A visually-impaired patron and her reporter companion take in the Disney/Julie Taymor spectacular with the help of D-Scriptive, a service that “translates the visual language of raised eyebrows, waist-high leg kicks and soft kisses into the language of sound.”
Archives for February 6, 2014
Grand Jury Recommends Possible Shutdown of Planned Pennsylvania Museum
“In Northampton County, Pennsylvania, a grand jury has declared in a 38-page report deemed ‘scathing’ that, due to negligence, the state should review and potentially dissolve the nonprofit group behind the National Museum of Industrial History. The museum has not yet opened despite spending $8 million in operating costs over the past decade.”
German Museum Cancels Balthus Show Over Pedophilia Worries
“The Museum Folkwang in Essen has cancelled a planned exhibition of Polaroids by the French-Polish artist Balthus featuring a model called Anna who posed for him from the age of eight to 16. The museum … decided not to stage the show because it ‘could lead to unwanted legal consequences and the closure of the exhibition’.”
Was Bach Really a Teenage Hoodlum?
That – in so many words (“a reformed teenage thug”) – is what conductor John Eliot Gardiner argues in his new biography, asserting that Bach, for all his musical skill and piety, grew up to be rebellious, resentful, and mistrustful of authorities for his entire adult life. Scholar and former American Bach Society George B. Stauffer takes a look at the evidence.
Spanish Priest Claims to Have Found Major Murillo Painting
The parish father for three small villages near Granada says that the 17th-century canvas depicting the bound Christ is the first of painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo’s several treatments of the image, titled Ecce Homo. Experts are divided on the claim’s accuracy.
A History of Violins (Stolen Ones)
Every year or so a stolen or lost Strad or Guarneri makes headlines. Former FBI special agent Robert K. Wittman gives a brief history of purloined fiddles and talks about how law enforcement goes about locating them. (audio)
Top Posts From AJBlogs 02.06.14
Detroit Detritus: Critics of Detroit Institute’s “Grand Bargain” Dig for Dirt (and u…
Source: CultureGrrl | Published on 2014-02-06
Dürer Vs. Rembrandt Vs. Cranach Vs…
Source: Real Clear Arts | Published on 2014-02-07
Are the Arts Only For the Rich?
Source: CultureCrash | Published on 2014-02-06
Fostering critical response to complex experience
Source: The Artful Manager | Published on 2014-02-06
Museum Secrets: Instructive Audit In St. Louis
Source: Real Clear Arts | Published on 2014-02-06
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What’s To Be Learned From The Minnesota Orchestra Lockout?
“The real story of the lockout, and a lesson for other orchestras, is how the musicians in Minneapolis bonded and never broke, how they supported each other with cash and connections, with grocery cards, time shares, babysitting, and just time on the phone late at night, and all the while they kept playing, and became more united each week, even as babies were born and loved ones died, even as one member was diagnosed with breast cancer.”
The Key To Popular Books (At Least One Theory, Anyway)
“There are people with bullhorns and there are ecosystems of people with bullhorns. There are institutions and networks, formal and otherwise, in which we all live and dream, tell stories and finger our worry beads. The ecosystems in which books are developed, written, published, publicized, and enjoyed are no different.”
A Gizmo That Helps You Feel The E-book You’re Reading (Literally Speaking)
“Changes in the protagonist’s emotional or physical state [trigger] discrete feedback in the wearable, whether by changing the heartbeat rate, creating constriction through air pressure bags, or causing localized temperature fluctuations,” the designers explain.
Want To Innovate? Churn Is The Key
“Churn, not density, between places also spurs innovation. No sidewalk ballet required. Conversely: If no one left your super-dense city and no one moved in, innovation would suffer. Migration is economic development. Encouraging a local graduate to stay makes everyone poorer. Walkability and density are of little consequence.”
Something You Should Know: America’s Public Libraries Are Wildly Popular
“Public libraries circulated 2.46 billion materials last year, the greatest volume in 10 years. Over this same period, the circulation of children’s book and materials increased by more than 28 percent. Attendance at library-hosted programs for kids hit 60.5 million in 2013.”
When The Real Philomena Met The Pope (It Happened Yesterday)
“The Holy Father does not see films, and will not be seeing this one. It is also important to avoid using the Pope as part of a marketing strategy.”
We’re Getting Obsessed With Data About Ourselves. Will All This Measuring Make It Harder To Just Live?
“All this data is meant to spur us to love ourselves better and run our lives more efficiently. And yet it’s hard not to hear, lurking in this promise of self-possession, the threat of numbers dispossessing us, of becoming a feverish addiction we can’t kick. Can even the most adept multi-tasker really live the life that they’re simultaneously tracking?”
Mamoru Samuragochi’s “Ghost” Composer Questions Whether He Is Deaf
“His ghost composer, Takashi Niigaki, said he provided music for Samuragochi for 18 years and questioned if he was hearing impaired.”
Asia’s Rise As An Opera Superpower
Some 50 new opera houses have been completed or are near completion, and many more are planned. “Chinese people love foreign music, but in the past we couldn’t listen to it.”
A Warning About What Funding Cuts Will Do To UK Theatre Community
“The theatre world will slowly become smaller and smaller, and populated by the same people, who are the sons and daughters of the same people, because nobody else can afford to do it.”
Stolen Strad Reportedly Recovered
“The 300-year-old Stradivarius violin that was taken in an armed robbery last month has been found, law enforcement sources told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.”
The Night Vladimir Horowitz Captured America
“That evening changed a lot of lives, as households tuned in across the country to see and hear one of the most celebrated of all pianists (remember that there were only three networks in 1968—and no video stores or Netflix) and Horowitz never again played to an unsold seat.”
Understanding America’s Progress Towards Giving Artists Royalties On Resales
“When supporters of resale royalties in the US seek to advance their arguments, they usually look to other countries for supporting evidence—starting with France, which originated droit de suite in 1920 and now works on the EU model of a sliding scale up to 4%, capped at €12,500. They tend to overlook the California act.”
A “Sea Change” In The Way American Museums Approach Restitution Of Art
“In the past museums would not have acted without concrete evidence that would stand up in a court of law. Today museums are amenable to looking at persuasive circumstantial evidence.”
College Community Is Creeped Out By Sculpture Of Near-Naked Older Man
“Now we’re celebrating near naked statues of older men on campus? Sorry, don’t get it.”
UNESCO Stops Unauthorized Reconstruction of Bamiyan Buddhas
“The international community has reacted furiously to news that a German-led team of archaeologists has been reconstructing the feet and legs of the smaller of the two Bamiyan Buddhas, the monumental Afghan sculptures blown up by the Taliban in 2001.”
How ‘The Simpsons’ Took on Hollywood and Got Its Audience Back
“An executive producer talks about the show’s sendup of the film industry’s illegal-downloading obsession, which earned rave reviews and big viewership.”
In Search of Lost Screenplay: When Pinter Adapted Proust
“If one were to create a stylistic spectrum of great writers in the twentieth century, Harold Pinter and Marcel Proust would likely wind up on opposite ends of it. … So, when choosing a writer to adapt In Search of Lost Time for the screen, one would not be inclined to think first of Pinter – and yet, that is what happened.”