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Monday, November 23, 2009

current top story
'The Nutcracker's Stranglehold Is All But Squeezing Ballet Dry'
Sarah Kaufman says that, because U.S. companies are so utterly dependent on income from their annual Nutcracker runs, ballet in this country "suffers from a serious lack of confidence that is only growing more and more paralyzing. … Has ballet become so entwined with its Nutcracker image, so fearfully wedded to unthreatening offerings, that it has forgotten how eye-opening and ultimately nourishing creative destruction can be?" Washington Post 11/20/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:33AM

people
Objections To Moving Camus's Remains President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to transfer the remains of the writer Albert Camus to one of the most hallowed burial places in France, but the plan has run into opposition from the Nobel laureate's son, who does not think his father would have wanted the honor. The New York Times 11/23/09
email this story | Posted 11/23/09@07:59AM
music
Reinventing The Piano For The 21st Century "Geoff Smith believes he has come up with the first multicultural acoustic piano - what he has trademarked as a fluid piano - which allows players to alter the tuning of notes either before or during a performance. Instead of a pianist having a fixed sound, 88 notes from 88 keys, Smith's piano has sliders allowing them access to the different scales that you get in, for example, Indian and Iranian music." The Guardian (UK) 11/23/09
email this story | Posted 11/23/09@07:56AM
publishing
UK TV Looks To Books For Its New Shows Looking for built-in audiences TV is increasingly adapting literature for the small screen. The Guardian (UK) 11/23/09
email this story | Posted 11/23/09@07:53AM
ideas
How Our Brains Learned To Read "Evidence suggests that reading - which depends on an alphabet, writing materials, papyrus and such - is only about 5000 years old. The brain in its modern form is about 200,000 years old, yet brain imaging shows reading taking place in the same way and in the same place in all brains." New Scientist 11/23/09
email this story | Posted 11/23/09@07:50AM
media
A High Stake Remake Of Disney Studios "Seeking to recast the studio for the digital era, Rich Ross and Bob Iger have set in motion a plan to dramatically challenge entrenched practices, potentially pitting Disney against theater owners, retailers and other business partners. The gambit, if it works, could be emulated by other studios. If it backfires, it could undermine what has historically been the creative heart of Disney." Los Angeles Times 11/23/09
email this story | Posted 11/23/09@07:47AM
theatre
Are The Holidays Bad For Theatre? "So are the holidays ruining theater? Or saving it? Companies that thrive during December say giving people what they want is both consumer-friendly and good business during a challenging economic period that, it has been estimated, will kill off 10 percent of all nonprofit arts organizations in the country." Denver Post 11/22/09
email this story | Posted 11/23/09@07:44AM
visual
The Vatican's Plans For A Meeting With Artists "Before the Sistine Chapel meeting, the invited artists are being taken on a guided tour of this collection which includes works by Francis Bacon, Graham Sutherland, Matisse and Georges Rouault. They will be gently encouraged to make a gift of one of their works to the Vatican collection." BBC 11/21/09
email this story | Posted 11/23/09@07:26AM
theatre
Wrecking Ball Theatre "The Wrecking Ball is an evening of political theatre, a Toronto tradition that has spread to other Canadian cities. Playwrights are given a short time to write a brief play, political in nature. Directors and actors are brought in, and with very little rehearsal or preparation they put on a show for one night only." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/23/09
email this story | Posted 11/23/09@07:24AM
music
Percussion - The New Rock Star Of Classical Music? "I think that concert presenters still scratch their heads and don't understand why this phenomenon is occurring. They don't want to recognize the fact that drums, which not so long ago were considered to not be a concert instrument, have now taken over as the predominant attraction of new audiences. The Wall Street Journal 11/20/09
email this story | Posted 11/23/09@07:21AM
visual
Conceptual Art Meets The MetroCard "The Waterfalls flowed in the East River. The Gates snaked through Central Park. Now New York's latest large-scale public art project is being exhibited in an even unlikelier space: your wallet." New York Times 11/20/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:01PM
theatre
Strasberg And The Method: The Next Generation Lee Strasberg's son David Lee is maintaining his late father's acting schools in Manhattan and West Hollywood and even opening a new branch in Mumbai next year. He argues that the Method "is less reliant on psychobabble than most people believe. … [More] interesting is the way developments in neuroscience keep cropping up in his conversation." Los Angeles Times 11/22/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@09:58PM
