, ‘Hipsters! I f*cking hate them!’ – Sydney Review of Books
DC Comics Cancels Series About Second Coming Of Jesus
The Second Coming, a series that was to be released next month under DC’s Vertigo imprint, depicted Jesus Christ’s not-entirely-triumphant return to earth. “Shocked to discover what has become of his gospel,” Jesus undertakes “a most holy mission from God,” learning from a super-hero called Sun-Man “what it takes to be the true messiah of mankind.” The comic was withdrawn following a petition, by conservative group CitizenGo, which calls The Second Coming “outrageous and blasphemous.” – The Guardian
Being Lost Can Be Terrifying And Disorienting. Or It Can Open Your Mind
Lostness has always been an enigmatic and many-sided state, always riven with unexpected potencies. Across history, all varieties of artists, philosophers, and scientists have celebrated disorientation as an engine of discovery and creativity, both in the sense of straying from a physical path, but also in swerving away from the familiar, turning in to the unknown. – The Atlantic
Lucas Hnath’s Play About Hillary Clinton’s 2008 Campaign Is Suddenly Seeming Relevant Again
“Set in an alternate universe during the 2008 primaries, as she fights for survival against a charismatic upstart … [and] unfolding around a pivotal moment in the contest, it examined how the strictures of her gender and the baggage of her marriage affected her ability to navigate the men’s world of politics. … Hillary and Clinton arrives [on Broadway] in March amid a raucous cultural debate about gender politics and the double standard that women face.” – The New York Times
Trending
-
China Bans Depictions Of Gay People On TV And Web Video
-
Classical Music Is Broken Online. What iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music And The Others Should Do About It
-
Getting Fully Naked (And Getting It On) Onstage
-
Graduate Assistantships in Arts Administration
-
Sofia Coppola Is An Auteur, And It's Time We Give Her An Auteur's Respect
-
Artistic Director – Theatreworks Silicon Valley
-
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is seeking a Director of Education
-
Artistic Director – New York City Gay Men’s Chorus
-
In The 1930s, The Hammond Organ Took America By Storm, Setting A New Standard
-
Reasons To Care About The Bauhaus 100 Years On
Premium Classifieds
Artistic Director – Theatreworks Silicon Valley
THEATREWORKS Silicon Valley (TWSV) in Palo Alto, CA invites qualified candidates to submit applications to become its second Artistic Director. Founding AD Robert Kelly will retire at the end of the … [Read More]
2019 Ford Musician Awards
Celebrating Orchestra Musicians' Inspiring Community Work - The League of American Orchestras is now accepting applications for the 2019 Ford Musician Awards! Nominations of--and applications … [Read More]
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is seeking a Director of Education
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is America’s foremost repertory company for chamber music, and one of eleven constituent members of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Through … [Read More]
Graduate Assistantships in Arts Administration
Two open positions for the 19-20 academic year, including hourly pay and tuition benefits. Jump-start your career in arts administration by earning a Master's in 15 months at Le Moyne College in … [Read More]
Sofia Coppola Is An Auteur, And It’s Time We Give Her An Auteur’s Respect
J. Hoberman: “Coppola is a true auteur — a filmmaker with a distinct worldview and sensibility and a personal set of quasi-autobiographical interests. … [And] it should be noted that on the basis of six features she’s directed since 1999, she’s also the most celebrated American filmmaker under 50.” – The New York Times
A Bilingual ‘Romeo And Juliet’ — In English And American Sign Language
In a new production at ACT in Seattle, Juliet will speak English while Romeo will sign. (Interpreters will translate other roles’ lines into ASL.) In a process involving several steps, Shakespeare’s text has been converted into ASL poetry, “a distinct, dramatic form of sign-language storytelling … [that] uses gestures and facial expressions to evoke such poetic conventions as repetition, rhyme, alliteration, rhythm and meter.” – The Seattle Times
Obama Presidential ‘Library’ Will Have No Library In It
“The four-building, 19-acre ‘working center for citizenship,’ set to be built in a public park on the South Side of Chicago, will include a 235-foot-high ‘museum tower,’ a two-story event space, an athletic center, a recording studio, a winter garden, even a sledding hill. … In a break with precedent, there will be no research library on site, and none of Mr. Obama’s official presidential records,” which are to be digitized and posted online. – The New York Times
Jerry Saltz: Having An Art Fair In L.A. Has Never Really Worked — Until Now
“I often say about art fairs that they are a spectacle of art having sex with money in public. At Frieze, they went at it like a gaggle of pent-up bonobo monkeys. And the sex was good. Or so I’m told. I only watch — amazed, jealous, contemptuous, self-hating, you know the drill.” – Vulture
The Gender Gap At The Top Of US Ballet Companies
“The Dance Data Project … has published a report on leadership pay among the 50 biggest ballet companies in the U.S, broken down by gender. Here are some of the most interesting findings.” – Dance Magazine
‘Voice Of The Minnesota Orchestra’, Mary Ann Feldman, Dead At 85
“She was perhaps the best known and most prolific advocate for classical music the Twin Cities has ever known. … She wrote erudite and witty program notes for the Minnesota Orchestra for 33 years while serving as the orchestra’s principal speaker, which meant giving 60 speeches a year, some of them on radio and television but most of them in the form of pre-concert talks at Orchestra Hall, a format she pioneered.” – MinnPost (Minneapolis)
Jonathan Lethem To Edit New Series Of Literary Reprints
“Bill Henderson, founder of the Pushcart Press and the Pushcart Prize, has teamed up with novelist Jonathan Lethem to start Lethem’s Legends, a series that will reprint selected out-of-print works. The first title in the series, which Lethem will edit, is Bad Guy by Rosalyn Drexler, the visual artist, playwright, and novelist.” – Publishers Weekly
Ai Weiwei’s Segment For Anthology Film About Berlin Suppressed Out Of Fears Of Chinese Gov’t Reaction
“A contribution by the Chinese artist, film-maker and activist Ai Weiwei to a film called Berlin, I Love You, was cut by the producers on concern it could block the movie from getting distribution in China and create difficulties for them with the Chinese authorities.” – The Art Newspaper
A Daunting Task: Creating The First New, Full-Length Dance Piece For Pina Bausch’s Company Since She Died
“What’s most important for the company is the legacy, taking care of Pina’s works and then finding the best way to look forward,” says director and choreographer Alan Lucien Øyen, whose Bon Voyage, Bob recently premiered in Bausch’s home theatre and is now in London. – The Stage
As Africa’s Economy Grows, So, Slowly, Does Its Art Market
While demand for contemporary art from Africa is growing in the developed world, “the continent itself, with its reputation as a relatively high-risk business environment with a still nascent domestic collector base, remains unexplored by many international galleries. Is that changing? Yes, but slowly.” – The Art Newspaper