The Slow And Semi-Secret Death Of The Electric Guitar
The industry (and music in general) needs more guitar heroes if it’s going to survive – or else technology, and the electronic music it produces, will take over.
Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Museum To Reconfigure, Expand, And ‘Become One With The Park’
There are several phases of construction planned, but “perhaps the most striking feature of the planned expansion is the creation of a vast, light-filled entry hall where the current courtyard and Bunshaft galleries exist. Renderings show the space as a glass-walled public plaza with an elevated walkway providing access to the existing auditorium on the south side and a new restaurant that will spill onto the east lawn of the gallery in the summer months.”
Conjuring The Ghost Of Leonard Bernstein At The Dakota
Yes, this is a real thing that happens. Larry and Toby Milstein are the 20-something children of the (very wealthy) people who live in the apartment where Bernstein used to live. “Inspired by the many artists who have called the Dakota home, and spurred by their own substantial arts philanthropy, these millennial billion-heirs have taken to hosting séances that are attended by their fashionable set of well-connected peers.”
The Walker Mounts A Show Of Jimmie Durham’s Art To A Lot More Criticism From Native American Communities
Cherokee artist America Meredith says the problem is that Durham has no documented links to actually being Cherokee, and yet, “Art historians have really latched onto him. And he represents us. He’s occupying a space. He’s written more about than any actual Cherokee artist in the literature.”
Philippe Auguin Is Leaving The Washington National Opera, But What Does It Mean When A Music Director Leaves?
Anne Midgette: “It’s important not to cling too tightly to tradition, but it remains unclear exactly what vision WNO, under Zambello, is offering to replace it.”
The Royal Institute Of British Architects Picks Its 49 Favorite Buildings, Including A Biomass Plant
Also on the list? A tomb.
A Deep Dive Into The Sudden Wave Of Screen Time For Muslim Men In Love
Yay, more stories for South Asian Muslims! Well, South Asian Muslim men, straight men, with white girlfriends, anyway. “This fantasy doesn’t have much room for South Asian women. Their choices are reflective of the stubborn limitations of an industry where straight men still dominate, and where whiteness remains an integral component to what love looks like onscreen.”
Why Bong Joon Ho’s New Girl-And-Her-Six-Ton-Pig Flick Isn’t With A Studio, But With Netflix
Why Netflix? Well, “plot points include a pignapping, Mija’s desperate pursuit, a bumbling Animal Liberation Front troop, an insecure corporate villainess (played with pitch-perfect iciness by Ms. Swinton) and a foray into the grisly mechanics of factory farming.” The last bit is where studios drew the line.
The World Might Be Going To Hell In A Handbasket, But These Designers Are Trying To Make It Look Pretty
For instance, at the London Design Biennale, “Guatemala, which ties for sixth place in the Global Emotions Report, will show an installation about the community action taking place in Santa Catarina Palopó. This town on the volcanic shores of Lake Atitlán is reinventing itself as a kind of conceptual art, using the paintbrush to boost civic pride and tourism. Its residents have become involved in a two-year scheme in which they are painting their houses in bold Mayan patterns, with a strict but vibrant palette of five colours sourced from local textiles.”
(Some Of) The Last 20 Years Of LGBT Literature
Of course, LGBT lit goes back way farther than 1997, but here’s a sampler from the NYT in honor of Pride Month.
An Entire Generation Missed Seeing Asian Americans On Their Screens
What (the heck?!) happened between The Joy Luck Club and the just-wrapped Crazy Rich Asians?
This Composer Has Led The Way In Experimental Music For 50 Years, And He’s Not Stopping
Roscoe Mitchell: “I’ve always believed in studying music across the board. I’ve never been fascinated with putting myself in certain categories. Especially now that there’s a lot of folks out there that want to know how this improvisational thing works. And the way that I would describe that, of course, is like composition in real time.”
Feminist Dystopias Are Everywhere, And The Observer Wonders Why
Well, there’s actually a lot to talk about. Or create. “Sci-fi lets you look at a society where things are done in other ways; ways too complicated to expound on in an essay. How could you generate a superficially gender-equal, godless society and then expose its failures? It is just too complex.”
The Structure – And Meaning – Of ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ Ballet
The story is purely about royal succession, which you’d think wouldn’t appeal to Americans. (And indeed, the ballet used to be reserved for touring European companies.) But there’s more:
“The fairy godmothers whom the monarchs invite to the heiress Aurora’s christening in the Prologue take the drama into a new, larger dimension: pure classicism. They make this a ballet about ballet itself — ballet as a language of harmonious idealism, in which radiant physical geometry keeps marrying music.”