music
Helsinki Gives Up On Finlandia Hall And Builds New Concert Venue Celebrated architect Alvar Aalto may have created a Nordic modernist icon with his 1971 concert hall, but he didn't much care about acoustics, and it showed. So the powers-that-be are turning the place into a convention center and building a new six-venue concert hall with acoustics by Yasuhisa Toyota, known for Disney Hall in L.A. Bloomberg 11/23/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@09:57PM
ideas
Is HAL Possible? Could Computer Networks Ultimately Think For Themselves? "If the human brain is data being passed from neuron to neuron at its basic level and we can simulate that in a computer, shouldn't a conscious mind start to emerge?" Not really: "The difference between simulated thinking and conscious thinking can be illustrated by thinking about the difference between a computer-simulated boat and a real one." Discovery News 11/19/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@09:55PM
dance
Jerking: Break-Dancing For The Internet Age "Goofy, gentle, nimbly amateurish, jerking was little known outside certain precincts of this sprawling city [L.A.] until a year ago. But in the last nine months or so, jerking began an unexpected run as an Internet phenomenon." The movement has a "rebellious disregard for the conventions of urban style and music (old school hip-hop artists are referred to as 'baggy daddies')." New York Times 11/22/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@09:54PM
issues
Wired Campaigns For The Internet To Get A Nobel Peace Prize They're serious. Says one of the magazine's editors: "The Internet can be considered the first weapon of mass construction … What happened in Iran after the latest election, and the role the Web played in spreading information that would otherwise have been censored, are only the newest examples of how the internet can become a weapon of global hope." Wired 11/20/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@09:52PM
media
Is Precious Ghetto Pathology Porn? Black Americans Debate Critic Armond White wrote, "Not since The Birth of a Nation has a mainstream movie demeaned the idea of black American life as much as Precious." Responds the novelist Sapphire, "With Michelle, Sasha and Malia and Obama in the White House and in the post-Cosby Show era, people can't say these are the only images out there." New York Times 11/21/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:52AM
music
Simon Rattle And The Berlin Phil, In Love Once More "It's been an interesting journey. Slowly and surely we have come together through honeymoons and the opposite. I remember Karajan said that with an orchestra like this the first five or 10 years are tradition. I didn't quite believe him. But after what has sometimes felt like moving at the speed of tectonic plates, … we now have a tradition to build on." Los Angeles Times 11/22/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:51AM
music
One High-End Manufacturer Says The CD Is Dead "The CD player is dead. So says Linn Products, the high-end audio specialist based in Glasgow which for 20 years has been making … CD players. The reason: its audiophile customers have moved, with alacrity, to hard drive-based systems." The Guardian (UK) 11/20/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:51AM
dance
Savion Glover's Feet Lead A Jazz Combo "The subtext of the week's performances [at the Blue Note] - with McCoy Tyner, Roy Haynes, Eddie Palmieri and Jack DeJohnette as guests on various nights - is that Mr. Glover is a musician. The raised wooden board beneath him isn't just his stage; it's his instrument, with eight microphones underneath." New York Times 11/21/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:47AM
people
Raymond Carver: Brilliant, Destructive, Destroyed And Recovered Stephen King looks at the short story master, the appalling treatment he gave the wife who made his career possible, the appalling treatment axe-wielding editor Gordon Lish gave his prose, and the alcoholism underlying it all. New York Times Book Review 11/22/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:47AM
people
Now He's Really A Secular Saint: Relics Of Galileo's Body Discovered "A tooth and two fingers of Galileo Galilei, the 17th century Italian astronomer, physicist, inventor and mathematician, have re-emerged from a lost wooden case, Florence's authorities [have] announced." Discovery News 11/20/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:45AM
visual
High Tech Trompe L'Oeil: Augmented Reality As An Artistic Medium "Augmented reality (AR) has been touted as the bridge between the physical and virtual worlds, as new technologies add information to real-world environments." A new exhibition titled "Give Me More" uses AR "to reveal hidden layers of meaning associated with ordinary objects. … Storybooks become animated, t-shirts bestow powers on their wearers, and Euro notes show their more salacious face." New Scientist 11/21/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:41AM
