Laura Miller: “That’s one of the most acrimonious, endless and irresolvable discussions in the literary world. … But there are a few places where deciding whether a book is a classic or not has real consequences. One is, obviously, classrooms, but the other is bookstores.” How do, or should, they make that decision?
Archives for January 2014
Yet Another Russian Literary Dispute Turns Deadly
Last fall it was over Immanuel Kant. This time it was the superiority (or not) of poetry over prose. (Was vodka involved? Need you ask?)
Top Posts From AJBlogs 01.30.14
The Cost of Poor Care: Multi-millions
Source: Real Clear Arts | Published on 2014-01-31
Looking Back, Dancing Now
Source: Dancebeat | Published on 2014-01-31
“Passion” and a Life in the Arts
Source: CultureCrash | Published on 2014-01-30
From John Steinmetz: A life-changer
Source: Sandow | Published on 2014-01-30
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People, People, People – Why Waste Time Arguing Over An Ill-Informed Article On Classical Music?
“Classical music isn’t dying. I also say to all of you: some people will write bad articles, and that doesn’t signal the death of journalism, either. But for those of us who love the field, let’s think of more productive ways to marshall our intellectual resources than shooting fish in a barrel and congratulating each other about it afterwards.”
Hear The Music That Never Gets Played On Spotify
Twenty percent of the music on Spotify has never, ever been streamed — perhaps the most striking illustration of exactly how vast and unknowable the online music catalogue gets. Here’s a site that streams it…
How The Mayor Of London’s City Planning Is Ruining The Character Of London
“They have presided over a wealth of misconceived, mean-minded schemes that are destroying the social and physical fabric of London, lubricating the path for private enclaves of oversized, poorly designed mega-blocks, to be sold to overseas investors with little care for creating decent places to live.”
What Kind Of Idiot Steals A Strad?
“The nature of the crime suggests that the thieves knew what they were after, which is a downer on one hand and encouraging on the other. If they know what they have, they’re less likely to damage it. But if they know what they have, they might be more likely to have a buyer lined up, and the violin could be on its way out of the country on a private jet.”
Are You Fat, Sedentary, And Depressed? Study Suggests It Might Be In The Way Your City Was Designed
“Comparing rates of physical activity, childhood obesity and diabetes in England’s nine most populous cities, RIBA have found a clear correlation between the amount of green space, density of housing in urban areas, and the overall health of the local population.”
You Are What You Read? (Uh, Oh – Americans Are In Trouble)
“If we are what we read, then Americans are wimpy, religious, ambitious, self-improving, and patriotic. The specific possibility that the only book any adult read last year was one of the best-selling books on the Nielsen or Amazon list is perhaps more disheartening than the shapeless fact that three-quarters of the American population read only one book. “
Rethinking The Role Of Men In Ballet
The “Men in Motion concept has attracted an impressive range of male dancers from major companies in Britain and elsewhere.”
Artists Attack Disney Princess Stereotypes By Reinterpreting Them (As Porn Stars?)
“Artists on the web are reimagining Disney princesses – those surreal creatures of so-called human perfection – from casting them as porn stars to portraying them with disabilities.”
A Dance Festival (On Film) That Expands Your View
“It reflects changing forms of camerawork and editing, wraps in history and documentary, and ranges in subject from tap, ice, flamenco and Asian idioms to ballet stars and modern-dance choreography, established and experimental.”
Sound (And Music) That You Can Focus On A Single Person
“Being able to direct sound in such a focused way has only recently become possible thanks to smarter audio processing algorithms, directional loudspeakers and gesture-recognition technology.”
Independent Canadian TV Production Fell In 2013
“In total, there were 629 Canadian TV series produced last year, at a cost of $2.32-billion. That’s down from $2.57-billion spent on 693 series in 2011-12. There were 93 Canadian feature films produced, at a cost of $351-million.”
Why Is Pop Music Stuck In Such Conservative Song Forms?
“Why is that? Possibly because it’s so lucrative, and so there is no pressure on it to change; I don’t know, possibly because it is easy and pleasurable and so its followers aren’t the kind of people to demand challenges. They are happy with one fixed form for all music, called the song.”
Toronto’s Largest Performing Arts Theatre Is Looking For A New CEO (But There Are Complications)
There could be many candidates capable of running the Sony Centre on its own. But how many are available with the know-how to integrate two or three arts operations, and the track record to prove it?
Detroit Institute of Arts to Buy Itself Back From City for $100 Million
“The Detroit Institute of Arts has pledged to raise $100 million for the federally mediated rescue fund to shore up municipal pensions, prevent the forced sale of any of the museum’s irreplaceable masterpieces and spin off the city-owned museum to an independent nonprofit.”
Tony the Tiger and Toucan Sam Help Save Detroit’s Art
“Foundations seeking to protect Detroit’s public pensions and its art museum in the city’s bankruptcy process raised their pledge total to $370 million on Tuesday with the addition of a $40 million commitment from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.”
Academy Revokes Nomination for Best Song Oscar
“‘Alone Yet Not Alone,’ a little-heard tune from a little-seen film of the same name, will not appear on Oscar ballots when the final round of voting begins on Feb. 14. And the Academy will not announce a replacement nominee.” The issues seem to be conflict-of-interest and campaign violations. Maybe Hollywood is Washington, D.C. for beautiful people.
Architect Meets Critics Face-to-Face Over MoMA’s Plan to Tear Down Folk Art Museum
“An architect typically doesn’t go before the public to defend a private project. But on Tuesday night Liz Diller of Diller Scofidio & Renfro stood before a crowd of 650 people, many of them her peers, to explain in detail the six-month process by which her firm tried to save the former home of the American Folk Art Museum before deciding it was impossible.”
Robert Lepage Spills the Beans (Well, a Few of Them) on Guy Laliberté and Cirque du Soleil
“I get along with Guy but others find it tougher. … Some can feel a bit bullied by him. There are points where we didn’t agree. He can come in a week before and say this or that doesn’t work. So you have to be prepared for that.”
Classical Music Isn’t Dead, So Let’s Stop Trying to Kill It
“There is a creepy bloodlust to the doom-mongering of classical music, as though an autopsy were being conducted on a still-breathing body. … What supports these jeremiads is the implicit idea that classical music is an aberration in the United States, something to be regarded with suspicion.”
Ballet Dancers – ‘We’re Tougher Than We Look’, Says Edward Watson
The great ginger gentleman of the Royal Ballet talks us through the damage dance has done to his body over the decades.
The Coen Brothers and Evil (Don’t Ask)
“The Coen Brothers are no help and never will be. Go ahead and ask them. Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross recently tried. She asked them how they write their films. ‘It’s mostly napping,’ Ethan Coen answered. The Coen brothers have been evading answers for about 30 years.”
What’s the Difference Between Bad Dreams and Nightmares?
Researchers at the University of Montreal analyzed of sleepers’ dream logs. The distinction they settled on is that nightmares are bad enough to wake you up; and both their content and their associated emotions are different from those of mere bad dreams.