A video visit to the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, the candlelit 340-seat replica of the sort of indoor venue where Shakespeare’s late plays would have been performed during the winter. Shakespeare’s Globe, which built and operates the Wanamaker, opened it this past weekend.
Archives for January 15, 2014
Russian Orthodox Church Publishes Stalin Calendar (No, We’re Not Kidding)
The printing house of Trinity-St. Sergius, the Patriarchate’s flagship monastery, has issued a 2014 calendar with images and biographical excerpts of the leader under whom thousands of churches were destroyed and thousands of clergy were killed, imprisoned or exiled. (The publishers recommend it as a gift for history buffs.) Fortunately, the Internet is not happy about this.
Hugo Chávez – The Musical! (We’re Not Making This Up)
Yes, this is a real project, premiering this summer – and you’d never guess where. (It’s not Kazakhstan, but just about that unlikely.)
Top Posts From AJBlogs 01.15.14
A Fizzled Evening with Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal
Source: Fresh Pencil | Published on 2014-01-15
BlogBack: Chris Crosman on Saving Folk Art Museum’s Building
Source: CultureGrrl | Published on 2014-01-15
Come On The “Sexually Explicit” Tour
Source: Real Clear Arts | Published on 2014-01-15
Source: Engaging Matters | Published on 2014-01-15
Rescuing Wright: New Jersey’s Bachman Wilson House Moves to Crystal Bridges
Source: CultureGrrl | Published on 2014-01-15
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The Minnesota Orchestra Lockout Is Over. But The Damage…
“The lockout may officially be over, and terms of the contract may be agreed on. But it will be at least months, perhaps years, before we’ll know if the damage done can be repaired.”
Young Dancer Dies In Freak Rehearsal Accident In Chicago
“A 22-year-old dancer who studied his craft in three countries died in what authorities determined Tuesday was an accident when a steel acrobatic ring hit him on the head during a rehearsal on the Northwest Side.”
“Print” Is A Concept That Used To Be Dictated By The Tools We Had (So…)
“Really, the idea of an immutable and unchangeable text dates only to the printing press. Before that, every scribe tasked with producing a tome thought he was an author. Like movie producers dabbling with plot, it was difficult for the hand-copiers of text not to make a tweak here or there. Books were ever-changing. Stories evolved. And that was the way things were until Gutenberg’s time.”
The Net Neutrality Ruling Is Bad. But Maybe It’ll Force The FCC To Stand Up
“Imagine if, years ago, MySpace or AltaVista had cut deals with cable companies to block Facebook and Google. Without network neutrality, telecom and cable companies could also stifle free expression. They’d have the legal right to block articles like this one.”
LA’s New Mayor Meets With Arts Leaders. Here Are His Ideas To Support The Arts
While describing his audience as “spark plugs that can ignite” cultural growth in L.A., the mayor pointedly did not promise to fuel the engine with increased city government funding of the arts. The current core budget of the Department of Cultural Affairs is $8.96 million, down 38.5% from where it stood a decade ago, adjusting for inflation.
As More Music Streaming Services Go Online, The Music Industry Thinks…
“The music industry views on streaming is largely split in two. On the pro side are the majority of labels (in particular the bigger ones) – and on the con side are the artists.”
Understandably Arbitrary To Be Sure, But Here’s The Telegraph’s List Of Top Five Treasures In the British Museum
Hate lists? Of course, but they do serve as an entry for discussion…
Why Yesterday’s FCC Ruling Threatens An Open Internet
“Without high-level rules of the road, or other replacement high-level rules, the broadband carriers are free to discriminate and block content from consumers.”
Can You Solve MoMA’s Issues With A Redesign?
“You might wonder why we should care if one more quirky little building disappears from the streets of New York. After all, buildings come and go all the time; no one knows this better than architects. But the American Folk Art Museum is a casualty of a different sort, and tearing it down will not usher in the new era of popularity that MoMA seems to be aiming for.”
National Endowment For The Arts Escapes US Budget Unscathed
The funding level came as a relief to arts advocacy group Americans for the Arts, which wrote in an email to supporters today that the budget survived a “fractious appropriations process and a government shut-down that lasted 16 days” and “avoided the disastrous proposal” in the House of Representatives to slash NEA funding by 49%.
Stolen Art Treasures Recovered In US Returned To India
“Three sandstone sculptures worth more than $1m stolen form India five years ago have been returned to the Indian government at a ceremony in New York.”
Report: The Hottest Growth Sector In The UK Economy? Arts And Culture
“It is the UK’s fastest-growing sector, worth £71.4bn a year and making up 5.6% of the workforce, the Department for Media, Culture and Sport said.”
As New Ideas Come Along, Other Ideas Need To Fade Away. So What Ideas Need To Go Now?
“Ideas change, and the times we live in change. Perhaps the biggest change today is the rate of change. What established scientific idea is ready to be moved aside so that science can advance?”
How Our “Democratization” Of Creativity Is Endangered
“A reluctance to talk about institutions and political change doomed the Arts and Crafts movement, channelling the spirit of labor reform into consumerism and D.I.Y. tinkering. The same thing is happening to the movement’s successors.”
Research Suggests That Musicians And Artists Have Longer Life Expectancy
“For those born in the 18th century or first half of the 19th century, the life expectancy of musicians and writers who made it to age 50 was roughly in line with that of the upper class. This suggests—but does not prove—that the health benefits of creative activity may have been just as effective then as they are today.”
Net Neutrality Ruling – The End Of An Open Internet?
“Internet users will probably not see an immediate difference with their service. Consumer advocates, though, warned that higher costs to content providers could be passed on to the public, and called the ruling a serious blow against the concept of a free and open Internet.”
Should Rap Lyrics Be Used As Evidence In Court?
Rap lyrics and videos are turning up as evidence in courtrooms across the country with alarming regularity.
Cirque du Soleil Wants to Start Creating Broadway-Style Musicals
“Cirque du Soleil is looking to diversify its repertoire by expanding into Broadway-style shows and is creating a new division called Cirque du Soleil Theatrical that will be headed by Las Vegas theater impresario Scott Zeiger.” (Their one previous venture into that field didn’t go so well.)
Culture Wars? Korean Island’s 100+ Museums Compete for Visitors
From any one of Jeju Island’s three sex museums, “visitors can visit two chocolate museums, three teddy-bear museums and, by one count, seven museums that specialize in ‘trick art,’ images that let people pose as if they are stuck in a shark’s mouth or having a drink with five scantily clad women.”
Who’s Up for The 2014 Hatchet Job of the Year Award?
As it happens, for the first time we have a writer nominated as both hatcheter and hatchetee.
British Museum Broke (and Maybe Smashed) Attendance Records Last Year
There were 6.7 million visits in 2013, up 20% from 2012 and up 13.5% from the previous record year, 2008.