people
Robert Cameron, Bard Of The Aerial Photograph, Dead At 98 "His 19 'Above' books, each with about 150 photographs, include neighborhood-by-neighborhood overviews of Paris, London, Mexico City, New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, San Diego and Seattle." (He covered his hometown with four volumes of Above San Francisco.) "Then there are the volumes showing the natural wonders of places like Yosemite, Big Sur and Hawaii." New York Times 11/22/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:39AM
publishing
'The Book Of Omens': Divining The Future With A Persian 'I Ching' "Reading the future and shunning possible mishaps is mankind's oldest dream. In 16th-century Iran and Turkey, … it inspired some of the most intriguing book paintings ever. These were prompted by a peculiar literary genre, the Fal-Nameh, or Book of Omens, which took off around the 1560s and lasted at least until the early 18th century." International Herald Tribune 11/21/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:38AM
publishing
Oxfam Tries To Make Peace With Used Bookstores "Oxfam has attempted to patch up its differences with secondhand booksellers." A trade group "had said that Oxfam's voluntary staff, donated stock and business-rate reductions allowed it to undercut rivals, forcing some secondhand booksellers out of business and taking trade away from others." The Guardian (UK) 11/20/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:38AM
theatre
Muhammad Ali Meets Stepin Fetchit "Set in the mid-1960s … Fetch Clay, Make Man, by Will Power, centers on the young boxer's friendship with Stepin Fetchit, the stage name of the actor Lincoln Perry." The play, which "deals with creating personas," opens in January at the McCarter Theater in Princeton. Ben Vereen will play Fetchit, with Evan Parke as Ali; Des McAnuff will direct New York Times 11/20/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:37AM
visual
'The Limits Of Verisimilitude': Trompe L'Oeil Through The Ages Surveying the history of artists' attempts to fool their viewers, from Ancient Rome through Giotto and the Flemish masters to American tricks with pictures of money and sculptors who made rock look like bronze and porcelain resemble wood. International Herald Tribune 11/21/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:35AM
dance
'The Nutcracker's Stranglehold Is All But Squeezing Ballet Dry' Sarah Kaufman says that, because U.S. companies are so utterly dependent on income from their annual Nutcracker runs, ballet in this country "suffers from a serious lack of confidence that is only growing more and more paralyzing. … Has ballet become so entwined with its Nutcracker image, so fearfully wedded to unthreatening offerings, that it has forgotten how eye-opening and ultimately nourishing creative destruction can be?" Washington Post 11/20/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:33AM
issues
Why Having An Epileptic Seizure Onstage Is Art "Rita Marcalo is an artist doing what artists are supposed to do: creating work that is surprising, challenging, transgressive and exciting. … [She] is drawing attention to the fact that on YouTube (and elsewhere) it's easy to find mobile-phone footage of people having fits - mostly taken without their consent. Curious, isn't it, that controversy should arise when a person with epilepsy consents to being filmed?" The Guardian (UK) 11/20/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:03AM
theatre
Should A Critic Walk Out On A Play In Anger? When And Why? Mark Lawson: "[L]ast week, for the first time ever, I was tempted to leave a theatre in mid-performance, not through tedium or sciatica … but from moral anger." The reason: a female character - written by a male playwright - speaking about experiencing pleasure while being raped. Lawson and commenters consider the ethics of the situation. The Guardian (UK) 11/20/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@09:29AM
ideas
Artificial Feline Intelligence: IBM Simulates A Cat's Brain "IBM announced this week that it has a computer system that can simulate the thinking power of a cat's brain with 1 billion neurons and 10 trillion synapses. At just 4.5 percent of a human brain, the computer can sense, perceive, act, interact and process ideas without consuming a lot [of] energy." Discovery News 11/19/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@09:14AM
visual
Financial Crisis Wallops LACMA's Investments, Donations "The Los Angeles County Museum of Art saw its investment portfolio lose nearly a quarter of its value during its 2008-09 fiscal year." In the same period, contributions to the museum fell by $100 million - nearly 80 percent - from the year before. Los Angeles Times 11/21/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@09:14AM