Harry Potter’s Been Around For 20 Years, And The Series’ Readers/Watchers Remain Ensorcelled
The original readers are fully integrated in adult life now; what did the series teach them? “A 2014 study found that teenagers who identified with Harry displayed more tolerance towards refugees, immigrants and LGBTQ people. In 2016, another study found that Harry Potter readers were less likely to vote for the then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.”
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What Is The Future For Classical Music (Yes, It Has A Future)?
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Van Cliburn Was The Biggest Music Star In The World. and Then He Wasn't. What Happened?
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Executive Director, Pennsylvania Ballet, Philadelphia, PA
Pennsylvania Ballet is requesting applications for the position of Executive Director. Under the leadership of Artistic Director, Angel Corella the company has risen to a new level of artistic … [Read More...]
Artistic Director, Denver Center Theatre Company
Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) invites applications and nominations for the position of Artistic Director of the Theatre Company. DCPA is the largest nonprofit theatre organization in … [Read More...]
Did The Producers And Writers Of The New Tupac Biopic Infringe On A Journalist’s Made-Up Character?
The journalist, Kevin Powell, is suing based on many similarities to his work, including that of a character who in his seris of 1990s Vibe articles was a “composite character.” In addition, he “argues that a bulk of the film appears to be based on his jailhouse interviews with [Tupac Shakur].”
The Showrunner For ‘Power’ Says Every Character Is Based On Her (And Shakespeare)
“What are some references you’ve used to frame the storytelling on the show and move the characters and narratives forward?
“A lot of Shakespeare. I’ve used Richard III because he’s ruthless in getting what he wants and then ghosts of the people he killed start haunting him.”
The Era Of Super Festivals May Be Ending, With Niche Music Events Springing (Back) Up
The super-festival arena may be oversaturated now, considering the collapse of two recent supposed new fests. One promoter says: “We want to under-promise and over-deliver. I don’t feel like any promoter today should ever feel like ‘I’ve got this.'”
Hans Breder, Mentor Of Ana Mendieta And Charles Ray, Leader Of ‘Intermedia’ Art, Has Died At 81
Breder left New York to take a faculty position at the University of Iowa in 1966, and he soon established the first interdisciplinary art focus in the country. “Increasingly drawn to conceptual art and the radical political performance art being practiced by the Viennese Actionists, he asked permission to create a program that would embrace video and performance art and encourage students to move back and forth across artistic frontiers — in general, to throw off all creative constraint.”
Galleries Are Exploring New Models – And New Kinds Of Sites – To Break The Mold And Succeed
Many gallerists believe “the future of the mid-tier gallery is seasonal, project-based or off the beaten path.”
What Is The Future For Classical Music (Yes, It Has A Future)?
Well, let’s start with the good news: “In any given month an extraordinary 30% of the U.S. population listens to classical music on some device. That translates to 100 million people in our country alone! Another happy number … is that more than 40 million Americans sing in a chorus.”
What German And Austrian Orchestras Were Willing To Do Under The Third Reich
“What the two orchestras had in common was a nationalistic ethos, a belief in the superiority of Austro-German musical culture that approached triumphalism. One of the darkest manifestations of this ethos was their shared reluctance to hire Jews. The Berlin Philharmonic employed only four Jewish players in 1933, while the Vienna Philharmonic contained only 11 Jews at the time of the Anschluss, none of whom was hired after 1920.”
Van Cliburn Was The Biggest Music Star In The World. and Then He Wasn’t. What Happened?
“It seems that what happened was that Cliburn simply stopped growing, as though he was trapped in a creative stasis like a bug in amber. One thinks of James O’Neill, a distinguished actor who was the father of Eugene O’Neill. In later life, he only took on one role—Dumas’s Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte Cristo—and eventually played it more than six thousand times around the world. He made a great deal of money, but reproached himself for what he considered the squandering of his gifts. Likewise, Cliburn returned again and again to the Tchaikovsky concerto, long after he had ceased to have fresh insights into it.”
Jobs Of The Future For Humans Will Require Emotional Intelligence
“Only a tiny percentage of people in the post-industrial world will ever end up working in software engineering, biotechnology or advanced manufacturing. Just as the behemoth machines of the industrial revolution made physical strength less necessary for humans, the information revolution frees us to complement, rather than compete with, the technical competence of computers. Many of the most important jobs of the future will require soft skills, not advanced algebra.”
Is The Controversy Over Hedy Weiss’ Chicago Theatre Review Overblown?
Theater is of course a highly public endeavor, and the world outside is a big bad place, with lions and tigers and critics who have opinions. If its practitioners want safety, they should practice their craft behind closed doors.