Archives for January 27, 2014

Non-Profit Theatre Has Become Corrupt. This Needs To Change

THEATRE Posted: January 27, 2014 10:56 am

“The regional theater movement that was formed in opposition to the commercialism of Broadway is now employing the same commercialist tactics it once deplored.”

Facebook

Twitter

Indie Musicians Won Half Of All This Year’s Grammys

MUSIC Posted: January 27, 2014 10:48 am

“This year marked the sixth consecutive year that independent labels and artists led the industry with 50% of all nominations, earning 199 of 398 non-producer nominations.”

Facebook

Twitter

Real Lesson From The Grammys – Musicians Have To Sell Other Stuff

MUSIC Posted: January 27, 2014 10:41 am

“Nobody’s buying recorded music anymore, and musicians still need to eat. So why get ruffled when a favorite rapper or beloved rock band resorts to licensing their songs to the corporations holding the cash? We don’t sweat it anymore. We don’t even blink.”

Facebook

Twitter

Who Cares About The Classical Grammys? (But We Still Keep Paying Attention)

MUSIC Posted: January 27, 2014 10:38 am

“The real takeaway message about the classical Grammys, in a trend that’s been continuing for some time, is that major labels are as irrelevant as the awards themselves.”

Facebook

Twitter

What’s Behind America’s Fascination With Apocalypse?

IDEAS Posted: January 27, 2014 9:48 am

America is a nation rooted in Apocalypse. The very foundation of the nation is tied to the End Times. Apocalypse is in America’s DNA.

Facebook

Twitter

Why Do American Orchestras Ignore The First Half Of America’s 20th Century?

MUSIC Posted: January 27, 2014 9:46 am

When was the last time you heard a symphony or, apart from Gershwin’s An American in Paris, a tone poem by an American composer from the first half of the 20th century?

Facebook

Twitter

Libraries As Museums (We’ve Got To Preserve Printed Books)

WORDS Posted: January 27, 2014 9:25 am

“The role of libraries is essential here, as secure repositories for the written word. And here I must admit a fear. In their rush to digitisation – an enthusiasm I find in most librarians I meet – there is the danger that libraries may too quickly abandon their crucial historical role.”

Facebook

Twitter

Don’t Expect MOOCs To Replace College, But So What?

ISSUES Posted: January 27, 2014 9:16 am

“In the end of the day, a lot of us are really in it for innovation, for really changing the access that people have. Most of our students right now would never ever be able to go to a physical campus, and now we can reach them with education at home, and also the ability to be very contemporary.”

Facebook

Twitter

Arts Council England Appeals To The BBC To Make More Arts Partnerships

MEDIA Posted: January 27, 2014 9:01 am

“Even the largest arts organisations cannot hope to achieve this exposure on their own. The potential to link up individual artists and arts organisations with the BBC’s multiple platforms is huge, driving place-based and digital engagement, and thought should be given as to how this can be better enabled.”

Facebook

Twitter

Research Suggests Artists’ Eccentricity Boosts Perceptions Of Quality

ISSUES Posted: January 27, 2014 8:59 am

At least to an extent, judgments about art “depend on the displayed eccentricity of the artist,” the researchers write, “so long as the art is unconventional, and the displayed eccentricity seems authentic.”

Facebook

Twitter

Remembering Herblock, Cartoonist Extraordinaire

PEOPLE Posted: January 27, 2014 8:00 am

“Almost singlehanded, he rescued the craft of editorial cartooning from a fen of mediocrity, then turned his sharp pen on the most important issues of his long lifetime, from tyranny to human rights.”

Facebook

Twitter

Has The MFA Been Killing Art?

ISSUES Posted: January 27, 2014 7:47 am

“The fact that artists are now minted by universities (and degree-granting art schools modeled on the university) may have done wonders for their social standing, but it’s also been a source of worry to many critics and artists, who think something of great value might be lost by the professionalization of the artist.”

Facebook

Twitter

Exploring The Line That Doesn’t Exist Between Ballet And Modern

DANCE Posted: January 27, 2014 7:34 am

“Whenever you start counting, there is broad agreement that from the later decades of the 20th century forward, no proverbial line between modern and ballet has been drawn on the marley flooring of a dance stage.”

Facebook

Twitter

The Art Of Food (You Are What You Don’t Eat, Too)

ISSUES Posted: January 27, 2014 7:28 am

“Though we don’t yet completely understand nutrition, most people now have some idea what a healthy diet is. Even the quality of writing about food has improved, and the history of food is on the verge of becoming a subject of academic study.”

Facebook

Twitter

Why Are American Theatre Critics So Besotted By “Original Practices” Shakespeare?

THEATRE Posted: January 27, 2014 6:41 am

My guess is that “original practices” – which, when done in London or at Stratford, is part of a larger conversation about the classics – is a bigger sell on Broadway due to the increasingly elite nature of its audiences.

Facebook

Twitter

Why Selfies Are An Important New Art Form

VISUAL Posted: January 27, 2014 6:19 am

“It’s become a new visual genre—a type of self-portraiture formally distinct from all others in history. Selfies have their own structural autonomy. This is a very big deal for art.”

Facebook

Twitter

Destroying Syria’s Culture – The Before And After Pictures

VISUAL Posted: January 27, 2014 5:45 am

“Across Syria, where a seemingly unstoppable war is about to enter a third year, a heritage built over 5,000 years or more is being steadily buried under rubble.”

Facebook

Twitter