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Events
Taiwan Performing Arts Center, aka National CKS Cultural Center, will open Taiwan International Festival (TIF) from 19th February to 28th March, 2010 featuring the best figures and groups from abroad and Taiwan such as Robert WILSON, TAN Dun, Thomas OSTERMEIER, George FENTON, LÜ Shao-Chia and LIN Hwai-Min, etc. Six of the programs will be world premiere while another six will be Asian premiere. You will be amazed by the diversified cultures in Taiwan and countries around the world. Among others, tickets for the flagship production, 1433-The Grand Voyage, are sold amazingly fast. Please browse http://tif.ntch.edu.tw for more information.

 

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Jobs
Pasatiempo, the award-winning weekly arts, entertainment, and culture magazine of The Santa Fe New Mexican, seeks a staff writer/reporter to cover a wide range of musical and performing-arts disciplines. This is a full-time position. Benefits package includes: Medical/dental insurance; Medical/dependent-care flexible spending account; 401-K; Paid vacation, sick days, and holidays; Paid life insurance. Send inquires to: Kristina Melcher, Arts Editor c/o The Santa Fe New Mexican, 202 E. Marcy St., Santa Fe, NM 87501. E-mail: kmelcher@sfnewmexican.com.

 

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DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MUSEUM OF ART The University of Michigan invites nominations and applications for the position of Director of the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) in Ann Arbor. Reporting to the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, the Director will provide leadership and management for the Museum. Nominations and/or applications, accompanied by a letter of interest, current curriculum vitae, and names and contact information of three references, should be submitted to:Judith A. Auerbach and Kit J. Nichols email ana@auerbach-assc.com
 
Education
Master of Arts in Arts Administration - Goucher College Keep your job and earn your master's degree. Spend two weeks in August on the Goucher campus and complete the rest of your work wherever you may be - at home, the office, backstage, on the road. Participate in an interactive learning environment. You'll develop a strong network of like-minded peers and mentors while learning from a dynamic faculty of national arts leaders who don't just teach arts administration - they run thriving arts organizations. Check out our website www.goucher.edu/maaa
 
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The Theatre School at DePaul University invites applications for a full-time tenure-track professor to serve as head of its renowned BFA Theatre Management program. Position begins Fall of 2010. Responsibilities include BFA Program leadership, teaching courses in theatre management and related areas of specialization, advising, and service. Candidates of color are encouraged to apply. DePaul is an Equal Opportunity Employer. For more information, qualifications and to apply, click here

Today's Headlines (by topic)

ideas
How Our Brains Learned To Read - New Scientist 11/23/09
email this story | Posted 11/23/09@07:50AM

Is HAL Possible? Could Computer Networks Ultimately Think For Themselves? - Discovery News 11/19/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@09:55PM

Artificial Feline Intelligence: IBM Simulates A Cat's Brain - Discovery News 11/19/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@09:14AM

more Ideas...

dance
Jerking: Break-Dancing For The Internet Age - New York Times 11/22/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@09:54PM

Savion Glover's Feet Lead A Jazz Combo - New York Times 11/21/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:47AM

'The Nutcracker's Stranglehold Is All But Squeezing Ballet Dry' - Washington Post 11/20/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:33AM

Inside School Of American Ballet's Choreography Workshop - New York Times 11/22/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@09:08AM

more Dance...

issues
Wired Campaigns For The Internet To Get A Nobel Peace Prize - Wired 11/20/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@09:52PM

Why Having An Epileptic Seizure Onstage Is Art - The Guardian (UK) 11/20/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:03AM

more Issues...

media
A High Stake Remake Of Disney Studios - Los Angeles Times 11/23/09
email this story | Posted 11/23/09@07:47AM

Is Precious Ghetto Pathology Porn? Black Americans Debate - New York Times 11/21/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:52AM

The Secret Of Oprah's Power - Discovery News 11/20/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@08:53AM

more Media...

music
Reinventing The Piano For The 21st Century - The Guardian (UK) 11/23/09
email this story | Posted 11/23/09@07:56AM

Percussion - The New Rock Star Of Classical Music? - The Wall Street Journal 11/20/09
email this story | Posted 11/23/09@07:21AM

Helsinki Gives Up On Finlandia Hall And Builds New Concert Venue - Bloomberg 11/23/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@09:57PM

Simon Rattle And The Berlin Phil, In Love Once More - Los Angeles Times 11/22/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:51AM

One High-End Manufacturer Says The CD Is Dead - The Guardian (UK) 11/20/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:51AM

more Music...

people
Objections To Moving Camus's Remains - The New York Times 11/23/09
email this story | Posted 11/23/09@07:59AM

Raymond Carver: Brilliant, Destructive, Destroyed And Recovered - New York Times Book Review 11/22/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:47AM

Now He's Really A Secular Saint: Relics Of Galileo's Body Discovered - Discovery News 11/20/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:45AM

Robert Cameron, Bard Of The Aerial Photograph, Dead At 98 - New York Times 11/22/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:39AM

Elisabeth Söderström, 82, One Of Opera's Great Actors - The Telegraph (UK) 11/22/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@09:04AM

more People...

publishing
UK TV Looks To Books For Its New Shows - The Guardian (UK) 11/23/09
email this story | Posted 11/23/09@07:53AM

'The Book Of Omens': Divining The Future With A Persian 'I Ching' - International Herald Tribune 11/21/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:38AM

Oxfam Tries To Make Peace With Used Bookstores - The Guardian (UK) 11/20/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:38AM

more Publishing...

theatre
Are The Holidays Bad For Theatre? - Denver Post 11/22/09
email this story | Posted 11/23/09@07:44AM

Wrecking Ball Theatre - The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/23/09
email this story | Posted 11/23/09@07:24AM

Strasberg And The Method: The Next Generation - Los Angeles Times 11/22/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@09:58PM

Muhammad Ali Meets Stepin Fetchit - New York Times 11/20/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:37AM

Should A Critic Walk Out On A Play In Anger? When And Why? - The Guardian (UK) 11/20/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@09:29AM

more Theatre...

visual
The Vatican's Plans For A Meeting With Artists - BBC 11/21/09
email this story | Posted 11/23/09@07:26AM

Conceptual Art Meets The MetroCard - New York Times 11/20/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:01PM

High Tech Trompe L'Oeil: Augmented Reality As An Artistic Medium - New Scientist 11/21/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:41AM

'The Limits Of Verisimilitude': Trompe L'Oeil Through The Ages - International Herald Tribune 11/21/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@10:35AM

Financial Crisis Wallops LACMA's Investments, Donations - Los Angeles Times 11/21/09
email this story | Posted 11/22/09@09:14AM

more Visual...